Brian, I recently finished my junior year at Carnegie Mellon. Thanks for your feedback - I’m glad you liked the .gifs!
Ralph, thanks for mentioning Bill Gaver, I had never heard of him. And you’re right about the foamcore interior- it’s a sloppy last-minute box to reduce the reflection for the infrared sensor. You’re also right about the sound quality - it was interesting to see the entire class, including myself, only address that at the last minute. I believe we spent most of our time exploring the subtleties of the interactions and set that important bit to the side for too long. I appreciate your feedback!
Andy, yes. All the code can be updated to change what the directions do. Unfortunately the sensor is very finicky, but at least it’s consistent. Currently the X value is divided into five blocks of space, set for five popular radio channels in my area. Scrubbing ended up being too inconsistent to use reliably, so I figure I can just plug in different values if the radio changes cities. It’s a disappointment to me that it didn’t work out, but I didn’t have time to machine a durable and reliable mechanical solution as an alternative to my sensor, and I wasn’t experienced enough to make a sensor array within the time limit of the project. A next iteration or more “real” product would certainly solve this problem. If you’re interested, I used this sensor: ZX Distance and Gesture Sensor Hookup Guide - learn.sparkfun.com