Dust Beats
I made a voltage difference recorder with an amplifier LM358. It draws the change of voltage difference between its two pins. Fresh plant leaves draw repeating cycles on the screen. And to my surprise, voltage signals can also be detected in the soil, dry leaves, moss, and my body.
Does the land have heartbeats? Can I show the land's life rhythm with simulation in P5?
That is how I started this dust simulation project.
Sketch-1
I will use the voltage difference reading value as a force to pump up the digital dust. Before I connect my p5 sketch to the device, I will make a mouse-triggered dust-up sketch first.
In this draft:
- mouse click sets up a force center.
- dust particles nearby will be blown up.
- dust nearest to the force center receives the strongest force.
Problems
- the objects in the dust array are solid. each dust is identified by the index and original position. How can I put the dust back to its original position once it flies out of the edge?
- the velocity and acceleration (gravity) usually need to multiply a number to make the motion natural. Is there some way to find the number other than keep changing the number and seeing the effect?
- how can I make more dust particles but not choke the computer?
Sketch-2
In sketch-1, dust around the force center will burst in all directions. Now I want the dust only to fly up. The force for each dust particle was set as p5.Vector. sub(particle position, force center position)
The force will head away from the force center. When a vector points up, vector. heading() will be smaller than 0, and when a vector points down, the heading value will be larger than 0. So, in the process of setting force, all vectors pointing down (heading()>0) will multiply by -1.
