Both the lessons of the squeezable cluster and pole of squeezables have led to the making of this very unique table of squeezables. It is not only made for adults, but also made in such a way that both children and adults can enjoy squeezing and pulling in the same place and at the same time. What is more, it looks like a magician's table.
With the experience from building the squeezable cluster and Pole of Squeezables, the Table of Squeezables was built to assume the various characters of the previous versions and also to answer some of the problems raised.
The very first issue raised in the Pole of Squeezables is the height. Here, the height is reduced to about 40 cm and the diameter of the table is about 70cm. This height accommodates both adults sitting on chairs or the floor and also children standing by the side of the table. Since the center of gravity of the structure is drastically reduced and also the weight of the wooden barrel is great, it is very stable as compared to the Pole of Squeezables.
I decided to use six squeezable balls laid at the center of the table top. Six is a good number because that way, there are not too many balls crowding the table top and also not so few that the table top would look empty. The six balls were arranged in a triangular formation but they can also be rearranged into other formations since only one point of each ball is tied down by the cable/wire.
There are six holes in the triangular formation (Fig. 4.2), one underneath each ball, that let the cable through into the table for sensors and mechanical construction.
The squeezable balls here use jelly or gel-like material. It is in a crystallize state and not in a liquid state so that it will not flow like liquid. However, the gel material becomes wet and sticky eventually when its crystalline structure is destroyed by excessive squashing or smashing.
The change in material makes the balls feel more "organic" :
1. it has weight
2. when squeezed on one side, the balls will bulge out from another side, i.e. will not collapse like foam
3. when squeezed on the whole, there will be more resistance from the gel. This is because when the gel cannot be displaced, it has to be compressed.
The wires on the Pole of Squeezables were too weak to take the constant pulling and scraping from the sides. Here I used coaxial cables. Coaxial cables are thin and also reinforced by a woven copper sheath underneath the insulation which makes them more durable and resistant to stretching.
The squeeze sensor here is also the sensor block (Fig. 3.1) used in the Pole of Squeezables. Since the sensor block has to go into the ball, the gel material is cut away by inserting a hollow block that is of the same dimension as the sensor block. This will create a block-like opening in the gel without destroying it. The sensor block is then inserted all the way into this opening. At the bottom of the sensor block where the cable will come out, a little length of the cable is left between the block and the cable knot. This knot is done by tying the cable onto itself. The knot is necessary so that it will act as a frontier to the pulling of the ball without transmitting any movement to the sensor block which may cause it to damage the gel. This way, the sensor block is completely stationary relative to the gel around it. Previous experiments when the sensor block was left moving within the ball showed that in this mode, the gel gets destroyed and severe leaking problem develop.
After the insertion of the sensor block, the knot is left in between the latex layer and the cloth layer. Both layers are sealed by sewing (Fig. 4.3).
To sense the pulling of the balls from the top of the table, the coaxial cable that holds the ball is tied to a 10 K ohm variable resistor slider (Fig. 4.4). The travel length of the slider is 10 cm. To get the ball to return to the table top automatically, the slider is tied to a piece of elastic (Fig. 4.5). This elastic is the type used for making the stretchy parts of wearable items like underwear and beach wears. One end of the elastic is tied to the base of the T-shaped holder (Fig. 4.6) underneath the table which holds all the sliders. The T-shaped holder is held under the barrel by six screws from the top.
Fig 4.6 : End of elastic tied/taped to the base of T-shaped holder
Initial feedback from people suggested the Table of Squeezables looks like a magician's table [WebVideo1]. After construction, the table underwent testing during the bi-annual sponsor visit open house of the lab. Many people, senior and very young, including my 2-year old son (Figs. 4.7 and 4.8), came and played with the Table of Squeezables.
Gil Weinberg, who is a fellow graduate student and also a musician, composed a piece called "Squeezadelic" [Wei98] utilizing an extensive mapping he did in Max for the Table of Squeezables for three performers.
"Squeezadelic" allowed each of the three performers to squeeze and pull two Squeezables. Each Squeezable has its own character. For example, sine-wave sounds like the theremin, voice-like sound like "wohh-wohh", rhythm generation with percussion instruments and random melodies with piano sound. All the Squeezables are interdependent among one another. For example, each Squeezable will change the mapping parameters of the others. The change in parameter mapping is done to a limited degree so that no one Squeezable can entirely control the others.
One unique feature of this musical instrument is that it can be played by more than one person at the same time. Myself, Gil Weinberg, and another fellow graduate student, Teresa Marrin, became the pioneer performers of this score and had a 6-minute performance on video tape for the prestigious Ars Electronica competition for 1998. This performance demonstrated that the Table of Squeezables can be used as a serious musical instrument. In this case, three performers played on the same musical instrument (Figs. 4.9, 4.10 and 4.11).
Fig. 4.8 : My son, Cheng Hann, pounding one of the Squeezables
Fig. 4.10 : Close up of the hands on the Squeezables in "Squeezadelic"
