Phase 1

From Team Formation to Concept Mockup

Team Formation and Theme Decision

2025/06/03

Sugawara and Ofuchi joined Ukai, who proposed the theme “How USB connections work” at the matching presentation, and formed Lantern-TECH.

Sugawara’s Proposed Approach

• It would be interesting if text input could be physically output, like a typewriter.
• The sight of characters themselves flowing on a conveyor belt.

Using this as a broad framework, they planned an interactive, large-scale installation.

They broadly divided the components and established a system of divided labor for production.

Character vendor (extrusion mechanism) - Sugawara
Conveyor belt for flowing characters - Ofuchi, Sugawara
Keyboard input and vendor linkage - Ukai
Arduino coding - Sugawara, Ukai
Public relations - Ofuchi

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Member’s Matching Presentation Slides

Middle Term Presentation

2025/06/17

At the middle term presentation, they demonstrated a mockup combining a conveyor belt moving at a constant speed, a cartridge that could only extrude “A”, and a UI that moved one stroke per transmission.

Comments from the Instructors

• You need to consider further if the input/output is sufficient. It might also be interesting if information moved bidirectionally.

• It would be cuter if the characters were larger and flowed vertically.

• It’s reminiscent of the Internet Physical Model that used to be at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan).

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Interim Report Slides

Phase 2

Further refining the exhibition’s direction

Re-examining the Concept

2025/06/18

There were unclear areas regarding the concept, what needed to be created, and the overall direction, leading to differences in opinion. Therefore, we decided to discuss these points again with the team members.

Current Issues:

• The appearance of text seems like an output.

• The appearance of text makes it seem like text data.

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Possibility of the concept not being conveyed or being misinterpreted.

Questions Regarding the Issues:

• How much importance should be placed on the possibility of it looking like an output or being perceived as text data?

Proposed Solutions Based on Issues:

Method of changing the concept:

• An idea to prepare a gimmick symbolizing “output” at the end of the flowing text, changing the concept from “information flow” to “the function of computer input/output.”

Method of not changing the concept:

• Do not alter the current proposal.

• Add some kind of gimmick to partially address the issues above while enhancing the fun as an interactive exhibition.

Concerns Regarding Concept Change:

• Is changing the concept from “information flow” to “the function of computer input/output” faithful to “the unseen”?

Pre-Exhibition

2025/07/01

Although we had discussed the concept beforehand, we concluded to prioritize completing the artwork for now and postpone further conceptual discussions. Ultimately, it remained unfinished.

Since there was no aggregation mechanism, we initially planned to push the characters directly onto the conveyor belt. However, the conveyor belt was not long enough, so we ended up using balsa wood with tape to manually slide the characters, creating a makeshift aggregation mechanism.

As expected, the teachers questioned us about the concept—or rather, the intent of this artwork and its method of expression. There were also many elementary mistakes, which was quite embarrassing.

Comments from Teachers:

• Avoid going into a pre-exhibition unfinished.
• Visualizing “data/electrical signal flow” presented as an unseen entity gets conflated with input/output.
• → The part where characters flow on the conveyor belt should merely be movement, but it appears as an output (or rather, it actually functions as an output). (The fact that the true output is undecided is also a cause.)
• The part where a live camera feed is displayed directly above the conveyor belt could easily be taken as part of the artwork (the intention was merely as an aid for better readability of the characters from a distance).
• Tidy up garbage and other clutter before the presentation.

By the way, the theme of “converting electronic data into physical media,” which was pointed out or proposed by Professor Yamamoto, resonated quite strongly with us.

Video Shooting

2025/07/04

We needed to record a video for the video presentation. We should have recorded it during the pre-exhibition, but it was simply unfinished, so it was postponed.

If all 26 vendors were placed side-by-side, there wouldn’t be enough space. If they were arranged in two rows of 13, they would be out of the camera’s view. So, we decided to use only the first 13 alphabets and output words that could be made with them (e.g., FAKE).

We attached two tactile switches to directly control the forward and reverse movement of the conveyor belt, but since it couldn’t be automated, we decided to control it manually using these buttons for now. However, due to cable constraints, we couldn’t hide the breadboard under the desk. So, Sugawara had to hide under the desk and reach out to operate it. If you look closely at the finished video, you can see his sleeve.

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Video Presentation Video

Video Presentation, Production Consultation

2025/07/08

Teacher’s Comments on Video Presentation:

• Clarify the definition of the artwork.

  • Color and contrast. The background is white, and the artwork has a mix of white and black, making it unclear where the artwork ends and the environment begins.

  • If the experience starts with typing on a keyboard, the video should include a shot of typing.

• As a video expression:

  • The music has a constant sense of mismatch.

  • The music is too loud, making the artwork’s operational sounds inaudible.

  • The subtitle style (font, color, background) is quite eye-catching, making it hard to focus on the artwork.

  • Colloquial language is used in the subtitles, and sentences are cut off mid-way, making them difficult to understand.

  • The example word “FAKE” being outputted should be changed. It’s unrelated to the artwork and has a negative connotation.

With this feedback, the previously discussed “viewer-operated conveyor belt idea,” and a new theme of “reconstruction of language” (which will be elaborated on once organized), we had a consultation with Professor Hirahara.

To cut to the chase, the idea of viewers operating the conveyor belt was rejected (at least for this class).

If we envision a flow where viewers type the desired characters on a keyboard and then manually operate the conveyor belt to complete the string, it becomes merely a tool. Viewers should only perform one operation (either keyboard input or conveyor belt operation), and in the context of this exhibition, the former seems more fitting.

Phase 3

Main Exhibition and Open Campus

Right Before the Main Exhibition

2025/07/22

Still working down to the wire, it’s so frustrating!

Changes since last time

• Viewer input is now explicitly “text input” only

• One conveyor belt moves left and right

• Character size reduced to 4cm square

• iPad installed as a monitor

It can be said that almost all problems raised as points for improvement were resolved as initially planned.

The caption board has also been created, and the main event is finally here.

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Caption Board

Main Exhibition

2025/07/22

Student feedback was excellent.

Faculty Observations

• If the display is meant to represent the assembly and disassembly of characters, it doesn’t quite make sense for the characters that have been displayed and exited to be discarded into trash bins on either side.

• There’s too much lag in the operation. It feels like a malfunction.

• It cannot handle irregular operations.

• More attention should be paid to the UI characters. Such as using Caps Lock, or even better, using the same font as the physical characters.

• It’s not good that long words spill out from the sides before they are completed.

Nevertheless, it was generally highly rated.

Problems Discovered During the Actual Exhibition

• Character replenishment can’t keep up. Even if we try to prioritize replenishing used characters, it’s a struggle to find them in the trash bins.

• Characters frequently get caught in the vendor and tilt.

• Characters don’t drop down from the stock because the piston doesn’t return completely.

• Frankly, setup is too much of a hassle. Especially the wiring.

Desperate Filming

2025/07/22

Sugawara and Ukai had been up all night, and Ofuchi had only slept 3.5 hours on the day of the main exhibition. By 7 PM, everyone was overcome with sleepiness and felt like they were about to collapse.

However, we had to shoot a video for submission. We really didn’t want to go through the difficult wiring and setup work again on a weekday, so we mustered our strength and filmed at the university at night.

Midway through, Sugawara collapsed and left, Ukai didn’t respond when spoken to, and everyone sat down, with no one pressing the record button. Everyone was at their limit.

Everyone, please get enough sleep!!

Open Campus Exhibition Decided

2025/07/23

As a result of the faculty selection, the works to be exhibited at the Open Campus were decided to be “Hako” from GENESIS-4 and “Shape Writer” from Lantern-TECH. Two? That’s quite a few fewer than last year.

This is a chance to showcase a revised version with improvements identified during the main exhibition! So, let’s buckle up.

“Hako” from GENESIS-4 was a horror-themed and innovative piece where hands seemed to be visible through a translucent (or seemingly translucent) box.

Day Before Open Campus

2025/07/25

We improved several issues, extended the cartridge to increase the internal character stock, and created a promotional video.

Mr. Takezawa from GENESIS-4 also created the key visual for us.

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Promotional Video

Caption Board

Open Campus

2025/07/26

The exhibition at the Open Campus was quite well-received by visitors. Many found the behavior of characters appearing and forming words interesting, and we received comments such as “the font is cute” and even “the control of the stepper motor and servo motor is brilliant,” a more niche observation.

The exhibition venue was on the second-floor skyway of Building 4. This area, with its atrium extending from the prototyping room, was very difficult to cool effectively, leading to a significant temperature difference from the first floor. Consequently, several heat-related malfunctions occurred.

• The stepper motor and driver overheated and lost steps.
• The conveyor belt’s travel distance gradually shifted left and right.

We hadn’t anticipated this, as we hadn’t operated it continuously for such long periods in a high-temperature environment before.

We urgently took measures against thermal runaway, such as installing cooling fans and cutting power when no visitors were present for a while.

Regarding the displacement, it seems to be due to friction causing the theoretical travel distance and actual measurements to change daily, so we will adjust the coefficient tomorrow.

Open Campus Day 2

2025/07/27

Based on the experience gained on Day 1, Sugawara adjusted the conveyor belt’s operation. Its effect was successfully demonstrated, and it operated very stably on Day 2.

We applied a newly created OpenType font file, shaped like the character blocks, to the Unity text input screen. This allowed us to unify the design from input to output.

Additionally, a typo was discovered in the promotional video, so we saved a corrected version to the iMac.