Testing the Waters

Over Reading Week, Preyansh tried putting a piece of sharpie-coloured tape over the flash of his phone to see what the results would be. The goal of this was to a) see if the background research we did yielded the proper result and b) assess what else was needed for building the actual prototype.

Step 1: Materials

Materials used: a cell phone, clear tape, scissors, and sharpie markers.

Step 2: First Layer of Tape

Cutting out a small piece of clear tape, Preyansh taped it over the flash of his phone and precisely coloured it with a blue sharpie marker.

 

Step 3: Second & Third Layers of Tape

Following Step One, Preyansh put another piece of tape over the flash and coloured it with the blue sharpie. Then, he put one more piece of tape over the flash, but coloured this one purple.

Step 4: Final Result

Here is the final result:

Analysis

While the experiment worked in creating a blacklight, Preyansh notes that you need a specific pen that has invisible ink in order to create messages that you can put the blacklight on. Although we’re not making an invisible ink pen, we note that we’ll need some sort of similar item to test whether or not the black light actually works or not. We’re going to see if bleach can work as an alternative ink so we can know if the black light properly works.

First Meeting Rescheduled

Our first meeting will be taking place on Thursday, March 1st at 3pm as opposed to Tuesday, February 27th. We’ll be looking at how to create an adjustable mechanism to mount the clear tape on and potentially test out the product using some materials.

Free Brainstorming

We’ve started brainstorming some ideas on how to create our product.

We first gained inspiration from this Pinterest post: https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/416371928023176797/?autologin=true

We noticed that while taping directly over the flash of the phone works, it does not provide accessibility for users and you can only use it for a limited period of time. It does not help anyone who is looking for extended and consistent use of the effect that is created from the piece of tape.

So, we began looking at how to create adjustable mechanisms, and made some notes along the way:

https://www.mobilefun.co.uk/adjustable-car-phone-holder-14415

• Adjustable phone mechanisms can provide a baseline for “an adjustable mechanism”
• This is something we’re going for, but on a smaller scale
• Clamps wrap around the sides of the phone
• We could make it smaller and clamp it on the smaller edge (front edge) of phone – but would that make this too small?
• The part that “sticks onto the car” could instead be replaced by the actual scotch tape / mechanism that covers up the flash on the phone

 

• Simple cardboard base would not be enough – it would need to be hard plastic or metal that wraps around phone
  • Metal – too coarse / hard to handle?
  • Hard plastic – is that easy / cheap to find?
  • Can it hold onto the phone while it’s in movement?

 

• This needs to be a small item à it needs to be able to cover the flash BUT NOT the actual camera on the phone
• How can we account for the differing types of phones and the different locations of the flashes?

 

• You can technically move the clamps along the horizontal or vertical axes of the phone, but the flash is on different places on various phones depending on the make and model
• So the question becomes how to move the actual piece of tape across the horizontal axis – it doesn’t need to move vertically because the actual clamps can move vertically and account for that
• Also, the piece of tape needs to be close enough to the phone so that the flash is impacted but far away enough that the tape doesn’t stick to the phone
• Experiment à can the tape be a little farther away from the flash and still result in the same photo?

Hitting the Ground Running

It’s time to hit the ground running and state our intent with this project. Here are all the conceptual points of our plan to create a DIY UV Blacklight.

Project Timeline:

*Estimated, may be modified based on project demands*

• February 14th – Brainstorm & Concept
• February 21st – Research & Rough Plan Completed for Construction
• February 25th – Materials Collected
• February 27th – First Meeting, Trial Building
• March 2nd – Second Meeting, Continuation of Trial Building and Refining
• March 5th – Third Meeting, Beta Test
• March 8th – Final Meeting, Completion of Project
• March 9th – Submission to Avenue

Modes of Communication:

1. Primary – Facebook Messenger
2. Secondary – McMaster Email

Dividing Workload:

Khaleel – content management (blog posts, short videos), helping with prototype

Preyansh – content management (photographs), background research, supplies, building prototype

Goal & Intention:

To create an easy, affordable UV black light for accessible use on phones and small cameras. With this design, users can create more engaging visual effects for a low cost.