First Meeting

Our team’s first meeting was held today at Mills Library, beginning at 3pm. Here is a recount of our progress and what our next steps will be to further develop the project:

Step One: Creating the Ribbon

To do this, we took a long piece of clear tape and folded it in half, colouring both sides with blue sharpie marker. Then, we took another long piece of clear tape and folded it in half over top of the existing piece. This piece was coloured purple, to create a mixture of darker colours that would create a blacklight.

MATERIALS USED: clear tape, blue & purple sharpie markers.

Step Two: The Adjustable Mechanism

We had the ribbon sorted out, now we just needed to determine how we could make it adjustable for users with different types of phones. We took a standard black paper clip organizer (the smaller kind) and wrapped an elastic band around the inside.

Then, we taped one end of the ribbon tape to the inside of a clamp, then fed the other end through the elastic band (see the second picture) to make the ribbon itself adjustable. Observe in the right-hand side photo that Preyansh’s hand is holding the piece of ribbon in the middle, which is the adjustable piece, and pulling it either tightened or loosened the other two pieces around the clip. This way, users can tighten or loosen the ribbon to fit the dimensions of their phone.

 

MATERIALS USED: Completed ribbon, elastic band, black paper clip

Step Three: Applying the Device to Phones

Now that the ribbon tape was secured to the black paper clip organizer, we tested it out on two major types of phones: iPhones and Samsungs.

To fasten the device on the phone, we simply clamped it onto an area of the phone that did not interfere with user operation:

 

When we put it on, we made sure that the ribbon tape properly covered up the flash on each phone:

 

In order for the picture to properly work with the flash, we used the adjustable mechanism to tighten the ribbon on the backside of the phone, to make sure that the ribbon was firmly secured against the flash. We also used the adjustable mechanism to loosen the tape slightly on the front side of the phone, to avoid interference with touch screens.

The Result: Here is a photograph taken with the ribbon tape tightly fastened against the flash of the iPhone:

The result turned out to be the same when tested on the Samsung phone as well.

Next Steps: Our next steps will be to attempt using bleach as an invisible ink, and seeing if it will create a unique effect under the black light. Once we determine whether or not bleach works, we will reconvene and determine next steps from there.

Next Meeting: Monday, March 5th @ 9:30am

Meeting Adjourned: 3:30pm