Interactive Transistor Radios
What happens when… antique transistor radios are interactive and aware of their location and the movements of the individual holding it?
Interactive Transistor Radios is a reimagined past meets the future experience where each of up to 8 radios can be individually interacted with. The AM labels show years important to New Mexico history, e.g., 1680, 1912, as well as current and future years. Changing the dial naturally changes the content that is played, which can be heard wearing headphones attached to each radio. However, the generative sounds (music, wild track, and voice over) that play are also responding dynamically to how the individual is moving the radio, location, their relationship to the sun and moon, weather conditions, etc.
Each radio is a stand-alone piece running off of Raspberry Pis and Picos, accompanied by various sensors and actuators and mounted with custom chassis. Rechargeable Lipo batteries power each unit.
prototype
This is an early prototype of one of the eight transistor radios using custom internal electronics. This prototype uses an ESP32 DW3000 Ultra-wide Band (UWB) module for precise location-based sensing. It’s the same technology Apple uses in its AirPods, Watches, and Macs when you need to “Find my…”.
LOCATION-BASED SENSOR TEST
This is a test of the location-based sensor included within the antique transistor radio. There are 4 zones based on proximity to the camera. The closer you get, the less noise there is in the audio. Additional and/or different sensors will be used for the transistor radios used in the CURRENTS Festival, if accepted.