Absences electronic interventions in nature

J'ai fait quelques expériences ce matin avec des antennes. Le circuit est très simple: je branche directement un fil dans une des pins analogues du Arduino et je capte les variations. J'ai fait quelques constatations intéressantes.

My friend Wirot (codename "Jo") has been assigned to me by Dr Nipon as my personal engineer for my projects. He's an expert in electronics. When he saw my first drawing of a circuit schematics for my "blower condom" project, he proposed many changes.

Since I arrived in Thailand, I was intrigued by seeing all of those little spirit houses. They're pretty much everywhere, especially near human dwellings such as houses and businesses. They offer a nice place for the phra phum ("the spirit of the house") to stay so that it can bring good fortune on one's property.

Since Jean-Marc showed me these plants, lots of ideas have started flowing through my mind. The mimosa pudica grow on the ComPeung ground and they are very impressive. Watch the video to get the idea... As thus, I've started looking at touch sensing electronic devices.

I've put my attention at very simple circuits at first. Here are a few links I found, I put them here for later reference:

On Monday, I went to meet Dr Nipon at the Computational Intelligence Laboratory at University of Chiang Mai. I had made contact with Dr Nipon in Spring 2008 in order to get some technical support during my residency in ComPeung.

Dr Nipon prove to be a very nice person and showed much interest in the project. He put me under the safe care of one of his PhD students, Wirot Ponglangka, nicknamed "Joe", who is a specialist in electronics. Joe seems to be very excited about the project as well and is more than happy to help me.

All the insects being driven out of here by winter, I stopped working on insect-attracting light sources and tried to find new research ideas. I was much impressed by all of the little plastic bags that are used here to carry pretty much any kind of food, including sauces, soups and milk!

J'ai effectué quelques tests pour attirer les insectes avec de la lumière. Ça marche, mais je me demande bien quoi faire avec ça. Il n'y en a pas assez à mon goût, des insectes. Faut dire que c'est la saison fraîche.

After a long day at the internet cafe Doi Saket, I joined the group in ComPeung and we went to see the dam in the mountains. Fascinating landscape that strangely reminds me of the Quebec forest with its large areas of fresh water surrounded by old, green mountains. From what Ong told us, ancient temples are sunk below the surface of the artificial reservoir, forgotten by modernism. My friend Federico Bonnelli, a big fan of futurism, would be delighted.

Since I arrived in Thailand, I was really impressed by the electrical and communication network. In every city or town, wires run in all directions, loosely attached to electric posts, in a rather chaotic fashion. It has become usual for me to see electric wires entertwined with tree branches, often at the reach of one's hand. People don't seem to bother about this, even when the rain is heavy! In Ton Sai, one of these wires hanging between the jungle and the village had become the preferred highway for a colony of ants to go get some food.

After two weeks of travel in Thailand, I arrived yesterday at my final destination: ComPeung. The head of the organization, Ong, showed me around the rather impressive project.