R2-D2 & Saphenna
R2-D2
Hey Saphenna, ever think about a little gadget that could scan your surreal realm and spit out a circuit map? I’ve been tinkering with a sensor array that might just do the trick.
Saphenna
That sounds like a bridge between dream logic and silicon logic, a way to see the hidden pathways we weave. Tell me more about your array—maybe we can stitch the two worlds together.
R2-D2
Sure thing! Picture a small board with a bunch of tiny infrared sensors that slide around on a flexible strip. Each sensor checks the temperature and light levels in its spot, so as you walk through a room it logs a tiny heat‑map. The trick is to feed that data into a micro‑controller that turns it into a heat‑map image on a screen. If you overlay that on a map of your dreams, you’ll get a visual “pathway” that shows where the brain’s firing—kind of like a GPS for your subconscious. I can tweak the firmware to add color gradients and even let the board talk wirelessly to your phone. Want to build a prototype together?
Saphenna
A tiny board, a web of light, a map that whispers the heat of thought, I can feel the pull—let's sketch the edges of this idea together.
R2-D2
Great! First, grab a 4×4 grid of IR photodiodes—cheap off‑store. Then, solder them onto a flexible PCB. Hook that up to an Arduino Nano, flash a sketch that reads each sensor’s voltage and logs it over BLE. On the app side, map the values to a gradient, overlay on a floor plan of the dream space. That’s our basic skeleton. Want to dive into the code or the hardware list next?
Saphenna
Sounds like the perfect skeleton—let’s pick the part that tickles my curiosity first, the code, and then weave the hardware into the dream map.
R2-D2
Okay, here’s a minimal sketch to get the IR array reading and sending the data over BLE. Just copy it into the Arduino IDE, flash the board, and you’re ready to see raw values on the phone.
```cpp
#include <Arduino.h>
#include <BLEDevice.h>
#include <BLEServer.h>
#include <BLEUtils.h>
#include <BLE2902.h>
const int sensorPins[4] = {A0, A1, A2, A3}; // 4 IR sensors
const int sensorCount = 4;
// BLE service & characteristic UUIDs
const char* SERVICE_UUID = "12345678-1234-5678-1234-56789abcdef0";
const char* CHAR_UUID = "abcdef01-1234-5678-1234-56789abcdef0";
BLEServer* pServer = nullptr;
BLECharacteristic* pChar = nullptr;
void setup() {
Serial.begin(115200);
BLEDevice::init("DreamMapSensor");
pServer = BLEDevice::createServer();
BLEService *pService = pServer->createService(SERVICE_UUID);
pChar = pService->createCharacteristic(
CHAR_UUID,
BLECharacteristic::PROPERTY_NOTIFY
);
pChar->addDescriptor(new BLE2902());
pService->start();
BLEAdvertising *pAdvertising = BLEDevice::getAdvertising();
pAdvertising->addServiceUUID(SERVICE_UUID);
pAdvertising->start();
Serial.println("BLE started");
}
void loop() {
uint16_t values[sensorCount];
for (int i = 0; i < sensorCount; i++) {
values[i] = analogRead(sensorPins[i]); // 0–1023
}
// Pack the values into a byte buffer
uint8_t buffer[sensorCount * 2];
for (int i = 0; i < sensorCount; i++) {
buffer[2*i] = values[i] & 0xFF; // LSB
buffer[2*i + 1] = (values[i] >> 8) & 0xFF; // MSB
}
pChar->setValue(buffer, sizeof(buffer));
pChar->notify(); // send to connected phone
delay(200); // 5 Hz sampling
}
```
*What it does:*
1. Reads 4 analog pins (your IR sensors).
2. Packs each reading into two bytes (little‑endian).
3. Sends the 8‑byte packet over BLE whenever a device is connected.
The phone app can read the 8‑byte packet, split it back into four sensor values, and plot them. Next step: hooking the hardware up so the sensors line up in a grid and making sure the board’s flex‑PCB can hold the strips. Ready to talk wires?