#2026-W06
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### First time outside
This week, I finally took my **Guest** outside to test how it works on uneven terrain in exterior. I managed to set up a simple system for creating my own Wi-Fi access point on RPi so that I can control it from anywhere. *So far, I've been doing it from my phone, but I'll have to get a controller. Touch feedback makes a huge difference.*
![[guest-and-dog.jpg]]
The robot is finally starting to get some interesting feedback from its surroundings. It even managed to scare our dog *(see below)*, who wasn't exactly expecting it there. As soon as the machine started moving, the dog began to avoid it. Until then, however, he wasn't very interested in it.
[Watch some footage from outdoors.](https://vimeo.com/1162687681/2018af5614?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci) and [Robot's POV & Sound](https://vimeo.com/1162688033/a38ee001c5?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci)
<div style="padding:56.25% 0 0 0;position:relative;"><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/1162688033?h=a38ee001c5&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" title="Guest | Outdoors | POV | Sound"></iframe></div><script src="https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js"></script>
![[guest-outside.jpg]]
In terms of sound evolution, picking up the sound of servos via **piezo** seems to be the best method so far. It's extremely sensitive and can detect any touch or collision. So far, I've implemented a simple patch that analyzes the audio signal and plays a part of the selected sample as soon as it exceeds a certain threshold. With a few nodes, I was able to achieve a similar effect to Neural Audio Synthesis, as mentioned in my previous email.
[See how it sounds right now.](https://vimeo.com/1162688313/c4b8ba538c?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci)
At the same time, this is closely linked to conceptual thoughts about what kind of sound such a machine should actually produce. Since its form is quite similar to the anatomy of an insect, I decided to approach it from the perspective of sound as well. **Many insects do not hear with localized ears, but with mechanoreceptors distributed across their legs and exoskeleton.** Similarly, my robot perceives vibrations using piezoelectric elements mounted directly on the motors and uses its entire body as a listening membrane.
I am still researching, but this might be a good overview; ["Biology of Insect Song"](http://songsofinsects.com/biology-of-insect-song)
![[insect-ears.jpg]]
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### Visual Programming Resource
This week, during my [V2.lab residency](https://v2.nl/labprojects/microdosing-a-i), I gave a small workshop on **visual programming for new media creation**. The presentation covers the tools I typically use, benefits and tradeoffs of node-based programming, comparison of major platforms like Max/MSP, TouchDesigner, Pure Data, and others, plus some personal notes on when I reach for which tool. We also focused on the Max and Touchdesigner environments with several project examples and a deep dive in Max.
A lot of the stuff happened off-screen, but I'm sharing the presentation itself in case you find it useful. Whether you're just curious about visual programming or considering diving in yourself.
[Get the presentation here](https://drive.proton.me/urls/TXPD0H5E38#mnvyf7iM1nAJ) or [see it on my website for more context.](https://kindl.work/Categories/Resources/Visual+programming+for+new+media#Max%20\(Deep%20Dive\))
![[max_cover_1.jpg]]
![[max-_11.jpg]]
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### Claude Opus 4.6
Also, [Claude Opus 4.6 was released](https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-opus-4-6). After trying many models and platforms for coding and creative work, I can safely say that Claude offers the best value for my purposes, even though it is slightly more expensive. Minimal hallucinations and great debugging power and problem solving within [Claude Code](https://claude.com/product/claude-code). Soon I would like to try Claude code with local models as well.
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### White-listing
Btw ! If you find this newsletter interesting in any way, I would be grateful if you could **save my email address in your contacts** so that it does not end up in your spam folder. Apparently, this has already happened somewhere, so if necessary, [try this method, for example.](https://proton.me/blog/how-to-whitelist-an-email-address)
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