In order to display animations that flow back and forth between several Phyllo, the Phyllos need first to be able to know each other’s position. 

For now, we have reduced this problem to this : to display animations in the proper orientation relative to its neighbours, each Phyllo needs to know the direction of each neighboring Phyllo. They have no real need to know exactly how far they are from each other.

Associating detection and communication

It is not enough to merely detect Phyllos if the detection method doesn’t allow us to distinguish one Phyllo from another. We have to be able to both talk to a specific Phyllo AND know where it is physically located.

It’s the same problem as trying to find someone you’ve never met in a crowd, while you’re on the phone with them. At some point you’re going to need a sign to differentiate them from every other person around you.

So far we have discussed several ideas :

The IrDA idea

Our first idea was to place a lot of highly directional IR transceivers facing outwards all the way around the fixed part. Regularly, if a Phyllo isn’t communicating with anyone, it emits its identifier. If one of the transceivers detects an answer, the Phyllo uses this transceiver to speak with the Phyllo who answered. Like that, we communicate directly in the right direction. If three Phyllos are aligned, the middle Phyllo will hide the two others from each other, but it's not a problem.

However, we do not know if it is feasible. One problem in particular is that, in order to use very directive IrDAs, we would need many of them to cover 360° and the processor probably won’t have enough UARTs.

The magnet sensor idea

Alexis suggested that we use magnetic sensors. It would then be possible to have hardware set ids by playing with north and south poles of magnets in each Phyllo. Alexis also lent us an evaluation board of such a sensor.

However, even with pretty strong magnets, we could not detect anything further than 5cm (which is to be compared with the 15cm diameter of a Phyllo). Moreover, it doesn’t seem easy to discriminate magnetic perturbation from each Phyllos, and even more if each of them hold several magnets. On top of that, we would need to filter out the Phyllo’s own magnets.

The rotating IR emitter idea

Our favorite idea so far is about combining Wifi and IR detection.

The Phyllos start with Wifi to list everyone present. They either already have unique identifiers, or cooperate to give each-other unique identifiers.

Then, in an agreed upon order, each Phyllo emits IR in all directions with several emitters around its fixed base to cover 360°. Each Phyllos also possesses an IR receptor on its rotating part, allowing them to determine the direction of the Phyllo who is currently emitting. Thanks to this protocol, the association between Phyllos’ ids and their location is possible.