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4<head><!--#set var="title"        value="Miscellaneous"
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8   --><!--#set var="prev_title"   value="Storage media"
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13
14    <!--#include virtual="/en/inc/head.inc.shtm" -->
15    <meta name="t29.SVN" content="$Id: search.shtm 108 2009-08-19 17:20:00Z heribert $" />
16    <meta name="t29.thistranslation" content="12.11.2009" />
17    <meta name="t29.comment" content="Initial announcement" /> 
18</head>
19<body>
20<!--#echo encoding="none" var="heading" -->
21<div id="content">
22    <h2><!--#echo var="title" --></h2>
23
24    <h3>Pianola</h3>
25    <p>The technikum29 is quite versatile &ndash; beside all the communication
26       and computer technology we also show very special exhibits: This is
27       a fully executable pianola, year of manufacture about 1910-1915.</p>
28
29    <p>
30         It's a great experience see and hear such old jukeboxes, typically made only of natural materials like leather, gum, wood, bone glue, felt, metal, paper, ivory and glass.<br/>
31         By assembling these elements in an intelligent way, one could build a simple mechanical machine which is especially impressive for today\'s people. Here at the technikum29, we will show you how this device works, we will explain the basic functionality and play challenging compositions. While having covers removed, you can even see the fascinating mechanics working.
32    </p>
33
34     <div class="box center">
35       <img src="/shared/photos/kommunikationstechnik/pianola.jpg"
36         alt="Picture of the Pianola" width="700" height="618" class="nomargin-bottom" />
37     </div>
38<h3 id="Q1"> technikum29 supports school projects:</h3>
39
40<p>Microcontrollers revolutionize
41and influence next to everything. How can schools participate on these
42developments and perform successful and interesting projects?<br>
43Six pupils of Q1 (12th year in school) of the Albert-Einstein secondary
44school were looking for a suitable idea for their so called "project
45week". This project should be connected to mathematics, physics and/or
46computer science. This is where the technikum29 got involved. The idea
47the pupils came up with was to connect technology from the 1950s with
48modern equipment of 2012. Communication spanning time and technology.<br>
49<div class="box left">
50        <img src="/shared/photos/kommunikationstechnik/arduino1.jpg" width="606" height="335" />
51       </div>
52<p>Traditionally such projects required knowledge only accessible to
53computer scientists, engineers and the like. Often they had to spend
54weeks of reading data sheets, writing cryptic assembly code etc. How
55things have changed! Since 2009 a cheap and versatile module named
56"Arduino" is available - a controller based on the well known ATmega
57328 chip featuring 32 kB of memory. Arduino boards are designed not
58for the expert but for the layman and are the perfect base for
59creative people, artists, designers etc.
60 <br>
61This project focuses on connecting computers to the "real world". The
62small Arduino board can be programmed to be used as an interface for
63nearly everything. The pupils decided to connect an early fax machine
64(a Siemens KF108 made in 1958) to a modern PC.   <br>
65This fax machine is based on a rotating drum which holds the sheet of
66paper to be transmitted to the receiving station. The picture is
67scanned in a spiral movement by a photodetector that slowly moves in
68parallel to the axis of the drum. Of course, this is incompatible with
69more recent fax machines.
70
71The Arduino was planned to act as the interface between this historic
72device and a modern PC. Thus the pupils first had to learn how to
73program such a micro controller which turned out to be quite difficult
74for non-programmers. Nevertheless the software approach has its
75advantages: It is more easily debugged compared with a traditional
76hardware based interface. Thus it only took a single week to program
77and interface the Arduino board to the Siemens fax.
78
79<div class="box left">
80        <img src="/shared/photos/kommunikationstechnik/arduino2.jpg" width="606" height="354" />
81       </div>
82           
83<p>The fax machine generates an auido signal with a frequency of 1.5 kHz
84denoting black pixels to be transmitted. To convert this into a binary
85signal with a 5V level an amplifier circuit is needed that is followed
86by an RC-combination. In addition to that a synchronization signal is
87necessary to signal the start of a new line being scanned. This is
88generated utilizing a reed-contact that is triggered by a so called
89"super magnet" that has been glued onto the axis of the scanner drum.
90The reed-contact thus generates a signal for every revolution of the
91drum which corresponds to a single line being scanned.<br>
92
93The control program for the Arduino was developed by the pupils (the
94source code can be found <a href="/de/lernprojekte/arduino-projekt-programme/"> >>HERE</a>). It allows the picture being scanned, a historic Mickey-Mouse drawing, to be transferred to the PC
95where it is displayed slowly line by line with good resolution.
96
97The experiment was a full success and will inspire future projects.
98
99<p class="small">*) Arduino: The name of this board derives from King "Arduino of
100Ivrea" who lived in medieval times in northern Italy where the
101controller was developed.</small> <br>
102
103         
104        <h3 id="leander">Art in the Museum</h3>
105
106<p>The technikum29 motivates activities that get awards and prices. The latest
107example is that of the young artist Leander A. Schwarzer who transforms
108everyday things into pieces of art. He has developed pictures made from zippers
109that can be opened thus giving the viewer the opportunity to modify the picture
110itself.<br>
111 His latest visit to the technikum29 has inspired him to make art from
112and with punch cards which were the basis of industrialization in the 20th
113century. First the "Terzett" (Trio) was created which consists of three punched
114cards with these irreversible sentences:</p>
115
116<div class="box left">
117        <img src="/shared/photos/start/lk.jpg"  width="250" height="350" class="nomargin-bottom" />
118                <p class="Bildtext small">Picture 1: 3 punch cards with text</p></div>
119               
120        ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE<br>
121        IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING<br>
122        IMAGINE ALL THE PEOPLE<br>
123        <div class="box right">
124        <img src="/shared/photos/start/leander.jpg" alt="Leander Schwarzer" width="313" height="239" class="nomargin-bottom" />
125                <p class="Bildtext small">Picture 2: Leander A. Schwarzer punching cards on an IBM key punch</p>
126               
127                </div>
128
129<p>These cards were hanged on a wall at a distance of 1-2 cm. During the day sun
130rays create shadows of the punched and coded text on the wall behind the cards.
131This work of art was awarded a price at the 32th grafics competition in Austria
132(Innsbruck, 2011). This in turn motivated Mr. Schwarzer to continue his work
133with punched cards. He spent several days at the technikum29 punching excerpts
134from Marx' "Capital" thereby creating a pile of several hundred cards. These
135were shown in the exhibition "A Symbol of Freedom" in Piacenza (Italy). Punched
136cards transform contemporary slogans into visual paradoxes when they create
137their unique shadows.</p>
138<div class="box left">
139        <img src="/shared/photos/start/lk-musik.jpg" alt="Musik aus Lochkarten" width="336" height="188" class="nomargin-bottom" />
140                <p class="Bildtext small">Picture 3: Punched cards running through a "musical clock"</p>
141                </div>
142
143<p>Another work, "Fetish Character of commodities", concatenates the cards
144containing Marx' text fragments. This string of cards is then pulled through a
145mechanism like a musical clock that generates sounds controlled by the holes in
146the cards. So, finally, the "Capital" is transformed into atmospheric sounds.</p><br>
147
148         
149         
150         
151    <h3>Movie projector  "Dresden 1"</h3>
152
153     <div class="box left clear-after">
154        <img src="/shared/photos/kommunikationstechnik/kinomaschine.dresden1.jpg"
155           alt="Photography of the movie projector Dresden 1" width="350" height="630" />
156
157                <div class="bildtext">
158          <p>The technikum29 has a movie projector from 1951 (there are
159             more and even older projectors from the 1930s that are stored in the
160             archive for lack of space).</p>
161          <p>
162             Movie projectors have always been very complex devices. At that time,
163             the bright picture projection was archived with an arc light which was
164             generated between two carbon pencils. The waste heat was deflected via a
165             chimney pipe! <!-- stupid mode... -->
166             Since the pencils got shorter and shorter while the movie went on, they
167             had to be moved continously closer together for producing a constant
168             luminosity. Otherwise the light goes out.
169             <br/>We will repair this device to show an original newsreel from the 1960s.
170         </p>
171           </div>
172        </div>
173               
174        <h3 id="demo">Siemens Demonstration Computer</h3>
175        <div class="box center">
176        <img src="/shared/photos/rechnertechnik/siemens-democomputer.jpg" alt="Siemens demonstration educational computer CPU" width="700" height="587" />
177                <p class="center"><b>Siemens educational computer</b></p>
178        </div>
179
180        <p>This demonstration model was build in 1973, when personal computers were not
181           invented for a long time yet. Engineers had to be trained to understand
182           computer architectures. Therefore, this big education model was constructed.
183           It is a giant implementation of a typical register machine where 126 lamps
184           display all registers, control, ALU and RAM, including the data flow.
185           Featuring a mutable clock pulse and only 4 bit word with, elementary opcodes
186           could be reproduced in a very illustrative way. The device can be toggled to
187           process one instruction or one cycle a time.
188        <br>On the left side, the computer program could be directly "written" by plugging
189           cartidges labeled with assembly instruction mnemonics or numerical values
190           (immediate operands). On this cartiges the user could directly read the binary
191           value of the machine instruction which will be the content of the corresponding
192           random access field. As you might guess, the computer cannot change the program
193           memory without user interaction, so this model actually implements an Harvard
194           architecture, even though the (german) labels on the frontend suggest something
195           different.
196        <br>The picture above shows a currently running program that adds memory cells. It
197           shows that computer word lengths do not limit the length of proccessable
198           numbers.
199        <br>It is a wonderful device that can even be used today to understand the elementary
200           workflow of modern high end desktop CPUs.
201    </p>       
202       
203</div><!-- end of content -->
204<!--#include virtual="/en/inc/menu.inc.shtm" -->
205</body>
206</html>
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