The Untouchable ATM (Intelligent Asset Manager)

Introduction (Concept Inspiration):

Under the era of the global financial crisis, cash flow and the source of cash became the primal concern in maintaining the very operation of human society. Therefore, who controls the economy controls the stability and order of society.

Hence, our machine, the “intelligent asset manager” or the “untouchable ATM,” sought to address this crisis by satirically proposing a novel power relationship between citizens, capital, and the government using an ordinary bank machine as its medium.

In other words, by inverting the conventional function and mechanism of an ATM, our untouchable ATM criticizes the tactical collusion between financial and governmental institutions during warfare by nationalizing citizens’ assets into state’s property, thus maximizing both government’s diplomatic and governing power.

Features (+ Meaning):

- Unlike traditional ATMs, our untouchable ATM can detect the user's motion. Therefore, when the user is attempting to withdraw their paper bill from the machine, the money will slip back into the machine (i.e. analogous to the federal government's bank account) while simultaneously issuing back a valueless government bond (in this case we have used the toilet paper) to the user.

- After the paper bill is slipped into the machine and the user takes the government bond and leaves the machine, the paper bill will reappear again, waiting for the user to come and trigger the mechanism again.

- This untouchable ATM is embedded with a classics mental manipulation mechanism, called the "carrot on a stick," in which the ever-recurring reward (paper bill) and punishment (government bond) system creates false hope for the user to endlessly chase for the unreachable goal of their life (conditioned behavior), eventually trapping and subjugating them into a fabricated reality controlled by the government.

Main Electronics:

- Arduino Uno x1

- Mini Breadboard x1 - USB micro to USB data transfer cable x1

- NPN Transistor x6

- Jumper wires x26

- Wheel (From EUDAX 6 set DC Motor Kit) x3
(Website: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07GDP2FCL/ref=p...

Sensors & Motors:

- Ultrasonic Distance Sensor x1

- PIR Motion Sensor x1

- Magnetic DC Motor (From EUDAX 6 set DC Motor Kit) x2
(Website: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07GDP2FCL/ref=p...

-Stepper Motor (28BYJ-48) x1

-ULN2003 stepper module drive module x1

Misc:

- Money Toilet Paper Roll x1
(Website: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B017PO81KY/ref=p...

- Paper Bill x1

Tools and Materials:

- Black Foam Board (30x20 inch) x3

- Hot Glue Gun x1

- Glue x1

- Ruler x1

- Cutter x1

- The DC motors can send the money inside/ outside. When the PIR sensor picks up motion, the motor on the right will spin the wheel and bring cash inside the ATM; the motor on the left will spin the wheel in a different direction, bringing out the cash-style toilet paper. Unlike the prototype machine shown in the picture, we added a stepper motor on the left side (the fake money side) --- the texture of toilet paper is much rougher than paper cash, so we need more torque to overcome the additional friction. Also, by adjusting the stepper motor's rotation, we can control how much fake money will be brought out each time.

- The function of an ultrasonic sensor is to detect the distance between the machine and the user. If the user is close to the machine, the cash will never come out; when the distance detected by the ultrasonic sensor is greater than a certain value (which may indicate that the user has left the machine), the motor on the left will spin and bring the money out.

**Note: Controlling the direction of the DC motor is essential in this project. However, this can only be achieved by controlling the direction of electricity, which requires an H-Bridge, which is not included in the Arduino starter kit. Therefore, we designed a rather complicated circuit (including transistors 1-4) to solve this issue.

• Breadboard:

Connect Arduino's 5V and Ground Pin to the breadboard’s power and ground pin, respectively.

• DC Motor Driver (Gov. Bond Output):

Connect Arduino's digital pin 3 (PWM) to the transistor's base.

Connect the power wire from the breadboard's power pin to the transistor’s receiver.

Connect the power wire between the transistor's emitter and DC Motor’s terminal 2.

Connect the ground wire between DC Motor’s terminal 1 to the breadboard's ground pin.

• *DC Motor Driver (Paper Bill Output): >> Involving FOUR Transistor

- Transistor 1 (Top Left):

Connect Arduino's digital pin 6 (PWM) to the transistor's (1) base.

Connect the wire between DC Motor’s terminal 2 to the transistor's (1) collector.

Connect the power wire from the breadboard's power pin to the transistor’s (1) emitter.

- Transistor 2 (Top Right):

Connect Arduino's digital pin 9 (PWM) to the transistor's (2) base.

Connect the ground wire between DC Motor’s terminal 1 to the transistor's (2) collector.

Connect the ground wire between the transistor's (2) emitter to the breadboard's ground pin.

Connect the wire between the transistor's (2) collector to the transistor's (4) emitter.

- Transistor 3 (Bottom Left):

Connect Arduino's digital pin 10 (PWM) to the transistor's (3) base.

Connect the ground wire between the transistor's (3) collector to the breadboard's ground pin.

Connect the wire between the transistor's (3) emitter to the transistor's (1) collector .

- Transistor 4 (Bottom Right):

Connect Arduino's digital pin 11 (PWM) to the transistor's (4) base.

Connect the power wire between the breadboard's power pin and the transistor's (4) collector.

Connect the wire between the transistor's (4) emitter to the transistor's (2) collector.

• PIR Sensor:

Connect Arduino's digital pin 2 to the sensor’s signal pin.

Connect the power wire from the breadboard's power pin to the sensor’s power pin.

Connect the power wire from the sensor’s ground pin to the breadboard's ground pin.

• Ultrasonic Distance Sensor:

Connect Arduino's digital pin 4 to the sensor’s trigger pin.

Connect Arduino's digital pin 5 (PWM) to the sensor’s echo pin.

Connect the power wire from the breadboard's power pin to the sensor’s power pin.

Connect the power wire from the sensor’s ground pin to the breadboard's ground pin.

• Stepper Motor

Connect the stepper motor with the driver module

Connect the ground/ power of stepper motor to Arduino's ground/ 5v output

Connect the 1,2,3,4 pin of stepper motor to Arduino's 7, 12, 8,13 socket (beware of the order)

• Code (Deconstructed):

- Load Libraries (Stepper Motor & Ultrasonic Sensor)

- Define Connection Pin (Arduino to Motor/Sensor)

- Define list of Variables (Motion Value, Motion’s Boolean Expression)

- Set Up initial (default) condition: PinMode, Serial, Baud Rate

- Set Up Loop Condition (if-then-else)

• List of Parameters:

- Sensor sensitivity (range): PIR & Ultrasonic

- Motor rotating speed (for paper bill and government bond)

- Motor delay (time interval between slip and return paper bill)

• PIR Motion Sensor (Sensitivity Optimization):

- To regulate the sensitivity of the sensor and optimize the buffer area between sensor and output object, the design of the ATM’s external cover has been tilted for 45°, allowing the motor to slip back the paper bill into the machine after users’ hand reach the sensor’s “trigger” area.

• Sliding Optimization (DC Motor):

- To regulate stability and speed of the output's sliding behavior (i.e. ensure the paper bill in & out rolling rate is fast enough so that the user cannot easily grasp the bill before it slips back into the machine), a "DC Motor" instead of a standard "Stepper Motor" was used.

- To ensure the users can never take their money back from the ATM, we decided to attach two additional pieces of foam board onto the paper bill. Accordingly, when the wheel sends out the money to the front side of the machine, it will stop getting further forward as long as it reaches the long foam board "bridge." As a result, this little mechanical trick allows us to simultaneously regulate the paper bill's movement tolerance (i.e. maximum moving distance) while safeguarding the bill from being forcefully withdrawn by the users (even though they are essentially the owner of the money).

Therefore, this safety mechanism will essentially reveal the hidden MOTTO driven behind our untouchable ATM...

...

"YOUR money is OUR money; OUR money is MY money"

...

You can further expand the symbolic universality of this already useless ATM by simply replacing the paper bill and the government bond with other currency, hand-drawn (fake) currency, or whatever you like.

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Possible Combinations (And Resulting Power Relationship):

i.) Nation "A" Dollar Bill vs Nation "A" Gov. Bond = Signifies an "Internal (credit system)" problem
[Struggle between government and citizen]

ii.) Nation "A" Dollar Bill vs Nation "R" Dollar Bill = Signifies an "External (foreign exchange)" problem
[Struggle between different governments]

iii.) Nation "A" Dollar Bill vs FAKE (Hand-Drawn) Dollar Bill = Signifies a "Personal" problem
[Struggle between individual and reality]

iv.) Whatever "A" vs Whatever "B" = Signifies a "Metaphysical" problem
[Struggle between a concept and another concept]

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The interchangeable nature of the ATM's output parameters allows the machine to adapt itself into different social and political circumstances, or even serve as a parable that triggers a philosophical meditation and discussion (i.e. expectation and reality; unequal value exchange).

Anyway, thank you for watching and hope you can discovering more BIG ideas behind USELESS machine!

-THE END-