Tech Art Project – Puzzle of Secrets

As part of the Tech Art course, we were tasked with creating an interactive art piece, which made use of some sort of technology, hence Tech Art. Our art installation for this exhibition focused on the various layers of a person and the similarities between people and puzzle boxes. As you get you know a person, you learn more and more of their secrets, just as the more you solve a puzzle box, the more secrets you find. Our installation allows for users to write and share valuable advice inside the first box and then their secrets inside the inside box. These boxes where both locked until a puzzle was solved. The first comprised of a simple riddle, while the second required some decryption of morse and binary codes.

I contributed towards designing the laser cut box, the 3D printed parts, writing the code and building the electronics. My teammates focused more on building the pedestal and the decoration of the installation. The installing adding integration was done as a team. The design work was completed in SolidWorks, while the code and electronics was done using an Arduino. The 3D print, laser cut and code files can be viewed on GitHub.

Lock Mechanism

The puzzle box needed to be able to be locked and then opened once the password was entered. As such, a simple deadbolt style lock was created using SolidWorks and then 3D printed. The lock was controlled using a servo motor. The image below showcases the lock mechanism CAD:

Laser Cut Puzzle Box

The main container of the puzzle box was created using laser cut parts, which allowed for rapid prototyping. It was first designed in SolidWorks and then exported into a .dxf file which was used to laser cut the necessary parts. The below images highlight all the parts split between laser cut sheets, a .dxf file for one plywood sheet, and the final puzzle box after it has been fully painted and assembled.



Code & Electronics

The electronics used in this project are Arduino Uno, LCD Screen, LED Strips, Limit Switches, Rocker Switches, and Servo Motors. The LCD screen provided prompts to the user on when to enter the password and if the lock was opened. The rocker switches were used as a form of input from the user, while the limit switches were used to detect if the box was closed so that it can be relocked using the servo motors. The LED strips were used in the second puzzle, where one aspect of it included decoding morse code. This can be seen in the GIF below. Lastly, the Uno was used to the run the code, which can be found on GitHub.