Project Journal

D.O.M.E.: My Experience Building the Hardware.

This project started as a sci-fi class challenge and became one of the most meaningful builds I have worked on. I was responsible for the full hardware side of D.O.M.E., from electronics setup to making sure everything worked reliably during the final exhibition.

Year: 2025 Course: Designing Novel Interaction Role: Hardware Implementation Outcome: Competition Winner

I. The Start

In our Designing Novel Interaction subject, we were asked to build something truly new. We imagined D.O.M.E. as a future habitat where people could control weather, sky, and time-of-day from a physical dome. Very early, I knew my contribution would be on the hardware side: turning this idea into something people could actually touch, rotate, press, and experience in real time.

Close-up of early illuminated D.O.M.E. prototype city model — Our early prototype vision, before we moved into intense build and testing.

II. Teamwork and Role Split

We worked as a team, but my ownership was clear: all electronics and hardware integration inside D.O.M.E. I handled the controllers, sensors, switches, power, and wiring so the system could respond smoothly to physical interaction.

My mindset throughout the project was simple: if the hardware is unstable, the user experience breaks.

D.O.M.E. team building together — Build sessions where ideas met practical hardware constraints.

III. Hardware Architecture Decisions

The final setup used two ESP32 boards. One inside the dome handled rotation and push interactions through a gyroscope and tactile input. The second handled city lighting and physical toggle controls for weather and sky modes. I designed the wiring and structure so it could be tested repeatedly, fixed quickly, and survive exhibition conditions.

Rotation changed day/night behavior.
Push plus rotation changed seasonal states.
Physical toggles controlled rain, snow, and sky themes.
Hardware signals synced with Unity so physical actions matched visuals immediately.

Dual ESP32 setup Gyroscope + tactile input Weather and sky toggles

D.O.M.E. technical build and integration — Hardware iteration phase focused on stability and repeatability.

IV. Integration and Debugging

The hardest part was integration. It was not enough for each part to work alone; everything had to work together consistently. I spent a lot of time tuning sensor behavior, reducing noisy input, and checking communication between hardware and Unity until interactions felt natural.

In our paper and exhibition testing, every core system interaction passed functional checks. User feedback was also strong, which gave us confidence that the interface was intuitive, not just technically working.

D.O.M.E. prototype shown during exhibition — Exhibition-ready setup where hardware reliability mattered most.

V. Exhibition and Recognition

Competition and Showcase Recognition

D.O.M.E. was showcased as part of Melbourne Design Week in the Cybernetic Futures Showcase, presented by the School of Computing and Information Systems at The University of Melbourne. The exhibition brought together 50+ science-fiction inspired working prototypes from board games to XR experiences exploring our future relationship with technology.

Presenting D.O.M.E. to a public audience was the most rewarding moment of the project. Receiving the Community Choice award at the showcase validated months of hardware work behind the scenes wiring, testing, fixing, and preparing the system for real-world use.

D.O.M.E. now lives on as an installation at Melbourne Connect Level 5, where visitors can experience the dome, its sensors, and lighting system as a tangible glimpse into speculative off-world habitats.

EXHIBITION · CYBERNETIC FUTURES SHOWCASE (MELBOURNE DESIGN WEEK) AWARD · COMMUNITY CHOICE

Recognition night for D.O.M.E. — A proud moment after months of collaborative design and hardware work.

VI. Reflection

D.O.M.E. taught me that great concepts only become meaningful when implementation is dependable. Owning the hardware side pushed me to think beyond parts and circuits, and focus on how people actually feel when they interact with a system, as part of the ‘Designing Novel Interactions’ (INFO90003) subject led by Dr Adélaïde Genay and Mel Huang Buntine.

If I build the next version, I would improve portability, simplify maintenance, and expand the system for richer environmental effects. But the biggest lesson stays the same: reliable hardware creates trust in the whole experience.

I’m grateful to my teammates Najih Azkalhaq, Kevin Bryan and Jing Li, and to our mentors Adélaïde Genay, Mel Huang, and Jian Zhang, whose guidance and support were essential in turning a sci-fi classroom idea into a working installation.

VII. Watch D.O.M.E. in Action

This short demo showcases the complete D.O.M.E. experience, including both software intelligence and hardware interaction working together in real time.