Personal Expression & Wearable Technology

Final Finally...

2007-04-25T06:38:00.000-07:00

So i'm finally getting around to updating my blog. I've been working on my final for a while now, hitting snags readjusting and continuing on and such. As I began production I borrowed a qprox or two to see if the touch sensor would provide the desired output. I was able to get the qprox working...
Then my thoughts went to minimizing materials to maximize output (so I wouldn't have to wire 20 individual qprox sensors), thinking if I buy the 4 or 5 channel qprox then each region of the body can have a hub where the sensors extend to the different parts. I searched the sensor wiki to find qt140 the quantum website, where one is to purchase a qprox suggested the new version of the qt140 to be the qt240, so I ordered 5. When digikey finally delivered my package I opened it up to find cute little surface mount microscopic chips that fit on the tip of my pinky finger. Time to act fast...I can work with these, all I have to do is create a schematic and board in EAGLE layout editor and etch a copper clad board to mount the sensors. After learning a little bit of EAGLE I achieved
Alas I had yet to have the etching materials, the acid to etch, the time it takes to create these little boards...so I moved on with my life and back to the qt113 :)

Whew...tired yet? The story goes on...

The next step was to start building this multitude of qt113 circuits...These are the qproxs on perf board: This is a finished qprox wired with capacitors and wires to connect to arduino power and ground front and back:

I then built the entire circuit and created the code to load to the arduino board. The next couple pictures show that when the qprox is touched the LED reacts by turning off...

Yet again I run into another snag...sometimes things are more complicated then you thought they would be. I move on to program the Xbee...definitely not enough time for me to learn how to program the xbee for my device after all the other work i've been doing. I did attend the xbee workshop as a last attempt to get some quick tips in programming it; absolutely no way around reading the 70 page starter guide to then tailor the xbee to your own project. I did however learn how to wire up the xbee and assign the pan id :) (this then removes the need for a max patch to capture the beat because then the arduino would have to be wired to a computer) We'll save the rest for the next iteration...moving on...

The circuit now completed, I had to worry about the wearable factor and putting everything inside the suit. At wendy's awesome sewing and other junk tutorial I learned about this nifty tool called wire ribbon. She had yet to test it out on a wearable device, so I decided to give it a shot...and yes the wire in the ribbon does conduct and adds a little flair to your wearable...heres the ribbon in use:

Thanks to the wire ribbon I decided to use one side of the ribbon as power and the other as ground and run the entire ribbon through my suit to power the separate qproxs. Here is the ribbon sewn inside the suit:
I then sewed pockets for the qproxs (do we say qprie or qpri?) inside of the suit

Sewed a pocket for the arduino...attached the qprox power and ground to the wire ribbon, wired up the LEDs and put them into the suit, connected all the wires to arduino, connected the LEDs to ground on the wire ribbon and you have:

Do I have to spell it out for you? SUCCESS!!!!!

Next steps:

sew the wires down
connect a battery
wear it!

Lessons learned...make sure you understand the abbreviations when ordering chips, know what it takes to learn/understand/program the different technologies involved before committing yourself to it, don't procrastinate, have fun!

The story of my wearables life= soldering :/ So in conclusion...always continue to personally express yourself!

The design process

2007-03-01T15:18:00.000-08:00

After reading about the design process it makes me reevaluate how to approach my final project. I need to focus on time management and organization. Making an idea come to realization is the hardest part of the process in my eyes. The smaller projects helped me in the experimentation aspect of my process, as well as my first prototype.

Lately I have been questioning categorization in my work. I feel my final project is a combination of engineering, art, and design; yet how will people label the work. In the design process, the creation of the work and documentation will help define the piece. But do I want my step suit to become labeled as art? I think that placing a label on my work will create a limited view of the things I create, and I don't like that aspect of the process.

The final step of the design process is the finished product. If everything is done correctly, things will turn out as planned. In order to not repeat the same mistakes one must evaluate previous attempts and works of others. So document document document...

Please check out my website for documentation of my assignments: Wearable page

Video Surveillance

2007-02-08T12:45:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed the way Steve Mann tackled the problem of being forcefully recorded and monitored in stores. How we become more physically reliant on our electronic devices. It is interesting to see how wearable computing can be used in a variety of purposes.

Reflecting about the body and how it can be used in ways un-thought of is becoming a more daunting task everyday. Just thinking about my projects alone is a wonder how designers, researchers, artists, engineers develop their concepts/ideas. What is my purpose?

Final Project Ideas

2007-02-08T12:42:00.000-08:00

I would like to continue to work on a performance piece that will assist in the aspects of stepping. My idea is to create a suit that will record the stepping sequence from a series of touch sensors and wirelessly transmit this data to a computer. This suit will have the capabilities to record step sequences for the step master to remember to then be able to teach a team the newly created beats and rhythms, without having to stop and record every couple of steps. The suit could also be used in a performance to broadcast, based on the rhythm, a visual display from the sensor responses (sort of like the visualization in music players).

I plan to utilize zigbee radios for the wireless transmission of data within the suit. Some sort of touch sensors will be used to transmit hits from the various parts of the body. I have located approximately 20 various parts around the body that will incorporate the touch sensors. Some research has proven that there are various sensors that are potentially effective in this sort of design. MIT media lab has done many studies on interactive dance events with cheap sensors that can be given to everyone in the crowd to participate. I would like to investigate the use of piezo sensors in the construction of my suit. Conductive fabric will be the bond between the sensors to create the soft circuit.

Finally, I am creating this device out of my passion for stepping, and creatively finding new ways to express this art form. Many of my friends and associates continually perform and could find use for this sort of wearable device. This could also become utilized in other realms of performance, such as dance, deejaying, free-styling, singing, spoken word, etc. Old prototype: http://itp.nyu.edu/~anr249

*Step suit

- http://itp.nyu.edu/~raf275/blog/archives/2006/12/xbee_direct_io.html

- http://www.zigbee.org/en/certification/certified_products.asp

- http://www.media.mit.edu/resenv/GiveawaySensors/index.html

- record hits

- transmit data to be able to play beat back (rate of pulse/hits)

- Piezoelectric transducers

- http://www.uttermatter.com/sleeev/

- http://www.eleksen.com/?page=products/sen_index.asp

*Water

*Bra brand

- add extra cleavage

- add powder when moisture is detected

- nipple shield when excited at inopportune moments

Dress Codes, E-broidery & Assignment 2

2007-02-05T12:23:00.000-08:00

In the article Dress Codes, I found much of the research interesting. The certain way of dress that associates to self-restraint is surprisingly true. Where wearing a tie "pulls everything together" and a certain dress code helps employees exercise a certain restraint becomes familiar to me when thinking about previous jobs in the corporate workplace. I liked the idea of props that people use to enhance their self image and the associated behaviors that come with them. In this article the statement that mostly summarizes it is: "The most obvious means by which individuals show their acceptance of a social role and their awareness of the demands of the social situation is through their appearance."

The e-broidery publication was particularly important in my thought process of the design of assignment 2. Learning of the methods they used in exploring different types of conductive material was helpful in the creation of my hat (as was self trial and error). I like the musical jacket and how precise the stitching was held together in the keypad. The main concept I'd like to grasp from this article was the way in which each project they created had to be able to withstand numerous washes, and all in all become a regular piece of clothing in the individuals everyday wardrobe.

Here are a few pictures from my creation of the fan hat, which is a hat that is able to cool down a hot head while at the same time cool off those around you.

Talisman

2007-01-25T16:03:00.000-08:00

Welcome to PEWT, otherwise known as personal expression and wearable technology!

For my first assignment creating a talisman I created a doll by crocheting acrylic material and creating outfits for it. Some call it voodoo, some call it a hacky sac, and others just plain cute...but I call her AJ(Amber Jr.) after all she represents me ;) I will post my pictures in a couple of days.

While creating my doll though, I came across a video that really struck a nerve: http://www.komotv.com/home/video/5001856.html?video=YHI&t=a
It made me think about my yarn color choice, and brings up another discussion of ethnicity and heritage that will be explored in further projects.

In response to the 1st week of reading I agree with Mike's example of Andy's remark in The Devil Wears Prada...Just because you think you are going against the norm or trend, doesn't mean you aren't creating some sense of identity in your style, because no matter how you look at the clothing you wear, someone designed it and a lot of garments play off of each other. Even if you designed your own clothes, I think by just living in this society with everyday exposure to the media, community, culture; one assimilates to some style of dress. So unless you keep yourself hidden from society and any other view of the world living in a cave with the wild beasts consider your clothing in some realm of fad.

The portable environment caused me to think about functional clothing. Is it practical to say that just wearing our clothes is its functionality? Its interesting for me to examine the flow chart used in the infantry soldiers ensemble from 1988. This method and other methods bring me back to computer science classes where code is designed first through a sequence of steps or some sort of defined algorithm. With wearable computing I think this method is necessary in preparation for an article.

I am really excited for our next project...I am stuck on this idea of crocheting, so I was thinking of some sort of hat (and because I need a hat with left over yarn). I'll probably continue with this concept unless another idea dawns on me or the thumb on my right hand falls off, whichever comes first.