Author: Lily Cen

Concept:

   What I make is a glove that can emit light and sound. I put CPX on the wrist of the glove so that it won’t affect my normal hand movements (such as holding something). There are two unconnected spans of conductive lines at the bottom of the glove. When the two parts are disconnected, CPX will emit light. When I put on my bracelet, the two spans of conductive lines will be linked, and the light goes out completely until the circuit is disconnected again. Secondly, I also added an audio output. When the D7 button on CPX is turned on, the music will ring out. Because the bracelet will be tightly worn on the hand, there is no need to worry about the light trigger will be particularly sensitive. The connection between the two circuits will not be easily disconnected.

Objective:

  My idea of making this pair of night light gloves is very simple. It was completely stimulated by the long winter in Canada. I used to live in Mississauga, and at night the lights on the street were dim. It was even a power failure that occurred one winter in the whole street due to a blizzard. I can actually turn on the flashlight in my mobile phone, but it’s really cold to hold my mobile phone in my hand all the time (even if I take gloves, but to unlock my mobile phone, I still have to take off my gloves). Secondly, my mobile phone is often frozen to the point of turning it off. So I want to make a glove that can be used for lighting, simultaneously keeping my hands warm. Besides, there is also a very important reason, that is, I am deeply influenced by some movies and animation. I think that emitting lighting from hands is a very cool thing, and having a sense of future technology. Of course, I always try to add more functions to my product. The purpose of adding audio is to improve the safety of people walking alone at night. When I write the code, I try to make the music longer and the volume higher. Once someone is in danger, turn on the switch immediately. The sudden sound may make the other person shake his mind. You can take the opportunity to escape. If you are lucky, you can also attract other people to help you. Of course, this is only a rare case. The trigger of “lighting” and “alarm” functions are two completely different switches, so don’t worry that you will walk on the street and suddenly CPX will give an alarm to scare other people.

Process

<concept drawings>

<Process work>

I forgot to take pictures, so I drew a step diagram.

1. First, sew CPX on the gloves with black cotton thread
2. Connect pin A1 and two resistors with conductive thread and sew a row of lines on the bottom of the glove. Then start at Pin 3.3V and sew to the bottom, leaving a row of lines.
3. Finally, cover the Cpx and resistor with black stockings, leaving the bottom two spans of lines exposed.

Final project image

<Audio output video>https://youtu.be/KYT7EAiJjg8

<Light output video>https://youtu.be/GC374vDwlJo

Parts List

• Gloves
• Conductive thread
• Non-conductive thread
• Two 220 Ohm resistors
• CPX
• Black silk stockings
• Bracelet
• Needles

Circuit Diagram

Reflections & Next Steps

Although “lighting” and “alarm” two functions have been realized in my final work, they can still be improved in some ways. First of all, about the “lighting” function, I set the disconnection circuit to be “on” and the connection circuit to be “off”. However, this seems to be contrary to everyone’s habit. To be honest, I tried to set “disconnect the circuit = turn off the light”, and “connect the circuit = turn on the light”. However, there is a big problem: once the circuit is connected, the light will remain activated. Even if the circuit is disconnected, the light will only flash and will not be completely turned off. I think the most important character of “flashlight” is that it must be able to be completely controlled by people with its “on/off” status, so I finally chose the setting of “disconnection = light on, connection = light off” to ensure practicality. The second problem is that I choose to use black stockings to cover the exposed CPX, but it greatly reduces the brightness of the light. To improve my design, I think I should choose another material with strong penetration to cover CPX. After all, “lighting” is the core concept of my design.

Resources & Related Works

“moov now”.(n.d) Retrieved from https://www.designboom.com/design/moov-now-wearable-device-07-23-2015/

Prior. O (n.d) Galvanic Skin Response Workshop.

Pulse jacket. ( 2014, January 17)Retrieved from http://www.grunick.com/pulse-jacket/

Knuckle Lights. (n.d) Retrieved from

https://knucklelights.com/pages/knuckle-lights-one

 

 

• Try a medium that softens the light–Water

• DIY Pressure switch

• DIY Capacitive Sensor and Expansion of the pressure switch 

• Mouse pad pressure switch

 

Journal #1

Try a medium that softens the light–Water

In my first journal post, I want to share the code I learned in the Adafruit tutorial. The name of the tutorial is “night light”, which can make all the light bulbs on the CPX emit strong light. In my previous works, I think the light on the CPX is too bright for human eyes, so in my future works, I prefer to let the light shine through some media to soften the light. The medium I want to try first is water. I would like to explore how different colours of light refracting through the water. I chose six colours in this experiment: red, green, blue, purple, lavender, and light pink.

I found that the light of higher lightness colours (red, green, blue) usually only have the colour of the light itself, while the light of lower lightness colours (light pink, lavender and purple) will reflect their own colour and the colour of the rainbow. Usually, the shape of shadow refracted by water is uncertain. For my design in the future, we can use this kind of changeable shadow to add a gorgeous effect to the work, and the brightness is basically softer than the light bulb on the microcontroller.

Journal #2

DIY Pressure switch

In my second journal, I want to share my experience of making a pressure sensor. You can control the brightness of the light by pressing the pressure sensor with different intensities. The tutorial on the pressure sensor is from the workshop of week 6.

Reflection：Although the method of making this pressure sensor is very simple, I feel very excited about the success of my first attempt. In the later design, I can make pressure sensors into different shapes, and even hide them in clothes.

Here is the link to the code: https://makecode.adafruit.com/23126-16984-73527-63155 (Links to an external site.)

Reference:

Week 6 Variable Resistors Workshop

SocialBodyLab. “How to Make an E-Textile Analog Sensor.” YouTube, YouTube, 29 May 2020,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA37mGEnPes (Links to an external site.)

Journal #3

DIY Capacitive Sensor and Expansion of the pressure switch

In my third journal, I want to share the process of making a capacitive sensor. In CPX, from pin A1 to pin A7 can sense capacitive touch, so I connected pin A1 to a piece of conductive fabric by conductive thread.

First, fix CPX on the non-conductive fabric with cotton thread, then place a piece of conductive cloth near pin A1. Connecting pin A1 and conductive fabric with conductive thread. Touching the conductive wires on the conductive fabric can trigger CPX light animation.

I also want to share the process of controlling LED with a pressure sensor. In journal 2, I shared the process of using a pressure sensor to control CPX animation, then I attempted to use this sensor to control LED.  When I touch the wire with my hand, the light bulb will light up. Then I connected the sensor, and the light bulb changed its brightness as I pressed it.

Journal #4

Mouse pad pressure switch

In my fourth journal, I want to share the process of making my mouse pad into a pressure sensor. As long as I put the mouse on the mouse pad, the animation will be triggered.

Below are the pictures for the process

here are the circuit diagram and the code

 

 

 

 

Concept: “Warm company” is a scarf that can shine at night. It usually looks like the same as ordinary scarves, but once people wrap their mouths with it, it will emit yellow light when they feel the heat exhaled by people.

Objective： My wearable is inspired by the feeling of “loneliness”. When I walk alone on a snowy night in Toronto and see couples or a group of friends walking together on the street, sometimes I feel very lonely. I think there are many people like me who choose to walk home quietly after work or after a party. Although I don’t always have the idea of “I’m lonely by myself”, once I do, I often feel depressed all night. So my wearable is to bring a little comfort to everyone who has to walk alone at this time. Whenever they look down, they can see their scarves glowing yellow. Hope that on every cold night, even if there is no one beside them, these warm lights can always accompany them.

process:

I got an electric shock the first time I tried. I was scared.

On the second try, the circuit was improved and safe.

 

final project image:

Parts List:

• scarf
• needles
• pen
• switch
• conductive lines
• scissor
• LEDs
• cardboard

Circuit Diagram:

Reflections & Next Steps:

This assignment is like a demo of my designed wearable. It seems that my design is feasible. I only connected five light bulbs on one side of the scarf in this assignment, but I may connect more light bulbs in the future which are enough to circle around the bottom of the scarf. In addition, a heat sensor needs to be installed on the top of the scarf, that is, the side close to the neck, to meet my original design idea of turning on the light bulb by sensing the heat emitted by people’s breathing.

 

Reference:

Prior, O. & Yoyo (2021). Digital Switches & Buttons Overview [Online Lecture]. Retrieved from https://canvascloud.ocadu.ca/courses/1271/pages/digital-switches-and-buttons-overview-20-minutes?module_item_id=113950

Concept: My wearable is a black mini earring that can detect how long you’re watching the screen with the blue laser emitted by the screen. Once it’s over 3 hours, the device will make a slight sound to remind you that you should give your eyes and body a break. You just need to press the glass gently to stop the sound.

Objective: My wearable is meant to remind people balancing their work time and rest time reasonably. Even if our work and study situation forces us to use computers for long periods  every day, we should stay away from electronic devices for a while. This is to protect our physical health, especially the eyes’ health. In addition, sometimes we feel tired but embarrassed to say it to others. The sound of the earring will make others realize that you have been working for a long time, you need a rest.

Drawings:

          

Material Mood Board:

Similar Works:

I found two institutions that focus on people’s health and medical care.

1. Sensely APP(2020): Sensely’s avatar and chatbot-based platforms assist insurance plan members and patients with the insurance services and healthcare resources they need, when they need it.Sensely – Apps on Google Play
2. AiCure：AiCure uses an easy-to-use, proprietary AI platform to directly engage and provide support to patients via smartphones to deliver meaningful, high-quality data around patient behavior.AiCure – The link between patients, disease and treatment.