Concept
I was trying to make a shirt with a heart LED design that blinks rapidly and sounds off when it detects a loud noise. The initial idea came from how my sister likes to try and scare me for no reason when she’s bored. Sometimes when she gets me I panic for a couple seconds and I thought it would be fun to visualize that emotion with this project. When you panic, your heart rate jumps momentarily, so I wanted to visualize that with the rapid blinking when a loud noise sounds off. Personally I feel like panic can be associated with a siren so I wanted to add that element somehow when the loud noise occurred. While I was working on this assignment I was particularly inspired by the Wearable Façade project because of the way the shirt interacted the environment. I also inspired by the Mood Sweater project in which the user’s mood can cause the sweater to change colors.
Process, Diagram, Final Results
I put the process, diagrams, and final results in this google doc because some of the images were too big to upload directly on the blog post:
Parts list
- 6 LEDs
- Conductive Thread
- 6 Resistors
- Cloth
- Microcontroller
- USB wire
Reflections and Next Steps
This assignment was pretty difficult but it helped me learn a couple things to keep in mind for future assignments. For starters, I’m going to be more careful about choosing what materials to sew with. I’m also going to check more frequently that the circuit still works in-between stitches using alligator clips. For the next steps I’m going to work on getting better at stitches and getting more familiar with Make Code. I want to try the movement input features in one of the future assignments.
Resources and Related Works
Dan Howarth. (2014, October 15). Ger mood sweater by Sensoree indicates emotions with leds. Dezeen. Retrieved February 25, 2022, from https://www.dezeen.com/2014/10/16/sensoree-ger-mood-sweater-led-change-colour-emotions/
O’Nascimento, R. et al. (n.d.). Portfolio – Wearable Facade. POPKALAB. Retrieved February 25, 2022, from http://www.popkalab.com/portfolio/#wearable-facade
Hi Sylvia! I really like the idea of a Heart Panic shirt. I also love in your process that you drew out the circuit. If you would love to make the pen marks go away, I’d suggest you use dressmaking chalk or a specific pen that goes away under heat. You could easily find this at Michaels, or stores that sell fabrics! I also suggest being able to hide the lights, you could use a lighter fabric at the bottom instead of red? Light colours on light work very well!
Overall, it is an amazing idea, and I love how the circuit works!
Great work,
-Kathy