Images

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:

Click Here

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

 

 

 

The Concept

The chosen emotion for this project is Fear.
Different people feel fear for different things. I know that the feeling of fear and anxiety increases when being in a very dark environment and is often due to a lack of clarity of my surroundings. When people find themselves lost in a dark space, even a single point of light, such as an emergency exit sign or the distanced moonlight, would help make sense of the space and provide confidence to navigate the environment.

 

Project Objective

The Clarity Scarf provides comfort and visibility while being in dark environments.
The scarf is made with soft fabric that protects the user’s neck. It increases visibility in the dark by using light-sensitive neon pixels located on one end of the scarf. When wearing, the neon pixels should be positioned near the wearer’s chest, facing front, and designed to be used as a mini flashlight that constantly adjusts its brightness based on the surrounding lighting.

 

The Ideation

The concept of this project emerged from the self-led ideation session instructed by Olivia, which generated interesting results. One of my favourite ideas from this session is a scarf that will shine when it is dark. I initially named it the Starlight Scarf, which includes a light sensor and will emit starlight when there is minimal light pollution.

After a failing attempt to connect the LED light strip meant to create the starlight effect. I moved on and modified this concept with my second favourite idea, The Clarity Neckless, and renamed it The Clarity Scarf.

 

Project Reflection

This project helped me understand how to build a working circuit on fabrics and textiles using soft, conducted materials like conductive thread and fabric. By learning how to use the brightness level received by the photoresistor as a reference to control and create different light patterns and colours on fabric, this assignment helped me gain a basic knowledge of crafting and programming wearable electronics.

If more time is allowed, some improvements I would be focusing on include, for one, moving the light sensor to another location that is better exposed to the surrounding light as shades of the fabric currently block it due to poor planning decisions; Secondly, I would make the position of the light source lower as it is closer to the user’s face which may cause discomfort to the eyes.

 

Part List

• Microcontroller (CPX) X1
• Photoresistor X1
• Mini power bank X1
• Micro-USB cable X1
• Conductive tread
• Regular thread

 

 

 

 

Concept:

My work is called “Bunny communication headband” This is a hairband with rabbit ears.  The use of this device is very simple, when using the rabbit ear to fold down (external switch), and two different colors will be displayed on both sides. In the process of chatting with others, if the right ear is folded off, the hat will light up pink, which means that you feel very comfortable when talking with each other and are very interested in the topic of communication. When the conversation friends see this color, they can continue to communicate. However, when the left ear is folded off, the hat will turn blue, which means that the mood is very calm at this time. The user is not interested in the dialogue, the people that see this light can change the content of the topic after seeing this message.

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Objective: 

In fact, this work is intended to help people who can’t express their ideas freely in the social process. In life, we are always embarrassed to say what we think. We are afraid that others will be hurt by our words, and this hairband can solve this problem. Let users or users’ communication objects better carry out effective and comfortable communication processes.

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Process: 

First of all, I used the only hairband at home and wanted to refit it into a wearable object. I did a sketch painting.

The initial idea was that the left and right ears glowed, but I felt that I needed a flexible and lovely feeling, so I changed the device to put it in the hat.

 

 

 

 

 

after testing, I start sewing.

 

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final project images

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Parts list
Circuit Playground Express
Conductive fabric
cotton
scissors
Scarf
Glue gun
Needle and thread
Wool felt
magnetic tape
Conductive thread

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circuit diagram

 

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Reflection and next step
In this assessment, I think it is very difficult to turn ideas into reality. For example, the placement or size setting of parts is very important for the production of works and also how to cover the conductive thread. I think more accurate marking and careful arrangement of work details are what I lack in this assignment. During the whole production process, I felt that I didn’t completely turn my ideas into reality, which made me a little sorry. In the next learning process, I will make more preparations and spend more time studying the details of each production. Especially when I have ideas but have no ability, the positive inquiry is what I need to do next. Generally speaking, this work gives me a new understanding of wearable art. I enjoy the production process very much.

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Resources and related work
Kate Hartman: The Art of Wearable Communication – YouTube. (n.d.). Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7ui-iAp8Pc

 

Anne Trafton | MIT News Office. (n.d.). A wearable sensor to help ALS patients communicate. MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://news.mit.edu/2020/sensor-als-communicate-1022

Wigmore, I. (2019, January 30). What is wearable technology? – definition from whatis.com\\\\\\\\\\\\\. SearchMobileComputing. Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://www.techtarget.com/searchmobilecomputing/definition/wearable-technology

 

Hachisu, T., Pan, Y., Matsuda, S., Bourreau, B., & Suzuki, K. (2018, June 28). facelooks: A smart headband for signaling face-to-face behavior. Sensors (Basel, Switzerland). Retrieved February 25, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6068478/