Researchable Questions:

What role can textiles and interiors play in informing us about exterior conditions?

Goal:

To create a series of textiles that are augmented by exterior conditions like weather or temperature.

Overview:

Through the used of thermochromic dyed textiles in conjunction with a microcontroler we hope to create a series of textile samples that can respond to outside data like weather and temperature. The investigation  of interiors objects like funiture responding to outside conditions will create an interesting juxtaposition. An example of this could be a sofa that’s color becomes warmer (yellow, orange and red) as the temperature outside drops.

The use of the microcontorler coupled with different patterns and structures of knit and woven samples will allow us to map different buckets of data to changes in the patterns and colors.

Here is our previous experiments in this area.

Proposal:

ThermochromicYarnAndKnitStructures_preposal

So for final project, taking up where I left off in my first assignment when I attempted to create conductive paper out of metal-filled polymers (fail!) I now want to create a conductive wallpaper in which the circuit is ‘printed’ into a tessellation geometry, either using conductive ink cartridges in an inkjet printer, or in the paper pulp itself.

Here is my  Final Interface Project as a slideshow movie.

Create a cheap, simple, and reproducible multiple-sensor platform for sensing plants in an indoor setting—a ‘kit’ of sorts, though modularity will be of secondary concern to ease-of-use and functionality. Ideally, the system could be assembled by people without prior electronics or programming expertise, students in particular.

The target materials are papers and fabrics. They are easy to use and can take many forms. Fabrics have already proven to be an effective substrate for cultivating plants hydroponically, and paper shares many of the same qualities. Such ‘soft’ materials offer good material durability, as well as resistance to moisture. Ideally, each sensing ‘unit’ would provide consistent and easily-portable outputs to a larger sensor-monitoring system that could both collect data and provide meaningful, real-time feedback. Whether or not such feedback would be incorporated into each ‘unit’ is an impending design decision.

Beyond the standard set of physical metrics—moisture, light, etc—the sensor system should encourage human interaction with the plantings. The goal is not to automate the administration of the garden, but to encourage interaction, learning, and engagement.

There will be an emphasis on exploring a broader plant sensor space, beyond the conventional survival metrics—moisture, light, nutrients, etc.—to encourage interaction with the plantings. The goal is not to automate the administration of the garden.

There are a number of projects in this space—and they are proliferating rapidly.

Telegarden. A web-enabled robotic arm allows users can tend to a garden over the internet from a number of years ago. http://www.usc.edu/dept/garden/

Botanicalls. An internet-enabled moisture sensor. Built using custom components—prohibitively expensive. http://www.botanicalls.com/

Garduino. An Arduino-based garden automation system. http://garduino.dirtnail.com/

Gardenbot. Another Arduino-based growing system. http://gardenbot.org/.

There are also designs for DIY computerized grow-boxes out there,  here, as well as experiments with low-cost soil sensors.

Indoor Gardening Walls

A commercialized felt growing-system looks like a great template for a modular system: http://www.plantsonwalls.com/Default.asp

Hydroponic Growing Systems

Integrated watering systems for indoor gardening and winter seed-sprouting.

Timeline

November 15. Finalize sensor-set & explore various novel     sensing modes. Read some literatures.

November 22. Get some working sensors going.

November 29. Experiment with various materials and form-factors: textile, paper, clay.

December 6. Build sensor array prototype. Play with plants.

December 13. Scale up. Make everything work. Party.

Final Project Presentation

Final Project Presentation

For the final project, we’re planning a wearable vest that registers and actuates based on the inhalation and exhalation of breath in the wearer. Our “Breathe” jacket is imagined as an inversion of typical protective gear—for example, a bullet-proof vest. “Breathe” externalizes an interior system by sensing and registering the pattern of inhale and exhale in the wearer via stretch sensors; the jacket then actuates this data in light patterns. Rather than shield its wearer from harm, “Breathe” points back toward the body and its idiosyncracy, rhythmic reliability and frailty at once.

First, here are some precedent projects that are interesting to consider when looking at the range of breathing-apparatus wearables. Some draw from the wearer’s breath itself; others traffic in “breath” as a metaphor or conceptual source  for other data.

Synne Geirsdatter Frydenberg’s LEDPneuma dress. This is the most obvious connection to our own project, and there are nice construction choices here.

DetectAir: A garment that senses air quality. From the Fashioning Technology profile:

Designed by Industrial design students Genevieve Mateyko and Pamela Troyer at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, the vest contains sensors that detect the ambient air quality and displays the data on the garment itself by illuminating a pattern of embedded LEDs across the chest.

Dan O’Sullivan’s Breath-Sensing Bra measures breath changes and temperature as well.

Jessica Floeh’s ExChange is a networked-breath project, wherein one wearer’s breath is registered and actuated by a partner’s breath-apparatus as well.

Ying Gao’s Living Pod and Walking City are garments that themselves seem to breathe—they operate irrespective of the wearer’s breath, but their response to light or wind makes their constituent parts seem to inhale and exhale, pulse with life. (Relevant footage starting at about 4:45.)

Anna Salmi’s “Aer” project. This is another spot-on precedent for our project; the garment registers the breath of the wearer and augments its changes with auditory signals. (Alas, no video for this anywhere, but here’s a link to her thesis pdf.)

And this is Pedro Andrade and Martina Pagura’s W ¦ Air. According to the Ecouterre profile, it’s “an oxygen-filtering breathing ‘necklace’ that removes carbon dioxide from the air, stores it in a battery-like device, and then converts it into electricity for later use.”

So, as expected, there are precedents. But what else could this kind of project be about? The act of breathing made visible carries with it poetic valences that could be emphasized and played with via actuators. What kind of garment would create a metaphor, some kind of meaning or exchange between those wearing it and those watching the (performative) wearer? It would be something that could be donned by anyone, in a public environment, and experienced. We’re thinking of a dialogue with other kinds of technologies:

Like this exoskeleton technology from Berkeley Bionics, which is making walking possible for paraplegics. The exoskeleton creates an armature for walking that fits around the body; it externalizes all the mechanisms for walking with high-tech materials, rather than trying to address an injury from its internal locus in the spine. This kind of machinery seems to register the future for all kinds prosthetics, and the advances in the field are astounding.

The exoskeleton is also being explored for use in tactical military gear, part of a larger set of plans for the U.S. military’s Future Force Warrior:

In this design, the exoskeleton amplifies an abled-walker’s power by up to ten times ordinary capacity. We’re interested in the exoskeleton, and in the other kinds of armature of a military nature, for their expressions of power—their networked shielding capacity that seem to make the body irrelevant or inconvenient:

Again, these technologies work to conceal and shield bodily systems for the purposes of combat. But what would an exoskeleton with a different challenge look like? What would be the reaction to an externalized wearable breathing apparatus on the public street? This is what we’re setting out to make and test.

It’s inspiring to look at Takehito Etani’s Masticator, a pig-skin and bones creation that externalizes the act of chewing and, thereby, the visceral and often embarrassing facts of bodily function. How might technologies point us back to the body, rather than hiding it away?

We’re going to use stretch-sensing rubber to measure the intake of breath, and use that register to then actuate a responsive wearable vest or jacket.

We’re acquiring some of this SkinBag material: a stretchy, sewable polymer that simulates human flesh…

…and can be molded and used in a number of different forms:

Here’s a first sketch for our design: a shell beneath, with a stretch panel for the sensor, circuitry, and connections to actuator lights:

And we may be able to benefit from the research of Anna Salmi in creating some elegant use of stretch rubber for the sensor-circuit construction:

(These images are from Salmi’s thesis project paper, PDF for which is linked here.)

What is Wall Sense?

Wall Sense is a project that I have been think about since Spring 2010.  I am seeking to make wallpaper / wall stickers / posters / anything that can be put up on a wall to be more interactive.  Using a system of sensors and actuators, I want these things to encourage participation from their users.

Why Wallpaper?

Wallpaper/posters/wall stickers are everywhere.  Therefore, they should be…

…Interactive

encourage an action from the user

perform some reaction engaging the human senses

…Entertaining

sound: play music

sight: shine light

scent: emit smells

touch: feel interesting

…Functional

burglar alarm

baby monitor

What already makes wallpaper exciting?

• Fathead Stickers: live-size to gigantic stickers for walls

www.fathead.com

• 3D Wallpaper: Swedish designers Hanna Nyman and Kicki Edgren Nyborg have created eye-popping wallpaper

off-the-wall-interactive-wallpaper-by-kicki-edgren-nyborg-101916

3d-wallpaper-for-that-extra-pop-to-your-room

• Living Wall: The High-Low Tech Group have created a living wall using conductive & magnetic paint and paper electronics

watch?v=r9j8DIHXSKA

Click “Here” to download PDF presentation file (Movies were removed because of the max file size)

 

   The Modular Pneu-Façade System(MPFS) is a kinetic façade system that investigates the intersection between biologically inspired design, smart technology, and architectural façade system. The key characteristics of biological design (modularity, robustness, kinetic proofreading, and hierarchical design) is juxtaposed with smart technology and system (material, sensor, actuation, and control) in order to create a dynamic façade system that respond and interact with its environment.

   Inspired by the hydro skeletons and muscular hydrostats in nature (e.g. elephant trunk, starfish, octopus arm, etc.), the combination of elastic material and pneumatic/ hydraulic actuation was studied as the kinetic system. Each modules of the system will have its own sensor, pneumatic valve, and kinetic variations which can be assembled into a larger system that can be connected to a single energy source (compression pump or tank). The modularity and robustness of the system will allow simple local sensor/ actuation response that create emergent behavior in the global system.

Modular Pneu-Facade system