New Textiles 2011 » Uncategorized

Magical Blanket. no more boundary between music and body movement

greatjudy — Mon, 16 May 2011 12:13:33 +0000

We are intrigued by the interaction between human and music. This project suggests a combination of body postures and generated acoustic effects.

For this final project, we created a blanket of matrix of 16 pressure sensors, each sensor consists of two pieces of conductive fabrics, with one piece of velostat and two layers of light net fabrics.

To connect the sensors, we used two set of parallel and perpendicular conductive threads, and using one diode for each of the sensor. As a result, we used only 4 analogue input to read the numbers of the whole matrix. The design of the blanket is inspired from traditional Chinese paper-cut of zodiac and Polish woodcut. To construct cover layer, we used the white canvas as the base. We glued them first with iron and sewed them around with sewing machine. For those patterns, we laser cut the red cotton fabric and glued them on top of the white canvas.

For the processing, many improvements could be done. For this version, we tried sound and to create different pitches with the sensor. We used Promide library to process the data from the sensors and transform it into different set of sound track with different wavelength( pitch).We used a midi machine connected to computer and created sound of various musical instruments and electric effects. To visualize it, we created several circles based on the position of the sensor, its diameter is based on the data from the sensor, that means the higher pressure it receives, the strong the signal it produces, the bigger it is.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HReYU7DG5MY

Code 1:

import processing.serial.*;
import promidi.*;
Sequencer sequencer;
Serial myPort; // The serial port

//variables for collecting and storing information
int ARRAYX = 4;
int ARRAYY = 4;
int [][] sensorArray = new int[ARRAYX][ARRAYY];
//variables for drawing information on the screen
int [][] volArray = new int[ARRAYX][ARRAYY];
int spacing = 100;
PFont font;

Track track;
MidiIO midiIO;
MidiOut test;

void setup () {
//set the window size:
size(400, 400);
//initialize the font variables
//background(255);
// font = loadFont(“Interstate-Bold-12.vlw”);
//textFont(font);

// list all the available serial ports
println(Serial.list());
// open the appropriate port
myPort = new Serial(this, Serial.list()[2], 9600);
// don’t generate a serialEvent() until you get an exclamation mark character
myPort.bufferUntil(‘!’);
// set inital background:
sequencer = new Sequencer();
//MidiIO
midiIO = MidiIO.getInstance();
midiIO.printDevices();
midiIO.closeOutput(1);
//MidiOut
test = midiIO.getMidiOut(1,3);

test.sendProgramChange(new ProgramChange(20));
//Track
track = new Track(“one”, test);
track.setQuantization(Q._1_32);
}

void draw () {

background(255);
//loop through the array
for (int i=0;i {
for (int j=0;j {
//calculate the position for each entry so that print out is approximately centered onscreen
int xPosition = width/2-((ARRAYX-1)*spacing/2)+j*spacing;
int yPosition = height/2-((ARRAYY-1)*spacing/2)+i*spacing;
//draw the array entries on the screen
// text(sensorArray[i][j], xPosition, yPosition);

// noFill();
smooth();
stroke(255,55);
ellipse(xPosition,yPosition, sensorArray[i][j]/20, sensorArray[i][j]/20);

}
}
drawCircles();
}

void serialEvent (Serial myPort) {
//store a batch of data into variable “inString”
//batches are separated by exclamation mark characters
String inString = myPort.readStringUntil(‘!’);
//split the data into rows (rows separated by new line characters)
String[] incomingArrayRows = splitTokens(inString, “\n”);
//loop through all of the rows
for (int i=0;i {
//split each row into entries (entries separated by tab characters)
String[] incomingArrayEntries = splitTokens(incomingArrayRows[i], “\t”);
//loop through all of these entries
for (int j=0;j {
//store entries in the “sensorArray” variable
sensorArray[i][j]=int(incomingArrayEntries[j]);
//print the entries to the terminal, separated by tab characters
print(sensorArray[i][j]);
print(‘\t’);
}
//print a new line after each row
println();
}
//print a new line after each batch of data
println();
makesound();

}

void drawCircles()
{

for(int i=0;i {
for(int j=0;j {
//
if (sensorArray[i][j]>500)
{
//calculate the position for each entry so that print out is approximately centered onscreen
int xPosition = width/2-((ARRAYX-1)*spacing/2)+j*spacing;
int yPosition = height/2-((ARRAYY-1)*spacing/2)+i*spacing;

delay(20);
noStroke();
smooth();
fill(#AF0000, 50);
ellipse(xPosition,yPosition, sensorArray[i][j]/5, sensorArray[i][j]/5);
}
}
}
}
void mousePressed(){
if(mouseButton == LEFT) {
makesound();
sequencer.start();
}
else sequencer.stop();

}

boolean flag = false;

void makesound()
{
for(int i=0;i {
for(int j=0;j {
if (sensorArray[i][j]>300)
{
//volArray[i][j] = int (sensorArray[i][j]/1024*127);
volArray[i][j] = 127;
}
else
volArray[i][j] = 0;
}}

track.addEvent(new Note(60, volArray[0][0],40), 0);
track.addEvent(new Note(60, 0,40), 1);
track.addEvent(new Note(62, volArray[0][1],40), 2);
track.addEvent(new Note(62, 0,40), 3);
track.addEvent(new Note(64, volArray[0][2],40), 4);
track.addEvent(new Note(64, 0,40), 5);
track.addEvent(new Note(65, volArray[0][3],40), 6);
track.addEvent(new Note(65, 0,40), 7);
track.addEvent(new Note(67, volArray[1][0],40), 8);
track.addEvent(new Note(67, 0,40), 9);
track.addEvent(new Note(69, volArray[1][1],40), 10);
track.addEvent(new Note(69, 0,40), 11);
track.addEvent(new Note(71, volArray[1][2],40), 12);
track.addEvent(new Note(71, 0,40), 13);
track.addEvent(new Note(72, volArray[1][3],40), 14);
track.addEvent(new Note(72, 0,40), 15);
track.addEvent(new Note(74, volArray[2][0],40), 16);
track.addEvent(new Note(74, 0,40), 17);
track.addEvent(new Note(76, volArray[2][1],40), 18);
track.addEvent(new Note(76, 0,40), 19);
track.addEvent(new Note(77, volArray[2][2],40), 20);
track.addEvent(new Note(77, 0,40), 21);
track.addEvent(new Note(79, volArray[2][3],40), 22);
track.addEvent(new Note(79, 0,40), 23);
track.addEvent(new Note(81, volArray[3][0],40), 24);
track.addEvent(new Note(81, 0,40), 25);
track.addEvent(new Note(83, volArray[3][1],40), 26);
track.addEvent(new Note(83, 0,40), 27);
track.addEvent(new Note(84, volArray[3][2],40), 28);
track.addEvent(new Note(84, 0,40), 29);
track.addEvent(new Note(86, volArray[3][3],40), 30);
track.addEvent(new Note(86, 0,40), 31);

Song song = new Song(“test”, 100);
song.addTrack(track);
sequencer.setSong(song);
sequencer.setLoopStartPoint(0);
sequencer.setLoopEndPoint(512);
sequencer.setLoopCount(-1);

if(!flag){
sequencer.start();
flag = true;
}

}

Code 2:

import processing.serial.*;
import promidi.*;
Sequencer sequencer;
Serial myPort; // The serial port

Track track;
MidiIO midiIO;
MidiOut test;

void setup () {
//set the window size:
size(400, 400);
//initialize the font variables
//background(255);
// font = loadFont(“Interstate-Bold-12.vlw”);
//textFont(font);

test.sendProgramChange(new ProgramChange(20));
//Track
track = new Track(“one”, test);
track.setQuantization(Q._1_32);
}

void draw () {

// noFill();
smooth();
stroke(255,55);
ellipse(xPosition,yPosition, sensorArray[i][j]/20, sensorArray[i][j]/20);

}
}
drawCircles();
}

}

void drawCircles()
{

}

boolean flag = false;

void makesound()
{
//test.sendProgramChange(new ProgramChange(20));

for(int i=0;i {
for(int j=0;j {
if (sensorArray[i][j]>300)
{
//volArray[i][j] = int (sensorArray[i][j]/1024*127);
if(volArray[i][j] == 0){
volArray[i][j] = 127;
test.sendNote(new Note(i*4+j+60, 127, 1000));
}
}
else{
volArray[i][j] = 0;
test.sendNote(new Note(i*4+j+60, 0, 0));
}
}
}

Moving screen

denamolnar — Thu, 12 May 2011 01:22:15 +0000

The repeated elements of textile designs not only create a sense of rythm, but they can be quite mesmerizing. While they are capable of creating a sense of movement, in reality they are of often static. As a textile designer, I have always been interested in the idea of a textile that is capable of shifting in terms of pattern and or color. My final project attempts this goal.

To begin, I developed a test on paper. I painted a series of test pieces with thermo chromic paint that represented what would be stripes in the final design. I then sewed conductive thread through each piece. Using an Arduino and a motion sensor, I wrote a code that allowed for the stripes to be heated up and in turn change color sequentially when motion was detected.

Above is detail of the first stripe shifting in color.

Once I had the system worked out, I used a shear textile with a striped weft as the surface of the screen. I painted a layer of transparent gesso to make the surface slightly more rigid and suitable for painting on.

I experimented with different ways of applying a patterned layer of thermo chromic pigment, including making a template from a piece of the textile. For the template, I simply gessoed a piece of the shear material to a piece of card stock. Once it was dry, I cut out the striped shapes with an exacto knife. While I used the template, I also found it just as easy to paint directly onto the textile.

After I painted in some areas of the textile, I sewed conductive thread over the black striped weft and added the mosfets and conductive tape which would connect to a 12V AC adaptor, ground and output to the Arduino.

After some initial trial and error (and a failed attempt to get the prototype working during the final presentation)..success!

Arduino Code

AnalogReadSerial

Reads an analog input on pin 0, prints the result to the serial monitor

This example code is in the public domain.

int sensorold, sensornew;

int sensordif = 3;

boolean trigger;

void setup() {

pinMode(2, OUTPUT);

pinMode (6, OUTPUT);

pinMode (7, OUTPUT);

pinMode (13, OUTPUT);

digitalWrite(2, LOW);

digitalWrite(6, LOW);

digitalWrite(7, LOW);

digitalWrite(13, LOW);

sensorold = analogRead(A0);

sensornew = sensorold;

trigger = false;

Serial.begin(9600);

}

void loop() {

sensornew = analogRead(A0);

if (abs(sensornew – sensorold) > sensordif)

{

Serial.println(“trigger 2″);

digitalWrite(2, HIGH);

digitalWrite (13, HIGH);

// set the LED on

delay(1000);

// wait for a second

digitalWrite(2, LOW);

digitalWrite (13, LOW); // set the LED off

Serial.println(“off 2″);

delay(10000);

Serial.println(“trigger 6″);

digitalWrite (6, HIGH);

delay(1000);

Serial.println(“off 6″);

digitalWrite (6, LOW);

delay(10000);

Serial.println(“trigger 7″);

digitalWrite (7, HIGH);

delay(1000);

digitalWrite (7, LOW);

Serial.println(“off 7″);

delay(10000);

}

// Serial.println(sensorValue, DEC);

}

/* AnalogReadSerial Reads an analog input on pin 0, prints the result to the serial monitor   This example code is in the public domain. */
int sensorold, sensornew;int sensordif = 3;boolean trigger;
void setup() { pinMode(2, OUTPUT); pinMode (6, OUTPUT);   pinMode (7, OUTPUT); pinMode (13, OUTPUT);    digitalWrite(2, LOW); digitalWrite(6, LOW); digitalWrite(7, LOW); digitalWrite(13, LOW); sensorold = analogRead(A0); sensornew = sensorold; trigger = false; Serial.begin(9600);}
void loop() { sensornew = analogRead(A0); if (abs(sensornew – sensorold) > sensordif) { Serial.println(“trigger 2″); digitalWrite(2, HIGH); digitalWrite (13, HIGH);// set the LED on delay(1000); // wait for a second digitalWrite(2, LOW); digitalWrite (13, LOW); // set the LED off Serial.println(“off 2″); delay(10000); Serial.println(“trigger 6″); digitalWrite (6, HIGH); delay(1000); Serial.println(“off 6″); digitalWrite (6, LOW); delay(10000); Serial.println(“trigger 7″); digitalWrite (7, HIGH); delay(1000); digitalWrite (7, LOW); Serial.println(“off 7″); delay(10000); }   // Serial.println(sensorValue, DEC);}

Albert’s Amarino-Powered Kung-Fu Jacket

mrching — Wed, 11 May 2011 23:35:57 +0000

How do you talk to a jacket? There was a time when if you did, people would look at you a little bit funny.

These days, with a little thing called an Android phone, a powerful little circuitboard called Lilypad Arduino, and an amazing toolkit called Amarino developed by Bonifaz Kaufmann, you can talk to your jacket — and even better, you can talk to someone else’s!

User Testing the Kung-Fu Jacket

The Amarino-Powered Kung-Fu Jacket that I developed started with an understanding of how an Android phone could talk to an Arduino board. The connection is based on two necessary but ubiquitous components — a bluetooth modem for the Arduino and the free and open toolkit called Amarino that Kaufmann developed back in 2009.

Lilypad Arduino and Bluetooth modem

Amarino on the Android

The first test was to see if these items could talk to each other. After some initial testing, success.

From there, I wanted to incorporate this technology into existing garments — not just because my sewing skills are quite rough but as much because I wanted to find a way to augment any garment that I had with smart technology. The challenge was to design it in a way that allowed the garment to be resilient to washing. The solution was simple in retrospect — soldered-on snaps! The snaps made it easy to remove the Lilypad board, the bluetooth and the battery when either the technology or the garment needed maintenance.

Snaps soldered onto a Lilypad board The next

Next, it was important to know where to put the output device — in this case, the vibrator to have maximum effect for the user. After a bit of user-
testing including changing the conductive threat to a thicker one that provided more current and thus a stronger and more tangible vibration, I determined that the most sensitive part of my upper-quadrant (where the Arduino board was located) was the small area smack between my shoulders. Since I wanted the vibrator to be felt by the user, I ended up sewing a place for snaps there. (A few users have told me that the vibrator is so strong that if it was a bit stronger, it would give them a good shoulder massage).

Vibrator

With the platform in place, my final step was to program the Arduino board to sync with the multiple sensors on the Android phone in a unique way. I started with the amazing accelerometer on an Android, a sensor that sends different data based on the orientation of the phone through 3 axes – x, y and z. While it took a little learning to utilize that data for something that could then be translated into an output on the jacket, I got it to work in a basic and I think fun way!

Kung-Fu-ing with My Jacket Take 1

Kung-Fu-ing with My Jacket Take 2

The interesting part of the coding was whether or not to precisely to map the accelerometer movements with the outputs of the jacket — in other words to make it clear what orientations of the phone – up, down, horizontal – would respond to what outputs e.g. LED lighting up or a vibrator vibrating. The looser the constraints e.g. LED lights up when phone is middle down to middle up made it more fun for the user to exaggerate their motions and to discover what actions was triggering what event.

You can see the code I used in the end below:

Turns on vibrator when phone is vertical down and the LED when phone is horizontal.

Both turn off when the phone is vertical up.

Author: Albert Ching – May 2011

#include

// declare MeetAndroid so that you can call functions with it

MeetAndroid meetAndroid;

// starting with 1 LED

int vibrator = 16;

int LED = 11;

void setup()

{

// use the baud rate your bluetooth module is configured to

// not all baud rates are working well, i.e. ATMEGA168 works best with 57600

Serial.begin(57600);

// register callback functions, which will be called when an associated event occurs.

meetAndroid.registerFunction(vibrateoff, ‘A’);

pinMode(vibrator, OUTPUT);

pinMode(LED, OUTPUT);

digitalWrite(vibrator, LOW);

digitalWrite(LED, LOW);

}

void loop()

{

meetAndroid.receive(); // you need to keep this in your loop() to receive events

}

void vibrateoff(byte flag, byte numOfValues)

{

int values[]={0,0,0};

meetAndroid.getIntValues(values);

// xxx

int X=values[1];

int Y=values[2];

int Z=values[3];

if (Y < -4) {

digitalWrite(vibrator, LOW);

digitalWrite(LED, LOW);

}

else if (Y < 4) {

digitalWrite(vibrator, HIGH);

}

else if (Y > 4) {

digitalWrite(LED, HIGH);

}

else

{

digitalWrite(vibrator, LOW);

digitalWrite(LED, LOW);

}

Since the phone also had a number of other sensors, I also tested out using the receive SMS sensor in Amarino. It was simple to set-up and
my intention was to have the LED change based on the message that was received from a user. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the coding correctly so I only got a single LED event but imagine that it would not be too difficult to figure out how to adjust the code below to figure this out.

Turns on LED when phone receives an SMS.

Author: Albert Ching – May 2011

#include

// declare MeetAndroid so that you can call functions with it

MeetAndroid meetAndroid;

// starting with 1 LED

int LED = 11;

void setup()

{

// use the baud rate your bluetooth module is configured to

// not all baud rates are working well, i.e. ATMEGA168 works best with 57600

Serial.begin(57600);

// register callback functions, which will be called when an associated event occurs.

meetAndroid.registerFunction(LEDon, ‘A’);

pinMode(LED, OUTPUT);

digitalWrite(LED, LOW);

}

void loop()

{

meetAndroid.receive(); // you need to keep this in your loop() to receive events

}

void LEDon (byte flag, byte numOfValues)

{

int values[]={0};

meetAndroid.getIntValues(values);

// xxx

int X=values[1];

if (X = ‘hey’) {