New Textiles 2011

Due: Tuesday, March 29, 2011
See student sensors here

For this assignment you will create a soft, flexible, textile-based sensor and a simple screen-based interface that displays information from the sensor.

Part 1. Felt, knit, sew, fuse, or crochet a soft sensor. Document your construction process with pictures. Write a paragraph that describes your sensor and a scenario for its use. If your sensor is a resistive sensor, use the multimeter to measure its resting and activated resistances and include this information in your paragraph.

Part 2. Connect your sensor to an Arduino (you will be loaned an Arduino for the duration of this assignment). Write a simple Arduino program that takes readings from your sensor and sends them to the computer. Write a simple Processing program that uses the data from the Arduino to create an interactive program–a small game–that can be controlled with your sensor. Take a video of your sensor controlling your program. Include your video and your Arduino and Processing code in your write-up. This tutorial will be useful. Note: don’t permanently attach your sensor to the Arduino. You will return the Arduino on March 29.

Create a post that documents your project as described above and add it to the Textile Sensor category.

Bring your projects to class on March 29 for demonstrations.