Physical Computing Experiments

Cube Project [Rough Sketches]

2008-11-16T21:14:00.000-08:00

These are rough sketches of the object I want to build.

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1. Basic Diagram of the 3 Circuits:
a. LEDs Circuit for two sides
b. Motor Circuit
c. Sound Recorder Circuit.

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2. Box with components of the Sound Recorder and Motor Circuit.

Suave Lulu [Process]

2008-06-25T07:21:00.000-07:00

Suave Lulu [The Entire Process] from Jennifer Dopazo on Vimeo.

Suave Lulu [Final Iteration]

2008-06-24T14:02:00.000-07:00

Suave Lulu from Jennifer Dopazo on Vimeo.

Cube [Process 01]: Making the Visual/Sound Circuit

2008-06-21T13:23:00.001-07:00

Cube Project [Second Iteration]

2008-06-18T22:16:00.001-07:00

Cube Project [Tech Specs]

2008-06-16T21:59:00.000-07:00

RadioShack Digital Voice Recorder Module [link]
3VDC Micro-Vibration Motor [link]
Surface Mounted LEDs [link]

Cube Project [List of Materials]

2008-06-16T21:49:00.000-07:00

Fabric (Synthetic Fur, Polar)
Conductive Fabric
Conductive Thread
Iron on Interface
Magnetic Snaps
Crimping Beads
Surface Mounted LEDs
Digital Voice Recorder
Motor
Cable
Crazy Glue

Cube Project [LEDs Diagram]

2008-06-16T19:44:00.001-07:00

Electro Graf

2008-06-15T23:35:00.000-07:00

Graffiti Research Lab : Electro Graf

Instructable

Post Circuit Board

2008-06-15T23:27:00.000-07:00

Graffiti Research Lab : Go Postal

Instructable

ElectroPUFF™ Lamp Dimmer for kids

2008-06-10T19:54:00.000-07:00

Name of product
Electropuff™

Name and contact info of manufacturer
Yuka Petz
International Fashion Machines, Inc.
1205 East Pike Street Suite 2G
Seattle, WA 98122

www.ifmachines.com
Phone:206 860 5166
Fax: 206 568 3088

Electrical and Physical Characteristics
The ElectroPUFF Lamp Dimmer is a soft, whimsical pompom that connects to any incandescent table lamp and controls light levels with just a gentle tap. IFM’s patented electronic-textile technology is the magic behind the ElectroPUFF. Special conductive yarns that sense your touch are combined with colorful recycled carpet fibers to form the soft switch.

Intended Uses
Light Levels controler

Imagined Uses
The most important part for me of this product, is the interaction with something through touch, here are my ideas:

Control for temperature
Computer mouse
Long distance communication device; creating heat and lighting up when one of the party want to send a message.
Musical pillow
Carpet
Paperwall

Example of material in use

Essential™ Square Wall Dimmer

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Pom Pom™ Wall dimmer

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Petal Pusher

Interactive textile and light installation that explores the hidden electrical and transmissive properties of textiles. When viewers touch the tufted, electronic textile sensor area of each pattern, the felt and embroidered yarns are illuminated from behind, revealing the light transmissive properties of the textile. Color variation and reflection chan

ge as viewers illuminate different panels at four different light levels. Forty-nine unique patterns - all derived from a single motif - are available, in numerous configurations. Each pattern is limited to an edition of twelve.

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Sample Dimmer Board

Superhero Wearable [ Part 4: Presentation]

2008-06-09T21:39:00.001-07:00

After all the tests, I made the final prototype on a glove I had at home, sewing all the circuits by hand on the interior of it and attaching the sound circuit, hiding it on the wrist.

You can download the pdf of the presentation [here]

Superheroes : Fashion and Fantasy

2008-06-09T10:49:00.000-07:00

It's funny how fashion and fantasy can get along so well, and when someone puts together fantasy with some high fashion aspects, one can actually see how superheroes, as fantasy figures like princesses, can be part of this "fashionable fantasy". Isn't fashion about standing out the human body (male or female) attributes? Well, this as what superheroes garments are about too, they show you who this person is, what are his/her strenghts and how his garments are a metaphor of the world they live or come from. At the end, fashion acts as a visual representation of what a superheroe is.

One of the things I really liked, well, I'm not sure if it was more intriguing than appealing to me, the part of the metaphorical representation of garments; masks, capes, suits. It was quite interesting for me the materials designer used to create their own versions of these garments, and how some of them, didn't look too far from actual daily ones, I'm not sure when or where, but I can recall some of these pieces on a woman walking on the street. Well, I guess that's why fashion can be considered so close to a fantasy world, since we can choose everyday who we want to be and the role we want to play depending on our clothes, and like superheroes, what part of us we want people to notice more, and how we want to be perceived.

Michael Chabon's article "Secret Skin":

"...One knew, of course, that it was not the red cape any more than it was the boots, the tights, the trunks, or the trademark “S” that gave Superman the ability to fly."

"The superhero's iconic costume of cape, mask, and bodysuit finds many fashionable permutations. But fashion's embrace of the superhero extends beyond iconography, to issues of identity, sexuality, and nationalism. Fashion shares with the superhero an inherent metaphorical malleability which fuels its fascination with the idea and the ideal of the superhero."
photo by Sam Horine. The Village Voice

Superhero Wearable [Part 3:Soft Circuit Prototype]

2008-06-05T19:49:00.000-07:00

I made a prototype of a soft circuit for the project I'm making, I started building the pattern of a glove and then stitching with a machine the circuit lines, using conductive thread on the spool of the machine. I made a soft switch for the ring and a battery holder. All works, now I have to add the sound part of the project.

Here are the pictures.

Superhero Wearable [ Part 2 ]

2008-06-04T22:32:00.000-07:00

After today's feedback in class, I decided to work with the wonder twins and the rings.
So my idea is using LEDs and a buzzer (I'm considering the idea to use a recordable device). All of them will be activated when the rings touch each other, both the LEDs and the buzzer will be on a glove, and the rings will function as soft switches.

This is the diagram for the actual circuit:

Materials:

The Circuit:

Superhero Wearable [Rough Circuits Prototypes]

2008-06-04T22:12:00.001-07:00

This are all the tests I did before doing the final circuit prototype, since I'm not too familiar with circuits, I guess my process is longer than it should, and maybe I end up doing things a little bit more complicated.

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First Prototype:
Putting LEDs in parallel to create the circuit.

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Prototype 2:
LEDs in series, adding a soft switch I made for a previous class.

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Prototype 3:
Using the LEDs in series with a smaller soft switch.

The construction of the soft switch, using Leah Buechley’s soft switch tutorial [link]:

Building the circuit:
(the final prototype)

Superhero Wearable

2008-06-04T21:46:00.000-07:00

The first thing that came to my mind with this assignment was the garments superheroes use, how they are different from each other not only because of their power, but the way they look like; garments are they’re way to communicate in a visual way who they are, what they do, and who they work with.

Then I thought about super heroines, and how they normally have really sexy garments, if they don’t show a lot of skin they have tights that enhance the body and they physical attributes they have. So the next step for me was, if I had to pick a super heroine I really like and make a “fashionable technology” garment, who would I choose? And how can I reflect what she is by this wearable I have to design?
So what I did, just pick my three top super heroines and take a little closer look to them.

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Wonder Woman

Alter Ego:
Princess Diana of Themyscira

Weapons:
Bullet Proof Bracelets
Magic Lasso

Abilities:
God-like strength, speed, reflexes, stamina, durability, and hearing
Flight
Superior hand-to-hand and weapons combat skills
Animal empathy
Regeneration
Resistance to magic
Immunity to illusions and mind control
Ability to discern truth
Access to magical weaponry.

Garment:
Headband
Leotard
Boots
Bracelets

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Catwoman

Alter Ego:
Selina Kyle

Weapons:
Claws
Tail
Whip
Nine Lives

Abilities:
Peak athlete
Extremely skilled hand-to-hand combatant.
Expert burglar
Steel spring-loaded climbing pitons
Razor-sharp retractable claws
Wields an assortment of bullwhips and cat o’ nine tails as gymnastic equipment

Garment:
Mask
Bodysuit with attached boots (with domino-shaped infrared goggles on her cowl)

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Jayna (Wonder Twins)

Weapons:
Ring
Their powers were activated when the twins touched each other and spoke the words “Wonder Twin powers, activate!”

Abilities:
Can transform into any animal, whether real, mythological, indigenous to Earth or to some other planet.

Garment:
Ring
Tights
Boots

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After reviewing these super heroines (one of them considered a villain), I started looking for a wearable and a power I could work with, with Wonder Woman, I thought it could be interesting working with her bracelets and make them her communication device, sending wireless signals and messages to anyone. For Catwoman, her claws and mask were the things that captured my attention, since she is an expert burglar, she would need some motion detection device for be aware of the presence of someone else.

I have to admit that my ideas were always thought with the fact that I have to build it, so that’s why I needed to keep it kind of simple for a superhero but challenging for myself.

Fabric PCBs reading

2008-06-04T21:45:00.000-07:00

Garments have always been a way for society in general to express themselves, making every person wearing them unique in some sort of a way. This also could be said about technology, where every person gives a different approach, uses, context and/perspective to its use and structure, putting garments and technology together, it’s for me an interesting way to make these two different (or maybe not that different) worlds together, creating some sort of fashionable technology, making technology more personal as we usually do with our personal appearance.

“Artifacts that are at once intellectually challenging, aesthetically appealing, and personally meaningful.”

For me, the field of Electronic Textiles is a different way to conceive portability and how one become a part of any gadget we want to, making this artifact an extension to ourselves in a more obvious way.

It was really interesting all the tests the authors of this article made, considering every single aspect on the different field they’re working on: wearables and technology, how it has to work in both of them without any damage in the other one, creating a constant balance between them and pushing them forward to the point they both work on the author’s benefit.

It also helped me a little bit more to be less afraid of it, as a person who have never been working so close with circuits and wats and cables and batteries and all these components that for me, still are quite a mystery.

At the end, technology will keep evolving but also, it will be a part of it that will be grow closer to us and be more “do it yourself” type, letting us build different prototypes and discover new or different ways to communicate.

Using Back Ear Clips as a switch

2008-06-04T21:44:00.001-07:00

I went to a little craft store near my home, and I found this ear clips that had some conductivity and built a soft circuit, stitching with a sewing machine. I used the conductive thread on the bobine of the machine, and regular one on the top. It worked the first time, but then it didn’t worked anymore! So I don’t know what happened, and I’m not sure how to debug it.

Here are the pics!

I went to a little craft store near my home, and I found this ear clips that had some conductivity and built a soft circuit, stiching with a sewing machine. I used the conductive thread on the bobine of the machine, and regular one on the top. It worked the first time, but then it didn’t worked anymore! So I don’t know what happened, and I’m not sure how to debbug it.

Here are the pics!

Fiber to Fabric

2008-06-04T21:33:00.000-07:00

When I started reading these two chapters, I was first amazed on how to test a fabric’s structure by such simple methods; with our fingers, burning it, breaking it. I have only tested fabric for depending on the piece I want to make, if it needs ironing, if it crease easily and how it behaves. All these commons tests for making clothing, but I never thought about the background and the technical details a fabric has and how an entire industry works with. Of course, now that I see fabric with a new perspective, it’s amazing the importance it’s construction and how the elements used to build it makes us redimsension the normal use of it and create a technological approach with it.Even the concept of conductivity, how normally is used to create comfortable garments depending on the weather, it’s a useful information for us on how to choose a possible fabric for our projects.

My First Circuits!

2008-06-04T21:25:00.000-07:00

The first assingment for the Soft Circuits Workshop was to make three different type of circuits, one on a breadboard, a free circuit and a circuit on a fabric. This is my first time ever making a circuit, and the funny part was that the fabric one was the easiest for me and the one that worked instantly.

1. Breadboard Circuit

2. Free Circuit

3. Fabric Circuit