DAY 1
After the introduction Anja, Barbara and Danielle discovered that we have a mutual intrest in visualizing moods, emotions and inner states, things that are usually hidden from other people. Becomming aware of the inner state is one of the goals of our prototype.
We want to work with sensors that measure bio-feedback signals in form of heart rate, sweat (GSR) or breath rate. We realize that it will be impossible to make an realy accurate system in two days. But for a prototype any bio-feedback sensor that works will do. If we can't get a sensor to work we will work with a set of switches wich indicate different moods like energetic, happy, angry, affraid.
After the brainstorm session today where we explored the (im)possibilities of the techniques present. On the second day we'll start by making the garment with LED's / buttons. Once that's working we can start by lighting the right sensors depending on the mood. The final stage will be selecting the best sensors.
DAY2
Helena who had to leave feeling ill yesterday joined us.
We've made a decision on the inner states and the pressure points connected with it.
The moods we can relieve with the wearable are:
Anger - pressure point LU1
Chaos - pressure point CV17
Panic - pressure point P6
Depression - pressure point K27
Low energy - pressure point CV6
In plain English the program would do the following:
On wake up
Check your inner state
If one or more states are true
set the switches
put on your e-Pressed garment
Put the LED's on for 5 minutes
Loop every hour
check the states
put LED's on
after 1 minute
if LED is not pressed
LED start blinking
else
turn LED off
the LED is pressed for 10 seconds
LED blinks once
turn LED off
end loop
At the end of the day
Set all switches to false
The garment is turned off
We started the production process by making the buttons. They're made of felt pads with embedded white LED's, protective layering and conductive fabric. When pressed the fabric connects and turns the LED off.
We develloped a concept for putting in the different states. Five pieces of conductive fabric will be sewn on the outside and inside of the sleve. Each of them representing a state. A hairpin or clip will function as a switch. With a pin the state is on, without it it's off. We sewed these switches today.
The programming is difficult because there are five states to set and loop through. We'll continue tomorrow and start off with one mood.
DAY3
On arrival we discovered that 3 of the 8 push buttons weren't stable. We improved them by making the contact spot smaller. Barbara and Anja started on sewing the 'wiring'. Danielle worked with Dirk on the circuit and the programming. Helena was ill again. Dirk drew a schema for the Arduino board working with one mood switch, one pressure button with embedded LED.
