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Project Post #5

PROJECT POST #4

Project Title: Vis Hat  

Project Team: Lydia, Fu, Jay

Weekly Accomplishments:

Lydia:

  • Researched: visualization software and data transferring methods; existing data visualization; 3D printing materials
  • Visited maker-space and discussed 3D printing material specifications and properties to find best suited material for our project (we will be using elastic resin 3D printing material for the base and hard pva for the cover
  • Further drafted construction of 3D printed components and design of VisHat overall
  • Continued compiling experiment/testing procedures for data collection in response to different stimulus

Fu:

  • Finishing emitter and photodiode circuit connected to Arduino Due.
  • Test and complete Arduino Due analog read and pin out control.

Jay:

  • Completed emitter detector circuit and tested on head
  • Diagramed finished circuit
  • Fine tuning relating to current going to emitters, and sensitivity of the photodiode

Images:

Image 1 is a photo of the circuit setup connected to the Arduino Due

Image 2 is a diagram of the VisHat headpiece construction

Material List:

title/link # needed price/unit notes shipping and tax TOTAL PRICE:
arduino due 1 34.43 34.43
NPN transistor 1 5.99 this one unit contains ~200 resistors 5.99
730nm emitter 2 8.61 9.54 26.76
850nm emitter 2 1.46 2.92
850 max nir detector/sensor 2 5.37 9.02 19.76
bluetooth 1 28.95 RN41XVC (with chip antenna) 8.81 37.76
850nm emitter 2 1.46 To account for trial and error hardware testing 7.99 9.45

Project Concerns:

Now that we’re getting to the point of proof of concept a concern we may face might be noise within the data. We’ve been able to get response from the detectors that seems consistent with actions but whether or not the data collected when the emitters and detectors are placed on the head is from actual refraction or just from external stimulus may be hard to detect. Hopefully when we get to the testing stage we’ll know more about the state of the data.

Additionally, the 3D printing material we’ll be using is clear/transparent and that, too, may affect the kind of data gathered. The material can be painted so this could be a good plan to reduce additional noise.

Finally, we’re coming up on the mounting stage where the soon-to-be 3D components are attached/positioned on a user’s head. Everyone’s head shape is slightly different, so finding a way to make these as universally-fitting as possible while still maintaining structural integrity to the degree we need for the channels to remain stable enough may be difficult. The plan for now is to print a version 1 of the model, test it and its fit, and see if additional material integration like firm foam or memory foam to fit the hardware more securely to someone’s head might be needed for this to work best.

 

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Project post #5

project title: Qi Jeans

project team: Greggory Van Dycke

weekly accomplishments: This week I finished my integration of the wireless charger into the jean pocket of my new jeans. The internal pocket holds the wireless charger in position next to the phone. I also finished sewing the the pocket that hold the phone being charged. I wore the pants and confirmed that the phone charges via wireless charging.

images:

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material list:

  • Wireless Portable Charger, 10,000 mAh Power Bank Qi Battery Charger. Link to charger
  • Men’s Lee Extreme Motion Stretch Straight Jeans. Link to jeans
  • Fabric from class that is used in pocket construction.

areas of concern: I do not have any concerns that this time about my project.

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Post #4: Lit Lehenga

Individual: Jessica Fernandes

Weekly accomplishments:

  • Materials I have: Circuit Playground Express, light sensors, power source to test
  • Materials on the way: LEDs, Enclosure, power source for final stage

Image:

A sketch of the circuit

Linked below are my pictures of:

Materials

Areas of concern

  • Test light sensors and practice connecting the components so they function as desired.
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Project Post #4

Wearable Circuits

John Compas

Circuit Testing

I successfully soldered my SMD components to the acrylic testbed and found some issues in the process.

  • Soldering the components with an iron is pretty ineffective and doesn’t work well
  • Soldering them with a heat gun works much better, but the adhesive melts easily and the copper starts peeling off of it’s backing
  • The LEDs I bought are incredibly bright, but have a nasty tendency to melt even under low heat
  • The MOSFETs cannot have floating gates, and were finicky even with their gates grounded

The acrylic actually stood up very well to the heat, which I didn’t expect.

Antennas and RFID

 

I received the UHF-RFID chips, but still don’t have an antenna to test them with.

I found a really cool piece of software called AntSym that, given a set of parameters, will design an antenna for you. As it uses some sort of genetic algorithm, it’s pretty slow but it can optimize the design way better than anything I can do by hand.

Above is one of the designs I’ve been playing around with. I still haven’t quite figured out AntSym, as the gain is lowest in the Z direction as shown by the gain pattern on the left. I’m trying to increase the gain in the Z as much as possible as it is the likely point where the receiver will be.

I’ve been talking to one of my professors about this project, and he has concerns with UHF RFID. At the ~900 Mhz that the chips I’m using are designed to operate at the human skin acts as a relatively good conductor. Thus, it will start reflecting waves away from itself and could create issues. I’m trying to figure out how to model the skin with AntSym, but modeling the dielectric properties of human skin is incredibly complicated. However, he gave me a few commercial UHF RFID tags to test next to skin to see if they work at all.

I also reached out to Alason Sample at UM, to see if his WISP project is still active at all. It’s an open source RFID-powered processing and sensing unit that seems highly applicable for my project.

Directions for Next Week

Circuits:

I think I have a good plan for the issues with soldering the circuits and have developed this process for fabrication:

  1. Layer copper tape in-between vinyl (to prevent tears in the copper layer)
  2. Vinyl cut the circuit
  3. Weed the circuit and fix any issues with the vinyl cutter’s cuts
  4. Transfer the copper layer to a resilient backing, such as acrylic, using transfer paper or another sheet of vinyl
  5. Place and solder components with solder paste and heat gun
  6. Use another sheet of vinyl or transfer paper to pick copper and components off of acrylic
  7. Spray the back of the copper layer and vinyl with adhesive
  8. Adhere circuit with vinyl top layer onto tattoo paper
  9. Done! Try it on a person

This method will result in a circuit layered on both sides with a non-conductive layer.

As for actual circuit designs, I’m very interested in trying to have these units be batteryless. At first, I was mainly thinking of passive power through RFID frequencies or simple induction.

However, I think something like a small solar cell would be interesting to experiment with and could potentially be more useful. I’m going to look into what I could power off of a small solar cell, and then base my design off of these power requirements.

Antennas:

It seems like it would be very easy to get lost trying to perfectly model the skin while designing the “perfect” antenna. So I will focus on creating an antenna from a standard design and seeing how well it works, if at all. In their DuoSkin paper, MIT didn’t seem to focus much on the antenna design at all, so I think the antenna will probably work although not well.

 

Materials List:

  1. Clear Covering Self-Adhesive 
    1. https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Cover-Adhesive-Contact-Projects/dp/B000BPF9QY/ref=sr_1_26?crid=QOW16D2H82TC&keywords=vinyl+adhesive+paper&qid=1551742619&s=gateway&sprefix=vinyl+ad%2Caps%2C195&sr=8-26
    2. Count: 1
    3. Cost: $5.50
  2. Silhouette Temporary Tattoo Paper
    1. https://www.amazon.com/Silhouette-MEDIA-TATTOO-Temporary-Tattoo-Paper/dp/B0043WJ3OA
    2. Count: 1
    3. Cost:  $8.99
  3. Spray Adhesive
    1. https://www.amazon.com/3M-General-Purpose-45-Adhesive/dp/B000PCWRMC
    2. Count: 1
    3. Cost: $5.77
  4. Speedball Gold Leaf
    1. https://www.amazon.com/Bememo-Imitation-Gilding-Crafting-Decoration/dp/B0722X91YR
    2. Count: 1
    3. Cost: $6.99
  5. SPMWH22286D5WAP0S2 (Samsung LEDs)
    1. Count: 100
  6. RC1210JR-07100RL (100 Ohm Resistor)
    1. Count: 100
  7. SL3S1203FTB0,115 (UHF RFID)
    1. Count: 10
  8. C1812C102KGRACAUTO (Capacitor)
    1. Count: 10
  9. NTR5105PT1G (Diode)
    1. Count: 10
  10.  Conductive Guitar Tape

 

 

 

 

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Project Post 4

 

Circular Pleating

  • weekly accomplishments list what you accomplished for each team member

This week I worked on sample patterns for the first pleated garment. I am a bit behind in my timeline and am not sure if I will get to the experimental materials phase of this project. The reason that a circular material is ideologically important to future proceedings and iterations of circular pleated garments is that “the shape of the medium informs the constituent pieces and form of the garment”

I also ran some laser cutting tests.

This week I hope to pattern a dress in paper, and laser cut by Friday. This is the last week where I will not have new/ updated photos. Here is some related inspiration that I saw elsewhere.

I hope to go with a similar silhouette. This is 40’s sciap

Image result for elsa schiaparelli black dress

 

changes to your approach after presenting your work what changes have you made in your approach

I decided to do a smaller garment made of 2 yards of fabric before making a large gown with the remaining 10 yards.

  • material list For each material fill out the following information (a table may be a good way to do this)
    • Part/Material
      • Polyester
    • Price
      • 2.37 per yard
    • Quantity
      • 12 yards
    • Link to a purchase location
      • https://www.fabricwholesaledirect.com/products/chiffon-fabric

 

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Project Post #4: Flow

Project title: Flow

Team: Julia Kosier & Yiting Liu

Accomplishments

Julia:

  • Researched coding for different types of LEDs

Yiting:

  • Finished the 3d design of the holder of led lights, optical fibers, and a microcontroller
  • Figured out that using heat shrink tube, one led light can hold up to 4 optical fibers for our project; hence, reducing the amount of led lights needed from 16 to 4.

Together:

  • Constructed wire frame for wings

 

images

3d printing of the holder of led lights, optical fibers, and a microcontroller in Blender

Process of constructed wings

Heat Shrink Tube to hold 4 optic fibers for one led light

Material list:

Part/Material Price Quantity Link to a purchase location
1 Side Glow Fiber Optic Cable 1.5mm~8mm Optical Fiber For Lighting Decorations

[1.5mm for 15 meters]

 $15.99 w/o tax 1 https://www.ebay.com/itm/Side-Glow-Fiber-Optic-Cable-1-5mm-8mm-Optical-Fiber-For-Lighting-Decorations/253189403496?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=552285229283&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
2 Color sensor $7.95 1 https://www.adafruit.com/product/1334
3 16 gauge floral wire $11.99 1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00T831TFA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
4 Fabrics $3.99/yd

Including shipping total is $14.18

 2 yards https://www.fabricwholesaledirect.com/products/sheer-voile-fire-retardant-fabric?gclid=Cj0KCQiAk-7jBRD9ARIsAEy8mh7xxCRl9hFRSNDtoD39ELNlrFHEVmJTnGmABucK8v3UQuPzZhtuZJoaAgeFEALw_wcB&fbclid=IwAR34tdd2dbImfbFrF7y8HEeAAJFUZJpFmekLj1aYBwW7GRi0Cw8Gx2MD5G4
5 Cellophane $15.99 1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GR4NCC9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
6 Heat spray $5.77 1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000PCWRMC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
7
8
9

Areas of concern:

  • Not sure which types of LEDs are ideal; we have access to 4-pin RGB LEDs, but NeoPixels might be easier to work with. Or a 2-leg LEDs may be even better.
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Project Post #4 – Velcro MIDI Jacket

Project Post 4

Project Title

Velcro MIDI Jacket

Project Team

Junda Chen, Jeff Ma, Yudong Huang, William Black

Weekly Accomplishments

Note — This is an accomplished item: item

  • 3D Print Leap Motion case
  • Theremn Software
    • Motion trace: proximity and height change
    • Data Transfer
    • Theremin instrumental voice
    • (Optimize) Range Detection
      • Test how many Infra-ray LEDs are sufficient to optimize detection
        • on wrist
        • on Jacket
    • (Optimize) Position to put the Leap Motion on the Jacket
      • Waist band — with a tiled case the effect is good.
    • Run on Arduino (Don’t have to run on Arduino)
    • Run on Raspberry Pi 3+
  • Leap Motion Optimization
    • Add an infrared light source to
    • Determine where the light should be
      • On Jacket
  • User Experience Design: Tune the software to let user make sense of how to use it.
  • Jacket
    • Select a light
    • Select a material for diffusion
      • Sheer from underneath
    • Design the jacket: Finally Decide on Velcro Hoodie !!!!
      • Velcro Hoodie? — Have all the things in the velcro and stick waistband to the velcro on the Hoodie.
    • Select (and buy) a jacket.
    • Re-Design the light effect of the jacket

Image/Video

(Figure 1,2): Two implementations of light

(Figure 3): Current design using Velcro. This is a remarkable shift in our project development. To solve the conflict between the freedom of light design and the constrain of other hardware devices, we proposed the use of Velcro to decomposite the design of hardward components (on the waist band) and the design of light (on the jacket). From now, all the hardward-related design will be presented on the waistband, which can be attach/detach to the jacket using the Velcro. The light on jacket is also configurable using Velcro, and can be connected to the waistband for power supply.

 

 

Material list

  • Circuit Board: (Potentially) MIDI encode/decoder, Leap motion image processor,
  • Leap Motion (1): $96
  • LED Strip light (2, TBD)
  • Black velcro fabric (we have in the studio)
  • A Jacket (1, TBD)
  • (Safe) Infrared LED (20)
  • Long USB cable (x2) (for emergency and design)

 

Areas of Concern

  • Infrared LED Safety to eye: To design a better tracking of hand while not directly influence users’ eye is a design challenge, and that might require some research in the area.
    • With the current LED model, it is basically safe to the eye with all the possible implementations we want to make.
  • Raspberry Pi Power Supply and Performance: Have to benchmark on the Raspberry Pi how well the theremin work with external power supply. The fall-back for this project is to directly connect all things back to a MacBook.
  • User Experience: How to let our users know how to operate without a screen?

 

 

Past Development Log

Cylon.js: an Arduino API to control the leap motion

Adafruit strip LED : a $17.99

Leap Motion installation: Troubleshooting in Windows.

 

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Project Post 4: Light up Jacket

Project Title: Light Up Jacket (“You are hot but you are cool”)

Project Team: Obasi, Jack

Weekly Accomplishment:

Obasi:

Worked on the sample jacket.

Search for materials and fabrics.

Design pattern for the jacket.

Jack:

Searched for ways to light.

Wrote basic code for Playground Express.

Purchased lights for the jacket. 

Worked on ways to detect jumping motion through code.

Found a way to light up the wires and circles. 

Images

Code function: if the more pixels light up when the sound is louder (only if the sound is above threshold)

Changes to our approach

  1. We will try to make a light jacket (perhaps with less stuffing), so people can wear it indoor
  2. We will try to make it with transparent fabric so that the lights can have a glowing effect
  3. For now, instead of detecting the bass, we will detect loud sound since bass can be very tricky to detect
  4. We will add a “bounce” feature so that when the performer jump on stage the color changes as well
  5. We decide to make a vest instead of a jacket since a vest can be worn indoor and look cool at the same time.
  6. We bought different wires to test one which one works the best

Material List (Bought few wires to test them out)

El Wire:

Blue, Green, Orange & Yellow colorways

$1.35 Each

6 wires in total

https://www.ellumiglow.com/electroluminescence/electroluminescent-wire

Neon Pixel Strip

LED light

$12.5 Each

0.5m – 2m

https://www.adafruit.com/product/3811?gclid=CjwKCAiAiJPkBRAuEiwAEDXZZdN0k6gopEcaCGBKvVWR_YBFFRyOOqmAiFx3_1TthxETDxXecGo_ZhoCfAwQAvD_BwE

Mini Skinny Neon Pixel Strip

mini LED light

$24.95 Each

1m – 2m

https://www.adafruit.com/product/2964?length=1

Lighting Tape Strip

Tape Strip

$8.95 Each

2 – 3?

https://www.adafruit.com/product/415?gclid=CjwKCAiAiJPkBRAuEiwAEDXZZQ3VhhcbDMvufS2GybwBge1zBLfJYWrOkZuZkYsYJYpU8I2vnJNpxRoCb5oQAvD_BwE

Lithium Ion Polymer Battery

Battery

$10 Each

2

https://www.adafruit.com/product/258

Areas of concern

We are stilling working on how to light up the wires the way according to Playground Express

 

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Project Post #4

Safe Sleeve

Jake Cordover

Weekly Accomplishments:

Unfortunately, the shipment of the sensors continue to cause delay into the programming aspect of the project. I have been in touch with Yost Labs (the supplier), and the reason for the delay was that they ran out of casings for the sensor, so supposedly they were shipped midweek. This is frustrating, especially considering how much was spent, nonetheless hopefully they will be here soon.

Otherwise, I have begun to prototype the 3D printed enclosures in CAD. My enclosure includes sew tabs on the bottom and a top that “snaps” into the bottom, therefore the sensor into place. I am attempting to emulate the annular cantilever snap fits as seen here: https://www.sculpteo.com/blog/2018/04/25/how-to-connect-two-parts-with-3d-printed-joints-and-snap-fits/.

The next step in the process is to print the prototype and make sure the design works, before trying it on the real sensors, and then finally sewing it down to the sleeve. I have included images of the design below.

Images:

The first three images represent the bottom of the enclosure. This sensor will be placed into this sewn down piece( see sew tabs in the bottom). Additionally, the cutouts will be where the top piece “snaps” into place

The next piece is the top that snaps into the bottom, securing the sensor into place.

And the two pieces fitted together:

 

Materials (no change):

Part/Material Price ($) Quantity Link
Potential IMU 1 117 with discount secured 1 https://yostlabs.com/product/bluetooth-mini/
Knee Sleeve 1 16.97 1 https://www.amazon.com/PowerLix-Compression-Knee-Sleeve-Basketball/dp/B01MQYADOT/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=powerlix+knee+sleeve&qid=1552264456&s=gateway&sr=8-5
Knee Sleeve 2 20 1 https://www.amazon.com/Zensah-Knee-Compression-Sleeve/dp/B00GPU7QRO/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=zensah+knee+sleeve&qid=1552264496&s=gateway&sr=8-6#customerReviews
3D printingand associated costs TBD TBD TBD

Areas of concern:

At this point, I would like to be able to start work on the sensor, theres not too much to do without it. Hopefully this issue resolves itself soon…

Otherwise, I’m still undecided on the method of attachment of the enclosure to the sleeve. I talked with Professor Fairbanks about potentially cutting a hole in the sleeve, which I think may look the best, however, I’m not sure if that will degrade the integrity of the sleeve too much.

I have never 3D printed before, so if I go this route, I’m not sure if the material will flex enough (without breaking) for my design. Additionally, I’m not sure of the type of margins I need to build in for the print to be successful.

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Project Post #4

  • project title : Qi Jeans
  • project team: Gregg Van Dycke
  • weekly accomplishments: This week I was able to incorporate my wireless charging battery pack into my jeans, and get it to charge my phone wirelessly while it sat in the pocket. Next week I will trying it on another pair of jeans that should give more space for both the phone and the charger.
  • images:
  •   
  • material list: Wireless Portable Charger,10000mAh Power Bank QI Battery Charger.  Link to charger
  • areas of concern: I feel pretty good about my project, since I am now using a prebuilt wireless charger. Also I changed how I will be adding the phone to my pants pockets. I will just altering the existing pocket. This will give the cleanest final product and I can show that it is easy for other people to do it to their own jeans.