[Week 10] Sketch 2 Presentation

For the presentation, I looked into further research to support our project idea and came across an interesting statistics:

There was a study performed by a psychologist who observed how often friends touched each other in different countries at a café setting.

In Paris, the average was 110 times an hour. In Puerto Rico, the highest average was 180 times
per hour! In Florida, twice per hour.

This statistics show the important of friendly touches in our everyday lives, but there is lack of friendly touches in North America. Through our research, we also found that friendly touches creates a positive effect by releasing a type of affection harmone called oxytocin, which promote trust and bonding with other people.

References

http://psychologyofwellbeing.com/201011/the-science-of-touch.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128795325

[Week 9] Flower Prototyping

Finding a way to move the flower was a challenging process. Below are some prototypes. However, these prototypes did not work when we attached a servo motor to them.

Scrunchy flower paper prototype

Scrunchy fabric flower prototype 

We discovered that the scrunchy flower method required too much strength to pull and that the third petal wasn't able to move up because it was attached to the end where the ring fabric was pulled outwards instead of inwards.

[Week9] Sketch 2 Progress

Our team decided to go with idea #2 involving gestures such as patting, stroking, and hugging. According to Merleau-Ponty, we were reminded that the embodied experience is not only about bodily encounters, but the reflection of bodily encounters. So, we decided to use a flower, because it truly reflected our individual who opens up to their good friend's intimate exchange of touch.

Now our challenge was to figure out where to place sensors. We did this through experimenting and testing places where we  would pat, stroke, and hug someone. During this week, my team was really observant of how people around us touch each other. We scanned the mall and campus for friends exchanging touches. In addition, we tested out touching point with each other. Below are images of me re-enacting situations where i would provide a comforting touch to my teammate:

Stroking the top half of her back

Hugging with arm over one shoulder and around the waist

Marking sensor positions with tape

We decided on using four sensors. Two sensors were place on the left shoulder for shoulder pats and strokes and two other sensors were places along the top half of the spine to facilitate back circular strokes and hugs.

Sensors were placed in felt pouches inside the shirt 

When we were testing the sensors, directly touching it with our fingers, we found that the sensors were too sensitive. It sent a large reading to Arduino and we needed to detect the force at which one pats, stroke, and hugs to determine how intimate the touch was. This was solved by creating felt pouches to store our force sensors, to dampen the sensors sensitivity. These were then sewed onto the inside of the shirt. However, these pouches made stroking someone less natural, because we could feel where the pouches were. Perhaps, we need to find a thicker material for the shirt. When sewing, we learned that we needed to provide sufficient space between each row of stitching to prevent the circuit from crossing. 

[Week 9] Sketch 2 Ideation

For sketch 2 assignment,  we are creating an interactive wearable based on the theme of wearing nature. My team decided to focus on the emotional state of comfort, affection, and trust. We decided to sense comforting and friendly gestures. Some gestures that represented affection and evoked comfort and trust is stroking, hugging, and patting.

Stroking- “a slow stroke may have a more relaxing effect whereas a fast stroke tends to stimulate”(Foundations of Massage, pg.176)

Hugging and patting - "Hugger holding tight or maybe just gently. Hugged person may well be holding tightly. Comforted person rests head on shoulder or breast. Comforting person leans head on head of other person, patting or stroking them. Administering of comfort to distressed other person. May be between friends, partners or parent-child" (http://changingminds.org/techniques/body/hugging.htm).


The objective of the project is to use arduino to sense and recieve signals from the real-world. In our case, we are sensing stroking gestures. We decided on using forces sensors to detect the stroke gestures such as the length of stroke, pressure of stroke, and number of stroke.Then we are to translate these values into a visual feedback. Below are our ideation on the theme of wearing nature.

Idea #1

The first idea involved the theme of mutualism:
Mutualism based on the relationship between the person stroking, the host (aka. the environment), and the shell creature (ex. coral reefs)The host benefits and receives warmth of comfort/intimacy and relaxation from person stroking (This is a metaphor for people who affects the environment and needs to take care of the environment to support and sustain marine biodiversity). The shell creature benefits from the warm environment given off by the host as shells live in warm and calm/non-turbulent waters. The calm and warm environment also supports creatures to live in the coral reef, therefore there will be LED light feedback, giving a pigment to the shell creature. The environment/host will further benefit from the shell creature, as the creature’s life is sustained, the creature either vibrates/ give off warmth to the host/environment.

However, this idea was too complicated and abstract that we decided scrap it. As well, a creature on the back of a person may not embody affection and comfort. Others may see the creature as gross or scary, not a sign of warmth. We need to consider the user experience and how it may affect other's perspective.

Idea #2

Our second idea involves flower as a representation of a person receiving affection from another individual who is close with the person. Giving a flower to another person is a universal symbol of displaying their affection to the other person. A flower is usually associated with affection. We wanted to incorporate a flower as a metaphor for a person opening up and trusting the other individual who is providing them with friendly acts of stroking, patting, and hugging. 

So far, we have two types of flowers that we are considering to implement.

Now as we move on to implementing we need to consider the following:

1. research where to put sensor 

[Week 8] Soft Circuit Assignment Final

We finally finished our soft circuit assignment. We recreated a better crafted version of the draft prototype and made sure all the stitching and sewing were polished. Below are images of the final product. When the person wears the head band the LED will blink faster than when it is not worn.