User:Kenah

Student

Name: Alkenah Wansing

Email: 0851671@hr.nl

Study: Graphic Design

A Bit About My Background

The moment I knew what I wanted to do

What do I make

I'm a Graphic design student. I Also studied Communication Media & design and graduated at GLR as a Graphic and multimedia design student.

Topic of intrest

I want to create Something that interacts with people that come in contact with it. that it or the surrounding changes.

What is your medium

I want to learn and work more with electronics and mechanics and make more use of for example the metal workstation

class exercise

Concept

Affection

Inspired by a sculpture made by Antonio Canova in the neo-renaissance period called Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss. I thought of and experimented on an installation. in the scene sculpted by Antonio Canova He depicts the moment where Cupid kisses his love Psyche back to life. My idea for my installation was to do the same. The would have to give the installation affection so it could come to life and return the favour.

The Idea that I had, The installation would do that by influencing the senses touch, sight and hearing. By letting the installation light up it can show that it's on and active. If I let the lights would pulse at relaxing heart rate (lovers sync heart rate http://tinyurl.com/hocrr64) and the breathing sound would go at a relaxing tempo, the user would end up in a calm resting state. By adding heat we get users to relax by getting them to a thermal comfortable level (http://tinyurl.com/jql5nnu). The installation can be used in an exhibition where the environment can be designed to add on to the experience. But I also think it could be sold commercially.

Form

the shape of the installation that I had in mind would be a big fatboy with cushioned sleeves that de user could sit in. the user would put their arms in the sleeve and hug themselves to activate the installation.

Experiments

Because I was very late with the final idea of what installation should be, I had to minimise it to something I could actually realise in the time that I had left. So I made a prototype that could showcase on of the features I wanted to have in the installation. Because it was smaller I had to change up the design. So used a pillow that I had laying at home and an old shirt. I cut off the old shirts sleeves and sewed it onto the pillow. by squeezing a pressure sensor in the sleeve the pillow would give light.

pressure sensor

for my pressure sensor, I used conductive foam, copper plates, and wires.

First, you cut the copper plates to a size o your liking. after doing that you solder a wire to each of the copper plates. when you're done soldering you kan cut the foam to the appropriate size that fits the copper plates. when you have all you components ready you can hot glue them together by putting a line of glue at the cable side of the sensor. http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Force-Sensitive-Resistor-FSR/ http://wiki.lvl1.org/Pressure_sensor_with_antistatic_foam https://trac.v2.nl/wiki/SoftObjectHardware

I tested two types of conductive foam to find out what felt the best when you squeeze the sensor. the first firmer type of foam. and the sensor worked.

the second sensor had a softer and more fluffy sort of foam. this also worked well. between the two I choose the softer foam because in my opinion, the squeeze was more delightful. but because it was so soft there wasn't much to squeeze. so I decided to put use three layers of the soft foam to get what I wanted. (how I tested the sensors: https://youtu.be/KjUvSSxYhXQ)

LED

With the knowledge I had on electronics and the time I had left, I made a simple circuit that made a LED light shine when pressing the pressure sensor.

I used a 3-volt battery, a Battery holder, the pressure sensor, some wires and a Red LED. First, I soldered the wires to the plus and the ground. after that, I connected the sensor wire to the battery holder and the plus side of the LED. then i connected the LED's ground to the ground of the battery holder to complete the connection. https://youtu.be/Ba42dp45ozo

Usage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwfAiij9SBo

continuation

I think for the ideal installation it would be better if the sensor would have been integrated into the installation. by using conductive textiles I could make pressure sensors that the user can squeeze without having something hard like the copper plates to disturb the comfort level of the installation. I would have also liked to add more LED's on the inside of the pillow and make a better circuit so that the LED's would shine brighter.