In this digital age, we are used to express ourselves through social networks and text messages in digital forms. For this project, I wanted to create a metaphor of our digital voice online. Digital Voice Display is a device that a person can wear on his or her head as a visual display of what they are speaking. The device has an Arduino, LOL Shield and a microphone.

Laser cutted different models of the box. 

The Finished product with real leather straps and metal buckles.  See the product function in this video.

Before we started working together, Justin had wanted to do a project relating to physical interface, and Alex had wanted to do a project related to music. So we combined our ideas and made a ‘mashup machine’. The goal was to let users play around with making music without needing any musical talent.

Continue reading →

For this project I wanted to explore and play with the idea of user interface a bit. As great as I think touchscreens are in their way…I mean you can’t really have a smartphone without one…I kind of also hate them. I don’t know, they just aren’t very satisfying to use in my opinion. Tapping a screen just doesn’t feel the same as pushing a button, turning a knob, or switching a…switch. So I wanted to create some kind of device that would be all about the way you physically interact with it.

Continue reading →

Halong Bay in Vietnam…obviously

I was raised by the NES and Atari 7800. Just kidding, I had perfectly good parents. But I did play a lot of video games back in the day, and this has instilled within me a deep-seated nostalgic fascination with pixelation*. So once I got my LoL Shield all soldered up, I thought I’d make a tiny, super pixelated, monochromatic screen and come up with a method to translate whatever picture I wanted on to it.

Continue reading →

The clothes and garments we use are a reflection of our personalities. In order to live in a society we dress and change attires every day first and foremost to protect ourselves from the elements and also in order to make a statement in front of society. What we wear -wether we like it or not- reflects more than we can see. In the following research paper we present ‘The Artificial Hair’, a coat imbued with electronics designed to make way for a different way of interacting with society in situations of stress.

Above is the first round of prototype made with different shapes of laser cut plexiglass, canvas fabric and synthetic heavy string.

After the first prototype we have chosen the the model to use for final production.

Below is laser-cut panels to be threaded over the servo motor. 

The front view of the garment. When the flex sensor is bent, the spikes raise base on how much the flex sensor is bent. 

We are still looking into improvements in both the mechanics and the material. This is a great beginning of exploring in the areas of expressing emotions through the artificial extensions of our body.

For this project I wanted to experiment with laser cutting gears and making them move in some kind of irregular way. The stretched out main gear produces a periodic motion. One way to expand upon this project would be to add an additional gear on the outside that only engaged with the main gear when it was ‘swinging’ and therefore only moved during part of the cycle.

Continue reading →

The video demonstrating the drawdio homework.