Category: Electro-Honesty

Final Design:

The solid blue represents the heart in its resting rate and the rainbow pattern is designed for the elevated heart rate.

Final Poster:

Our project was designed to show the change in the wearer’s heart rate. We put a heart rate monitor into the cuff of the jacket that connected to three neopixel strips via a lilypad. We programed our lilypad to change the pattern of the neopixels based on a heart rate threshold of 82 beats per minute. The resting heart rate was designed to be a plain blue pattern and the elevated heart rate changes into a rainbow design. In addition we sew two layers of organza on a jacket, in order to attached the neopixel strips onto the jacket.

Overall, the team is proud of the work accomplished on this project. We started with a nearly identical design and we were able to see our concept through to completion. All team members learned from each other’s strength, from sewing to wiring to programming.

The largest hurdle faced was, surprisingly, soldering. One of our cables from the heart rate sensor was broken so we had to solder the cable back into the heart rate sensor it took a whole day to finished that.In addition, the neopixels had a very thin attachment point for the wires and the solder we had was far too large. This was a great difficulty but with time and effort it was overcome! Other issues we had were figuring out what light patterns would work best and how to attach the lights to the jacket. For the former, we simply discussed our options and settled on what we believe best represented our ideas. For the latter, we ended up using a tunnel system with two layers of organza. The first organza layer was stitched to the jacket bodice with two layers of stitching to keep the neopixels strips attached. The second layer was used to cover-up the stitching lines and it hung loose against the jacket bodice, attached only at the neck collar, bottom of the jacket, and the zipper.

If we had more time, we would like to expand our design options by adding a lowered heart rate design, also we would like to do a parallel circuit to make a pattern more complex.
We would use different materials for the heart rate sensor. There is a kind of textile which can be used as heart rate sensor, which will reduce lots of trouble for measurement and connections. That way, we would have three overall designs. We would also like to created more rows of neopixel strips or perhaps even another light form!
Finally, we would like to take data from our clients’ facebook profile and use it in the creation of the LED patterns, so based on the information collected, try to make patterns of emotions (calmness, excitement, etc ).

Progress: With all the wiring done, all that was left was the creation of the organza vest. After a small set back, the correct black organza has been purchased ($24) and the first layer of vest has been sewn on. The second layer is sewn together and ready to be attached.

Setbacks: The original organza was far too thin and we had to scrap the tunnel idea. Otherwise, no other major setbacks.

This week: All that is left for the jacket is to attach the heart rate monitor, wire the jacket, and then sew it all back together! We will also finish up our poster this week.

A huge success of the past week was Andres and Fang got the heart rate monitor to connect to the neopixel sensors! All three neopixel strips are working and are now connected. The next step in this process will be playing with patterns. One option, recommended by Kevin, is to have the pixels move at the rate of the heartbeat, so when the person’s heart rate goes up, the pattern goes more erratic as well.

There has been a slight problem in the sewing department, the original “tunnel” structure keeps falling apart. Jade will speak to Marianne about that in class this week to either find a solution or a new “tunnel” method.

For this coming week, we will work to finish the tunnels and start connecting the neopixels and heart rate through the jacket. If we get far enough alone this week, we may start sewing the jacket back together!

This week, we made a lot of progress! We struggled with lighting out neopixel strips, but Andres and Fang got them to finally light up by the end of Thursday’s work day.


We also explored the jacket deconstruction and reconstruction. The jacket had the pockets sewn in and Jade started experimenting with how to best make a tunnel of organza for the neopixel strip to slide through. The best method found so far is running a doubled-up layer of organza through the serger on both sides then stitching it onto the jacket.

This week, we will work to attach the neopixel connection to the heart rate monitor, work on the “tunnels” for the neopixel strips, and, hopefully, attach the strips to the jacket.

Last week, we focused on our jacket, which has been stripped down, and pockets are being sewn on. The jacket was a great find at only $7 from a thrift store! We have also started working with out neopixels, but we found out the the cables had been connected wrong! Andres sorted the issue by welding the correct cables on and we’re ready to continue testing them this week. We also had some difficulty with our coding of the neopixels, which was due to a bad connection with our Arduino.

For next week, we are going to continue our work on the coding, make the neopixels work, and attach the heart rate monitor. The jacket will be further prepped, and we will get organza by thursday to start attaching to the jacket.

Hoorah! We finally got all of our project parts!
What we got in: 3 Neopixel strips, a heart rate monitor, a jacket to hack, and our lillypads!

We have begun learning about the heart rate monitor and checking that we can process the information it collects.

We have also begun hacking into the jacket by sewing the neopixel strips on and breaking into the lining.I have found difficulty with attacking the strips; I plan to look for easier ways to attach during class.

Our plan for this week: We’re going to complete our first mock up of the jacket, with attached neopixels, wiring, and functional heart rate monitor. We’re also going to look at the possible designs we can create with layers of neopixels!

We have started experimenting with out Neopixel designs and fabric overlay! We have videos of several fabric overlay options, but the MB are too large to be uploaded onto the site.

We have uploaded the videos to youtube!

Our most promising overlay is a double organza, which we would style into a vest over the neopixels. The interior of the jacket will have a quilt-like stitching into it so that we can hide pockets inside without compromising the aesthetic outside. We were also able to find the neopixel coding in Arduino which with will begin playing with to find the right design we want.

Our issues still remain with not having the sensor and neopixel strips, but we are expecting both any day now.

Plan for the week: Once we get in our final pieces we will attach to our first prototype, test run it, and start to work out the kinks! Over spring break, Jade will find a suitable fashion jacket to hack and we will begin working on our second prototype.

Progress: Most of this week finalizing our design, mapping the wires, and ordering our final project pieces due to our lack of physical items. Our main issue is our lack of items, but we’ve been working around that by figuring out solutions to possible problems before they arrive. In example, we have been thinking on jacket construction and how we will create our final prototype. Instead of building the jacket from scratch, we will build on top of a hacked jacket.

 

Issues: As previously stated, the main issue has been the lack of products to actually work with, but our order of neopixels has been placed!

 

This Week: We will finalizing our mapping plans and beginning our programming sequences. We will also begin to look at possible jackets to build on top of.

(Working) Project Title: Unconventional Honesty

Team Members: Andres Tapia, Fang Qin, Jade Palandech

Project Description: A jacket that will light up in specific patterns in reaction to changes in heart rate. The heart rate will be monitored by a pulse sensor in the cuff of the jacket.

Drawings:

Resting heart rate:

Slow heart rate:

Fast heart rate:

Updated (3/2/17) Sketches: 

Inspiration: We were inspired by the idea of creating a jacket that expresses the wearer’s heart rate as a form of unconventional honesty. We haven’t really seen any other jacket like this on the market.

Materials and Costs:

 

Heart rate monitor:                           $12

Jacket fabric and other materials : ~$60

5 Neopixel strip 60LED -1m:       3 x $25

Conductive thread 125yds:                 $6

5 Volts batteries:                                $14

3 Lilypads:                                     3x $14

 

Timeline:

March 16: Finalize design and map out wiring

April 4: Jacket is sewn and complete, begin wiring and test runs.

April 20: Jacket is fully functional!

Fallbacks:

Change pattern to be simpler and use less lights

Go down to one heart rate/design

Use LEDs instead of Neopixels

Possibly a different sensor