Wearables Notes:

Project needs to be a dialogue between the circuit/system and the idea, can’t prioritize one

Test in intended use environment

Transitistors are your friends!

Actuator: component that moves or controls another part based on something

e.g. state changes – visual, sound, motion

Visual:

·          LED – diffused vs clear light, narrow vs wide viewing angle, surface mount are tiny discreet LED – movimiento project

·          Neopixels – LEDs with a small built-in chip so you can control many LEDs individually from one Arduino pin,

·          Fibre optics – end emitting or side emitting wire like lights – artificial intelligent and its false lies project Mika Satomi

·          Thermochromic ink – change state in the presence of heat, become colourless at certain temperatures, thick materials react slower, doesn’t work well with copper tape, use stainless steel or Karl Grimm conductive thread, or some conductive fabrics but need to use enough for enough resistance, Arduino doesn’t create enough current so need to use a transistor – moving target, Maggie Orth; Heart on my Dress, Jingwen Zhu

Sound:

·          Current through a wire creates a small temporary magnet, stronger if coiled – Jess Rowland, paper and fabric speakers; Claire Williams, woven speakers; EJ Tech, sound projects; Crying Dress, Kobokant

·          Speaker variables – coil tighter = louder, material stiffness and thickness change volume, bigger magnet = louder, magnet closer to the coil = louder

Motion:

·          Shape Memory Alloys change shape when heated to certain temperatures, trained flexinol contracts into a certain predefined shape, untrained just contracts 10% of length – Jie Qi, paper engineering; kobokant, smocking examples;

·          Flip Dots – beads that flip when a current runs through them, need a coil around a magnetic bead, can flip the coil not the bead in more motor like motions – magnetic reverberations, Elizabeth Meiklejohn; Embroidered Computer, Irene Posch + Ebru Kurbak

·          Haptics involve touch and kinaesthesia (direction and position), uses vibration motors – embodisuit, Rachel Freire; bodies in play, DMG

·          ATtiny is a very small Arduino, need to program using arduino but then can use on its own – Claire Williams, knitted rings; EMF Detector, Afroditi Pasari;