9. Conductive String SPEAKERS E-Textiles and Wearables II#

My scope is to keep on unifiying the concept of the face and the human body, so I designed a facial like vector shape that would have a continuos curve in order to allow electromagnetic waves that generate sound wth the use of a strong magnet.

My project this week was inspired in the paper speakers designed by ound Artist, Musician, Composer.Jess Rowland

Which explores the relationship between technologies, popular culture and

artist Claire Williams who made an instalation with embroidered where the spectators are invited to activate them placing magnet balls in the middle of the embroidery creating magnetique fields.

http://www.jessrowland.com/

Jess Rowland´s paper speakers

Circuit Print from Jess Rowland on Vimeo.

Claire Williams

Broderies Sonores from claire wiliams on Vimeo.

Research#

https://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=2936

Inspired by Marcelo Coehlo’s paper speaker and Vincent Leclerc’s Accouphene textile speaker, these paper and fabric speakers are made by running 5-9V sound amplified signal through a very conductive coil in close proximity to a magnet. Unlike most speakers that have the wire coil wrapped cylindrically and placed around the magnet, here the coil is in the plane and directly adhered to the membrane that moves the air creating sound.

The coils can be made from a variety of conductive materials. Copper tape, conductive fabric tape, conductive fabric and stainless steel thread work really well. Gold leaf does not work as well (yet!) in comparison. The coil can be one sided or two sided. A continuous spiral gives better results than one that backs up on itself.

The coils can be fused to a variety of membrane materials such as paper, vellum, veneer, fabric, transparency, tissue paper…

how to make simple paper speakers

step 1: import the faceto rhino to create a mesh file>import >importer objeto en stl u obj>

1. contour > select object jalar una linea en la direccion DE ATRAS A ADELANTE de corte desde el TOP > INDICAR LA DISTANCIA 2MM (probar) > seleccionar desde front > make 2D OPTION CURENT VIEW > UNIR TODAS LA LINEAS PARA HACER ESPIRAL CONTINUA UNIDA > exportar a illustrator > make stroke thicker > expand STROKE>

step 3: open the mesh in illustrator and convert to vectors

step 4: cut the vectors with a vinyl cutter in cooper foil

Since my first scope was to create a foil paper speaker I tried cutting the shape with a vinyl cutter, but the was no conduction, this can be due to the shape or the quality material, but it was a sad result since the cooper foil is so beautiful :/

step 5: program the different traces of the vectors with sounds from Mozzi library https://sensorium.github.io/Mozzi/learn/output/ in Arduino 8 ohms resistance (microcontroller)(actuator)

So I tried embroidery over fabric, and it worked pretty well, I chose the white noise default sound from the arduino library and the cooper string is prettier and can also function over garment (double functionality and cool aesthetic)

step 6: build a great sounding audio amplifier circuit with a resonance box following the cooper face vector´s shape

step 7: transducer, with sound amplifier

Code Example in arduino#

/*
  Blink
  Turns an LED on for one second, then off for one second, repeatedly.
  Most Arduinos have an on-board LED you can control. On the UNO, MEGA and ZERO
  it is attached to digital pin 13, on MKR1000 on pin 6. LED_BUILTIN is set to
  the correct LED pin independent of which board is used.
  If you want to know what pin the on-board LED is connected to on your Arduino
  model, check the Technical Specs of your board at:
  https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Products

  modified 8 May 2014
  by Scott Fitzgerald
  modified 2 Sep 2016
  by Arturo Guadalupi
  modified 8 Sep 2016
  by Colby Newman

  This example code is in the public domain.

  http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Blink
*/


// the setup function runs once when you press reset or power the board
void setup() {
  // initialize digital pin LED_BUILTIN as an output.
  pinMode(8, OUTPUT);
  randomSeed(analogRead(0));


}


// the loop function runs over and over again forever
void loop() {
  tone(8, 400);
  delay(250);
  noTone(8);
  delay(1000);
  tone(8, 400);
  delay(250);
  noTone(8);
  delay(1000);

  for (int i=0; i<20; i++) {
    tone(8, i*100);
    delay(200);
  }

}