10. Wearables

Technology is getting smarter and becoming a big part of most of our daily lives! I personally enjoy it and I always want to bring it closer to my body!

As a result through out this research I was investigating further about the Wearable tech; which is technology that is worn on the body as clothes, accessories, or other objects. The awesome thing about wearable tech is that it brings together so many different fields: textiles, design, fashion, craft, music, performance, wellness, healthcare, education, electronics, programming, defense (as in the military), and more. It can look like a fitness tracker you use to measure your steps or a light-emitting garment you wear to visualize music or a jacket that keeps you warm. It gives people new ways to express themselves, communicate with each other, and interact with the world around them.

I came across this interview with Liza "For me, the term “wearable tech” is a broad term that can mean a few specific practices. People also use terms like fashion technology, smart materials, soft circuits, electronic textiles, and electronic craft to describe their process, projects, or products." - LIZA STARK

For this assignment being a visualistic architect, I was interested to focus on the Visual Approach (LEDs, Neopixels, Fiber optics, Thermochromic Ink)

Inspiration

Was inspired from varying projects showcasing interactive, light emitting, textile installation , thermochromics (I linked the articles in the resources at the end of the page)

Research

Few useful tutorials - Thermochromic Ink

• Thermochromic Painting

• Kobakant’s material list

• Sparkfun
• SFXC

We were supposed to use ATtiny or Arduino or Adafruit

ATtiny

ATtiny (also known as TinyAVR) is a subfamily of the popular 8-bit AVR microcontrollers, which typically has fewer features, fewer I/O pins, and less memory than other AVR series chips.

Arduino

Arduino is an open-source hardware and software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices.

Adafruit

Adafruit is a private company founded in 2005 that focuses on designing and manufacturing open-source electronic hardware.

Personally I had been using Arduino and GEMMA to carry out this research so I would explain below how I programmed each I explained on week05 how to install the GEMMA library and program it so I used the same steps

BOM (Bill of Materials)

Qty	Description	Price	Link	Notes
2	RGB Smart NeoPixel	2.33 $	https://www.ubuy.com.jo/en/product/UXFVUK-adafruit-flora-rgb-smart-neopixel-version-2-sheet-of-20?gclid=CjwKCAjwh-CVBhB8EiwAjFEPGXRckpiO4PXago_RytFa1bcI6_qaNPqC7jtY9bRYrjlKbKfTxFOtZRoCgQwQAvD_BwE	They come in a set of 20 but I only calculated the cost of 2 as I used 2 only
1	Adafruit GEMMA	9.95 $	https://colorfabb.com/varioshore-tpu-natural
1	Copper tape)	9.77 $	https://www.adafruit.com/product/3501
1	Wires or conductive thread(whatever available)	6.89 $	https://www.amazon.com/EDGELEC-Breadboard-Optional-Assorted-Multicolored/dp/B07GD2BWPY/ref=sr_1_6?crid=2RSJ3FGCB857I&keywords=wires&qid=1656285052&sprefix=wire%2Caps%2C950&sr=8-6
1	Velvet fabric	2.10 $	Local Supplier
1	PLA Neutral	22.00 $	https://colorfabb.com/varioshore-tpu-natural
1	Thermochromic powder	17.99 $	https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09CTFD9F9?pd_rd_i=B09CTFD9F9&pd_rd_w=Scw9v&pf_rd_p=0766f286-f72d-49df-b4dc-e0afb9dccb94&pd_rd_wg=AeAHx&pf_rd_r=H31BDB2YYB4XB3K2F8KT&pd_rd_r=414144aa-b160-4327-afc7-050fa5664fd5
1	Mosfet	3.00 $	https://mikroelectron.com/Product/IRF9540N-P-Channel-Power-MOSFET/
1	Diode 1N4001	0.15 $	https://mikroelectron.com/Product/1N4004-Diode-1A-400V
1	100 ohm resistor	0.05 $	https://mikroelectron.com/Product/100k-ohm-Resistor/

Thermochromic

Thermochromic ink changes state in the presence of heat. When any heat source is applied (e.g. body heat, hair dryer, or electrical current), the pigment turns colorless or change color depending on the Datasheet of the pigments/ink as well as they differ at which temperature they change color!.

I used 2 kinds:

1. changes to transparent with heat(used for hidden messages)
2. Changes from one color to another I was trying for my BLLURA MUSA project to enhance the Camouflage/ Countershading effect

for the wearables I wanted to experiment deeply in changing colors of wearables

I followed this circuit so I can refer back to it each time I wanna try it

Heating takes a LOT of power – current to be specific. We want about 800mA to 1.3 Amps for this circuit. Arduino pins cannot provide the power we need to warm a heating element. Remember: you can’t draw more than 40mA from a pin.

This means we need a separate power source for the heating element using a high load circuit. We can do this using the fantastic, amazing, phenomenal transistor – a MOSFET to be specific.

Here we will use an N-channel MOSFET FQP30N06L from Sparkfun. If you’ve looked at other thermochromic tutorials, you may have seen a TIP120 or TIP122 used instead of a MOSFET. I used TIP120s for years until I helped a friend on a larger project and realized these really weren’t the most appropriate.

so I did mimic this circuit from Lizza so I can use later after I set the thermochromics

so I started by taking some thermochromic pigment … mixing it with water in a Petri dish... mix mix mix

I tried my best to add more and more pigment until the solution is very well saturated as you can see in the picture so I have excess pigments can't be dissolved (cuz I wanted the most dense color I can possibly get)

I prepared the tube by inserting the conductive metallic (iron) through the tube and locked on side via silicone gun so I have one end open then I took some of the thermochromic mixture using syringe to insert it inside a tube

then after I filled the tube with the mixture I closed again with silicone gun

I tried to connect it to very low voltage as when I measure the resistance of the conductive iron was very low like 0.8 !!! so a short circuit would happen ...

Heating Circuits for Thermochromic Inks

I tried to further spiralize other conductive threads to get the resistance I want (I wanted to reach at least 2.8 ohm)

was spiralizing and measuring the resistance readings all along the process and you can see the more I spiralize it the more the resistance reading is of course .

the copper had coating on so sanding all along was dramatic and not efficient so ended up using conductive thread.

Code

digitalWrite or analogWrite

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

// the loop function runs over and over again forever
void loop() {
  digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, HIGH);   // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
  delay(1000);                       // wait for a second
  digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, LOW);    // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
  delay(1000);                       // wait for a second
}

Crystals Head piece - Neopixels

For this assignment I was using NeoPixel v2 (E239218)

so here you can see how I prepared 2 squares to be cut after measuring the size of the LED on the Flora Neopixel

1. Schematic Design

I used this code to light up the GEMMA RGB Smart NeoPixel .

2. Basic Application

Via this giphy below this was the initial connection before adding the 3D printed crystals I used the code below

3. Code Used

//This sketch includes parts from:
// - Dave Melis's touch sensor code for ATtiny http://highlowtech.org/?p=1653
// - Adafruit example sketches for controlling Neopixels

#include <Adafruit_NeoPixel.h>
#define PIN 1

Adafruit_NeoPixel strip = Adafruit_NeoPixel(2, PIN, NEO_GRB + NEO_KHZ800);

int calibration = 0;
int previous;
int togglestate = LOW;

void setup()
{
  //Calibrate the touch sensor!
  for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++) {
    calibration += chargeTime(PB2);
    delay(20);
  }
  calibration = (calibration + 4) / 8;

  strip.begin();
  strip.show(); // Initialize all pixels to 'off'
}

void loop()
{
  int n = chargeTime(PB2);

// check if the state of the touch sensor has changed
  if (previous <= calibration && n > calibration) {
    if (togglestate == LOW) togglestate = HIGH;
    else togglestate = LOW;

    if(togglestate==LOW) {
      strip.setPixelColor(0,0,0,0); //if touch sensor not being touched, turn Neopixels off
      strip.setPixelColor(1,0,0,0);
    }

    else { // but if they are being touched...
      strip.setPixelColor(0,255,0,255); //Make the first one this colour
      strip.setPixelColor(1,100,0,255); //And the second one this colour
    }
   }

  previous = n; //record the state of the LED - is it on or off
  strip.show(); //Turn the Neopixels on or off!
  delayMicroseconds(500);
}

//This function detects when the touch sensor is being touched
byte chargeTime(byte pin)
{
  byte mask = (1 << pin);
  byte i;

  DDRB &= ~mask; // input
  PORTB |= mask; // pull-up on

  for (i = 0; i < 16; i++) {
    if (PINB & mask) break;
  }

  PORTB &= ~mask; // pull-up off
  DDRB |= mask; // discharge

  return i;
}

4. 3D printed Crystals

4.1 Design

I designed few sharp crystals mimicking some of the Dead sea crystals in order to 3D print them

4.2 Fabrication

3D printing settings

so I was 3D printing the crystal geometry with the spiralized technique that I mastered so it's hollow on the inside (so it's not only a way of saving time, material but also smart way to add possibility of using the inside in this case I used lighting source)

Then I started testing them on the head before finalizing the placing / Orientations via the laser cut

5. Headband Laser cut

Here I used a black velvet headband to hold these 3D printed crystals with the electronics easily on my head and the black velvet can be mistaken as my hair so fits perfectly as if the crystals horns coming out of my head once I wear them

so here via the Trotec laser cutter I laser cut the holes in the velvet black band (for the neopixels light to appear and everything else is hidden underneath) after taking measurements of the rectangular width of the headband and the distance I want in interior connections between the 2 neopixels I draw the schematic on rhino with 2 squares, identified the squares as red cut line on the trotec software and the black outline ignored just as a reference

wearables by Batool Alrushdan

Test

making of the head piece BLLURA MUSA by Batool Alrushdan

Final

Final Explanatory Video

wanted to showcase how the schematic above was translated into reality after laser cutting the black head band and placing the 3D printed shells of crystals on the neopixels and another form of a 3D printed crystal was placed on the copper tape for the touch sensor so its a final integrated projects giving a neat finish full of crystals

Final video Applied in BLLURA MUSA Final Project

Design by Batool Alrushdan

Resources

Inspo1 Inspo2 Inspo3 Inspo4 Inspo5 Inspo6 Inspo7

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Last update: 2022-08-01