12. Skin Electronics

Research

Global lecture by Katia Vega

Local lecture by Guilherme Martins

After Global lecture, a new idea came to my mind. I realized that skin electronics can be applied not only for health monitoring but also in innovative ways within fashion and accessories. I was particularly inspired by ear accessories and the ear acupuncture techniques I researched this week. This led me to the idea of combining these two areas into an earcuff design that stimulates specific points on the ear through vibration and incorporates red light therapy. Because of this, I wanted to develop and work on this concept as a form of skin electronic.

Assessment for this week:

Document the concept, sketches, references also to artistic and scientific publications

Design a “skin-circuit”, exploring the replication of the examples below or:

Document the project and included all source files and all materials used

Upload your design files and source code

Make a video with your skin electronic working

Make a short performance/concept of your project functioning (extra credit)

References & Inspiration

Ideas by Berrak Zeynep Okyar

This week, I wanted to create a new concept inspired by the ear seeding technique, but elevate it into a more aesthetic and refined form. Instead of traditional seeds, the idea emerged to design the placement using alum crystals, giving the technique both an energetic and modern appearance. By integrating alum crystals into the points used in ear seeding, I aim to transform the practice into a sculptural, light-reflective ritual. The crystals highlight the mapping of the energy points while offering a clean, minimal, and contemporary look. My intention is to merge the therapeutic precision of the ear seed technique with the elegance of alum crystals— creating a new concept that supports energetic flow and appears consciously designed on the skin.

Tools

Adafruit Gemma

LED

Conductive wires

Multimeter

Soldering iron

Pliers & wire stripper

Glue gun

Alum crystals

3×AA battery pack

Process and workflow

My sketches are ...

This schematic ¹ was obtained by..

This tutorial ² was created using..

Code Example

Crystal Earcuff Blink Testing

Alum Crystals Blink testing by Guilherme Martins & Berrak Zeynep Okyar

Arduino Blink Code

/* 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://docs.arduino.cc/hardware/ 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. https://docs.arduino.cc/built-in-examples/basics/B

Results

Video

From Vimeo

Sound Waves from George Gally (Radarboy) on Vimeo.

From Youtube

---

---

Fabrication files

---

1. File: xxx ↩

2. File: xxx ↩