Concept
The wearable skin called “EnergyBand” is a headband that reflects user’s current energy level. It can show which level of sports the user is doing by displying different colors of light. If the user does nothing, the light will not be turned on and “EnergyBand” will just look like a normal headband. Whenever the user starts to move, the LED Ring embedded in “EnergyBand” will light up with different colors based on how active the user is. For example, if the user is just walking around, the color will be green. If the user is doing sports need more energy such as running, the color of the LED will turn to blue. If the user increases his energy level again and does sports like jumping, the light will turn to red which represents the highest stage of “EnergyBand”. The design of “EnergyBand” encourages users to do more sports and they will try harder to get the “red” stage. If two users wear “EnergyBand” together, they can even compete against each other by keeping a longer “Red” stage.
Interaction
The input data came from a Lilypad 3-way Accelerometer. I divided the range of acceptable data into three levels and each level matches a color from Red, Green, and Blue. The output is to show one of these colors with a NeoPixel LED Ring.
Technical Implementation
l A Lilypad Flora
l A Motorola Rechargeable Battery Pack 3.7V (I used 3 AAA Battery for testing in early stage)
l A NeoPixel Ring – 12WS2812 5050 RGB LED with integrated drivers
l Conductive Thread
l Several LilyPad Tri-Color LEDs (I end up with not using these LEDs because Flora does not have enough PINs to connect)
Testing and Process
I started with connecting the circuit between Flora, Accelerometer, and NeoPixel as well as testing the code to generate different colors based on the data received by the acceleromete.
I tried to power the NeoPixel LED Ring with 3.3v pin from Flora but the color is not right. Thus I have to use an external battery (between 3.3v and 5.0v). I soldered a 250mOh resister between the 3 AA battery pack and the NeoPixel to protect the first LED.
It was my first time using conductive thread to sew electronics and make circuit connections.
To prevent conductive thread from touching to each other, I put different electronics into different layers of the headband.
I end up with using a 3.7v Motorola rechargeable battery to provide power to Flora and NeoPixel in production.
To save battery power, I created a soft switch by using a piece of cotton, some copper tape and a small piece of foam board.
This is the final prototype.
Result
Different Approaches
The original idea was to create a T-shirt to record and show user's active level, please check my following WIP link: https://www.behance.net/wip/785611
I tried to add six more RGB LEDs and create some patterns which can represent energy. However, I found that Flora has limited digital output pin and I used them all to connect accelerometer and NeoPixel ring. I think it will work if I use Lilypad.
Another approach was to implement sound effects based on user's movement. I used Arduino Yun which has a Linux system with a USB port. I installed an USB speaker driver on Yun and played sound successfully. However, I cannot read Yun's analog input from Linux. I will try it again when I have time.
References
