Month: March 2023

This week we work on making the acutator and mechanisms to prepare for our Project 2. 

Tips:

Different from the circuit sketch, we need to use the special pin that shows in the code. And the core wire is easy to break, so it is necessary to depress the sewing machine’s pedal very gently to make it work more slowly when winding. 

Code:

int pin1 = 6;
int pin2 = 9;
int d = 500;

void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:
  Serial.begin(9600);
  pinMode(pin1, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(pin2, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
 //  put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
  digitalWrite(pin1, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(pin2, LOW);
  delay(d);
  digitalWrite(pin1, LOW);
  digitalWrite(pin2, HIGH);
  delay(d);
}

For the preparation of Project 2, we wanted to move the spine to show the difference between its orthostatic and non-orthostatic position. We envisioned several mechanisms of twisting and finally found that a wooden crocodile toy was the most feasible way to control its movement with a servo motor.

The effect of this tail curl mechanism is very obvious, but it works normally only one end is fixed, while we can not let it move to the left or right, only inward curl.

The actuator is too small to let the mechanism works normally so we choose to use the servo motor.

With the help of Marcela, we found this wooden crocodile toy, which we modeled later.

Considering that in the final project we need to make the whole spine move, perhaps we need a larger motor to achieve the same effect.

 

 

 

 

 

    This week we worked on making inflatables. The very interesting thing about making an inflatable toy is that you can’t fully imagine the effect of the finished product until it’s really inflated (of course, this should be because of our limited experience) I noticed that we needed to design the folded cutout to be narrower in order for the toy to have an obvious fold. At the same time to ensure that the toy does not leak air is also the key to success. We need to strictly control the temperature of the iron, 100 degrees Celsius to 170 degrees is feasible, but still between 130-150 degrees is safer because the temperature is too high will melt the plastic paper (and always remember to pad the baking paper!!) In order to ensure that the plastic film does not move freely, at the very beginning you can first fix around. It is better to press it gently in different positions than to iron it repeatedly, but be careful with the temperature!
    Compared to motor-controlled mechanical devices, the inflatable device has a more surprising effect, because it has a gradual expansion process, while in the process you can not fully imagine the final result.
    In our project, perhaps the heart and spine parts can be moved, which will make our glowworm more lifelike.

Code

int motorPump = 9;
int valve = 11;
int motorSuck = 10;
void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:
  Serial.begin(9600);
  pinMode(motorPump, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(valve, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(motorSuck, OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {
 //  inflate
  digitalWrite(motorPump,HIGH);
  digitalWrite(valve, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(motorSuck, LOW);
  delay(1000);

  //  deflate
  digitalWrite(motorPump, LOW);
  digitalWrite(valve, LOW);
  digitalWrite(motorSuck, HIGH);
  delay(1000);
}

 

Glowworm

In this project, we wanted to firefly-ize the human. We learned that glowworms flicker at night for courtship, much like a person would do with a wink. When the user presses the sensor in the ear,(we want this action to be done naturally when ruffling the hair, showing a flirtatious gesture, also for the purpose of courtship) the light on his/her body will be dimmed (including the spinal cord and buttocks) At the same time, in order to amplify the feature that fireflies flicker at the tail at night for courtship, we enlarged the buttocks part to make it more prominent. In addition, we also highlight the part of the spine because subconsciously, men will be whether the spine is in the right position as a criterion for courtship because it is a reflection of good fertility. (Dewan MC 2018) And the condition of the spine is shown in people’s walking position (Haber 2015) 

The purpose of this work is to show the animalistic nature of human beings that is engraved in their genes, especially in the process of choosing a mate. We do not want to express the criticism of the almost primitive charm and natural selection in the process of choosing a spouse (according to Dawkins, our genes would lead us to select a mate who will produce the most offspring) , but we want to arouse people’s deeper reflection on love or human characteristics: what makes people tick, and what do people think about besides animal nature?

For the design, we used warm wool to knit in the head as well as the heart part. We hope to show the soft and sweet atmosphere of love directly through the choice of color and material. 

And for the luminous spinal cord and buttocks, we used fiber optics. In fact, we had previously considered that fiber optics would not be so bright, but it would match the shimmering light of fireflies and the ambiguous atmosphere when flirting. But we did not anticipate that the fiber optic will be so dark and difficult to use led to control, perhaps in the future we will choose to replace the light strip or find a brighter light to provide light. 

We also used the strip as a light source during the experiment, but the contact of the circuit was not good, and when we installed it on the clothes it was not under our control again. At the same time, the color of the strip would change every time we pressed it, and we did not find the reason for this situation. So we use the LEDs at last.

For the ass part of the water pipe shape design we have also done consideration. We envisioned a variety of knitting methods and finally decided to wrap and stack in a spiral fashion as seen in the video, so as to enlarge the hip part as much as possible, similar to the principle of a cone corset. In addition, We sewed padding on the hips to make them exaggerated and full.

As an improvement we will later abandon the design of the lower half of the skirt, using water pipe weave for garment production, or use transparent material bottoming because the current fabric looks and overall design has some cut. At the same time, in order to echo the head of the wool, in the lower half of the water pipe appropriate winding wool will be better.

Now we are using paper clay to make the spine part of the bone, after that we need to consider the movable design in this part

Code of the LEDs

int LEDPin1 = 9; //0 if you are using ATtiny
int LEDPin2 = 6; //0 if you are using ATtiny
int sensorPin = A2; // Analog pin 3 if you are using ATtiny
int sensorValue1 = 0;
int sensorValue2 = 0;
int brightness1;
int brightness2;

void setup() {
  pinMode(LEDPin1, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(LEDPin2, OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600); //Serial Comm doesn't work with ATtiny
}

void loop(){
  sensorValue1 = analogRead(sensorPin);
  
  if (sensorValue1<200){
    sensorValue1= 0;
  }else{
    sensorValue1 = sensorValue1;
  }
  brightness1 = map(sensorValue1, 200, 1023, 0 ,255);
  Serial.print(brightness1);
  analogWrite(LEDPin1, brightness1);

sensorValue2 = analogRead(sensorPin);
  if (sensorValue2<200){
    sensorValue2=0;
  }else{
    sensorValue2 = sensorValue2;
  }
  
  brightness2 = map(sensorValue2, 200, 1023, 0 ,255);
  Serial.print(brightness2);
  analogWrite(LEDPin2, brightness2);

}

References

Dawkins, R. (2006). The Selfish Gene. Oxford University Press.
Dewan MC, Mummareddy N, Bonfield C. The influence of pregnancy on women with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Eur Spine J. 2018 Feb;27(2):253-263. doi: 10.1007/s00586-017-5203-7. Epub 2017 Jun 29. PMID: 28664223.
Haber, C.K., Sacco, M. Scoliosis: lower limb asymmetries during the gait cycle. Arch Physiother 5, 4 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40945-015-0001-1.

In the classroom exercise we combined water pipes and wire with braided wire. By pulling the two ends of the pipe, the wire will be pulled and become twisted. Between the water pipe and the water pipe, we used paper tape to fix, of course, the use of glue gun fixed is also feasible. At the same time, we found that because the water pipe is made of rubber, there will be a lot of friction between it and other materials. And the shape of the thicker water pipe is not really easy to change and needs to be fixed with plastic strips. But because the pipe itself is hollow inside, adding other materials (such as liquid) to it will be very interesting. We thought that maybe we could stuff fiber optics into it and add lighting at the end so that we could control the “flow” inside the pipe with a switch.

Here are photos of the “fabric” we made in class, which gave us inspiration for the weaving method and placement of the sensors.