Skirt Partner
CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE:
My previous research project is a space shuttle that could work well in the fiction world. Since we spent much effort making this delicate work but it has little contribution to our real-life world, I came up with the idea that this time our project would be useful. Through the classes I took and the Arduino practice, I think interaction is users interacting with the product, producing reactions. There should be input (sensors) and output (LED etc.) to explain the concept of interaction. In order to achieve our goal that our project should be practical and interactive, we came up with the idea to recreate safety pants. Compared with the common pants, our invention could help users avoid embarrassing moments like accidental exposure in public and even scare away peepers (when we intend to make behavior art). I seldom wear short skirt because of the afraid of sudden exposure and I once had the experience of being criticized by my teacher when I wore skirt to dance. Hope that people who want to wear skirts but are worry about the inconvenience and people who want to fight for their privacy and rights could be satisfied to our work.
CONCEPTION AND DESIGN:
This our original plan for our project, but after listening to professor Rudi’s advice, we realize that there could be some conflict. So, we delete the third function: motor( small fan).
First of all, if skirt is blown up by the wind, the light under skirt may be larger, so we planned to install a sensor to observe the change of light. In addition, we designed an independent button on the waist to let users better interact with the product by pressing this button. Then they can enlighten the small lights tied on the skirt when they notice someone is peeping under. For these two functions, we utilized photosensitive resistor, vibration sensor, led and buzzer to make our project. Compared with simply a button, the vibration sensor is so sensitive that it could triggered just by a gentle touch. When choosing the LED, we faced more options. At first, we want to use a LED mode like this
, which is definitely bright enough to scare away people. However, the power we have was unable to support it unless we use the plug, but it is really inconvenient for a skirt. Then we worked hard to try the LED stripe, but its intensity is not even as bright as the individual LED. Finally, we choose the red LED with the largest luminous intensity to warn the voyeurs.
For the sound to alarm the user of the exposure, we found the tone code of despacito, a pleasant music which would not attract the attention of passerby or cause embarrassment.
FABRICATION AND PRODUCTION:
We received many suggestions on the user test recitation.
We perfect our work based on these feedback and I especially like an idea from a classmate that we could use laser cutting by making a scary face, the two red LEDs acting as the eyes. Since the brightness of LED does not match our previous design, we add the scary face to improve that. Also, assistant and professor suggested we could turn our interactive artifact into a behavior art workpiece.
We used laser cutting to create faces with holes and inserted small LED bulbs into those two holes as eyes.
We used the Arduino wire wrapped around our waist as a decorative belt, and hung a lot of signs on it, which wrote some dramatic words to protect the rights and interests of short skirt wearers, and severely criticized the behavior of peepers.
CONCLUSIONS:
Last but not least, the intention of our art work is to avoid embarrassment and facilitate the understanding towards people who are wearing short skirts instead of regarding their behaviors as inappropriate or indecent. It is important for us to get freedom of dressing. Meanwhile, since peeping is a disguised behavior, our goal is to criticize those who peep or even take photos of wearing skirts below. We should urge the elimination of peepers. Only in this way can we acknowledge more people know the seriousness of this behavior and encourage the freedom of dressing. Admittedly, our product remains some shortcomings. Our products could not be tried on by everyone. Besides the limited audience, the skirt partner itself has little conflict between its different usage. We tried our best to improve these problems, but the conflict still exist. We are unable to find a sensor that has the ability to detect peepers or install cameras to photograph them, either. Also, my classmates were not allowed to try them because of its inconvenience. If we have more time, we should find methods to fix these problems, like borrowing a dress form. I believe that we would come up with better idea and cleverly ask for help( like the dress form) in our next project.
Leave a Reply