Week 3

In-Class exercise:

This week we learned how to use Arduino Lilypad USB, micro:bit, and Neopixels. I am still struggling with how to connect the circuits, so I made the following pictures.

 

I was also struggling with the LilyPad because I couldn’t understand the mechanism, so I referred to this and made some notes.

Coding the micro:bit wasn’t was difficult as I thought, maybe it was because we only did the simplest one. One thing to pay attention to is the “radio set group” must be the same for both of the mirco:bits.

here is the final result: IMG_8447

Reading reflections and thoughts: 

How animals & plants communicate: 

• • Three interesting facts I found online: 
    • Octopuses can change the color and texture of their skin to communicate.
    • Elephants can communicate through seismic vibrations in the ground.
    • Spiders use vibrations on their webs to communicate important messages.
• By using radio signals, the person who is wearing the clothes can choose to change its color,  based on his/ her mood and feelings, or to send out sounds or vibrations. 
• Speaking of vibrations, I think of receiving phone calls or messages. So if the person wants to make a connection with another person nearby, but he/ she is too shy to speak up, he/ she can use vibration to attract attention. 
• I learned that plants can emit scents to communicate with each other. However, so far, I still regard it difficult to control the scents a person sends out because scents do stay there for a long time. But fragrance can be a part of the design as scents can be related to memories and feelings. 

 

• I am also trying to think about how to manifest “ethical consumption” through interactive fashion. Based on my understanding of the Chinese fashion market, although there are conscious consumers who care about the environmental and ethical impact of fashion, most consumers still have little knowledge about the negative impact of clothings, especially those of fast fashion. From what I learned before, one of the driving reasons why consumers can’t stop consuming fast fashion is that the designs of those durable products can’t keep up with the changing styles. Would it be possible to integrate LED screen or other technologies that allow users to define their own patterns and designs into clothes? 

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