contact: leoni.voegelin[at]gmail.com

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speculative objects

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STEPS:
we test all the different electronic elements that respond to vibrations/pressure, to distance, and to your own breath. They work individually, but are all connected to the human playing with them.
we go one step further and use a networked duo (ESP32 DevKit) that communicates via WiFi.

To interact with it, we use piezoelectric disks as pressure/vibration sensors. You can use them in two different ways, either as buzzers for sound or as sensors to detect vibrations or pressure. A piezoelectric disk generates a voltage when it is deformed. When you use it as a loudspeaker, you apply a voltage to the disk, and that movement is converted into sound. This component is very interesting because it can be used both as a contact microphone and as a sonar device for ultrasound.

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here is the circuit to connect the piezoelectric disk to an arduino nano and the layout on a stripbard. How many Amps you need depends on how many leds your ledStrip has(!).

To get your code working, you need to install the FastLED library. If you want to use a RingBuffer, you must also install this library.

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PIEZOELECTRIC DISKS

DISTANCE SENSOR

We can use a VL53L1X to measure the distance between an object and the sensor. There is a cheaper version, the VL53L0X, which can measure up to 2 m (the closer, the more accurate). The VL53L1X is quite expensive, but can measure up to a distance of 4m. It works with infrared. The sensor emits an infrared light that bounces off the surface it reaches and returns to the sensor, which receives the light and calculates the time it takes to travel, thus calculating the distance (Time of Flight). There are also other distance sensors like the HC-SR04 that work on the same principle but with ultrasound (they are much cheaper). I needed a small sensor with a wide range, so I used the VL53L1X.

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here is the circuit to connect the distance sensor to an arduino nano and the layout on a stripbard. If you only use one distance sensor, you don´t need the XSHUT Pin and the GPIO (CLOCK PIN). How many Amps you need depends on how many leds your ledStrip has(!).

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VL53L1X

HC-SR04

To get your code working, you need to install the FastLED library and VL53X0L Library. Zeno Gries wrote a really nice function for calculating moving average of the sensorvalues you can use if you have multiple sensors running! Thanks a lot Zeno Gries!

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BREATHING BELT

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Last but not least, we have probably the most exciting part! We use a breathing belt after the design and idea of Hannah Perner Wilson. This knit stretch sensor is a simple solution for capturing the movement of the chest or stomach breathing using a stretch sensor knit from a stainless-steel & polyester yarn “sensor yarn”. For a detailed instruction on how to build this sensor, see: https://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=8171). On the website "How to get what you want" of Hanna Perner Wilson and Mika Satomi (KOBAKANT) there are a lot more fun sensors to discover, so check it out!

I added a button for calling a software reset to calibrate the sensor to your breath. Below you find the stripbard layout for the sensor, the light and the button and the cirquit.

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green wire = pushbutton

yellow wire = led (+)

blue wire = sensor

To get this code working, you only need to install the FastLED library. If you also want a calibration button which will call a software reset to start all over again, see below.

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If you want to go a step further and use a networked duo (ESP32 DevKit) that communicates over WiFi by setting up its own local network and sending data over OSC, see my next post. This post has already become too long...