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I've been traveling a lot with my backpack, sometimes putting too much in it, which is bad for my back. Taking a cue from this weight-sensing tote on Instructables, I decided to build one using schemer.
Schemer is a tiny programmable button that helps you easily make interactive art and craft. Instead of using wires or bluetooth, you program it by holding it in front of a computer screen. You only need your web browser. No wires, and no extra hardware or software to install.
It's an experiment and part of my Ph.D. research on ambient programming and wearable computation. Check out page 2 for a brief discussion of why I think simplifying the construction and programming of wearable electronics is an important goal.
With the schemer web interface on my iPhone, I can quickly calibrate it for my needs, or make it do random flashing patterns anytime I want, without breaking out a USB cable or anything.
The 3 volt felt battery holder is eye-catching too, no?
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Signing UpStep 1What this means for the future of etextiles (aka what's the point?)
There are two major reasons I decided to create this type of wearable electronic button.
The first:
It hit me some time ago that the traditional ways of hooking up electronics are a big roadblock to broader acceptance of etextiles: for educators, for mass manufacturers, for DIYers, for artists, and so on.
On a circuit board, you can route all the wires carefully so they don't touch. This is easier to do on a hard, fixed, 2D circuit board where you have the luxury of routing wires under and above the circuit board.
However, in the case of sewing to fabric, the thread is typically stitched to both sides of fabric, making this kind of routing more difficult. Clothing is inherently "more" 3D than a printed circuit board: it has folds, creases, and dynamic spatial relationships (i.e. the whole fabric moves so your wiring has to account for this).
These factors add up, therefore sewing with conductive thread becomes a mess really quickly. We need to rethink how electronics and fabric may better coexist, and I think simplifying and reducing the number of connections is a good way to start.
These factors add up, therefore sewing with conductive thread becomes a mess really quickly. We need to rethink how electronics and fabric may better coexist, and I think simplifying and reducing the number of connections is a good way to start.
The second:
Programmable (wearable) artifacts still require a relatively beefy computer. By beefy, I'm referring to the bulk of all the things you need to reprogram anything in the field. I'm talking about the need for a computer with hardware ports, software, keyboard, etc. and not processor specs). Typically, I can't reprogram it from my PDA or phone.
I imagine a future where if I have a wearable electronic item and I need to change its behavior, I'd want to take out my phone, poke at the screen, and send the instructions to my shirt or pendant.
Currently, the typical way would be to break out the laptop (nettop), sit down, fire up an editor or development environment, type, compile, find a USB cable, download. Hopefully you brought all that, and you've already installed all the software and drivers you need.
I imagine a future where if I have a wearable electronic item and I need to change its behavior, I'd want to take out my phone, poke at the screen, and send the instructions to my shirt or pendant.
Currently, the typical way would be to break out the laptop (nettop), sit down, fire up an editor or development environment, type, compile, find a USB cable, download. Hopefully you brought all that, and you've already installed all the software and drivers you need.
Wearables give us a tremendous opportunity to rethink this very premise. Why can't we program directly from our phones for instance? This would be awesome especially for quick changes. Could we download a program embedded in a painting. Perhaps, by sliding my pendant in front of a painting, I could read in a program to dynamically change my pendant's colors? If I was a museum curator, could I make my visitors' light-up shirts behave differently depending on the exhibit they are in front of? What would that scenario or system look like? How would that be possible?
I feel that web-programmable wearable buttons (like schemer) are a good - though tiny - step in enabling a more pedestrian approach to etextiles. I used the word pedestrian, not to mean boring or unimaginative, but to mean commonplace and straightforward - think cellphones vs. unix mainframes.
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i am also doing similar research work, i need to measure pressure exerted by backpack straps on shoulders.
i thought of doing it with piezosensor, but now i find ur idea to be more inspiring.I would love to try it.
Cheers!!!!
swetambri
Great Work, and good luck with the Doctorate
Great instructable. When I train to climb, I always where a back pack and a system like this would be a great training device for climbers.
It's funny you should imply that this would appeal to 12 year old girls, and I hope this reply will explain some of the "Why" .
My favorite short paper on this is Leah Buechley's "LilyPad Arduino: How an Open Source Hardware Kit is Sparking new Engineering and Design Communities." You'll find in it a much more articulate version of what I'm trying to say here.
http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/~ctg/Craft_Tech.html
Personally, I agree with the rhetoric that current electronics (at its core) is very utilitarian and has been designed with little regard to aesthetics: black box chips, angular green copper clad boards, plastic battery holders, etc. As we see electronics migrating from the desktop into clothing, this is as good a time as any to seriously think about how electronics would better fit couture.
This means (at least for me) manufacturers should start considering how to make (e.g.) LEDs in attractive sequin shapes, microcontrollers that look like colorful buttons, switches that look like zippers, battery holders that look like applique (and so on).
Yes, you could accomplish the same thing with a fish scale and be done with it. The point is not the weight sensing. It's saying: "here's another example to show how we can mix electronics and clothing in ways that appeal to the eyes.
To your question "Why bother with the sewing?", I'd reply, "why bother learning a programming language when you can just buy/download any program you'd every possibly want? Why bother learning to solder or woodwork, or play guitar when you can buy the electronics, furniture or song and be done with it?" I hope there's no implication that doing something (painstaking though it may be) is not valuable in its own right.
In spite of technology's internal ugly, we have found ways to mask it with eye candy: gentle curves on a well made car or contours on a cellphone; there is no reason to think this will not apply to wearable electronics.
The whole point of this tutorial (and many like it) is introducing electronics to a new audience of designers, children, and craftspeople who want to incorporate some smarts into a project without it looking like a robot car."
For all we know, the 12 year old girl who gets into wearable tech (just) because of this felt battery holder might well become the woman who designs the world's most innovative microprocessor suited for wearable computing.
Instructables is a community of new and unique ideas. The author was eager to develop with Schemer, and was successful at doing so.
aniomagic, great instructable! If I had the time (and money), I would no doubt already be planning this as my next DIY. Keep up all the good work!