Visual Feedback Meter

What do you do when you have a children's choir that needs to get real time feedback without being interrupted (silently)? Build a visual feedback meter.

This meter, constructed out of paper, poster board and foam core, allows a happy face or a crying face or 4 others in between to be displayed. The faces can be changed on the fly to give immediate feedback just by turning the dial.

The meter is lightweight, easy to use and was the perfect solution.

As the children sang the faces could be changed from 'so-so' to 'happy' or to 'crying' depending on volume, or whatever parameter you wanted to give feedback on.

Supplies

2 - Foam Core Sheets

1 - Blue Poster Board

1 - Yellow Poster Board

1 - Piece of Red Construction Paper

12 - Smiley Faces printed onto paper. I found the faces on the 'pain scale' used by medical professionals to assess pain. 6 large faces are about 3-3/4" diameter. 6 additional small faces about 2" in diameter.

1 - 1x2 trade size wood (1-1/2" x 1/2") cut into two 1-1/2" square blocks

1 - Nail

Hot glue gun & glue

White Glue or a more appropriate large surface adhesive.

Step 1: Glue Blue Poster Board Onto Foam Core

The meter is blue so glue the blue poster board onto the foam core. The meter is square, so trim the poster/foam core assembly to be square.

Step 2: Draw and Cut Opening

Using a round object (cat toy in my case) or a large compass, draw the half-circle shaped opening and cut it out.

Step 3: Cut and Install Spacer Disk

The front board and the spinning faces don't work well touching each other so cut a disk out of foam core to fit between them as a spacer. Glue it in place on the back of the blue front of the meter.

Step 4: Trace and Cut Feedback Disk

You need to cut out the smiley disk. It needs to be larger in diameter than the opening. To get the right size I used the opening in the blue front of the meter as a template to trace the opening size as a circle onto what will become the smiley disk. I then traced about an inch larger around to give me the size to cut out. (It just occurred to me that I could have used the cat toy again to get the opening diameter drawn.- go figure!) Cut out the smiley face disk out of foam core.

Step 5: Glue Feedback Disk to Yellow Poster Board

Glue the smiley face disk onto the yellow poster board and cut it out.

Step 6: Layout and Glue Faces

As noted in "Supplies" I found the smiley faces on the internet as the images for the 'pain scale'. I printed them out and cut them out. I need to glue them onto the yellow disk equally spaced so I printed a 360 degree paper protractor and aligned it with the center and then used the degree readings to equally space the faces around the disk. Make sure to align them so that they will show through the meter opening and then glue them in place.

Step 7: Prepare Wood Blocks

As shown in the "Supplies" section the meter is held together by two wood blocks fastened by a nail. Cut the 1x2 into two square blocks. The first block will be glued to the blue front of the meter. The second block needs a hole drilled through it for the nail to pass. The hole must be large enough for the block to spin freely on the nail. A little friction here is OK. The second block will be glued to the back of the yellow smiley disk. The nail will eventually tie them together.

Step 8: Find Centers of Everything

All the disks need to be centered which can easily be done by marking the centers and pushing the nail through to mark the center spot and provide a hole for alignment.

Step 9: Install Front Block

Now the front block can be glued into place on the blue front of the meter. I found it easy to line it up over the hole poked in the poster board earlier by the nail.

Step 10: Install Back Block and Assemble

The back block is glued onto the back of the yellow smiley disk with the hole in the block lined up with the hole poked through by the nail. Once glued in place slide the nail through the block and nail it into the front block. This ties the two disks together and assembles the meter. The amount of force necessary to turn the smiley disk can be adjusted by tapping the nail slightly to pull the front and back blocks tighter together and increase the friction.

Step 11: Add Indicator Faces to Back

I wanted to be able to use the disk without having to see the front of the meter so I printed out small smiley images and glued them around the perimeter of the back of the yellow smiley disk corresponding (lined up with) to the smiley face being displayed. I put an index mark on the back of the meter face to indicate the top.

Cut a triangle out of red construction paper and glue it to the front of the meter at the top center of the opening.

Step 12: Give Some Feedback

The meter is complete. You can now give some silent feedback to whoever you want. While holding the front of the meter grab the back wood block and turn it until the face you want displayed lines up with the indicator tick at the top. Have fun!

Enjoy.