Physical Computing Blog

For my second project, I made a wearable in the form of a shirt that plays music whenever the user moves/exercises. The shirt features a FLORA accelerometer sensor that has been sewn to the chest area. The sensor is then connected to the duct taped breadboard which holds an Arduino Nano. The Nano also has a speaker connected to it. Finally, to supply power, I used a 9 volt battery with a connector for ground and power. I was going to add some sort of pouch, or at least a switch to turn on and off the device, preventing the need the plug and unplug the battery for every use, but that was more of a stretch goal. Also, as mentioned before, I attempted to sew, but mostly failed and used lots of tape. Although that was also because I could not see a way to sew the whole breadboard securely. The only successfully sewn portion is the sensor, mostly because it is meant to be sewn through its holes. In terms of the software, I used the toneAC library for better sound control than the native...

My idea for a wearable project is to create a shirt which detects motion from the body to play music. The music will only continue to play if the body continues to move. The idea is to have the mechanism detect if things like walking, running, or jumping are occurring. Motivations: Motivation is probably the key component to the whole project since the shirt itself serves to motivate someone to exercise by rewarding with music. Hopefully, music is enough of a motivation for the user to approach and continue the activity. Expectations: I think that most people approaching this wearable would feel encouraged to exercise, but would not feel like this would truly heighten their workout. However, imagine listening to a song and having it stop mid-way, or even during a chorus. I think the music itself will inspire the user to continue moving at least until a good ending point in the song. Associations: Some people might attempt to match the beat of the song to their activity. It would ...