Final Design

Images of the final design.

Project Finished!

Here is an example video of how the shirt could be used:

The final details of our project can be found on Xanthe's blog.

Zig Zag Frills

I spent a long time sewing the ribbon zig zags onto the shirt and around the LEDs, but it was worth it! The LEDs are now nicely embedded into the design with the use of the ribbon and looks really good.

Pictures are on Xanthe's blog.

Aesthetic part of Project

So Xanthe and I decided that we no longer want an over-layer as part of the top. Instead, we've decided to make the LEDs part of the design. We went to buy some decorative fabrics yesterday to stitch around the LEDs to make it look more aesthetically pleasing.

Coding

Today in class I asked Rohan to help me fix the minor kinks within our code. After cleaning up the code a bit, my problem was fixed. The code is now pretty much done. We only need to add the line of code that scales the flex sensor values that we figured out the other day and we're done with the code!

Slowly assembling our project

The bare bones of our project in development:

Flex Sensors Update

So I heard from Craig last night that he finally got our flex sensors and will be bringing them in to uni today. We'll finally be able to finish coding and start putting our project together! In the meantime, Xanthe has been soldering LEDs together and started hooking them up to the lilypad.

Testing Light Through Fabric

Testing how well the lights will shine through the fabric:

More Coding...

I figured out how to activate a second LED after a certain amount of time with the help of Craig's coding skills. I also went ahead and added a third LED that starts to fade in and out after the second one has been on for a while. Here is a short video of how it works so far.

The basic coding for our project is done, but once our parts arrive, we'll be able to finish the code and properly start putting things together.

Idea + Coding

The idea for our project is that if the wearer is slouching, subtle lights on the sleeves will start to light up and pulsate, indicating to the wearer to straighten their posture. If the wearer ignores this first sign and stays in the slouching position for a long amount of time, more LEDs will start to light up and pulsate, which would become more noticeable to the wearer.

Today I modified some code from my previous project to work with the flex sensor that Anne lent us. I managed to get an LED to fade in and out if the bend value is under 70. Small, but significant progress!

The Garment

We figured that for our project, we would have two layers of clothing; the under layer with all the circuitry stitched to it, and the over layer to hide all of the circuitry and diffuse the lights. The under layer would be a tight fit so that the flex sensors can pick up accurate values along the back. The over layer woud be a bit baggy so you can't see the bumps of the circuitry attatched to the inner layer.

Gathering Materials

Xanthe and I have talked about what materials we need in order to put together this project. We've told Craig to put us down for 4 flex sensors in the class order that he is organising from Sparkfun. Xanthe has ordered some LEDs from Farnell and we went shopping yesterday for some tops that we could use for this project.

Brainstorming Ideas

Xanthe and I were brainstorming some more possible ideas for this project. In the end we came up with a posture correction shirt. When the wearer is slouching, they would get an indication, perhaps on the sleeve, to say that they are slouching, which would tell them that they need to correct their posture. We were thinking of using a flex sensor to get values from the arch of the back when slouching.

Video of Lady Luminance

Lady Luminance

Inspired by Lady Gaga’s outrageous fashions, Lady Luminance is at first glance, an elaborate headpiece, but when activated, becomes an interesting lightshow on the head. If one wanted to wow the crowd, Lady Luminance is the way to go.

Lady Luminance has a built in light sensor which determines how fast the lights flash. If worn in a well lit room, the lights will change and illuminate the flowers in the headpiece in a slow and subtle way. However, if worn in a dark room, the lights would cycle through quickly, which is when the real excitement begins. In the dark is where one can see the full beauty of this piece, with each flower glowing brightly and changing colours in a fast, pulsating way. It is a perfect accessory for costume or dance parties.

FINISHED!!

So I've finally finished my headband! Here are some quick pictures of how it looks like. More high res pics will be taken later.

Work in Progress

Wiring the LEDs onto the headband with conductive thread...

It works!

More code testing

So I went to uni today for the extra session to get help with my code. After talking with Anne, Doug and Rohan, I finally got my code working to how I wanted! Now all that's left is to test it out with multiple LEDs and assemble the whole thing.

LED Testing 2

Coded the LEDs so that if there is low light, the LED's light pattern will cycle faster and when there is lots of light, it will cycle slower. It's not perfect yet but getting there...

The coding side of things...

I played around with Arduino today and after hours of being stuck at a dead end, I managed to figure out a few things. I have managed to make it so that when the light sensor has little light, the LED would fade in and out of red and when there is lots of light, it would fade in and out of green. I'm getting there!