motion
My first vee-jay application is finished and it even recognizes some gestures. The application downloads text from the micro-blogging site twitter and shows them in the application. With the suit you can move the bits of text to the left or to the right and push them from the screen. The users sees what other people from over the world are doing, thinking or feeling at the same moment.
I included some screenshots below and will put some video material online as soon as possible.
working prototype
Finally my prototype is finished. I would like to thank Barbara Dijkhuis, Toon Segers, Geert Kooijmans and my Mam and Dad for supporting me in the process of building the suit.
I included a picture below and I will post a video of the suit working soon.
placed on 29-01-2008 by evert hilhorst.commentputting it al together
Finally everything is working and its time to put it al together. My prototype needs to be "one size fits all". After some research I decided to make a vest with Velcro bracelets. I included a sketch below.
placed on 20-01-2008 by evert hilhorst.commentwireless connection with processing
For my suit to be fully wearable it needs to be fully wireless. For the wireless connection I choose to use a Bluetooth connection. There's a Bluetooth chip standard installed on my Mac and it works just like other serial connections.
I ordered the sparkfun bluetooth DIP module that is preconfigured so it must be easy to use. After a little help from a friend of mine, Geert Kooijmans, I got the whole thing working like a charm :)
The bluetooth module works with 3,3 volt and the arduino lilypad works with 5 volts. I ordered a lilypad power module, but this thing only has a 5-volt output. Therefore I decided not to use it. Geert build me a power supply that works with one 9-volt battery and has two outputs. One 3,3-volt output and one 5-volt output.
feedback
When my suit is finally working I want to write some software that can recognize gestures. But the thing with gestures in the air is that you only have visual feedback. That is when you are looking at the screen. That's why I was looking for a solution so that the user can get some feedback. I ordered 2 vibration boards from the liypad wearables series.
placed on 12-01-2008 by evert hilhorst.commentlilypad
My prototype needs to be a wireless wearable. The standard arduino I use is too big to use in clothing. Luckily the guys from arduino also build a lilypad. The lilypad is especially made for wearables. Its very small and its even washable.
I ordered a lilypad together with some other sensors from the lilypad series at sparkfun.
processing and arduino part 2
So far I got everything working. I've written firmware for the arduino(Increadbly easy) and created a processing program that received the signals from the accelerometer.
My first results however where highly inaccurate. Randomly I received "null" results. I decided to try different pre-written firmware for the arduino. The firmware I tried is called standard-firmata and you can download it at the arduino website. With standard-firmata comes a processing library that makes it easier to communicate with the arduino.
processing and arduino
I got processing working with the arduino and the accelerometer. At first I ran into a lot of problems with the serial library from processing. After some research I found out that this has to do with my fresh Leopard install. The serial library works with java and needs to place some files in the /var/lock folder. This folder has strangely disappeared in Mac os 10.5. On the arduino forum I found some solutions, but they where all very difficult.
Finally I decided to just make a /var/lock folder myself en this fixed the problem :)
placed on 22-12-2007 by evert hilhorst.comment
gesture recognition
I am reading a lot of stuff on how to work with gesture recognition. But to make gesture recognition work you need to know a lot about programming. The most gesture recognition works with difficult algorithms that recognizes re-occurring patterns and events. If there is someone who thinks he can help me with this, feel free to contact me.
placed on 15-12-2007 by evert hilhorst.commentprocessing vs. quartz composer
When I finally get the data on my computer I need a program to translate the data in to graphics. Also I want to experiment with all kinds of graphics I can generate real-time. I researched and found a lot of programs capable of doing that but I decided to focus my attention to two methods. First one: quartz composer. Quartz composer is a tool that comes with xcode from apple. It has a graphical user interface in witch you can build OPENGL graphics. It works great but is limited on input options. If I want to use a serial connection you have to build it yourself.
Processing on the other hand is completely code based. Every sketch you must write yourself. Endless possibilities.
first tests accelerometer
Yes it works. I've got my first results working with the accelerometer and the arduino. All I needed to do is download the latest arduino driver and write a little piece of firmware for the arduino. Also I connected the accelerometer to the analogue input ports of the arduino.
Uploaded the code and its working :)
code coming soon.
delivery
Package with the electronics arrived. At first I am a little scared of all the electronics. I'm a designer and not a engineer, but I am told the arduino works great for people who never worked with electronics before. Besides, everything I need to know I can get from the arduino website.
placed on 04-11-2007 by evert hilhorst.commentstart of my project
For my next project I want to build a suit that registers body movement. For example, I can use this suit to control vee-jay applications I a€™m developing. In this way everybody can vee-jay. You can generate visuals based on dance movements.
The suit is also perfect for other applications like gaming or gesture controls.
I am going to make a prototype that works with two three-axis accelerometers. I ordered two accelerometers and an arduino for testing the accelerometers.
If the accelerometers work for me then I need to make them wireless and make all the electronics suitable for clothing.
I've ordered the sensors and the arduino at sparkfun electronics.