[Bradford] Wearable computing workshop, Saturday 27th April.

[Alice Kaerast]

I'm not sure there's much I can add to what's on the event website - I only
had time to briefly see Closeness before I had to be elsewhere.  The event
website, including previous year's exhibits, is well worth taking a look at
though.  Some of the pieces are fairly basic examples of flashing LEDs, but
others have some real thought behind them and range from practical, to
thought-provoking.

Lingerie might not be the most practical format for receiving real-time
stock updates (kinda cool though), but helmets with impact sensors and gas
detectors are actually quite useful and scarves with lights pulsing in time
to the wearer's breathing are fascinating.

One idea I'm surprised isn't reproduced by any of the past pieces is a
haptic compass - a dozen motors on a belt which gives the wearer an
indication of which direction is north.
http://www.gradman.com/hapticcompass

Regards
Alice


On 23 April 2013 21:55, John R. Hudson <j.r.hudson at virginmedia.com> wrote:

> Good to hear your trip was so interesting.
>
> Report at the next meeting?
>
> John
> --
> On Tue, 2013-04-23 at 21:09 +0100, Alice Kaerast wrote:
> > There's a few wearable computing groups in Toronto doing some cool
> > stuff, and the universities there have some really exciting courses
> > [0]
> >
> >
> > They had an exhibition while I was there recently with some really
> > cool stuff [1]
> >
> >
> > I particularly like the technologies which connect people, like
> > Closeness [2] - interactive jewellery which glows different colors
> > according to your distance from the paired device.  But you could go
> > further with this.  In the zine Designing The Future Of Sex [3], they
> > suggest a bracelet with a heart rate monitor, gsm modem and actuator
> > to mirror each other's pulse - which we can't be too far from being
> > able to actually create.  Since the zine is obviously NSFW, I'll paste
> > an excerpt here:
> >
> >
> > Obviously, at first a bracelet like this would be distracting.
> > Eventually, though, given enough time to get used to the stimulus,
> > does
> > it fall into sensory integration? If so, what does that end up meaning
> > —
> > can you tell when someone wakes up, what the rhythm of their day is,
> > just from a heartbeat? How does it cross over into in-person
> > interactions?
> > There are some studies that have shown that even loud music can apply
> > a
> > synchronizing effect to the heart’s rhythm—would this do that? What
> > happens when you have multiple partners, and receive multiple
> > heartbeats via different actuators
> >
> >
> > There are some other really interesting ideas in that zine, many of
> > which we could at least build the first generation of today.
> >
> >
> > I'm at the Keighley Worth Valley Railway's diesel gala all this
> > weekend, but I wish you all be best with this workshop and look
> > forward to hearing about what creations you come up with.
> >
> >
> > [0]
> http://www.ocadu.ca/students/records_registration/course_calendar/1213/postgraduate/certificate_programs/wearable_technology.htm
> > [1] http://webspace.ocad.ca/~technosapien/
> > [2] http://webspace.ocad.ca/technosapien/index.php/projects/closeness/
> > [3] http://anarchotranshumanzine.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/dfos.pdf
> >
> >
> > --
> > Regards
> > Alice
> >
> >
> >
> > On 23 April 2013 20:46, Andrew Back <andrew at carrierdetect.com> wrote:
> >         Hello,
> >
> >         This Saturday Bridge Rectifier are hosting a wearable
> >         computing
> >         workshop, that will be based around LilyPad Arduino, at the
> >         town hall
> >         in Hebden Bridge. Further details and registration can be
> >         found at:
> >
> >           http://brwearable.eventbrite.co.uk/
> >
> >         Cheers,
> >
> >         Andrew
> >
>
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