Our parasite is meant to be a warning for potential bruises. Many times people do not realize that they bumped into something which will later cause a bruise. The parasite is triggered when there is a sudden force. There is a continual movement until the parasite is fully formed. For this iteration, we integrated our parasite on someone’s arm and head.

We thought of these actuators as parasites in the sense that they are always on you but they are not necessarily bad or taking advantage of you. They are mainly buddies that accompany you to warn you about potential harm rather than cause you harm.

Spider Friend – Natalia Santiago

The main idea behind this actuator is that you wear it on your arm and it inflates when you hit something. The actuator is dressed up as a little spider that accompanies you throughout your day and warns you about hitting yourself or potential bruises.

Here is a demonstration of the pneumatic actuator without fabric. The piece is designed to go around your arm and move in an accordion-like up and down fashion. The main pneumatic pouch that wraps around your arm has 3 other actuators attached to it connected through a hole welded in the middle. The motion I intended to recreate was a sort of leach up and down motion.

Here are some images showing the construction:

Finally, I decided to add a few legs and some tulle to the creature to give it more motion and life.

Growing Friend – Jina Lee

The purpose of this actuator is when you accidentally bump your head somewhere whether it be on a wall or with your phone. There are two kinds that will occur. It has blooming like state that makes you feel comfortable and aware about the bruise that will be appearing soon. This parasite will keep you company until the bruise appears!

I struggled to make it into a wearable. If I could, I would like to try to crochet a hat with the tub so that it is hidden.

this is a failed attempt