Daniel Zhu | Research Study B

Revised Project Statement | Pneumatic Heart/Lungs

This project would be a pneumatic heart and lungs linked to a participants heartbeat/breathing. would be collected in real time through This could create an interesting out of body-like experience where the movement of an external object is linked to one of your core subconscious functions. The goal would be to make people more aware of a process we usually don’t see, but is essential to our lives.

Creative Requirements

General Requirements:

  • Aesthetically, I’d like the silicone heart and lungs to be a translucent and slightly abstracted version of the real organs involved. The form should ideally resemble the actual organs involved to move and function in an accurate way when inflated. However, I complete accuracy is secondary to having a more cohesive aesthetic.
  • While the lungs might be able to be pneumatically actuated to resemble the movement of actual lungs by inflating and deflating them, it might be necessary to abstract the movement of the heart because of its combination of muscles and valves through its four chambers. I think the most important thing would be to retain the general shape and to try to mimic a two part movement that matches the “ba-dump” sound the heart makes.

Critical Path

Proof-of-concept

A potential first step would be to mould and cast a prototype for the lungs to better understand how they would inflate differently based on different thicknesses and tubing arrangements.


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