Wearable Prototype: Crash Helmet

craig — Thu, 19 Nov 2015 16:46:49 +0000

By Varun Gupta (varung1) and Craig Morey (cmorey)

We wanted to make a project that would be helpful to cyclists in Pittsburgh. After interviewing local cyclists and doing some research into what sorts of accessories are already on the market, we decided to move away from the crowded field of utility and safety gadgets, and instead design something more symbolic.

The Crash Helmet is designed to mark out places where people have been killed while cycling in Pittsburgh. Currently, the helmet uses the location of the recent death of cyclist Susan Hicks near Forbes and Bellefield.

The Crash Helmet takes the form of a LightBlue Bean attached to a bike helmet. The Bean pairs with an iPhone over Bluetooth, and lights up four red LEDs when the iPhone comes within 20 meters of the crash site.

(pictures can be viewed on Google Drive at Images)

Fabric Sensor Prototype

racheln — Thu, 19 Nov 2015 14:47:32 +0000

By Rachel Nakamura (rnakamur) and Joseph Paetz (rpaetz)

We wanted to create a soft, fabric sensor that one could interact with to create reminders for later if one doesn’t have paper, pens, notebooks, or ways to record reminders immediately available.

View post on imgur.com

The idea of creating something more wearable and natural than a smartwatch is what first appealed to us. We did a lot of experimentation with various materials, various mesh spacing fabrics, arrangements of connectors, and in particular, our calibration algorithms.

View post on imgur.com

YouTube / Rachel N – via Iframely

We also played around with Light Blue Bean and got it to talk to a Macbook, but getting an Android phone to control it is another problem entirely.

For further, more detailed documentation of our working process for the past few weeks can be found here:

Google Docs – via Iframely

prototype – F15 60-223: Intro to Physical Computing

Wearable Prototype: Crash Helmet

Fabric Sensor Prototype