Last week, I wrote a story on Kate Hartman’s Soft Circuits Class at NYU’s ITP) program. I was also teaching at ITP this summer, leading a class called Introduction to Physical Computing. Intro to Phys Comp, as it’s called for short, is a class where students are taught to make basic circuits and to use the Arduino microcontroller. While the class doesn’t concentrate on soft circuits, more students have been making them as innovative flexible conductive materials have become increasingly available. I thought I’d share a fun soft circuit project that came out of my Intro to Phys Comp class by Shirley Palma, who is currently working towards her masters in Computer Science at NYU.
Palma wanted to be able to update her friends about her attitude on twitter without having to log on to her computer or mess with text messaging. She built a soft switch into a handkerchief so that tying it will send out the message “I'm feeling alllllllright. love, SP” to Twitter. The result is what Palma has dubbed the “Hanker-'tude”. As Palma explains, “Having to interface continuously with a gadget to update your online presence is a drag on your real-life presence. Using a bandanna/handkerchief instead is at least briefly amusing and requires only minimal setup typing.”
How it works: when the soft switch is closed by tying the handkerchief, the Lilypad Arduino) detects it. A Bluetooth module called a bluesmirf, attached to the Lilypad Arduino then sends the message that the switch was closed to a Nokia n80 phone (which is Bluetooth enabled). Palma wrote an application in Mobile Python, a mobile programming language, that takes the information about the handkerchief being tied and then updates twitter via email with pre-selected messages.
The Hanker-‘tude electronics are modular – they are attached to fabric using velcro so that they can be inserted into a handkerchief that fits the occasion, or your particular outfit. Palma used conductive thread in her circuit to maintain flexibility in the parts of the handkerchief that are tied together.
For her next iteration, Palma hopes to add more contact switches so she can express more “‘tudes.” Additionally, she is considering making picture based 'tudes using flickr and the N80 phone camera, making a game of touching contact points in a sequence, and allowing text message replies from twitter to activate a buzzer or vibrating motor in the handkerchief. Eventually, after she’s accumulated a bunch of mood data over time, she’d like to chart it against variables like day, time, weather, light and see if there’s an interesting pattern. Sounds like the project could go in many interesting directions. You can keep up with Shirley Palma and her ‘Hanker-'tude’ project at her blog.
