Compass Vibro Anklet

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Eric and Skory are currently working on a vibro-tactile compass in anklet form.

The Idea

Like everyone, we are inspired by that German dude's belt, but think the big, clunky belt is too impractical. Skory thought of pairing an accelerometer with a compass to build a bracelet that responds to the relative difference in motion of the arm vs. direction to north. Eric suggested doing that instead in an anklet. Running into difficulties with the whole accelerometer business, we're starting simple just building a vibrating anklet, and teaching an Arduino to talk to it and some 2-axis compass chips (we are actively pursuing economical ways of upgrading to a 3-axis chip).

Eric's Comments

Other people have also been inspired by the wired article, see for instance the other Eric: On the Haptic Compass - I've worn this belt and it's actually very intuitive. Note that he used 12 motors. There are many helpful links to parts (sensors, cables, vibrators, Arduinos, etc) in both the article and the comments. I am especially intrigued by Todd's idea of a "“foveated” motor distribution, where you have, say, three motors spaced narrowly across the forehead/belly, and the rest spread out around the less crucial sides and back. This might give you high accuracy where it counts (at the leading edge of most movement) without sacrificing too much function along the rest of the arc."

Hack Notes

March 24, 2009

March 26, 2009

March 31, 2009

April 5, 2009

April 8, 2009

April 9, 2009

April 11, 2009

April 15, 2009

April 21, 2009

April 23, 2009

April 26, 2009

May 31, 2009

June 01, 2009

June 09, 2009

June 16, 2009

June 17, 2009

June 18, 2009

June 19, 2009

June 26, 2009

June 30, 2009

July 12, 2009

July 14, 2009

July 17, 2009

July 18, 2009

Directions

Ted talked with Skory about the steps to do this and made a document of Compass Vibro Anklet Directions with steps how to do this. So far it's an untested document but Ted intends to use these steps to try to make one himself.