Eyes in the back of your back

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Revision as of 11:01, 10 April 2009 by Elgreengeeto (talk | contribs)
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or, Vibro Vest. Name suggestions encouraged!

Rachel and others are creating a vest that will allow the wearer to feel side-to-side movement behind them. This will be done by a set of motion sensors connected to a touch display (of pager motors, at least initially). The first prototype will have a one dimensional display so that up & down motion will not be detected, but this can probably be added later once some of the more pressing problems are solved. We have not yet made a final determination on the prototype sensors but have had some success with ultrasonic rangefinders.

Current Status

Parallax PING))) works but we don't like it so much. Got a Maxbotics MAXSonar EZ-1 functional in its analog mode, with LED standing in for motor (the shift register not yet integrated) but have failed at reading its serial out.

Integrate the shift register (wait until sensor decision is made? it would be cool to have an end-to-end thing...)

I (Rachel) have a fairly detailed mental model of the armature but have not made it yet.

Next Steps

  • Try out IR sensor? Daniela has lent us one, and I think there's some others in the bin plus of course the 900 PIR boards upstairs...
  • Buy the other US sensor I found? Its specs beat out both the Maxbotics and the PING))). Decide later.