Nien Lam

We’ve been experimenting with other heating elements to visualize patterns on thermochromic fabric. In our past tests we used conductive thread as the heating element but find it doesn’t carry enough current over longer distances to sufficiently heat the fabric. Here are some tests we did with creating heating elements with normal resistors and muscle wire. Muscle wire may be the way to go as it is flexible and does a good job heating the fabric. Next step is to create a wearable piece of clothing.

Triangle stack is a 3 player game where the objective is to reach the top before your other opponents. Players take turns placing triangles of alternating colors on the center pyramid. Players may only place triangles on the side facing them. Though the form works well for a 3 player game, an additional mechanic is required to make the gameplay more compelling and fun. One idea would be to add words on the triangles and require players to create phrases similar to refrigerator magnet poetry.

The fabric:
We are experimenting with NOVACHROMIC thermochromatic fabric. The color of the fabric will appear brown when cool but will change to yellow when touched or heated at the point of contact.

The form:
We are choosing to make a hoodie to afford us more room to work with and is a commonly worn daily outerwear. We integrating the thermachromatic fabric with regular fabric.

The desired visualization:
We want to create a visualization on the fabric using conductive yarn, fabric, and possibly different inks (as seen in the video below)

Sensing for Volatile Organic Compounds:
Carbon Monoxide Sensor – MQ-7

Gas Sensor Break-out board

Methane CNG Gas Sensor – MQ-4

Theragrip Thermal Tape

Here is an example of how to parse the XML file generated from an iTunes playlist.
You can get the file in iTunes by going to File -> Library -> Export Playlist.
Then choose XML as the file format.

import processing.core.*;
import processing.xml.*;

public class MusicDataViz extends PApplet
{
	private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

	public void setup()
	{
		size(300,300);
		frameRate(24);

		parseMusicXml();
	}

	public void parseMusicXml()
	{
		// Get iTumes XML file.
		XMLElement xml = new XMLElement(this, "music.xml"); 	

		// Get dict node that has all the track information
		XMLElement tracks = xml.getChild(0).getChild("dict");

		// Walk through each track and print out track information.
		// The way the xml is formatted, we need to inspect every other child.
		for (int ii = 1; ii < tracks.getChildCount(); ii += 2) {
			XMLElement trackInfo = tracks.getChild(ii);

			// Print out "Key : Data".
			for (int jj = 0; jj < trackInfo.getChildCount(); jj+=2) {
					print(trackInfo.getChild(jj).getContent());
					println(" : " + trackInfo.getChild(jj+1).getContent());
			}
		}
	}

	public void draw() {
		background(255,0,0);
	}
}

This is a modified version of the classic video game Pong where audience members can influence the outcome. When two people are playing Pong, audience members can use their mobile device to power up a side. If an audience member chooses to power up Player 2 by clicking the right button, Player 2′s paddle will be come larger and Player 1′s paddle will become smaller. The opposite will happen if the left button is clicked.

The concept of this piece is to let audience members feel part of the game. Similar to the TV show American Idol, viewers help determine the outcome of the show. Though based on the feedback from the people actually playing the game, they didn’t really feel like audience members were determining their fate. How well they played did not have a direct influence on which player received the power up. As for the audience members, they felt more like they were fighting each other and playing their own game then influencing the Pong game.

Amulets are ancient objects thought to give protection against evil, danger, or disease. They are normally kept on a rope or chain and hang around your neck. The corporate ids we see today remind me of these amulets, though their function is for identification and entry to secure areas. They have your photo on them and look very generic. It would be possible to create modern day amulets with embedded RFIDs and fiduciary makers that would not only replace ids, but all the cards and keys we normally carry around with us. Beyond it’s functional use, everyone could have custom designed amulets that better express the person it adorns. My amulet is of a snake, which is my Chinese zodiac sign.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statics
The United States department of labor publishes all of the data they gather (Employment, Unemployment, Pay & Benefits, etc). Here is a good visualization using the data.

iTunes Playlist
iTunes allows you to export your playlist in xml. The file contains everything you setup in the View Options in the application (Artist Songs, Genre, Year, Play Count, etc). The data could be used to create a visualization of not only your own playlist, but also of all playlists from a group of users.

Visualizing “The List”
The ITP listserv is a place where anyone in our community can post messages. The messages can range from something useful to something complete inane. Nonetheless, it provides a glimpse into what ITP students are talking about. Data points, mapped to a particular student, we can gather are daily avg frequency, # of posts started, # of posts responded, avg post size, etc.

Living Situations of ITP students
Where do you live? How big is your apartment? How much rent do you pay? How many roommates do you have? Common questions we ask each other at ITP. Doing a visualization of this data could help you figure out where lie on the spectrum.

Twitter Data Visualizations
Twitter feeds provide a wealth of information we can easily mine. Searching on keywords and hashtags are some of the powerful things you can do with Twitter. What’s particularly interesting is seeing the network diagrams showing the relationships that exist among users. Here is an application for visualizing connected users.

I normally wear eyeglasses to correct my vision. Though I could be more comfortable and wear contact lenses, I choose to wear glasses for more vain reasons. I would even go as far as saying that my glasses are a bit pretentious. Nevertheless, I think of my glasses as a mask that already represents me. I wanted to take this idea further and really exaggerate my glasses and eyes. To construct this mask I used photos of my own eyes and some large costume glasses.