Serenity

Goldfinger

The Tactilist Theatre

A nice idea, to create poems with touch, but to me this just looks more like an epic fail:

poems told by touch: a Tactilist Theatre from Erik Conrad on Vimeo.

Skin.

Some nice videos I found based on touch:

Touch from annatruus on Vimeo.

Skin from Paul Glazier on Vimeo.

Nan Goldin

Check out his book The Devil's Playground

Infra Red

New day, New Ideas. Decided to try out the arduino swapping the capacitor for a proximity sensor.

Tried out a couple of infra red sensors, and managed to find one with a capacitor built in which made the results more accurate. The arduino can now pick up readings from up to 50cm away. Perfect!

Attached a lillypad vibe sensor as the output, when the threshold is above a certain nominal value, the vibe comes on. This fits in well with the original mole concept:

This is the program I wrote in Arduino for the set up:

For anyone who doesn't understand the jargon, to simplify it:

Part 1: Setting up the parameters and the threshold value (the value the vibe will be activated)

Part 2: The void setup, letting the software locate where the vibe is located

Part 3: The actual program, called a loop

part 4: Conclusion, if the value is above the threshold, turn the vibe on

if the value is below the threshold, turn the vibe off

Capsense

Started on building the arduino which will fit inside my glove, First of all tried out capsense. You can read all about it on the IMI Wiki, or here

http://www.capsense.com/

http://www.capsense.com/capsense-wp.pdf

I also recommend this video, which manages to make the whole subject quite lighthearted and easy to digest:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYH9dGl4gUE

Below I have built the arduino with a capacitor, the ball of foil is the optimum shape for detecting small electrical signals given out by humans. I'm really just experimenting with the values that the capacitor can sense, then when it starts working i'l figure out what I'm going to do with it.

I apologize for the poor quality of my mobile taken pictures, but I got so excited I couldn't wait to take them with a proper camera:

Using no resistor, really poor results

Using a 1M ohm resistor, slightly better results, but you practically have to touch the capacitor for it to sense anything at all. Decided to scuttle to Maplin and get my hands on some really big resistors:

Used different combinations of 20M ohm, 10M ohm and 5M ohm resistors. Did manage to get the serial port to pick up values from a few inches away, but I really wanted readings from about 50cm so at a bit of a dead end with the capsense