CC Lab: Mathletic Sleeve
INTRODUCING... THE... MATHLETIC SLEEVE
For my CC Lab midterm, I wanted to make a wearable tech piece. Running has become a necessity to my Graduate studies. Every morning I go for a run to: A. Wake myself up B.Get my brain and body going C.It actually gives me more energy to last through my days. Needless to say it plays a key role in who I am... and my survival through Grad School.
One day I was running, and realized the importance of our arms. Our arms ultimately controls how fast we run and our posture. Sprinters and Long Distance runners use different arm movements due to the change in their stride. So I though what if I could create a device that'll detect when your arms aren't at the right angle thus alerting the runner to adjust. So I started on the adventure of creating this device.
1. Research + Pitch
WEARABLE TEACH PITCH
I like to run, hike, jump, stay active. The past couple of weeks I have noticed how important our arms are. Arms determine how fast you run, how good your posture is while running, and hit helps reduce neck, back, and shoulder pains.
After doing research, I've learned that long distance runners should have they arms at a 90 degree angle, with their elbow reaching their hip, while sprinters need a wider range of motion to increase speed quicker.
I want to create an arm sleeve that will go over the middle part of the arm. This sleeve with have an a monitor in it that will detect when the users arms are not at the 90 degree position it should be at. This sleeve will etilmate collect data, thus allowing the athlete to see at which point during the run he/she might've changed their arm form.
How to make it:
I'm thinking of using a stretchy material for the arm sleeve and an accelerometer to collect the data.
2. Prototyping
- A running arm sleeve
- Conductive Fabric
- Arduino
- Led
- Resistor
- SG90 Servo
- Cable wires
I added a
3. User Testing
I tested the sleeve... it worked!
I added a little flag to the servo that says 'Go Mom' because my mom broke her elbow a couple of months ago and to regain full extension she needs to do an exercise every day. This exercise is exactly the rang of motion that you see the girl in the video doing. This motion really hurts for my mom, so I made an encouraging note that speeds up when she's able to bend that much!
4. Improvements
I would definitely try to figure out how to hide the wires and use a power source different from my computer. Also, the next step would be covering the conductive fabric. Instead of only sensing when the arm is bent, I would also add a feature that senses when the arm is over extended.
All in all I think it went pretty well! I got a good response from those who tested it, but in the future I would make it look more professional!
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Science Fair Projects:
1. Ting created this piece where over her mouth was a print sensor and in her hands was a box with switches and buttons. When asked a question Ting would input her answers and then press a red button. Once the red button was pressed the printer would then print out an emoji that expressed her emotions based of the answers she inputed into he system. SO FREAKIN COOL!
2. Aakansha created a smaller replication of a prison cell. She then connected a button sensor to the cell and when you push it, you will be taken through the story of an inmate.
3. This installation is AWESOME! A fellow DT student of mine was influenced by the characters Thor and Storm from the X-Men and how they can control the weather. So she wanted to create a similar experience for her users. By pressing your hand on the yellow mat, the box in front of you would start flashing and the sound of lightening and thunder would come from it. Also on the computer screen , the illustration would move from a being a peaceful day to a dark stormy one.
