‘Vibe’ is a garment that sends vibrations of rhythms from songs to others as a way to share your vibe and stay connected in our post-pandemic disconnected world.
In approaching this challenge we were initially inspired by thinking of how music plays a role in different communities around the world. We were especially interested in how the deaf and/or hard-of-hearing communities experience music and how they may continue to experience music in new and innovative ways. In thinking about the garment that we would create we all agreed that it needs to be adaptive and accessible for all. Our prior idea of incorporating adaptability into our design aligned very well with our interest in making music an experience that anyone could feel/experience. We were also inspired by the lack of physical connection our post-pandemic society has unfortunately developed since the rise of social media and exacerbated by the pandemic. Touch between humans necessary for the human experience.
Our jacket can send vibrations of rhythms from music that can be shared and connected with others. Users can also create their own beat that suits their taste by taking a personality test in the application. Each end result from the questionnaire will result in a unique song.
We began to approach making Vibe by first looking at the technology that would be required to make the garment vibrate. We used the sound sensor in the Arduino Board. Through this sensor, we could put a song played on an iPhone to it and based on the beats in the song it would trigger a vibration motor that is attached to it. The sound it picks up is converted into analog data by the board and based on the value ranges we made the vibration motor vibrate with different delays. Next, we focused on the construction of the garment. We developed a pattern for a jacket and inner bodice in CLO 3-D with accessibility in mind by incorporating magnetic closures. We first made the jacket then made the inner bodice and then we attached them together through the arm holes.
After assembling the garment we realized that the magnetic closures provided and used in the placket of the jacket and inner bodice were not strong enough to hold the fabric closed. We had the option to use snap clasps instead, but to preserve the adaptability of the garment, we chose to stick with the magnets. Our design is fully functional, but in the future, we would use stronger magnets. Another problem we ran into was that the vibration motor did not stop vibrating on its own. We realized that it was picking up the surrounding sounds, not just the song being played into it. It did stop when it was disconnected from the source.
We feel proud that we have come up with a concept that can foster connection between people regardless of hearing vs. non-hearing and abled individuals vs. individuals with health conditions or impairments. We are proud that the conception point of Vibe was that of adaptability and that regardless of what garment was designed that it would be adaptive. We feel accomplished as a team that we have created a fully functioning adaptive garment that although accessible, and has technology embedded in it, it does not sacrifice style.
We have learned how to work effectively with each other as we all come from different backgrounds and skill sets. Many of us had prior commitments planned for this weekend and as a result, we learned how to be proactive with delegating work. We held each other accountable and supported each other through it all.
Vibe will expand to include different types of garments. We would first like to make a shirt and then a pair of pants. These garments will be adaptive and uni-sex. We will also add different hidden pockets in the design to hold more sensors so that the vibrations could be felt in different areas of the body. We would also like to expand our personality quiz to include more questions, answers, and final results with different unique songs that would correspond to each.
Built With
- arduino
- clo
- coding
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