SM3727 Reflection on Soft-Circuit Making (by Lau Pak Yan)


Demo video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Asa03k4-jAU

There are several advantages and disadvantages in using soft-circuit to make things. The first advantage is that it can make the device to be more comfortable to wear. The conductive thread has a similar texture to the material of clothes. Which is soft and comfortable to touch and contact to our skin. While the traditional wires are harder to bend and have an uncomfortable plastic surface. Also, soft-circuit have lower weight than the normal circuit, which will make the device become lighter and more comfortable to wear. The second advantage is that it can provide a more natural look on clothes.  Threads of soft-circuit looks almost the same as the treads in clothes, its color and texture can be blended and merged into the clothes. Which makes the wearable device looks less mechanic and less awkward. The third advantage is that it can fit to the flexibility of human’s body (Hartman,2014). Our bodies can shake, bend or even twist. Materials for making wearable circuits should afford lots of wear and tear. Soft circuit are soft, flexible and durable. So, it is suitable for making devices which we will wear on our body.
 However, there are also a disadvantage in using soft-circuit—it cost more time to fabricate and test. If we wanted to connect two components in usual fabrication with traditional wires, the only thing we needed to do is to plug to two ends of the wire into the components or just weld them. But with soft circuit, we needed to sew the thread step by step. Also, bad connection will occur if the sewing is not tight or strong enough. The sewing stitch needed to be looped on a same spot for several times to ensure the circuit is always connected. And this process will cost extra time to fabricate.
For application of my soft circuit—the fairy bottle, I will combine it with a pair of gloves.  There will be five LEDs placed on the tip of the five fingers respectively. And as shown in the demo video, the LEDs will turn on and off randomly in a smooth way. So that it can mimics the fireflies or fairies. This pair of gloves can be used in a dark place to enhance the ambience. For example, people in the concert can wear the gloves and wave their hands when the LEDs are blinking. And it will give a fantasy feeling of fairies flying around the venue.
There is more application on luminous elements on wearable. For example, there is a project called the “LilyPad Wrist Band POV” (quasiben,2010)
Project Link: https://www.instructables.com/id/LilyPad-Wrist-Band-POV/
In the project the two creators used the technique of POV, so that they take a photo of them drawing words in the air. The creators first connected a column of LEDs and attached them to a wrist band. And by programming, these LEDs can generate different patterns rapidly. These patterns are corresponding to the pixels in a sentence of words. When the user moves their hand fast, words can be captured by a camera set with high exposure time.
I think it is a creative and interesting idea. It makes me remembers magicians in the western films who cast spells and the words of spells are floating in the air. Besides from the aesthetic, I think this wearable can also be used in other ways. For example, art performers (like dancers) can wear the band in their performance. They can put a hidden message which can not be seen by our eye directly in the bands as an extra layer of meaning for the performance or as an Easter egg.
The fabrication process of it is simple, the creators just used a LilyPad Arduino, LEDs, battery and some coding to make this project. It is simple to make, others can learn, modify and reproduce it easily. Which can inspire others in the community. And I think it is also a good point of this project.
There only one place in the project I think can be improved and that is the camera part. The camera is separated from the body, it is not a piece of wearable. So, if the camera and monitor are installed on to a pair of goggles. The user can see the word directly in front of their eyes.

Reference:

Hartman, K. (2014). Make: Wearable Electronics: Design, prototype, and wear your own interactive garments. Sebastopol: Maker Media.

quasiben. (2010). LilyPad Wrist Band POV. Retrieved March 8, 2019, from https://www.instructables.com/id/LilyPad-Wrist-Band-POV/

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