pleasurecomputing

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FINISHED PROJECT

I have completed the project to a standard that I’m proud of for this hand-in.

My initial goal for this project was to create a playful interactive object that is symbolic of (female sexual) pleasure. I wanted it to be visually enticing and provide the user with a clear sense of interaction and response.

I think that I have remained true to my initial project ideas. The design process took a couple of turns:

1) At some point I decided to use a plastic bowl instead of the metal candle holder. I’m glad I chose not to use that in the end as I think the candle holder is more indicative of the emotion I chose to portray and is overall more aesthetically pleasing

2) I decided against having the object hanging from a string. I was initially planning on using accelerometer data over gyroscope but the data proved to be quite difficult to handle as the movements would have been small and therefore the window of extracting the meaningful data was short. The gyroscope feature provides a much more hands-on experience in my opinion and means that the user has to pick up and handle the object to understand the full experience which is in line with my aims for the project.

A video demonstration/explanation of my project on vimeo is found at

https://vimeo.com/user93870895/review/311122947/f6f118dc62

The password is “pleasure”

REFERENCES

-The arduino code that collects data from the MPU6050 sensor was taken from code that I found on github: https://gist.github.com/elktros/3f6a07bcc1220e899b0fec615f5b3a6e#file-simple_raw_mpu_6050-ino

-The part of code in Max that collects the serial data was taken from a YouTube tutorial I watched:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bT3G4Mep7E&t=643s

-The code used in max to send/receive data to Wekinator was taken from Rebecca Fiebrink’s patch that she provided for us to use in Week 5 the Data and Machine Learning for Creative Practice Module @ Goldmsiths, Uni of London. 

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FINAL CODE

I have attached to this post screenshots of the final versions of code that are part of my project, including arduino code and MaxMSP patches

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CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

I have tried to make a diagram of my circuit in fritzing. Hopefully this is clear. The 2 big elements on the left represent the pressure sensors and the element on the top right of the diagram is the textile button I made. 

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VIBRATING FEATURE!

As a sort of *tongue-in-cheek* feature I have added this vibrating element to my project. 

As the piece stood previous to adding this element, I didn’t think it was communicating the feeling of pleasure as clearly as I would have liked. So on top of all the other interactive features I have essentially added a little button to the project that resembles a clitoris. Behind the button is a vibrating element that I got from taking apart an actual vibrator. When the button is pressed, it completes a circuit that activates the vibrator and, if it wasn’t clear enough, I thought a little LED light would add to the overall design and interaction so this lights up as well when pressed. 

The button is constructed out of soft materials. I used conductive fabric and a normal washing up sponge to make it. I used the rough top of the sponge to stick the conductive fabric onto and then stuck small bits of the actual sponge bit in between the two pieces so that at rest, the conductive pieces do not touch, but when pressure is applied they touch and complete the circuit. 

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The final look for the object is complete (wires will eventually be invisible)

I decided to change the object drastically as the plastic bowl wasnt really working how I wanted it to. I went back to the initial design of using a metal candle holder instead. The object no longer hangs and I have decided not to use the accelerometer aspect of the sensor as I didnt need as much data as I was getting, so now I’m only using the gyroscope. 

Full interaction with the object requires 2 people which I thought would make the piece more interesting. As it stands, the piece needs one person to hold and tilt the object to control the gyroscope and another person can control the pressure sensors which lie underneath the fur ontop of the candle holder. 

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*almost* kinda working model

Using wekinator I have managed to train the model to make some noise!!  

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CODE

The pictures above are of the code that I have written to gather the data from the sensors and also the max patch that collects the serial data from the arduino. 

For the code that deals with the mpu 6050 accelerometer, I have tweaked a simple read code that I found on github (link to this https://gist.github.com/elktros/3f6a07bcc1220e899b0fec615f5b3a6e#file-simple_raw_mpu_6050-ino). 

The part of the code that deals with the pressure sensors I wrote myself. I read online that to print the voltage from the analog pins, you take the number given and multiply it by 5/1023. 

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VIDEO DOCUMENTATION OF ACCELEROMETER 

Similar to the data from the pressure pads, I have hooked up the accelerometer data to send to maxmsp. I have again visualised this data through some sliders on maxmsp. 

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WORKING PROTOTYPE OF PRESSURE SENSOR DEMONSTRATION

In this video I demonstrate the pressure pads working.

On the screen you can see the max patch I have created that takes the serial data from the arduino and visualises it using a slider.

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PRESSURE PADS

I have recently been experimenting with velostat in order to create effective and expressive pressure pads. It took a considerable amount of experimentation over a couple of weeks to finally get a working prototype for the pressure pad. 

After watching a couple of youtube tutorials I had the basic outline. Two bits of conductive material with a piece of velostat sandwiched between them. As I don’t have any conductive material I decided to use foil. I have taped jumper cables to both conductive squares.

The wiring for these pads was difficult. It took me quite a while and a lot of research to figure out how I needed to lay it out. The first thing I tried was by hooking up one conductive piece to the power and the other to an analog pin assuming that analog acted as ground (Meghan helped me with this). This did kind of work but the change in voltage was so minute it was almost negligible. Whilst researching this problem, it came to light that the analog pins can, in fact, send out voltage. To do this, you write the code digitalWrite(AnalogPin1, HIGH). So instead I connected one side of the pad to the analog and the other to ground. After writing some code that reads the voltage through the analog pin, I had a functioning pressure pad! I recreated this in another pad. 

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2.12.18

I have bought an Arduino MPU 6050 accelerometer/gyroscope sensor for my project. Today I tried hooking it up to my arduino but I realised that I might first need to solder the pins onto the sensor as the connection is flimsy without and I haven’t managed to get solid real-time data so far. 

I am also playing with how the whole object will be put together. In photo 1 it shows how i’m imagining it will be done - the arduino board with the sensor will be on the bottom of the object. 

I have also decided that the object will be suspended so that the user can push/swing it. 

Velostat has still not arrived so have not been able to experiment with that yet. But I imagine that it will be placed around the outside of the clear bowl. 

NOTE: I have since changed the object I will be using for the structure (i think). I think instead of the mental candle holder I will use this clear plastic bowl as it is much lighter and makes it easier to suspend the object.

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I want my project to depict the feeling of pleasure. For my final degree project this year I’m creating an audiovisual installation centred around the idea of female pleasure and I wanted this project to fit into this idea as well.

For this project I want to create a small reactive object that vibrates when the user applies pressure onto it. So far I’ve gathered some materials together including a metal candle holder (that kind of resembles a vulva) and some furry material. I have also taken apart a couple of vibrators to get the motor from the inside to use for my project. It took a while to find one that would be powerful enough to get the object to noticeably vibrate but I did eventually find one.

I have also ordered some velostat to use as the sensor element that detects pressure. I am planning on cutting it into strips and sticking it onto the candle holder and underneath the fur.