Module 1 - Connect: Circuits and Interaction

Weekly Activity Template

Kurtis Lauwereys

Project 1

Module 1

During the 1st formstorming activity I focused on learning how to make different styles of circuits, and how to use alternative and soft materials like copper tape, conductive thread and fabric, and even Play-doh! to design circuits. In activity 2 I focused on ideating different interactive affordances based on my own daily activities and life, trying to conceptualize something unique to me that isn't too complex due to the time limits in place.

Activity 1

My first simple circuit did not work because I didn't leave a gap under the light, so it was 1 continuous strip of copper tape. I forgot to photograph this without the light though.

I used a box cutter knife to trim a piece of the copper tape to create a gap for the LED light to fit in. Now the circuit has a positive side and a negative side.

Here is the circuit closed, with the LED light turning on showing that it is functional.

My first series circuit didn't work at first because I forgot I needed 2 batteries, but I built it properly with the necessary gaps after learning from the simple circuit. Here is the assembly of the series circuit.

Here is the series circuit closed, with 2 batteries powering the 2 LED lights showing it is functional.

This is my first attempt at a parallel circuit. I had to be mindful of the folds to keep the circuit continuous, since this tape is only conductive on 1 side. This would be easier with tape that is conductive on both sides.

Here is the full circuit assembly. The left side is positive, the right side is negative. This also requires 2 batteries to function like the series circuit.

This is the parallel circuit closed, with 2 batteries powering the 2 LED lights showing it is functional.

I started exploring with other materials now. This is conductive paint on pink card stock, with copper tape to anchor the light and continue the circuit. Instead of a fold-over to close the circuit, I used the green gator clip with wire and pressed it against the paint. When I had it clamped to the paper it wasn't making enough contact to light up the LEDs so I had to do it this way.

Next I made a ribbon circuit as a basic way to test other materials. Sewing this with conductive thread was rough, because the thread isn't smooth and very springy so I was constantly fighting with it to try and lay it smoother. I gave up on making it pretty and just aimed for functional because it wasn't worth spending the time on something that is just for testing and learning. I made it work by looping one of the metal wire ends of the LED and sewing conductive threat through the loop and the fabric over and over. I made approx 10-15 loops with the thread before tying it off and cutting it.

Here is the ribbon circuit closed, with 1 battery powering the single LED to show it is functional.

I expanded the ribbon circuit with alligator clips to see if it would work. It did, however you can't clip the battery or it won't work because it's touching both the positive and negative sides at the same time. This only worked when I was pressing the clip against the correct side of the battery.

I made a felt battery pouch with conductive fabric cut into ribbons to complete the circuit when a battery it inside of the pouch. I attached alligator clips to the ribbons, and then the clips attach to the correct anode and cathode wires of the LED light.

I did some Googling and discovered Play-Doh is a conductive material due to the high salt content, so I tried to make a simple circuit with it and it worked but it was so feint you can't see it in this photo. This gave me the idea to try using a stronger battery but I didn't have one, so I waited for the Week 2 class. The battery used here is a basic 3V battery.

I tried again, this time with a 9V battery and it worked!

I wanted to see how far I could stack the LEDS with them remaining lit, so I used 1 of each colour and surprisingly they all lit up. The further down the chain you go the less power there is available, so they gradually get dimmer.

I attempted to make a graphite circuit because Jen mentioned another classmate was able to make it work, but I was unable to make it work. I tried a few times with slight tweaks but it just wasn't working no matter what I did. This is the circuit open.

This is the graphite circuit closed. I'm glad I tried it but I wish it would have worked.

I wanted to have at least 1 fun shape so I made an eye shape, kind of similar to how Egyptian Eye's are drawn in my favourite childhood cartoon Yugioh.

I used copper tape to hold the anode and cathode wires in place against the conductive paint that makes the 2 halves of the eye shape.

I didn't fully plan out how to close the circuit so I just used some aluminum foil since this is for testing and learning purposes only. This is with the switch open.

Here is the closed switch version to demonstrate that it works as intended. Circuits are getting easier to make and understand now, it's basically just layering of positive and negative 'tracks' with the right amount of power pushed to the light.

I wanted to try something more out there so I made a potato circuit. This is version 2, version 1 also worked but both were impossible to photograph with the lights on. This photo shows the construction of it, but the camera doesn't capture the light because it's so dim. This would have worked better with a 9V battery I believe.

Here is a photo from the same aspect but with the lights off, to show it actually works. It's impossible to get a perfectly crisp photo with such little light and no tripod but I did my best to get this.

For my final circuit I used a steel coil scrubber and unwound it a bit. This was very finicky because the steel coil doesn't lay flat so the battery slides off of it. I had to squish the battery into it, and then use my thumb to press the steel coil into it on the other side to make enough contact to light the LED.

Activity 2

I started with the idea of using my earring piercing as a potential wearable circuit, because having earrings that light up sound cool conceptually. I didn't end up bringing this idea forward because I was worried I might hurt myself in my attempt to make this work. The green thing is the battery, hanging from a chain behind my ear.

Next I considered what I knew about interior design, and what I would consider 'useful'. I am a bit of a night owl, so being able to see stuff at night in my drawers would be very useful. This led to me trying to conceptualize an interaction where a dim light turns on to illuminate the inside of a drawer when I pull it open far enough.

This is from inside the drawer. The LED strip would be mounted to a thin piece of wood blocking installed into the walls of the drawer unit, without attaching to the drawer itself, so it stays in place and can help illuminate the entire drawer when it is opened about halfway or more. The battery and conductive elements would be installed on and above each individual drawer so the circuits don't interfere with one another and cause issues.

Here is a side view to show how it would work when the drawer unit is opened enough to make contact between the vertical conductive element on the drawer unit wall, and the conductive element on the individual drawer.

Lastly here is a simple sketch showing the full interaction as a partial wireframe diagram with me pulling the drawer open.

As you can see in some of my photos, I enjoy painting my nails. My collection has a lot of limited edition shades that are no longer purchasable, so I need to preserve them. I thought up the idea of having an LED on the top of the bottle to signify that the cap is screwed on fully. It would work by having a metal component embedded into the plastic cap but, like a ring split in half, so that the circuit can complete and take the path up to the LED and not just go across the bottle.

This shows how it would work when the cap is screwed on fully, connecting the metal ring inside the cap to a metal ring embedded in the spiral part of the glass, and then down the edges to the bottom of the bottle where the battery lives. This sketch is a simple version of how it could work but it would need to be prototyped with machine tools to get the right precision and sizes, and to make sure the lid screws on the same way every time, like Japanese self closing lids do.

I work at the residence and it is a very common issue early in the year for residents to lock their deadbolt with the door open, so they can leave their room without their keys and then come back, or so their friends can walk in without knocking. This is a huge fire hazard and rule violation so all the staff, including me, need to watch for it when we do our 3 building rounds per shift. I thought it would be smart to have a circuit where if the door is open the light is off (the light will be right outside the door in the hallway) and if the door is closed properly the light is on, making it quicker to see which doors are potential violations.

Here is a sketch of the door in the open position to show how the circuit works a little better, with a metal contact plate extending past the door leaf edge to make contact with the conductive component in the door frame. This circuit would need to be drilled through the wall partially as well, but I didn't consider that when I originally sketched it out.

This is Yvy's scarf with a simple circuit built in just to create a decorative fashion statement. I love the idea of LED's turning on and off depending on which fasteners are snapped together so I used this concept even though I don't wear scarves myself.

This is how it would work when the scarf fasteners are snapped together. I also realized after the deadline for these photos that I drew this wrong (yay I'm learning at least). This series circuit should be all positive on one side, all negative on the other side, and then have 2 batteries stacked on top of each other with the correct alignment to power the LEDs.

I enjoy reading, especially at night in a dark room, so I figured some type of book light could be useful. I thought of it acting as both a light but also a bookmark so it would need to be a very thin device made up of conductive paint, fabric, tape, etc or possibly some type of plastic and silicon combination so it can be bendy where it needs to be, and rigid everywhere else.

There would be a small conductive page/fabric strip/other thin element that goes in the very back of the book, and when it is pressed against the lighting device the switch closes and activates the LED light. This is a super rough concept sketch but it could be iterated on to become functional. I designated the lower left as the main contact point with the battery because I'm right hand dominant, but it can be adapted to work for left handed people too.

Here is a sketch in elevation view of the non bound edge of the book to better demonstrate how it all goes together. As long as something conductive closes the gap in the lower right corner the light turns on.

I wear gloves a lot because I use a wheelchair, and I thought it would be fun to design circuits so when I touch my fingers together the LEDs build into the knuckle area turn on. I'm not 100% sure this would work based on my sketches but it could be iterated on to find a way to make it work. The 2 circuits on my thumb would be the biggest problem to try and solve, because I would need them to touch the right areas without overlapping and shorting the circuit.

Here is how I envision the lights activating and the circuits closing. Blue lines are ground, red are power. One potential problem would be how to hide all the wiring and not rip it when taking the gloves on and off, so a design like this might need to have exposed circuits on the top so I don't accidentally rip or overlap something the wrong way.

This is one of the concepts from my friend group. It's a simple circuit attached to a MacBook charger block that lights up when plugged in. The battery and conductive elements live on the brick itself, which I realized way after the fact is problematic because the puck gets hot and when the batteries get too hot they don't work as well.

Here is the circuit layout around the plug. This idea is kind of sketchy to me which is why I used it as an example, because I would never put something conductive that bare skin can easily touch right next to an active power outlet. Too much risk for injury if someone attempts to plug an outlet in at the wrong angle and somehow touches both the copper tape on the outside and a prong.

When it's plugged in fully the conductive elements will make full contact and light will turn on.

I'm only 1 of 2 students with a wheelchair in the program in 2nd year, so I wanted to try and incorporate my wheelchair as an interactive element with circuits because it's so unique to me. Seeing the past student example where she used low exposure and put lights into her skates inspired this idea. I knew I would need a glove with a battery (or several) sewn in to make it work though. The idea is that when I grab the wheel rim to move myself forward, lights will activate along the wheel rim.

This was the initial concept for how the glove could work. I wrote this section after I built this as my wearable so I can tell you this glove concept was not feasible at all, the circuits were way too complex and I needed to simply it to make it work. But that's the great part of iterating, we learn as we make. The concept did work eventually though which I'm super happy about.

This was another concept from my group ideation, using a zipper as a circuit. I hadn't considered that until doing the group brainstorming and idea generation so this was a fun idea to ponder. If I had the time and tailoring skills I could have taken this idea and made a leather vest with a zipper that turns on some LEDs built into it.

When the zipper is closed the circuit completes and the LED turns on. This is a very simple circuit and at this stage I should have tried something a little more elaborate but I was running out of time to submit.

This was the final concept I used from my group brainstorm, which is a simple circuit built into a pair of scissors. We do a lot of cutting things in this class so we figured why not make an LED light turn on every time the scissors are closed.

Here is the closed circuit version. Looking at this makes me wonder if this would actually work, because the metal of the scissor blade could mess up the path the electricity takes if it's conductive enough.

Project 1

Final Project 1 Design

Wearable Interactive Affordance Based Circuit

For my wearable I wanted to use my wheelchair since it's such a core part of my identity. My wearable focused on my wheelchair since I've been using one on and off for about 22 years of my life now. I also use prosthetic legs and I'm currently in progress of getting new ones made, so I couldn't use them for this assignment as I don't have them yet. This wearable is a simple circuit built into the wheel rim of my wheelchair, with a glove that has the battery and conductive elements sewn into it. When I grab the wheel rim to move myself forward, lights will activate depending on which section of the wheel rim I grab. This is a fun and simple way to make my wheelchair more visible at night, and it mimics some of the elements in my upcoming prosthetic legs to make it more personalized and unique to me.

Non-Wearable Interactive Affordance Based Circuit

My non wearable uses a series circuit built into a card, with a simple puzzle piece connector to close the circuit. When the puzzle is together the hearts light up. I wanted to make something that was simple but significant to my life since the wheelchair design was a lot more complex and also closely related to an aspect of my life. I'm no longer single which is quite nice, so I made this card for my partner to show how he is one of the missing pieces in my life and now life feels more complete.