For my thesis I will be focusing on trying to find ways to “awareness-free monitoring” of human body. I will be exploring different types of fabric based sensors on garments. At the end, I want to find out human bodies reactions to different types of environments or events. At the end, I want to find distinct differences under different conditions and display it by using a garment or creating an unconscious interaction.
I have started my research process by looking at some sample products that I can use for my project. I figured out that there are some research on this area. Also, there are some products that does the tracking al ready. Problem is, most of them are still research projects. So, it is really hard to buy them.
I have been tracking my activities while I am sleeping in last 2 weeks. I am using 2 different application/product for now. I tried an Iphone application called Cycle Time, which detects movements while you are sleeping, and maps it to different stage of sleep. At the same time, I am using a product called My Zeo. It is a fabric based EEG sensor that talks with a clock to map your sleeping data. These to applications results are not matching each other. So, I think it is hard to get sleeping stage through motion detecting.
That experiment showed me, there is a way to use fabrics to get accurate data, but still it needs to be touching to the body.
After my little experiment, I start looking at “fabric based electrodes”. I found some really good papers, that explains, their setups, some algorithm and problems that they faced to. So, next few days, I will keep reading papers that I found, and try to learn from what people have found out. At the same time, I will be looking for the fabrics that they used, and I need to order some of them to start testing out.
After I find useful fabrics, I will be working on positioning of the fabrics. Because, positioning and getting reliable data are correlated to each other.
After I find the locations to attach my sensors, I will start building a garment will test it under different conditions, like how our body reacts to people that we see or environments that we are in. I will be logging data and visualizing them till I find a meaning in it. I am planing to display those findings on a garment by using OLED screens.
Also, at the same time, I will be masking some user testing on computer interaction. I am planing to make people interact with computers, and watch their bodies reactions. If I can find a correlation between them, I might start working on a computer interaction system.
To sum up, I will be researching for sensors to use, ways to visualize them, and according to meaning that I get from it, I will be finishing my development process.