Things that I ordered this week for thesis

Tuesday 9 Feb 2010 by admin | No Comments
Filed under: thesis

I have been playing with my zeo (www.myzeo.com), conductive threads and electrodes. This week I ordered few new toys to play.
My first toy is a development kit for electrodes.picture-15

I am very curious about this kit. It seems really promising. Adidas just bought the company which develops them, but they are still selling their kit through Adidas. I hope I will get it soon.

Silver Mesh Fabric

When you need the conductivity and shielding performance of Silver with the strength of Nylon, ArgenMesh is the material to choose. At >60 dB from 10 MHz to 40 GHz and surface conductivity of <0.5 Ohm per square this material is great for high level grounding, static discharge, electric field shielding, and radiofrequency shielding. Safe for skin contact, it can be used in garments, or bedding. Also an excellent curtain or wall covering. 55% Silver, 45% Nylon. Silver color, some light penetration. 59 inch wide. (http://www.lessemf.com/fabric.html)

I also ordered fabric sample kit from the same company. Here is the information about the kit:

ABRIC SAMPLE SET

“Get Samples of All Our Fabrics”

Can’t decide which fabric is right for your application? Want to see, feel, and test the fabrics before you decide? In this kit you get swatches of each fabric, along with specification sheets. Hook & Loop and Microwave Absorber not included in standard sampler, so if you need these, be sure to specify. (http://www.lessemf.com/fabric.html)

I hope, I can receive them until next Monday. Until I receive them, I will be playing with my hat prototype with normal electrodes.

Live Daft Punk Mesh-up

Saturday 6 Feb 2010 by admin | No Comments
Filed under: live experimental tv

This is our first project for Live Experimental Interactive TV. We tried to do some live mash-up video. Our audience are texting some samples of the lyrics to our system and we display it on the video with audio. I worked with Edward Gordon(Gordie), Adam Harvey and Jeff Howard  for this project.

System has 3 different parts. First part is the TextMarks system and php code. User sends a text to TextMarks and php code saves it in a text file. Then, there is a processing application keeps checking the the text messages that user send and matches them with the ones in the song. Processing checks the text file in every half second. Then, processing application sends the keyword to Max/Msp by using OSC. Then in Max/Msp we have a video that skips to marked keyword points audio, that matches with video and also an audio part that plays under the video.

I think our work was creative and fun to play. Also it worked so well. I think some additions could be, not using a song but some other mesh-up thing that is not related to time. Also, maybe some more reflection of the user on the video would be useful.

Thesis class presentation, week 3

Wednesday 3 Feb 2010 by admin | No Comments
Filed under: thesis
Mustafa Bagdatli Thesis Presentation Week 3
View more presentations from guestcc07011.

Personal Statement

Wednesday 3 Feb 2010 by admin | No Comments
Filed under: thesis

I have been working on different types of gesture based interaction for a while. I tried cameras, buttons, range finders, bending angles etc. After having carpal tunnel syndrome on my right hand, I start reading a lot about gestural interfaces. It is really challenging to force cave men to use high tech. devices, because it is not in our nature. Because of the changes in our “tools” our body starts adopting itself to new tool.

For my thesis, I am planing to identify physiological reactions to technology. There are many things that we can research about in our body. So, I believe that some of the combinations might lead us to a better interaction.

I think best and most dangerous way to interact with devices is to use brain waves. I tried to made something called ‘what’s on your mind” last semester. It was a social network control device by using EEG data. It is really hard to calibrate EEg data for this purpose and also it is hard to see if it is a reliable data. So, that’s why I will be focusing on more reliable data.

One another reason that I am doing my thesis on this topic is, for me, inside the body and interaction is an unknown. So, I believe that exploring unconscious interaction will be meaningful.

Also, according to my findings, other way that I can go through is a t-shirt that displays your reactions to things around you. I think reason behind it, is a need of expressing myself. I like having short conversations, talking to the point. Sometimes, people are having problems to understand how my mind works. So, this might be a good device for me to get over these issues.

I believe that, in our body there are lot’s of things that we can discover for a better interaction with humans or machines. I am hoping to discover some of them through this semester.

Thesis Abstract

Wednesday 3 Feb 2010 by admin | No Comments
Filed under: thesis

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.

live shows

Tuesday 26 Jan 2010 by
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