Haptic jacket provides sensory layer to lightning

For the Art and Light display at the Skinner Annex of Otago Museum, New Zealand, I was asked to make a haptic jacket that would present  a buzzing sensory layer to perceiving lightning in various ways. This took place in late August 2015.

People would go into a curtained off area in a gallery, put on my haptic jacket, and see on  the wall in the darkness an image of themselves with bright lightning streaks striking their image. They also saw sparkles on their torso in eight different places. This corresponded to lightning being collected in real time. There was also the option of playing a historic sequence of previously collected lightning strikes. This latter option was forced on us when we didn't have enough time to solve some bluetooth transmission problems from our PC that collected the lightning information to the microprocessor board.

The platform used was the ubiquitous Arduino Uno which was inserted into the jacket behind the collar around the back of the neck area.

Arduino in a pocket made in the lining near the neck.

The jacket itself presented all the usual challenges of wearable computing. The main problems, apart from the Bluetooth connection, emanated from the delicate nature of electronics inside a hostile textile environment and the fact that the jacket was taken on and off over 60 people of various shapes and sizes. The lining of the jacket had to be cut to admit nine boxes and about five metres of wiring. Some of it was sewn back but apertures had to be maintained to service the delicate circuits. People's arms often found these apertures and had to be reinserted carefully so as not to rip wires out of their soldered circuits. A large 7.3 volt battery sat in one of jacket pockets and feed power to the Arduino and boxes via wires inside the lining.

The basic unit consisted of a box that vibrated. I experimented with different buzzers and different boxes. The buzzer that provided the best experience came via the bristlebot people

and gave a similar experience, when placed in a container, to a vibrating cell phone. They were glued to a copper etched strip board that contained the transistor based circuit that drove the vibrator for 450 milliseconds when signaled to do so by the Arduino. The circuit I used for each box came from here and is shown below.

The transistor circuit on the right was repeated in each box and was stimulated by an output line.

Over 100 different soldered or wire-wrapped connections went into electronics that were mounted on a textile strip then inserted into the lining of the jacket behind the neck and down both arms.

 The position of the boxes is indicated below. The best boxes proved to be common NZ matchboxes as they provided a better vibrational stimulus than plastic or tin boxes tried.

A program was written into the Arduino that would read the lightning data via Bluetooth from a PC getting an internet feed of real-time lightning strikes. This proved to a problematic channel and not solved properly before going public so a secondary program was burned in that would play a historic sequence in coordination with the lightning displays that were visible on the torsos of the wearers that were dramatically visible on the screen. Coordinated audio was also adding to the effect.

People's reactions varied. Most people love the experience and started to dance and move with the lightning strikes, streaks, sparkles, audio and haptic vibration. Some likened the buzzing boxes to a pleasant sort of acupuncture or localized massage. Only one or two out of about 60 didn't like the experience and found the stimulus invasive and overwhelming.

Some issues.
The jacket was purchased second hand so it could be cut up and discarded if necessary. Its main requirement was it had to be big enough to be worn by most people and had to have a nice friction-free lining so the garment could be taken on and off without disturbing the electronics. Unfortunately the need to gain access to the circuits meant there were always some weaknesses in the lining which led to detached wires in two cases.

People had to be shown how to carefully put the jacket on which was fine in most cases but it led to conversations it was hard to detach from thereby denying the total solo immersive experience. Other people wanted their friends and partners to be in the room at the same time and to relay a stream of comments about what they were experiencing. This was hard to control.

The best vibratory experience came when the boxes were pushing hard down onto the shoulders and arms of the wearers. Sometimes the box slipped to places without much contact and sometime people posed in such a way as to minimize the contact. A better method of conveying the vibrations from the jacket to the subject could be explored.

The electronics were not evident. Some sort of transparent matter should have enclosed the connections between the Arduino and the boxes.

The jacket's look and style were a bit underwhelming.

The Bluetooth channel problems were a big disappointment even though for most people the overall effect seemed not to be missed. Even when the boxes were out of sync with visible sparkles on the screen people made the connection possibly through trying to make impose coordination on the flood of sensory data coming at them.

Overall it was very interesting to be a part of a team thet made such a dramatic display.