Final Project – PatPet – Xinhe

(Link to Instructable)

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PatPet is an emotional pillow that reacts to our behaviors. Just like how pets interact with us.

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It has three emotional status: calm (sleepy), cheerful and angry.

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When we do nothing with it, its blue breath light will turn on and off.

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When we pat it gently, it will be happy and shake a little bit with light turned green.

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However, if you hit it really hard, it will keep trembling for a while and turn red.

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The initial idea come from my experience of taking care of my friend’s cat for two weeks. She is a super sweet cat, and made me feel so healing when she lay on my legs. Since I am not able to have my own pet, it will be a good idea to have an object that acts like one, and still have some healing effect.

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One of the most relevant precedents is the My Beating Heart pillow designed by Yury Gitman. However, I feel it is missing some playfulness and interactions with us. PatPet will have a little bit characteristic and make us treat it as a living creature.

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Above are some key materials and components I used for making PatPet.

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Work in progress…

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And here is PatPet’s final look!

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Thank you for all these happy classes we spent together! Enjoy the winter break!

[Final] heat sensitive wristbands- Juno

For the final, I was thinking to make something out of my interests. I actively participate into music venues and shows which involve with not only music but also other elements of making a  memorable show. I use the materials I learn from this class and try to create a few and see how it works.

CONCEPTS:

Comp Craft

INSTRUCTABLES:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Bang/

 

Material Hunt

1. High precision open mesh monofilament fabrics for industrial and consumer use. 100% Polyester. Applications include filter for air, blood drain, speaker and so on. The front silver and the back has a metal blue shade.

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2. Glass with frosted stripes on both side which generates an opaque effect.

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3. Plastics with decorative thread patterns. There are three layers combined together in this kind of materials. The threads are  between two layers of the plastics.

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Thermochromic Ink test in class

Strength:

The color change is really effective. Many different color choices. Easy to work with. It’s better to use lighter material to paint on. The paint shouldn’t be too thick.

Weakness:

The length of the heating thread is limited with the circuit. It takes time to heat up with the thread.

Flexinol in-class test(Xiaoqi, Grace, Alec)

Xiaoqi’s

Grace’s

Alec’s

Findings:

1. In order to move fluently, it’s better to roll the fabric the way we wanted gently before we connected to the circuit. Folding too hard will damage the flexinol.

2. The fabric should be as small as possible, the effect will be compromised if the fabric is too big and too heavy.

3. We need to sew the thread around the flexinol neither too tight nor too loose.

Strengths:

When using correctly, the moving effect is really dramatic and vivid.

Easy to use with light materials such as fabrics and paper.

Weakness:

It’s getting hot.

A little bit hard to control the movement at the beginning.

The length limitation.

Not much freedom to control the speed of the movement.