Proposal Option and Sample Book

Intention

If I had two words to describe myself, it would be maker and nerd. My goal is to create a glove that acts as both a prop and display for LARP. Some background first. Live-Action Roleplaying, or LARPing, is a cross between cosplay and Dungeons and Dragons. Basically you dress up as your character and you hit your friends with foam weapons. In the LARP I'm a part of, there's a gadget that's basically a defibrillator, and has three charges each day. I want to make a glove that would act as a display with LEDs that show how many charges I have remaining, so at the start of the event all 3 LEDs would be lit, and whenever I use the device I could push a button in the glove to move on to the next state, which would have 2 LEDs, etc, etc.

Process

As an architecture major, it starts with sketches. That's kind of a lie. I started by getting materials. Physical Computing had blue LEDs, although they're a bit small but should work once the legs are bent to be sown down, as well as a variety of push buttons. I ordered in a lilypad and a low-profile battery holder, as well as conductive thread. I also figured I wanted to get a good-looking yet cheap pair of gloves to save me the effort of making one, but also because they would look better that way.

I don't have much knowledge of Arduino, but I figured that if I knew how to make it work in python, it wouldn't be too hard to get working in the Arduino's C++. Plus, getting an Arduino means that I could expand the functionality of the system later on if I wanted to integrate LEDs into a hip-slung box to represent the body of the device, which might look something like the below.

Of course, at that point it makes more sense to have the battery and processor in that instead of a glove, but this should be cool. I mapped out the circuit(s) and wrote out a basic runthrough of what the code should do.

Issues that will pop up in the future will be how to actually integrate the Arduino and battery into the glove. My current idea would be to put them on the surface of the back of the glove where things aren't really moving around and covering them with either a layer of faux-leather or with a 3D printed part. Until the parts arrive, there's no telling how those will turn out.

I foresee issues actually getting the needle through the glove, and the shape of the glove itself is not friendly for leather hole-punchers. Hopefully a thin enough needle will get the job done. 

Product

Here's a sexy product photo of the gloves. Until everything arrives after spring break, this is stuck in the proposal phase. Once they get here and I can test them out, I might make more changes to the body of the glove to get more circulation in, as any outdoor use would be on warmer days, and I won't want a warm glove for that. Supposedly they're relatively thin, but I also don't want manual dexterity to be affected.

Reflection

Based on the process so far, I'm partially amazed at what this class has done. My original idea was to just make the box part, but IDeATe took my enthusiasm for the project and desire to learn Arduino and actually pushed me to try something new, to buy an Arduino and to make something cool with it. I went in with some decent aptitude for hand and machine sewing, but came out with more enthusiasm and ideas spanning my interests. 

Sample Book

We started with hand sewing, which I find really relaxing. Once when the lending booth closed and the sewing machine had to be returned, I went back to my dorm and hand-stitched a stole for LARP. It took a few hours, but it's meditative, just like sanding.

After that we did sewable electronics, which became the inspiration for my project. I didn't even know you could stitch with conductive thread to make a wearable circuit. I also tried out crochet. It was confusing but worked out in the end.

Then we did laser cutting and plotter cutting. I laser cut fairly often, but laser-cutting iron-on patches gives me another idea for LARP. you can get some real detail out of the laser cutter. I tried plotter cutting my logo, but the spacing was a bit off on the top. Lesson learned.