This is the first project for the Making Things Interactive class at Carnegie Mellon University. This project was individual and I had 1 week to complete.
This project creates a lamp that will be able to save the heartbeat of a given person and reproduce it when someone moves around the object.
This lamp should be capable of saving the heartbeat of that person into the SD card so this lamp can be given to someone containing a specific heartbeat.
This project aims to be an emotional reminder by showing the heartbeat of a person that might not be present at that time.
This project aims to be a prototype as close as possible to a functional device. For this reason fast fabrication techniques where used to create the device and Arduino as the electronics part.
The following techniques were used for fabrication:
The following electronic components where used:
The github repository contains the Arduino code that makes this device work. It is extended from the PulseSensor basic code on reading the pulse. Some unrelated code has been removed and the logic with the different LEDs and sensors has been added.
Acrylic One Way mirror: Choose any material you want to use to create the box.
Create plans for the box: In this case the following website (http://www.makercase.com) has been used to create the 100mmX100mm box template with a 0.4mm Kerf.
We don't need the bottom, so we remove that part after creating the template and we add a hole on top that we will use to add the motion sensor.
Assembled box after Laser Cut the acrylic. As we have added some kerf on our design, we don't need to use any glue to assemble it.
Model the base (I used Autodesk Fusion 360). The base can be customized to everyone's needs. In this case, added holes in one side for the Arduino connectors and the SD card. And on the other side, to add a button and the cable from the PulseSensor.
3D print. Any 3D printer technique would work. In this case a PLA filament has been used with a 0.4mm layer height to reduce time.
Refine the print. I sanded some parts to remove some of the imperfections.
I used a breadboard to connect all the sensors and make sure the system works before soldering it.
Starting from the PulseSensor code base, I added the logic that detects 5 beats when a button is pressed and then save them. If the 5 beats have been detected and saved, it will show an specific LED blinking (1 long and 2 shorts). If the beats have not been detected, it will show 3 short blinks.
Finally, using a motion sensor, it will show those heartbeats with the LEDs when a motion is detected.
Once we know our code and circuit works, we solder it to our base. In this case we use the prototyping part our data logging shield has.
I glued the motion sensor to the hole we previously did to the box.
Once we have all the parts together, we just add fit the box to our base.
Some lines of future work are the following: