This blog provides a forum for students, instructors and others to share information and ideas about the Spring Thesis Program at Parsons the New School for Design in New York City.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Condensing just some of the footage I recorded while experimenting.
jm, thanks very much for posting this video. It looks like your device is shaping up. I still have lots of questions, however, and I am looking forward to speaking with you at the mid-term review to get more details. Some of my questions pertain to how this apparatus will be worn so that the person does not feel like a cyborg (unless your intention is for the individual to show off the leg-mounted gear, to make it a fashion and/or political statement). I can imagine a pair of trousers with sleeves or loops or hooks on one leg that would hold the gear, with the dynamo exposed, and maybe a tiny red led to show that power was being generated. Then, you will have to figure out how to get the power generated from the dynamo to the device that is being charged. I am wondering if the pants should have another pocket for the phone, with contacts inside the pocket to connect the output of the generator to the phone charger plug without a lot of wires. I am imaging a special pair of cargo pants with all of the pockets, loops, hooks and whatever else is needed.
I am also interested in finding out more about your approach to converting the periodic motion of the upper and low leg pivoting about the knee joint to the constant rotational force that the generator needs. I can see at least two methods in the video (although the way you have intercut these makes it fairly difficult to understand your intentions). Can you please be prepared to discuss these different approaches, and how your experimentation is being used to study and compare them, hopefully leading to conclusive findings that support one or the other of these methods.
By the way, another person who you may want to contact, and who is bio-mechanics and robotics expert is Dustyn Roberts. Her website is http://www.dustynrobots.com/. she knows me and I have referred students to her in the past and she has been quite helpful.
Steven makes a good point about the context when and where this device should/could be used.
I was instantly thinking about the gym and working out and how we already attach stuff to our bodies in those situations. It might be easier to accept a mechanical apparatus attached to your leg in the context of a uniform, in this case gym cloths. I am thinking ipod armbands and such. The social context is going to be key. Where will people use it because it is cool and where wont they because it becomes weird and cumbersome.
It is true that the styling is going to be important. It can't look like it came out of a lab.
2 comments:
jm,
thanks very much for posting this video. It looks like your device is shaping up. I still have lots of questions, however, and I am looking forward to speaking with you at the mid-term review to get more details. Some of my questions pertain to how this apparatus will be worn so that the person does not feel like a cyborg (unless your intention is for the individual to show off the leg-mounted gear, to make it a fashion and/or political statement). I can imagine a pair of trousers with sleeves or loops or hooks on one leg that would hold the gear, with the dynamo exposed, and maybe a tiny red led to show that power was being generated. Then, you will have to figure out how to get the power generated from the dynamo to the device that is being charged. I am wondering if the pants should have another pocket for the phone, with contacts inside the pocket to connect the output of the generator to the phone charger plug without a lot of wires. I am imaging a special pair of cargo pants with all of the pockets, loops, hooks and whatever else is needed.
I am also interested in finding out more about your approach to converting the periodic motion of the upper and low leg pivoting about the knee joint to the constant rotational force that the generator needs. I can see at least two methods in the video (although the way you have intercut these makes it fairly difficult to understand your intentions). Can you please be prepared to discuss these different approaches, and how your experimentation is being used to study and compare them, hopefully leading to conclusive findings that support one or the other of these methods.
By the way, another person who you may want to contact, and who is bio-mechanics and robotics expert is Dustyn Roberts. Her website is http://www.dustynrobots.com/. she knows me and I have referred students to her in the past and she has been quite helpful.
robocop!
Steven makes a good point about the context when and where this device should/could be used.
I was instantly thinking about the gym and working out and how we already attach stuff to our bodies in those situations.
It might be easier to accept a mechanical apparatus attached to your leg in the context of a uniform, in this case gym cloths. I am thinking ipod armbands and such. The social context is going to be key. Where will people use it because it is cool and where wont they because it becomes weird and cumbersome.
It is true that the styling is going to be important. It can't look like it came out of a lab.
Very cool, can't wait to see the actual thing!
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