functional description
- A whisper garment consists of a set of custom electronics integrated
into a jacket, which gathers physiological signals and sends them
to a central server. The central system constructs a model of the
garments within the installation space and generates visual imagery
and sounds corresponding to the measured body data signals.
- Each garment has a custom-engineered high-speed microcontroller
that is connected to a number of sensors and connection points and
provides data concentration services for the system.
- The wearers¡¯ heart rate is determined via a photoplethysmograph
- a simple device that is worn on the finger and detects changes in
blood flow by reflecting infrared light on the skin.
- The wearers¡¯ breath rate is measured using a stretchable chest band
that is worn under the garment.
- The jacket contains a set of connection points: pairs of small conductive
¡®snaps¡¯ on each garment that uniquely identify both the garment and
the point of contact ? contact is established by a garment wearer
touching one of the islands on another garment. The participant wears
another finger band containing a set of connection ¡®snaps¡¯ used to
connect the participant to others. The purpose of connection is in
order to share physiological data, which is projected in the ¡®projection
pools¡¯ on the floor.
- There is also a small LED matrix located on the jacket sleeve, for
local visual feedback to the wearer, to complement the visual and
audible effects in the installation space. Each wearer has a unique
¡®symbol¡¯ that identifies them. This symbol is displayed on the jacket
sleeve, and also identifies their data on the projected floor visualizations.
- The microcontroller uses a custom-designed local signal bus to gather
the physiological data, which is then communicated to the central
server via a short-range Bluetooth transceiver.
- The central server consists of several computers ? a data collector
server that handles the Bluetooth communication with the garments,
and multiple visualization servers that generate the visual and audible
representations of the individual garment wearers¡¯ states and of the
aggregated states of the set of garments.
- The projection systems are specialized ¡®pools¡¯ of sound and image
systems, projected onto the floor of the space. The projection systems
generate focused experience spaces within the installation, so that
the experiences can be keyed to the presence of a garment within the
experience space. Each pool projects physiological data (heart and
breath data) in real time, based on the connections of the participants.
- A participant ¡®invites¡¯ others data into their own pool through
the act of connecting or ¡®snapping¡¯ onto another.
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