Version 1 :
As a collaboration with Oslo Skaperfestival our assignment was to take one specific sensor and turn it into some kind of engaging machine for kids. Our idea was to vizualise the users heartbeat (and coolness) by making a ball fly inside a tube using propellers. That way we could show the collness on a scale as well as seeing your pulse in a completely analog (and much more entertaining) way!
Created by Thomas Wang and Joshua von Hofen
AHO Tangible Interaction 2018
Supervised by Nicholas Stevens
AHO Tangible Interaction 2018
Supervised by Nicholas Stevens
The final prototype of our “Pulse Tower” had a velcro fingerstrap for the sensor, a 6mm plywood housing with visual inspiration from old ambulances, like the one in Ghost Busters. On exibition day at Skaperfest we got much better response than expected.
Kids would battle eachother, guys would try to impress girls and some kids would sit there for 5-10 minutes with their eyes closed trying to slow their heart rate down. The instability of the sensor and the laws of physics making the ball randomly spin and jump inside the tube, sometimes shooting out made the interaction far more entertaining than your regular health check.
Our most interresting finding was that different people have very different heart rates depending on gender, age and fitness. Much more than we expected. Although our machine was not giving accurate results it did bring out a whole bunch of smiles, laughter and joy.
The Pulse Tower version 2.0
For an AHO open day exhibition we were asked to rebuild the machine, and in the process we managed to refine the design and code of this peculiar machine, making it more accurate and entertaining.
