I hope to be able to experiment with form as much as possible for the next upcoming week, so that I can settle on a final design to work with. It feels like I have been moving forward slowly, but I have learnt a lot. Much of what has slowed me down is getting aquatinted with different types of motors and how to handle them - every type and even brand is it's own beast.
The shelf is something that I have been thinking about for a longer time, and although it might not be as much of a desired product and more of a critical design piece (your things wouldn't fall off of the shelf however) I like the idea of leveraging a utilitarian object that already exists in your home, and making it come to life. Why get a separate object that can tell how well your body is doing? There is something about the algorithm behind it that makes sense to me as well (see post on inspiration & objectives). It turned out this was more difficult than I thought, but am testing out a final solution below that I will fine tune. I figured I could use a string to transform the rotational motion into linear, since I don't have a solenoid. I'm a big fan of using what materials are available - design constraints inspire creativity!
Going forth I have two directions: one that would be a wearable with a separate tracker, and one that is a modular weight.
I want to make a few iterations on balance, as I think this is a very interesting concept in conjunction with health and my conceptual framework.
Below you will see a circular design that I have started to prototype, that will be divided into two or more slices that would visually map with your bodies progress.
I will use a stepper motor and a gear, and I actually made half of the gear using clay (!), as this was all I had at hand. It took several iterations and finding the exact right time to get the right consistency of this particular self drying clay.
Here I am working on a clay sculpture that works a little bit like a scale, with the pivoting point in the middle. The ball will move according to how well you have done, and there are small pockets where it will rest for more accurate mapping. Also, metaphorically you need to overcome hurdles along the journey.
I would love to combine both momentum with the actual controlled input from your body. The ticking sound also makes us think of time.
The third concept I want to explore is the deconstruction/construction of the object in and of itself. Below I am working on a round object that will squish and deconstruct from the perfect and balanced circle - just like your body does when not doing well.
Unfortunately when I was about to assemble it the motors broke. These servo motors from RadioShack are of very low quality and I don't recommend them. Generally speaking I have had a lot of trouble with servo motors, as they tend to behave erratically. For the future I plan to invest in more high quality motors for more control and smoother movement.
Below is another idea I have been thinking about, one that is a self-contained product that has both the tracker, LED shield indicator, music visualizer so that you can groove out to your exercises and when you turn it - it balances as feedback.
