I came with the idea of making a playful device at the island. I brought this 3D printed google looking glasses with no lenses.
The first 2 days I was exploring the island, walking around and recording a lot of sounds.
When I was putting my materials together – arduino, glasses, sensors, speakers – I was talking to Mika and she just put one speaker in one of the lenses and it fit perfectly, so I decided to do a sound experience device with the glasses. I like the idea of ‘seeing sound’ or having an object made for one sense to feel another one.
With some of the bits and pieces put together, I still felt I needed a concept to put everything together.
One day we went to the boat to spend the day – it was amazing. We arrived to a beach at the other side of the island and we stopped there to walk around and swim. Suddenly it started raining, I was a bit cold so, funny enough, I went inside the sea which was much warmer.
I laid in the water, floating, with my eyes closed, and felt supper happy. I could hear the waves and see the lights from the clouds moving in the sky with my eyes closed. I wanted to take that moment home, so that’s what I did through the glasses.
One Arduino, 2 speakers (one for each lens), LED rings and a sound card reader made this simple device that allows you to bring the island home with you.
Tech wise, I recorded sounds of waves and compress them so they could be played by the Arduino. I placed the speakers in the lenses and, behind them, 2 LED rings that would fade in and out randomly with yellowish colors representing the lights in the sky.
The interaction works very simple: you just lay down, put on the glasses with your eyes closed and you just feel the island wherever you are.
Enjoy! (I’ll put some videos as soon as I have better internet connection)
P.S. oh! I also got a Dinacon dinosaur tattoo from Valerie 🙂
