Per Nilsson
XSense
A wearable that crossed the wearers' visual and auditory senses.
My Role
Sensor configuration, Microcontroller programming, Sound design + spatialization
Description
An eight-week project involving ergonomics, product design, research in human perception, circuit design, microcontroller software development, and sound engineering. Our assignment was to define a concept that commented on the human senses in a meaningful way, and combining product design with advanced electronic prototyping techniques, create a working product/art object. We created a helmet that allowed the wearer to navigate a room using auditory cues, and "listen" to sounds visually, through an LED display.
Design Process
Having read Diane Ackerman's "A Natural History of the Senses", and Paul Rodaway's "Sensuous Geographies", the team was inspired by the human sensory system and the richness of senses such as touch and smell. We wanted to emphasize these senses that we felt had taken a back seat in relation to the visual sense.
The early concept ideas were about inviting tactile exploration of shapes and textures. From this we moved to the notion of filtering and crossing sensuous information.
After was had decided on a design, a process that took us from a static hanging box, to a portable helmet, we divided the team into a technical solutions and a building group. I was responsible for the hardware that translated the physical environment into a virtual sound space.
Implementation
My responsibility in the implementation phase was to design the "sonar" system that translated the distance of nearby objects into sounds. The biggest challenge was that a person wearing the helmet had to be able to interpret the sounds spatially, making a mental map to navigate by. Another challenge was my dependence on the microcontroller to synthesize sounds that would guide the user while staying in the background.
To reach these goals, I specified the following design: Three PING))) ultrasonic distance sensors with a range of 10 feet (3 meters), would be mounted on the front of the helmet, spread out evenly over 160°, roughly replicating the human field of view. The sensors would be controlled by an Arduino microcontroller board, once per second outputting updated sensor values as sound in stereo headphones.
The distance reported by each sensor would be represented as the interval between the two sounds making up a complete signal - a "sound pair". Each sensor was represented as a sound pair, and its' position (left, right or center) was marked using stereo panning. To maintain consistency and thus lessen the learning curve, the sensor feedback would be played back in the same sequence every time - a "scanline" going from left to right.
The result was a visually pleasing physical computing piece that was a novel, playful experience to use. A wearer could successfully navigate around a room using the stereo auditory feedback from the distance sensors. A massive team effort, we finished on time for the exhibition at Malm¨ University. XSense was later exhibited at the international "Interactivos?" exhibition at Madrid Media Lab, and has been featured at the popular design weblog WWMNA.
Team
Adam Danielsson, Melvin Ochsmann, Koen Van Mol, Robert Winters, Tamara Klein, Andreas Nertlinge