Don't Just Play Music. Be Music.
Implementation Sketches
Low-fidelity Prototype
Testing Materials
Since we envisioned our interface as a "second skin," we decided to implement a full body suit with embedded musical technology. To accomplish this, we used conductive paint, tape, thread, and a touch-sensitive microcontroller.
For the xylophone ribs component, we assigned different note values to each of the xylophone keys. When any fo the panels are touched, the appropriate note is played. It was important for us to arrange the wires and paint so that none of them intersected.
For the guitar, we had conductive paint running along the inside of the arm to act as guitar strings, and we had paint on the outside of the arm to connect finger chord pads to our microcontroller.
We created a low-fidelity prototype to physically lay out materials. This helped us better visualize the arrangement of the wires and different electrical components.
Before we began working on our suit, we tested out our conductive paint and our conductive thread. We experimented with different stitches, different amounts of paint, and different connections with the touch board, and we found that the thread and the paint combined produced the most reliable results.