Project 3: The PerceptSense Band
After a lecture about the human senses I became interested in creating a project dealing with them. It was perplexing to me to think that, as a species, we have surpassed the level of knowledge we can directly obtain through the senses we already have; sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. In other words, all learning, from this point on, is gathered only through representations; which, in turn, can be interpreted by our senses. For example, we physically cannot see a human blood cell without the help of a microscope which magnifies, or creates a representation, so that our eyes can see it. Obviously, this doesn't mean it is impossible to continue to learn about our world in this way - just strange to think about, at least for me.This lead me to wonder if maybe one day we will evolve to develop more than the current senses. Well it turns out we already have more than just the 5 well-known senses - they just aren't very well developed in most people. The extra sense that I was particularly interested in was intuition - that sense that something or someone is good or bad. I looked into how one could go about strengthening their intuition and found the best way to go about this is to acknowledge and become aware of it. For my project I created what I called the PerceptSense Band to play with the concept of developing your intuition.
My presentation I gave about the PerceptSense Band:
Pictures of the PerceptSense Band Device:
The PerceptSense Band Device
The Band Only
The Band with Red LED Activated
The Band With Green LED Activated
Close-up of Band on Wrist
Hole in sole of shoe where LED was placed
View inside the shoe
Switch in shoe controlled by my big toe
Switch for yellow LED (same switch used in shoes)
The connector on the band
Female connector on the band
Male connector leading to switches
Materials/Tools Used:
- 20 gauge wire- 3 momentary switches
- 3 LEDs (red, gree, yellow)
- pair of cheap Walmart shoes that cover toes
- 1 lithium CR2032 3V battery
- 2 CR2032 battery holder
- 1 4-pin male interlocking connector
- 1 4-pin female interlocking connector
- 1 cotton headband (for the band)
- 1 piece of foam paper (to make the band sturdy)
- velcro
- solder
- soldering gun
- drill (to make hole in shoes)
- wire cutters/strippers
- electrical tape