spetku

Projects

“POPgirl” Enclosure Build

October 20, 2018spetku0 Comments

I made a status indicator that notifies me of my body’s relative state of arousal! To help me visualize what’s going on with the myriad of wearables I have set out to don at once, I’ve created an arm-mounted screen display that will tell me what I need to know at a glance. The development of this little treat was of course a matter of hardware design and software development, so I’m breaking the build log into two parts. This first edition will cover the physical components, like the electronics, the enclosure for the electronics, and any other bells and whistles I needed to create to make it do. BILL OF MATERIALS Electronics stuff: 5″ Raspberry Pi Compatable Touch Screen RaspberryPi Zero 5V, 5A Step-Down Voltage Regulator Logic Level Converter Bi-Directional Module 5V to 3.3V Round Push Buttons 1′ HDMI cable Perf Board Stranded Wire HARDWARE SIZES: 40mm M3 screws…

anthropomorph-EYES

Anthropomorph-EYES Goggle Adaptor

August 5, 2018spetku0 Comments

Earlier this year I created a circuit board called the “anthropomorphEYES“! It’s a 12-segment display of LEDs that I’ve provided a special 3D printable lens for that once added to the front of the board, allows them to appear more expressive. The idea is that you can add this set of boards to any of your favorite household appliances and elevate them from thing, to friend! The .stl files for the lens is available on my GitHub, along with the eye code sketch. I’ve written a blog post all about how you can edit my code to create your own custom expressions, and animate them into more complex displays of emotionality! I’ve made these because I personally believe it’s an important human quality that we share our empathy with the inanimate objects that fill our lives! Over the summer I’ve take the design of the lens a step further and…

Projects

THE HOT SPOT: Creating gap where there’s heat

August 2, 2018spetku0 Comments

THE HOT SPOT As the name suggests, this augment involves heat… and a spot… If you’re familiar with the other modules part of this project, then you know the drill. This device senses something from the part of the body it is designed for, and then utilizes that part of the body to indicate that which is sensed. I get extra credit if I can create a feedback loop with a totally unintentional byproduct of pleasurable stimulation… So here we go! Challenge: THIGHS SENSING INPUT: Body temperature… specifically the atmosphere between my thighs; a place very likely to exhibit temperature fluctuations for a number of reasons. INDICATING OUTPUT: an elevation in body temperature beyond a designated threshold will activate a geared motor or winch mounted on either hip. The winch will tug on a kevlar tendon stitched through the length of a suction-cup-like tentacle whose cups adhere to the surface…

she bon

Propellor Pasties Make Spinnie Nips

July 6, 2018spetku0 Comments

Most of the areas of the body listed on the PULSE board are open and waiting to receive something to control: arms, thighs, head, buns, nips, and neck! Each comes with its own challenges and list of potential ideas. After much thought, I decided to direct my attention to the nipples for my next project… The first nipple augment is called the “Propellor Pasties”! As its name suggests, it senses fluctuations in the size of the wearer’s nipple using IR distance sensors and then indicates the fluctuation by spinning a geared propellor mounted to the other breast. SENSING FROM THE NIP Initially, the brainstorming session for this build took place in the kitty pool with an electronics engineer, a machinist, and plenty of beer to go around. As these *meditations* go, we first discuss the WHAT, and then mulled over the HOW. What am I sensing from the nipple, and…

she bon

THE WHISPERING CROTCH BOX

July 1, 2018spetku0 Comments

I was laying in bed one morning when I thought to myself, “I could really use a pussy whisperer right now.” Soon after, the words dissolved from abstract meaning into disassociated literal imagery: “pussy. whisperer.” -I leaped out of bed and ran into the lab to fetch a pair of calipers. I measured my pelvic bone, opened a fresh document in CAD and started modeling an actual box that ergonomically fit between my legs. It would house a speaker aimed directly at my lady parts… and do precisely that, the pussy whispering. It came to be known in the days to come as the BEAT BOX! -and would become the first wearable I’d develop as part of the SHEBON project! 🙂 The augment reads the wearer’s heart rate and then outputs an audible whisper into the pelvic bone at a volume relating to their beats per minute (BPM). The byproduct…

she bon

THE FUNCTION OF THE PULSE MODULE

June 26, 2018spetku0 Comments

I describe the “PULSE PACK” as being the platform that runs the SHE BON project. It connects everything with data and power, yada, yada…. but what is its function? Tell me more about this brain, right? When I first started daydreaming about the cortex of the whole project, it was a matter of aesthetic rather than function. I saw a mass of cables and wires branching out like veins from the upper back of a human… making the body look like a fruit waiting to be picked from a branch of some sort. I wanted to see lines spilling out from one location; the visual affirmation that everything has a definite point of origin. There were a few influences in my life that had my head in a particular place that month. One was a strange jaunt to a “fetish ball” I attended with a friend, and the other was…

she bon

SHE BON : PULSE PACK ENCLOSURE!

June 24, 2018spetku0 Comments

The PULSE PACK is a wearable computing platform that orchestrates a collection of body augments, all part of the SHE BON project. These augments are individual systems that sense and indicate when the user’s body enters an “excited” state. Each system is designed for a particular region of the human body and uses various types of sensors to detect bio-data as input, and then communicate the user’s status with electronic and mechanical devices as output. You can think of the PULSE PACK as a wearable breakout board. Its primary function is to house the master circuit board, called the “Pulse”. This heart-shaped Pulse board sends power and data over a network of cables, much like a heart pumping blood to distant organs through a series of veins. Why would I have the platform which senses and triggers the indication of my arousal be a BIG. TRANSPARENT. PULSING. HEART-DRUM?……Well… it might…

Flocking Masks

A FACE-MAKING DATE WITH MY FLOCK

April 23, 2018spetku1 Comment

This spring I’m making a series of custom masks for my four closest friends that will respond to their facial gestures by activating features on the outside surface. This project is called the “Flocking Masks” and will hopefully yield some fun summer shenanigans later this year! Any hoo… the way in which I’m making these masks reactive involves a somewhat simple capacitance circuit that exploits the properties of the materials forming the circuit. Connected to my circuit are several copper pads; one to act as ground, the other two for sensing. The charge of your body effects the charge on the pads, so the amount of skin contacting the pad relates to a degree of capacitance, and can act as a granular trigger! While this works nicely in a bread board with some red LEDs, I need to mount these pads inside of a mask and test the viability of…

Projects

[ ! ] ANNOUNCING [ ! ] : SHE BON

April 11, 2018spetku2 Comments

It’s pronounced French-like, “bone”. This should translate to “she good”… and yes, the project is very much about the imagery floating around in your mind right now. All playfulness intended, this wearable project is an exploration of female arousal. I heavily hinted at this interest in my open letter about normalizing sexual nature on Red Star last month. I think it made some people really uncomfortable- so obviously I need to publish more stuff like that. =3 The SHE BON project is a collection of wearable augments that tap into specific biological responses in order to detect an aroused state. Once triggered, a series of electronic and mechanical indicators located throughout the body will signal the wearers status to others nearby. This means that on a technical level, there are two parts to the development of the augments: sensing and indicating. Sensing is the tricky, sciencie part that will require some R&D,…

Flocking Masks

March 21, 2018spetku0 Comments

I grew up with a parrot. Over the course of my life, we taught one another how to communicate our feelings to each other using sounds, patterns of movement, and gesture. Now I have this rich private language with my bird. This makes sense, after all, birds distinguish who is in their flock by the familiar sounds they call out and repeat back to one another over a given distance. Birds that know the same head bob and chirp must be from your zip code, and are therefore your familiars. Your family. Your flock. Without noticing, over time I began enacting some of the mannerisms I’ve developed between me and my bird, with my human friends. I think most write off these acts as quirkiness, or ‘Sarah being Sarah’, but as I repeat them, invariably those who are closest to me begin mimicking these behaviors as well. As my closest…

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