BIO CIRCUIT: A WERABLE SOUNDSCAPE
2009 | wool, electronics
Made in collaboration with Holly Schmidt
Bio Circuit explores the interrelations of humans and the environment through wearable technology and computing. The vest is a wearable soundscape that uses the wearer’s physiological state to provide bio feedback of their own state of calmness or anxiety. This is provided in the form of recorded sounds the wearer hears through a speaker embedded in the collar of the vest. If the wearer’s heart rate is low, the soundscape will reflect a quiet, natural area with sounds such as water, birds, and insects. If the wearer has a high heart rate, they will hear a cacophony of urban sounds such as people talking and traffic.
Programming Assistance: Bryan Rite
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Bio Circuit was exhibited at TEI 10 at MIT Media Lab in Boston, at SIGGRAPH 2010 in Los Angeles, and at Interactive Futures '09 in Vancouver.
Published in the Proceedings of the fourth international conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI) 2010, Cambridge, Massachusetts
With each beat of the heart, Bio Circuit connects the wearer with the inner workings of their body.
In this sense, the garment functions like other bio feedback devices that use sensors to provide a person with information about their physiological state. Sometimes used as a method of therapy, feedback from these devices is used to create greater mind-body awareness. With Bio Circuit, we are proposing that these kinds of devices could extend a persons awareness to include the environment.
The project is the result of an interest in media-based interactions that reveal human interdependence with the environment.
Our aesthetic aim was to design a garment that is both attractive and striking in appearance.
We wanted the wearer to feel that they were engaged in an personal, meditative experience. Inspired by the phonograph, the conical, high collar became integral to the intimate nature of our wearable soundscape.
Presented and exhibited at TEI 10, the fourth annual conference on Tangible, Emedded, Embodied Interacation
The work presented at TEI addresses HCI issues, design, interactive art, user experience, tools and technologies, with a strong focus on how computing can bridge atoms and bits into cohesive interactive systems.
Bio Circuit has received a generous amount of press: See the complete list here >