DeepVR, and the search for a controller
2016-Apr-13, Wednesday 08:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chebeDeepVR is this amazingly beautiful and serene underwater virtual reality that some very talented and extremely dedicated people have been working on for a while now. (It is seriously astounding, check it out if you can.) You are immersed in this other reality with the Rift, or now also the Vive. You navigate the world by controlled breathing. There isn't yet a popular controller to do this, so they have been trying various different configurations and learning from each iteration.
Which is also where I come in. I made up three (nearly identical) etextile belts. The components are actually quite straight-forward; a Flora, some NeoPixels, a knitted stretch sensor, a 10K resistor, and about six metres of stainless steel thread.
The stretch sensor is what actually measures the breathing. The LEDs are used as visual indicators that the belt is fitted correctly. The Flora sends the data back over serial to the computer running the virtual reality.
The belt is worn low on the abdomen, and has to be widely adjustable as it'll be used to demo Deep to a wide and unpredictable set of people. The silver knit fabric section covers the stretch sensor. It's silver because that's the colour of the only knit fabric I happened to have that was stretchier than the sensor. The LEDs are on the outside where the user can see them. I connected them to the rest of the circuit (on the inside/back) with metal snaps.
This is very much a prototype; the whole thing opens up to be poked and prodded, and closes again with a series of snaps along the bottom. We had tried adding bluetooth (instead of relying on serial) but discovered that the module we had didn't do serial to the computer, so that was left off the others for a later iteration.
Apologies for the poor photos, I was so focused on finishing them that I forgot to get decent photographs. The rush was because the belts have flown off with the team to Tribeca, where they will surely be put through their paces. I look forward to finding out how they held up and what didn't work so well.
Which is also where I come in. I made up three (nearly identical) etextile belts. The components are actually quite straight-forward; a Flora, some NeoPixels, a knitted stretch sensor, a 10K resistor, and about six metres of stainless steel thread.
Components
Photo by chebe
The stretch sensor is what actually measures the breathing. The LEDs are used as visual indicators that the belt is fitted correctly. The Flora sends the data back over serial to the computer running the virtual reality.
The belt is worn low on the abdomen, and has to be widely adjustable as it'll be used to demo Deep to a wide and unpredictable set of people. The silver knit fabric section covers the stretch sensor. It's silver because that's the colour of the only knit fabric I happened to have that was stretchier than the sensor. The LEDs are on the outside where the user can see them. I connected them to the rest of the circuit (on the inside/back) with metal snaps.
Finished belt inside
Photo by chebe
This is very much a prototype; the whole thing opens up to be poked and prodded, and closes again with a series of snaps along the bottom. We had tried adding bluetooth (instead of relying on serial) but discovered that the module we had didn't do serial to the computer, so that was left off the others for a later iteration.
Finished belt outside
Photo by chebe
Apologies for the poor photos, I was so focused on finishing them that I forgot to get decent photographs. The rush was because the belts have flown off with the team to Tribeca, where they will surely be put through their paces. I look forward to finding out how they held up and what didn't work so well.
