Busy hands | Disquiet mind

Somehow, while making my Colour Stealing Skirt, I got the idea that I would like a headpiece to go with it. I mean, it's for EMFcamp, so go big or stay home, right? (Not at all, but I wanted to so I made excuses.) I wandered down a path of cybergoth falls for a little, but wanted something a bit more cyberpunk, and what is more punk than outrageous mohawks? But I don't have a 3D printer, or laser cutter, or CNC. How was I going to get something strong enough to stand upright, but translucent enough to light up nicely? I had an idea in my head of circles, inspired by CDs and hair rollers, but nothing else. So I took myself on a tour of hardware shops and wandered aimlessly. Eventually I found these. They come in different diameters and different heights, but these seemed just right for me.

Plastic furniture leg/wheel coasters, or floor protectors
Photo by chebe

Next step; how do I affix these plastic circles to my head? I wandered around youtube until I found people who use garden wire (for trailing vines and such) to make frames for costume headpieces. The idea is to shape a double-sided U-shape (one for each side of the head) out of the wire. You make the join with duct tape. I added extra supports to the top, by bending the ends to sit along existing wires, and duct tape them together.

Wire frame base
Photo by chebe

Then I continued in the same way down the back of my head. Aiming for a secure fit. I also wrapped the wire with ribbon (secured with super glue), not just to make it nicer, but because the duct tape glue was coming undone and the ribbon keeps pressure on all the joins.

( Many details )

Wear
Photo by Jeffrey_Roe

Parts;
Galvanised Coated Garden Wire, 2mm / 12 Gauge / 5/64"
Ribbon
62mm plastic furniture leg/wheel coasters (floor protectors)
Organza scraps
Wide crinoline tubing

Potentiometer
Adafruit Flora
Adafruit Neopixel strand
3-pin JST SM Plug + Receptacle Cable Set
Adafruit Colour Sensor
LilyPad Button Board
SparkFun Microphone

I've had one of these for a while now. What is it? It's a microphone, with all the added bits necessary (opamp etc) to create a signal loud/strong enough to be read by microcontrollers, and other things. But, I've been having a hard time learning how to use it.

First there was the physical hurdle, is it even connected properly? I eventually grabbed a six-pin header (female on top, like on the Arduino itself) and used three of its pins. VCC goes to 5V, GND to GND, and AUD to Analog In pin 0.

Now I'm struggling with how to read the values. If I just print the readings as fast as the Arduino can handle (by default, meaning no delay()s), I get a range that approximates a nice sine or cosine wave, centered maybe (evaluating by eye) around 510. But what do I do with it?

Well, I've managed loud sudden noise detection, like a bang, a knock, or a loud clap. It's actually rather like an analog version of the push-button switch state from my LED-top.

//You set the previous value to be the sensor value.

previousReading = sensorReading;

//Then you update the sensor value with a new reading.

sensorReading = analogRead(mic);

//You take the difference between the two values.

readingDifference = sensorReading - previousReading;

//You set a desired sensitivity rating, in this case 100.
//If the difference exceeds the sensitivity threshold it's an event, do something.

if(readingDifference > 100)
  {
    numBeats = numBeats + 1;
    Serial.print("Beat ");
    Serial.println(numBeats);
  }

So now I guess I could hook-up those lights that turn on and off with clapping, but there's not much else this would be good for. Maybe a more sensitive version for just pulsing lights with a strong bass-beat in songs? Ideas on a postcard. Have to study more about sound wave analysis to be able to use this sensor data to more advantage.