Nov 7, 2008

Biometric Jewelry

A beautiful necklace, in the form of a celtic knotted triangle, pulsates with red LEDs, displaying the heart rate of the wearer in a shimmering wave effect. Geek gifts of love at their finest.


Inspiration:

While exploring the various potentials of working with biometrics, we were thinking of ways to visualize to people around you, your biometric state. We wanted to do this in a pretty, artistic way. Interactive clothing is very popular but there hasn't been a lot done in the realm of jewelry. Since one of the first biometrics projects we worked on was exploring heart rate feedback through a corset, we thought jewelry was a natural progression, a decorative feedback display system.

Read all the details of its creation, hardware, and coding here.


See photos on Flickr, here.

Video of heart rate necklace: http://blip.tv/file/1443460/

Nov 5, 2008

VFD (Vacuum Florescent Display) Clock


clock3
Originally uploaded by geekphysical
After a certain someone nearly threw our 'alarm clock' (mobile phone) out the window the last time Britney Spears woke us up (Blackout has GREAT wake up songs) it was decided that perhaps we should have our own alarm clock. Since a friend inherited 15,000 of said VFD tubes (Russian Made), and had some odds and ends from an electronics factory that were no longer being used; we decided it would be interesting to solve our 'alarm clock problem' with these.

Components are new but have been rejected from the assembly line in the electronics factory, normally due to bent pins and other mild deficiencies. We saved these throw-aways and used them for the clock. The circuit boards used were custom designed and manufactured using a rapid prototyping process (CNC Machining). Three plates (boards) were specifically designed; one for holding the displays and interface button, one for the clock electronics and one for the speaker, and to act as a base for the entire clock.

See full entry here: http://geekphysicalexplained.blogspot.com/2008/11/vfd-vacuum-florescent-display-clock.html

Want one? Contact us. geekphysical@gmail.com