Bubble Pop Electric P2 Documentation

Materials were of greatest importance in beginning the prototype. We purchased clear plastic Christmas ornaments to represent the bubbles and silver fabric for the bodysuit. After tracing the pattern, we proceeded to assemble the suit with liquid stitch. 

  

Though the Christmas ornament appeared a lot like bubble, it concerned us that the clarity overly exposed the LED embedded in the bubble. So we experimented with different ways to alter the opacity of the bubble's surface. Above is a picture of the process I went  through to the coat the bubble with layers of spray paint. 

 

Alex programmed the pico block and the pic logochip (with bluetooth) so that the music's volume and LED's intensity would vary according to changing degrees of the potentiometer. Also, she added a slider that controlled the rate of the music.

Using the laser cutter, we created a plastic base for the bubble. The finished bubble was sewed on the bodysuit.

 

In the making, I invested my time on assembling the bodysuit and the bubble.Coating the bubble with layers of spray paint required a lot of practice and experience. The curves made it difficult to evenly spread the paint, and we were concerned that the opaque surface would make the bubble look more like a pearl and take away the airy and light effect of bubbles. Also, after stitching the suit, we realized that the suit's current surface area may not be large enough to accommodate the number of bubbles we wanted to attach. Therefore, bodysuit shape is to be reconsidered.

After the presentation in class, the group was left with many more questions and issues to discuss. First of all, the flat plastic surface of the bubble was too bulky and heavy on the suit. We discussed getting rid of the plastic ornament and replacing it with wires wrapped with thick vinyl. The wires stemming from the potentiometer and the LED were also possible concerns if we were to have more than bubble across the bodysuit. 

We also had to reevaluate the slider's purpose. Though the effect was musically interesting, we needed more control (if it were to read the body movement) and a comprehensive point to having bodily movement affect the sound.

In the future, the bubbles should be designed to be lighter with clearly assigned roles and entities. Also, the LED panel would require many more discussions especially in terms of LED coordinates and sequence.