First Human Subject Test

My Max patch worked perfectly the first time I fired it up.  Now that I had pulsing pattern and speed control, I was ready to test this out on a real person to see how it feels, see what issues I'd have to think about for doing this for real.

My friend Raminder was kind (and daring) enough to be my first guinea pig.  I found that the setup and calibration took quite some time because of the specific acupoints I needed to hit--the solenoids had to be angled just right.  The feet were especially tricky.

Other than calibration, everything else ran very smoothly.  Raminder also had some very positive feedback to give.  I was thrilled that not only did my system turn on, but it also felt really good and had the effect I wanted it to have.  And I haven't even integrated the music and energy work yet!

It turns on!

This was a very very exciting moment.  I wired up all of the solenoids to the driver boards and Arduino and wrote a test program in Arduino to turn them all on/off.  Everything worked as expected.  This moment represented hours and hours of design decisions, spec'ing and ordering parts, overcoming obstacles, electrical work, and tons and tons of other little issues/questions/concerns/ideas.

I shouted in relief and joy when it powered on and started pulsing and clinking away.  Big big relief anytime you turn a project like this on for the first time.  You can do all the careful planning in the world and still have it not work right the first time.  I guess in my case, I did do all the planning and design the right way because it did turn on the first time.

Acupuncture topics to look into

Needle twisting leading to twisting of connective tissue/cells

Pain management (German government study)

Magnetic bead acupoint massage

Moxibustion as transduction

Found a solution to the solenoid tip softening

After brainstorming, searching, calling, talking, and drawing I came up with a working solution to the problem of the solenoid plunger tip causing skin irritation after prolonged use. I remembered that a brand new toslink optical audio cable has a small tip that's about the size of my solenoid plunger. The cable comes with a slightly soft plastic cover over the tip. I ordered a cable to test if the cover is the right size (I couldn't find any place to just buy the cost without the cable) and it turns out I was right--it fit. I put a little silicone glue in the cover and slid it over the plunger tip. Dried up real nice and it's easy to remove (in case I have to change the springs). Yes!!!

Observations with first testing of solenoid

After some experimentation and research, I decided on a tubular linear push solenoid with a return spring, 24oz striking force at .5" at 50% duty cycle, AWG 34 gauge wire coil, operating at 24v, and drawing approximately .34a.

The distance between the solenoid plunger and the stricken object is very important.  In order to maximize the force and minimize bounceback of the plunger (I'll eventually attach a backing, most likely built into the mounting, but it's better to minimize extraneous motion anyway) the stricken object must be at just under the .5" striking distance.

The force is just what I was hoping for, however there is now a problem...the plunger is metal and has a fairly tiny circumference, so repeated striking on the skin is a bit irritating.  I will have to find a solution to soften the blow.  I'm thinking either a rubber tip on the plunger or a bandaid pad on the skin it's striking.  The rubber tip would be ideal, but it would have to be something that could come on and off fairly easily.  The tip of the solenoid where the plunger protrudes is just big enough, so any tip I put on would likely not fit through the solenoid, but would rather have to be taken off in order to do things like replacing the return spring.

As I was writing this, I had another idea in that bodes well for finding a rubber tip.  The tip might be able to function as a stopper instead of putting on a backing to keep the plunger from flying out.  However, if the rubber has too much bounce then it might cause the plunger to bounce right back instead of stopping when the spring return brings the plunger back up.

Bought the book Frequency by Penny Peirce

This book came highly recommended to me.  It goes over a lot of energy work theory--stuff I already know, but the descriptions are supposed to be really good.  I hope to use some of the vocabulary when describing certain things in my thesis paper.

Read Chapter 1 of Quantum Mechanics and Experience

Goes through various examples of explaining the superposition of an electron and the strange behaviors of electrons, ie the Measurement Problem.

First Project Description with Drawing

Pulse study setup (the graduation show will have a different setup).  Thanks to Eric Mesple for the drawing.

February 16, 2010
Pulse - project description
David Resnick

General Setup

My thesis project, Pulse, is based on some of the core principles of my first-year project, Undulating Flux. I will use a multi-sensory environment to attempt to bring the participant into a state of relaxation, an expanded sense of awareness and consciousness, and increased health. In Pulse, I will act as the vibrationist (a term I coined to mean someone who plays vibrotactile actuators). As I move my hands around the space above a person’s body according to energy medicine principles and my general sense of what would be good compositionally-speaking (both in terms of solenoid vibration and sound), the Microsoft Kinect tracks my movements and actuates programs to control seven solenoids placed around a person’s body (the solenoids will be placed according to a basic acupuncture diagnosis). My movements will control system-wide pulse patterns as well as individual solenoid pulsing frequency. The participant and I will wear headphones that are playing music generated by my movements. The frequencies in the sound will correspond to the frequencies of the solenoids. The participant will also be wearing a EKG monitor, which is hooked up to a large screen so that I can view their heart rate throughout the session. I will measure heart rate variability (HRV) both before the session starts and after it ends in order to detect if the strength and balance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems (the autonomic nervous system) has improved.

I will also administer a survey pre and post session. The survey will ascertain the participant’s self-observation about their state of awareness, consciousness, feeling in their body, experience with various therapies and alternative medicine (massage, acupuncture, energy work, reiki, music therapy). I will also conduct a control group study where I measure the effects on HRV of the person just sitting and doing nothing for the same duration of time as my session (likely to be 10-20 minutes), as well as having a person just taking deep breaths (a common form of relaxation), just listening to relaxing sounds (like waves on the beach), just having the solenoids going, and just having the music going.

The sessions will be conducted in private in a room yet to be determined. For the ACE show, I will demo the technology involved in a fashion similar to the actual sessions, but the demo sessions will only last a minute or two and the results will not be saved. I will also present on poster-board the results of my actual study.

I propose to conduct ten sessions per session type (as described above). I will attempt to recruit participants of diverse gender, ethnicity, age, and disposition towards complementary and alternative medicine.

Equipment

Masage table, LCD monitor, Kinect, Wireless headphones (2), MOTU Ultralite audio interface, Laptop computer, Arduino Diecimila, Boom mic stands (7), Solenoids (7), Solenoid driver circuits (7), EKG, Max/MSP/Jitter, PrimeSense NITE Framework, Processing, Poster-board

Space Required

The Kinect must be placed 6’ - 7’ from the close edge of the massage table. The length of the massage table is approximately 6’. A total space of 10’ x 10’ is required. The room should be quiet with as little noise from inside and outside the room as possible, so as to maintain the best sense of auditory immersion from the headphones.

Lighting Requirements

Pleasant soft white dim lighting should be used, preferably from lamps.

Power Requirements

Standard power outlets should be available on both the wall behind the Kinect and the wall behind the laptop.

Working with Kinect in Max - 01

Thanks to Tohm Judson's tutorial, I got the Kinect skeleton joint tracking data into Max (via Processing).  The data is streamed via UDP as OSC messages.  Max routes each joint point individually, and displays the points in three coordinate planes: X (horizontal), Y (vertical), and Z (depth).  Now I'm attempting to make that data do something.  I'm brick walling on something I know is simple but I don't have the Max vocabulary for it yet, so I'm going to the Max lab in the morning and hopefully Matias will be able to help me.

Screenshot from working in Max tonight

Vibrationist

I coined this term last year, but just to officially put it in writing somewhere, a vibrationist is one who plays vibrotactile actuators. As technology evolves, the term may also come to describe one who plays any sort of vibration (other than the tactile).

UPDATE 2/23/11: As one guy put it tonight, a vibrationist is like a "body DJ".