Sound?

I find that in my daily life, I never leave time to relax and do nothing for the sake of doing nothing. All day long, I am doing something. Whether it is homework, driving, eating, sleeping, etc.. my mind is active and occupied. Humans are incredibly sensory creatures, constantly looking for inputs so that we understand the world. Sensory deprivation is an interesting concept for me for this reason.

While obviously it is impossible to do absolutely nothing at a given moment, I'd like to explore the idea of doing SOMETHING that is NEXT to NOTHING. In my mind, this is listening. The intentional activation (or inactivaton) of hearing for the purpose of relaxation is effective for many people. ASMR, soundcapes, and even earplugs.

For my final project, I'd really like to make something to do with sound and its relationship to emotion and relaxation. Maybe the sound of human heartbeats. Maybe soundscapes. ASMR. Handheld devices. Distractions. Human connection through devices. I'm very interested in the concept of connecting two people through sound and relaxation as well.


Here is a project I made that I'm taking inspiration from:



The devices play a soundscape of my design in each ear, simulating the Earth's heartbeat frequency (7.83Hz). The sound and tactile elements are meant to relax the user.

I want to explore the idea of relaxation through sound further, making a device that requires you focus your attention on the sound alone.

And since I am OCTOABBY, I wonder if I could make the device octopus-like, being able to mold to anyone's face, cover their eyes, and play sound into their ears......

Tentacle Robot

I was recently super inspired by SpiRobs, a logarithmic spiral shaped soft robot. It is inspired by octopi and elephants and other animals that have a natural spiral used for gripping things in nature. The paper is linked here.
So, for 3D printing week, I modeled this tentacle somewhat after their tentacle in the paper. It is not a perfect logarithmic spiral (I am still figuring out grasshopper), but I just wanted to test if I could do it and if I could print with TPU.


I printed it out using TPU and the Prusa XL as an experiment of if it could actually work.


And it did! The holes were too small for cables.. so I will have to fix that for future. But I really enjoy the movement.

OctoPhone????

So... how do I combine these interests. I am very interested in soft robotics and sound so I definitely want to use both...
I was thinking, what if I made headphones that were like the body of an octopus and the tentacles wrapped around my head??? Kind of crazy and maybe a little weird. But cool.

Here are some sketches I have for OctoPhone....

I think I'd like to have a sensor inside, so that when the octopus nears your head it will extend its arms. I also will design my own soundscape for the music that is played. The arms will likely need to operate via caple, rotating motor, and pulley, but I am still looking into this.

Here are some initial thoughts on how I'd sert everything up. For each octopus, I will generally need:
- a body
- eight tentacles (ideally)
- two rotating motors to pull cables
- a speaker - a distance sensor
- rotational sensor (maybe)

I will want to store all of the electronics and bits inside of the body, which is the headphone part. Here are some sketches of how I might go about it.. although I anticipate many challenges.



I also want to follow this scheme from SpiRobs - using the cables and two rotating motors to move the legs up and down.

Design and Fab Plan

In order to actually make this, I think I will need a very secure plan to get me all the way there.
I am writing this during PCB design week (week 5), and I will outline some following weeks with a tentative plan.

- Electronics Production (6): Make distance sensor PCB, attempt to design and make one for a rotating motor to test cables.
- Computer Controlled Machining (7): Design and fab final tentacles with cables. Start body design.
- Input Devices (8): Work on distance and rotational sensor and speaker.
- Output Devices (9): Work on motors.
- Molding and Casting (10): mold and cast a tentale to see if material is better suited than TPU.

I'll only go to there because I imagine I will not be able to follow this plan perfectly. But I have faith I will be able to do it and make it beautiful!!!!