This mushroom-like sensor was an exploration for creating soft sound-making interfaces for a project called “Electronic Digital Music Practice for Neurodiverse people” at Aalto ARTS.
Read more about the project here: http://tai-studio.org/index.php/projects/instrument-making/deind/
Form inspiration: Laetiporus gilbertsonii Mushroom. Image source: http://www.mykoweb.com/CAF/species/Laetiporus_gilbertsonii.html
Two crocheted smaller layers of the to-be mushroom sensor
First, lightly felted the crocheted piece with a needle.
Added some regular wool and conductive fibres on top.
Continued to felt the wool into the crocheted piece.
Continued to felt adding wool wherever needed to get the desired mushroom-like colours.
Also made sure there was enough conductive fibres and that they were uniformly distributed around the surface.
A crocheted piece after felting.
Close up – The fibres were felted nicely into the crocheted layer underneath.
Then scrubbed the surface with soap and water to felt the wool more and to make it a bit more dense and stronger.
Dried all the pieces overnight by the window.
Three layers of the mushroom sensor, now felted and dried.
The conductive fibres and the wool look a bit like mould!
Trying to see what the layers look like together
Trying to see what the layers look like together
Next was to attach the felted layers to a sturdy backing so it can be easily mounted on a wall.
Passed some metallic wire through the felt and into the holes in the backing.
Using a metal wire to attach the pieces also connected the conductive felt to the wire.
The layer held up when upright.
Attached the other layers so that it somewhat resembled the mushroom.
The mushroom-like sensor when all the layers were attached.
The mushroom-like sensor when all the layers were attached.
The mushroom-like sensor when all the layers were attached.
The mushroom-like sensor : close up of the layers
The back looked like this – Twisted ends of the metal wires that were connected to the different layers. The wires were connected to each other so that there would be mainly three sensing areas.
Checked to make sure the metal wires were well-connected to the conductive felts.
Made a connector for attaching to any i/o device. Sends 3 analogue signals from the different felted layers.
Back of the connector
Attached the connector to the three sensing areas of the felted mushroom.
Attached the connector to an Arduino to test the sensor.
Tapping or pressing the mushroom layers resulted in significant response from the corresponding felted sensor area.