Building the Urban Sonar Device

Overview

As an individual moves through the urban development, his experiences are sensed and that information is recorded for later reviewing by this personal space monitoring system known as Urban Sonar.

Details

In this project, a lived experience can be visualize through quantitative data by turning the gaze both outward and inward and by using negative space surrounding the individual and their heart rate. This is done by integrating the sensing system into a wearable device.

In the front, back, and shoulders of a jacket, ultrasonic range finders are mounted as the empty space or proximity to solid forms on all sides of the body is measured. The contact leads for a heart rate monitor that registers pulse are done by the conductive fabric strips strapped around the fingers. A pocket inside the jacket houses the remaining electronic components.

A microcontroller interprets the values as it receives the sensor data and uses Bluetooth to transmit the values serially. The log file is uploaded from the mobile phone to a server where it is interpreted as a time-based visualization once the session is complete. An accelerated, aerial view of data logged is displayed by the visualization.