Brandon Marsh – NMP Jacket

Monday

I just got the first rough sketches from my artist friend Kent Burles! I am really excited to see my project visualized like this! I can’t wait to see where it goes! Remember these are just the first rough sketches.

If illustrations were a drug, Kent would totally be my pusher!

Also I got a message this evening from Ed Hutchinson, who is the Director of Sales, New Business Development for Sony Ericsson Canada!!! I am going to get in contact with him tomorrow to further discuss some assistance with some project materials!

Tuesday

I got this illustration in from Kent today!

I also phoned Ed Hutchinson this morning and spoke with him briefly about my project. I told him what I needed in regards to phones and stuff and asked a few questions about what style of phone is easiest to disassemble. He said he would look into it for me and give me a call back. So hopefully he can come up with some positive results.

Wednesday

I did my interview with James Fung today, I think it went really well! I got some good information and he is going to take a look through the project and give me more feedback. I typed up my notes from both interviews so you can read them here

I also sent my feedback to Kent the illustrator and it looks like I should be getting some sort illustrations shortly, I can’t wait!

Thursday

I got another pair of sketches from Kent today!

I also got word back from Ed today, he is going to send me a couple of phones to work with! This is great news, I am really glad I contacted Sony-Ericsson. They asked me to confirm that Sony Ericsson is not liable for any direct or indirect damages caused by ‘misuse’ of this product. I have no problem with that at all, I’m just grateful they were willing to give me some phones to play with 🙂

Friday

To cap off the week I talked to Josh at Cool Neon and got a quote for my order, so I will be ordering that this week probably. I also took some time to edit my Proposal a bit and include a project budget.

Overall I am really pleased with how this week has gone and I am really looking forward to getting into the experimenting/prototyping stage of the project!

I’ve been working hard behind the scenes

I put in my order for 20ft. of Blue Cool Neon, I hope it shows up before my presentation, that would be awesome! I’ve figured out the details for a cell phone plan, I just have to get my materials together to get my prototype. I’ve been slightly delayed because it is coming to the end of the month and I am also having to consider paying my rent.

I got a revised sketch from Kent Burles as well!

I should also like to take a moment to mention Troy Hurtubise an amazing Canadian doing all sort of interesting things in the wearable technology and beyond! I think I can learn a few things from his Trojan suit and perhaps apply it to my own work.

In addition my classmate Andre told me about the Lily Pad which sounds like it has alot of potential for integration depending on the amount of time I have!

I got this sketch from Kent today, I wanted to see what the helmet looked like versus the other headgear.

I probably won’t get much done on the project this week simply because I have finals coming up and I also have to wait until I pay my rent before I can think about buying any more project supplies.

This week I will be presenting my project to the class, so I am pretty excited about that. A lot of my classmates have been interested in what I am doing and are keen to see what I have come up with. I’m sure I will be getting a lot of good feedback as well.

I was talking to Jordy yesturday and she suggested I try contacting Toronto Craft Alert to see if I could find a fashion designer/textile artist on there. It’s worth a shot, I think I will also try Craigslist and a few other places while I am at it.

I sent Kent some more feedback from myself and my friends on his latest revisions. I think things are really coming together now. I really appreciate having him there to visualize the problems or ideas that I have when thinking about this project.

The rest of the week will be spent wrapping up my other class work and preparing for exams. Once that is over I can dedicate some serious time to getting my prototype done.

I got my Cool Neon in the mail on Thursday! It works great and looks cool! I can’t wait to start using it.

I presented my Project to the class on Friday and got some really positive feedback from the professors and my classmates. I have a lot to work with and a lot to think about with my prototype.

One suggestion was to incorporate a self-documenting system to gather part of my project documentation

Andre made a good point of dissolving the technology into the outfit, Jordy cautioned me against using a leather jacket for a base, since it will be difficult to work with.

Dave pointed out to me to think about the difference between a ‘Wearable Computer’ and just ‘Wearing a Computer’. He also wants the me to incorporate the Cool Neon into the system, not just for decoration.

Kathleen has suggested I steer away from the hardcore cyberpunk aesthetic since it represents a sort of anti-social disjunction, which is opposite to the type of atmosphere I want to create with my project.

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I have finished out my exams and such, so I have a chance to dedicate some time to my project and make some serious progress. I really have no time to waste with this project and I can already feel time slipping away.

First I talked to Kent about my project and the feedback I got. We talked about moving away from Cyberpunk and more towards Daft Punk; re-designing the headpiece and making contact with a relative of his that works or has developed this type of Kevlar material, maybe I can use instead of Leather.

I have to find find my fashion designer soon, so I can start working on making plans on that front. The other big issue is scraping together the money to buy my equipment and supplies. Things have been pretty tight lately, hopefully OSAP will come quickly next year!

I’m back from a very refreshing break! I did a little work on my project, but not too much. I definitely have a lot to do still and not much time to do it in. I find myself not even knowing where to start sometimes and I’m a little scared by the enormous amount of pressure there is to get this project completed. Thankfully my OSAP has come through quickly and I won’t have to be worrying about money for the next little while.

The big news is I have found a wonderfully talented Fashion Designer named Adrienne Baker.I met with her over the break and really look forward to working with her in the coming weeks to get the fashion part off the ground. Adrienne is working on a few different movie and TV series at the moment as well as a few projects for fashion students. One of her bosses has inquired about using my project for thier TV series Team Epic!!! They are also interested in possibly having Kent work on thier comic book tie in, so that is some crazy good news right there!

I’ve also gone back with Kent the illustrator to start from scratch on a design that is more streamlined and full body back and front so that Adrienne can plan out the patterns.

I am just trying to sort out all the technical details right now, which seems to be a little tricky. I think I can wire up a simple electronic switch to turn on/off the Cool Neon when the phone is ‘in use’ by way of the Bluetooth device I have bought. I am still trying to figure out if an external keypad exists for cellphones, I came across this Bluetooth keypad online but it doesn’t seem to be in production yet.

For the next few weeks I really need to get all the basic technical components working, my Work in Progress presentation is on the 25th!

edit: This week I ordered more Cool Neon, I’ve also found a few resources for conductive threads. Here is a list of different companies/suppliers. This company is Canadian  and is used in this outfit

So this week I dropped off a cheque to Adrienne as a down payment on the project and so she can cover any material costs that come up. Kent will be re-illustrating and re-working some of the earlier sketches, to give a complete look at the project. I forgot to post our revision of the helmet last week, something I was inspired by when watching the Seven Samurai

So today I got the first full-body draft of a complete outfit, of course things will be changing as we go through all the parts and see what works and what won’t.

I have to say though I really like what I am seeing, I just have to be more consideration of practical issues and functionality purposes.

Mark the technical advisor and I have started trying to sort out some of the technical issues related to the project. I have to try and find a very tiny star head screwdriver to disassemble the bluetooth earpiece. I think we will attempt to hack the Sony Ericsson K510a since it will disassemble a little easier than the other phone Sony Ericsson sent me. I also have to get the phone unlocked since it is currently locked to FIDO only. He also showed me this cool site called Pinouts.ru that had pinouts for Sony Ericsson phones.

Well I’m due to present a prototype of my project this Friday, I am probably nowhere near ready so I am going to have to fake some of it.

I finally managed to find a Torx Screwdriver that I can use to disassemble my phone with so that should go along fairly well, I did some tests earlier and I think I sort of have an idea how the keypad works.

I have been working with Mark on getting my circuits set-up to test, but I’ve been caught a few times unprepared and that has set me back 🙁

Circuit Diagram Step 1Step 2

Oh also Lila told me I should check out Susan Kozel, she seems to be doing some interesting work with wearable electronics in an exhibition/performance space. Lila gave me a full copy of this article today and holy crap is it ever good! I am thinking of re-writing or altering my proposal and thesis to include some of this material.

Problem!

I forgot a fundamental issue with cellphones and speakers! they don’t mix! AAAaaagghhh! I did a test and the concept works, I just need to get a pair of special speakers so there is no interference. My presentation is probably going to be a complete shitshow as one of my classmates described theirs.

Well things are going.. I’m probably behind schedule, I’ve had a number of delays which has not helped in getting my circuits being completed. So as it stands I am probably behind schedule and nothing can be done until I finish my circuits and soldering more or less.

I got a little further on the circuits last week with Mark, we figured out how to get the switch going, it just needs more current than we were giving it. Here are a few pictures of the new circuit layouts, we attached a motor for testing purposes.

http://us.100y.com.tw/pdf_file/TAKAMISAWA_MZ-Series.pdf

http://www.fairchildsemi.com/ds/6N%2F6N139.pdf

Other than that my presentation went alright, Mark suggested looking into making a Faraday Cage around the speakers I use in order to get around the problem of signal interference. Hopefully it’s not too expensive!

I’ve also posted my Public Presentation Strategy

Tuesday Update: I met up with Mark and we made a lot of progress today in a short period of time! We got the first partof the phone soldering done and the circuits all working!

Well lets see… I am slowly getting back up to speed, but sadly my off-hours have been largely mis-used or squandered this past week. Hopefully this reading week will prove to be productive and give me a little recharge to let me get through all the rest of this project.
That being said, this week Mark helped me solder the keypad to my phone so that I could start rigging that up

I also did some shopping for accessories this week and on Saturday met up with Adrienne to look at fabrics.

Here are a few things I scouted out at the army surplus store on Jarvis

Here is a bad quality picture of the type of fabric we are thinking of using for the jacket, I forget if it is a type of vinyl or pleather.

And here is just some other general cool stuff I spotted.

A Mapcase, A Flakjacket, Headphone wire holder (the case Could be used as the ‘hub’ accessory)