We found out about the artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer who used pulse sensing in many of his installations. One of which was set in Madison Square Park: Pulse Park read people pulses and reflected it with light beams :

In our project we are attempting to create a personal experience that will be somewhat meditative. We will react to the pulse of the person standing in front of the infinity mirror through the reflecting lights and also play back a base drum in the rhythm of the pulse.

This was our first test of the pulse sensor that we bought from Tinkersphere. We checked the effect of the led pulsing using a small mirror piece and a one sided mirror we had at hand, and paced raw cut paper on top to diffuse it the light. The sensor needed to be set up with hot glue on it’s back to protect the circuitry and clear sticker at the front, to reduce noise.

We gathered most of the materials to create the infinity mirror box – and started to construct it. We cut the a wooden frame and a back wood piece to fit to size, all based on the front glass piece which is 19″ x 63”.

We ordered 2 kinds of mirror films, one for the one way mirror to go on the front of the box, and a different kind that we wanted to stick to the wood panel.  The mirror film we got for the back panel was not reflecting well enough. We compared it with a small piece of mirror and  decided we need to find a better solution.

To solve the this we got 2 large thin acrylic sheets that we cut to fit the size needed and we will stick the mirror film to it and mount it to the back wooden panel.

We were assigned itp “staging space” so that we could keep our things on the floor and work continuously in one space.

fast forward, this is what we built so far.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We used Metal Flashing to create the organic cave like shape we were aiming for. We had to use duck tape all around so that it will not scratch the mirrors on both sides.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Setting in the LED light strip to test colors and shapes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We encountered some problems with the LED strips. We had 2 strips and assumed that both strips will be wired the same way, as well as would produce the same colors when reading the same values. After assembling the the strips we realized that we have to re-solder and recut one of the strips to have the  same color value in the inner ‘circles’.

Then we added paper to diffuse the light and create rough edge:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We built a stand for the pulse sensor to rest in

Then we used stained the wood.

For the final presentation we are planning to  finalize the sound, colors and the interaction with the sensor.

Here is a glimpse