Skin Electronics
For week 12, we explored the possibility of skin electronics. Skin-like electronics that can adhere seamlessly to human skin or within the body, which are highly desirable for various functions and applications. I chose to do a project which focuses on nail art and the application you can utilize with integrating technologies with your nails.
Research
Doing research on this assignment, I looked at different people who worked on nail art such as Kao, Hsin-Liu Cindy and Sensor Salon and wanted to pursue my own form of nail electronics
I initially wanted to create Nail RFID stickers but didn't have access to an RFID reader so inspired by SensorSalon and the work of Hsin-Liu Cindy Kao, I decided to create a nail sensor.
Materials
- Acrylic Nails
- Nail Polish
- Bare Conductive Paint
- LEDs
- Conductive Fabric
- Velostat
- Arduino
- Wires
- Alligator Clips
- Acrylic Nail Glue
- Breadboard
Procedures
Velostat + Fabric Pressure Sensor
Velostat is conductive and pressure sensitive and it will allow you to make a good pressure sensor nail sticker.
- I gathered all my materials.
- Cut (you can also use a Vinyl Cutter) the Velostat and Conductive Fabric
- Use acrylic Nail Glue to connect the velostat and conductive Fabric
- Make sure all the pieces are connected thoroughly.
- Then connect the velostat to the acrylic nail.
- Connect the led to velostat and squeeze. You will see it glow.
Conductive Paint + Nail Polish Distance Sensor
Bare Conductive Paint is a multipurpose electrically conductive material perfect for all of your DIY projects. It allowed me to be flexible and develop simple designs on nails and still is conductive when covered over nail art. I think if I was more talented nail artist, I probably could create engaging designs.
Create Sensor Nail
- Gather your materials materials.
- Paint the nail with conductive paint.
- Wait for the conductive paint to dry.
- Paint a wire to the conductive paint and wait for it to dry.
- Paint over with nail polish and wait for it to dry.
- Connect the wire to an alligator clip which will connect to the breadboard of the arduino.
Create LED Nail
- Paint the acrylic nail and create positive and negative branch.
- I connected it with alligator clips but you can also paint a wire to the nails.
- Connect the alligator clips to the breadboard.
- Develop a program in Arduino that allows the LED to light up depending on the distance of the sensor.
Code Example
Here is the code for the distance sensor. It kind of worked but it wasn't always easy.
#include
/*
* CapitiveSense Library Demo Sketch
* Paul Badger 2008
* Uses a high value resistor e.g. 10M between send pin and receive pin
* Resistor effects sensitivity, experiment with values, 50K - 50M. Larger resistor values yield larger sensor values.
* Receive pin is the sensor pin - try different amounts of foil/metal on this pin
*/
CapacitiveSensor cs_4_2 = CapacitiveSensor(4,2); // 10M resistor between pins 4 & 2, pin 2 is sensor pin, add a wire and or foil if desired
CapacitiveSensor cs_4_6 = CapacitiveSensor(4,6); // 10M resistor between pins 4 & 6, pin 6 is sensor pin, add a wire and or foil
CapacitiveSensor cs_4_8 = CapacitiveSensor(4,8); // 10M resistor between pins 4 & 8, pin 8 is sensor pin, add a wire and or foil
void setup()
{
cs_4_2.set_CS_AutocaL_Millis(0xFFFFFFFF); // turn off autocalibrate on channel 1 - just as an example
pinMode(13, OUTPUT);
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop()
{
long start = millis();
long total1 = cs_4_2.capacitiveSensor(10);
long total2 = cs_4_6.capacitiveSensor(10);
long total3 = cs_4_8.capacitiveSensor(10);
Serial.print(millis() - start); // check on performance in milliseconds
Serial.print("\t"); // tab character for debug windown spacing
Serial.print(total1); // print sensor output 1
Serial.print("\t");
Serial.print(total2); // print sensor output 2
Serial.print("\t");
Serial.println(total3); // print sensor output 3
if(total2 > 5){
digitalWrite(13, HIGH);
delay(1000);
}
else{
digitalWrite(13, LOW);
delay(1000);
}
delay(5); // arbitrary delay to limit data to serial port
}
A lot of testing with paper before I painted the nails.
The Results were mixed but I think there were a positive start. Velostat worked okay to one day make a sticker but I think there would be a better way to create a conductive sticker for nails.
The conductive paint in my opinion worked really well and the distance sensor mostlyy worked and it was a fun way to create a nail sensor.