Creative Technologies 2019

My Creative Journey

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Wearables Archived

https://naniblog-aut.tumblr.com/post/186806481468/studiostreamswearables

https://naniblog-aut.tumblr.com/post/188644112808/muscle-visualisation

https://naniblog-aut.tumblr.com/post/188644319003/thermochromic-ink-week-3

https://naniblog-aut.tumblr.com/post/188644546003/the-market

https://naniblog-aut.tumblr.com/post/188647578698/research-research

https://naniblog-aut.tumblr.com/post/188647725503/prototyping-more-research-where-do-i-add-value

https://naniblog-aut.tumblr.com/post/188648040013/take-imperfect-action

https://naniblog-aut.tumblr.com/post/188648564998/surveys-on-top-of-surveys

https://naniblog-aut.tumblr.com/post/188648781953/the-product

https://naniblog-aut.tumblr.com/post/188649032723/how-important-mindset-is

https://naniblog-aut.tumblr.com/post/188651285303/website

https://naniblog-aut.tumblr.com/post/188651796783/competition

https://naniblog-aut.tumblr.com/post/188652946063/coming-to-an-end

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Coming to an end

This project was very interesting, I learnt a lot about myself; more confirmed a lot of suspicions I had about myself. During this project I had the most busiest few weeks and most productive few weeks of my whole year, where I was constantly working and growing. This helped me do more for the group than I was thinking of on some days. However, when I wasn’t being as productive, I would lose momentum and therefore not take action the way I want to.

I learnt that whatever your skills are, you have to learn to use them with whatever you are doing, I learnt that with this course its more of one asserting themselves into what they want to be for the group and letting everything else flow while people take action in their own ways and come together. Which is what happened with this group project. I fell in love with the idea from the start however I had no interest in programming or textiles for that matter, well not until after I started getting into the space a bit more I found out why E-textiles is such a huge industry. On top of that, My team members were really understanding and very growth oriented in their own ways, which I admired very much. 

However, there are mistakes I made as well. 

There are definitely a number of things I should have done differently, I should have helped Zhe more with the textiles and the testing of the products after researching. I felt she did most of the ground work to actually getting the band to work. I tried maintaining a work / school / family balance but time management is a skill I am still warming up to. 

Something that kept me going through this semester was listening to “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill, this book provided me with so much value regarding numerous things, with my family, with my work, with school, with people and positivity.  It is definitely a book that you can listen to four times over and still hear something you didn’t hear before. 

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Competition !

(While doing my research, and scrolling through instagram, I got an AD from a company called “ATHOS” - Funnily enough they are a company very much in our industry, mainly focusing on efficient training for athletes. giving them real time muscle activation data.

I came across two companies that actively do muscle activation clothing, these aren’t directly our competitors but they are still in the same industry and there was quite alot we could learn from them.

https://www.liveathos.com/ - Athos - focusing specifically on muscle activation.

https://www.myontec.com/ - Myontech - Muscle activation clothing

We found that both these companies, and many other companies were focusing going about this problem using EMG (electromyography sensors). Now of course we thought about using these and buying these, however; a bigger part of us wanted to make it work through the stretch sensor and the thermochromic ink. 

So time to 10x the action 

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Physical Computing Final

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Website ?

I took it upon myself to create a website to give the group a professionalism well deserved. I was thinking business cards but they weren’t too keen on that idea. 

Not much but good presentation point for the open studio.

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How important Mindset is

With a lot of the projects we will do in this course, I have realised that we fall into a group and we shine with what our strengths are. In this group and in this industry, I have realised that it is not my fit; however, thats not to say I did not gain any value over the course of this semester. 

I received immense value especially by looking at how people work in different groups and how our group members went ahead with what their strengths were. It helped us even gain way more knowledge in things we had no idea about beforehand just so we could do a minor task to get ahead. I enjoyed the amount of value this stream had to offer especially with the people in it. 

I believe in sharpening your strengths, instead of focusing on making your weaknesses a little bit better. All that energy could be used to increasing your strengths. This stream taught me that no matter what team you are in, and no matter who you are, you can learn to provide value from even the smallest things. Towards the end of these weeks I have come to realise I could have done more for the group, I started designing a website and creating a relationship with potential buyers of the band. 

In my mind this could be a huge success purely for the fact that it has such a niche, of course it has competitors but the competitors aren’t as efficient as we have been and thats hats off to our amazing team Zhe , Astar and Yasmin. At the presentation hopefully my website will be up and running. I will link the quick logo I made with a vision I had dreamt of one night before going into uni, This could go a long way if implemented right and the right energy is given to it. 

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The product

Zhe’s masterpiece really came through, I did my first bit of sewing on this fabric. 

Textiles was a good experience, Not sure If I would take it next year but Donna was really insightful and very helpful. When the group and I were kind of going around in circles in terms of the research, Donna picked that up and led us in the right way in a very logical manner and it cleared things up for us very well.  This was helpful in many ways as all of us were coping in our own way, where Donna noticed that and adjusted our mindset accordingly. 

So it was good having a tutor who was good and also very aware of how we would be feeling when we were stuck.

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Surveys On Top of Surveys

- 9/15 who work out by themselves have suffered from injuries from working out incorrectly, whereas 1/3 who work out with a PT have suffered injuries, the 2 who have worked out with both also suffered injuries working out incorrectly

-   9/15 who workout by themselves would like a wearable band that visualises muscle use, 5/15 would like a suit that visualises muscle use and 1/15 would like both

-   All 3 who work out with a PT would like a wearable band and each person has a different set of experience in the gym

- 1/2 who use a PT and work out by themselves would like a band and the other would like both a band and a suit

- 3/5 people who workout by themselves but for less than a year, have suffered from working out incorrectly, 1/5 uses a wearable , and none focus on a muscle group. 4/5 know what muscles are being used

- Those who have been working out 2-4 years and by themselves, only 1/3 has suffered injuries from working out incorrectly and none have used any wearable, 2/3 are focusing on a muscle group

- 4/7 people who have been working out 3+ years and by themselves have suffered from injuries and 3/7 have used a wearable before, 2 of the 3/7 have suffered from working out incorrectly, all 7 are focusing on a muscle group and all 7 know what muscle groups are being used when working out

WEARABLE

-        With the 3 who work out with a PT, 2/3 have used a wearable, 2/3 are focusing on a muscle group

-        Out of the 2 who work either with a PT or by themselves, 1 has suffered from working out incorrectly and 1 uses a wearable

-        11/20 would like a wearable to show muscle use, heart beat and calories used/lost? 6/20 would like at least 2 of the 3 options available and 3 would like individual options for the 3 options

-        5/15 who workout by themselves recommend that when exercising SHOULDERS need to be careful and know specifically what muscle they are using

-        9/15 who workout recommended 2 or more muscle groups when working out to be careful and know specifically what muscle they are using, all include the muscle group SHOULDERS.

-        2/3 of the people who work out with a PT, recommend 2 or more muscle groups when working out to be careful and know specifically what muscle they are using; all include the muscle group SHOULDERS.

-        Both of the 2 who work out with a PT and by themselves recommend 2 or more muscle groups when working out to be careful and know specifically what muscle they are using; all include the muscle group SHOULDERS.

I did the survey around gyms in auckland  whilst Astar analysed it, The surveys went well, it was a good information from a targeted audience. Something I should have done and still could is go to a physiotherapy clinic, a school or a football team would be good for some insights in terms of needs for consumers. 

astar. (2019, October 15). WEEK 12. Retrieved from https://astarnaut22.tumblr.com/post/188357037794/week-12.

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Take Imperfect Action

JustDoit 

The fabric that Zhe had put together, she has been more or less the backbone for this creative process especially in terms of coding and working to get the fabric working. Lots of trial and error and a product well done. 

Being around people that love the creative process and are fully focused on their passion really drives you in one way or the other. 

The group and I re evaluated and I decided to do some Target Market Research with the Muscle Band. every Thursday we would come together and discuss what needs to be done and sorted by the next week. I think this was healthy for the group as some of us were always in uni when I was not, and that is a big aspect I need to focus on. In saying that, When I was conducting surveys and asking people about this muscle visualising band, all my responses were positive.

New Zealand is a great place (especially Auckland) to experiment on new products, hence why our startup culture is so big and its only growing, therefore the product idea got feedback of being very cool and technological.

Because of my inability to code, or be good with textiles. I found myself leaning towards the business side of things. such as marketing, market research, what the consumer would want and future buyers for the product. Every opportunity I would get, I would take it as a chance to pitch someone the Muscle Visualisation Band - “For the purpose of working out effectively, or making muscle recovery efficient.” While I was promoting Dyson in Auckland for my work, I got talking with a physiotherapist who was really interested in our work. I specifically pitched it to him for a way it could be used for physiotherapy. He gave me his business card and told me to update him since he listened to all the problems we were having. 

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Prototyping > More Research Where Do I Add Value.

Weeks 9 and 10 were very exciting weeks for me personally, before these few weeks the group and I were struggling with different prototypes and going around in circles in terms of the research we were doing. Fortunately Zhe was really on to it and proactive with the project as she got on to what we needed next and it was just a matter of executing.

We worked with Gordon develop a prototype for the stretch sensor, while Zhe did the paths for the steel yarn.

During this time of the project, very crucial because we just came back from semester break we needed to be on top of it when getting into the prototyping and the rest of it. I feel like my skills were limited in terms of programming and sewing, which was what was mostly used.

In saying that, I was thinking of how I can add value to this project in my own way. Clearly struggling with this I went to Shane Mccerlane, a year 3 and he advised me to just take action within the group with whatever I could help with.

That is exactly what I did, I started helping out and being kind of the messenger throughout the group just to know what is going on within the group and if they needed any thing bought, or anything I can help out with. This helped well in the next week as we started thinking of our potential market and that sparked an interest me as I love working with people and finding out what the consumer wants.

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Research > Research

After those few tests we were re evaluating every now and then. Researching a lot here and there, about the muscles of the human body and how joints affected working out. 

Skeletal muscles and research about them were a big part of the research that Astar carried out, during this time I was not active in uni as much as I would have liked to be, in between jobs and starting out other businesses that I found passion in. Therefore my uni has slightly been affected by my work life when starting out my new work.

Zhe and Astar did quite a bit of prototyping with different fabrics and different ways to do things, They came to the conclusion of using stretch fabrics.

We met up with Peter and Gordon from the Textile + Design Lab, Really fascinated with the operation they had down there. They definitely provided us with a lot of value. 

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THE MARKET

This always interests me, 

the market for a product, we were able to distinguish how good of a niche we had with this muscle suit. 

Going forward, we started testing the thermochromic ink out compared to actual body heat when muscles were being used. 

With the different thermochromic ink printed on the fabrics, we hooked it up onto an arduino and let Krishna flex while we tried getting a reading. 

Seeing that the bicep curls with a stool were not sufficient enough we had to make our way to the gym with me being the test rat in order to get a reading of a change in body temperature.

I got on the spin bike and rode for around 20 - 25 minutes which was quite fun, here we noticed here that my body temperature would only change when I would stop using my muscles. 

Thinking about this, it made sense but never crossed our minds. 

So we got back and confirmed that just this was not enough to detect muscle use. It gave me a good insight on the ink and my own body and how it reacts. 

It was time to go back, re evaluate and take forward action. 

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Thermochromic Ink! Week 3

Once the group and I started brainstorming on different aspects and factors of the suit. We somehow came to the conclusion to use Thermochromic Ink, which would change colour once exposed to ink. 

To me, this seemed like one heck of a piece of fabric. I was truly amazed at how this worked and my interest level for the textile industry just skyrocketed. 

We decided on how we could do what we wanted to, we looked at different fabrics that could work with the suit and how the ink would be affected by each of these fabrics. 

We went to the design labs to print the ink on different silky type fabrics, using a hairdryer to heat them out in order to see how quickly the ink would react.

Our first testing 

After a very insightful meeting with Herriet, a student who had already worked with thermochromic ink in the past; we got a very clear understanding on how we could use this ink on different fabrics and what kinds of fabric we should use. 

It was good to get that knowledge from someone who has done it before and could show us the way to do it with more efficiency. That was really helpful as we wasted no time and got straight into it.

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Muscle Visualisation

Early stages of a Brand 

I met Zhe, Yasmin and Astar during the wearables lecture where I heard what their idea was, a suit which would visualise muscle use for the purpose of working out effectively.  

This idea was very similar to one that I had a couple months ago so therefore I was hooked on the purpose and the vision that we had created in those few minutes. 

There were other ideas floating around but everyone seemed to cling more towards this one maybe because how useful and relevant it could be as an actual product. I was naturally quite enthusiastic about the idea because I love innovation and new ways to do things, whatever industry it is. So with wearables and textiles being a very new atmosphere for me, I fell in love with this idea that had a lot of potential.

Moving forward, obviously all of us had to do individual research in order to get ahead and better understand the concept. 

Here we have the diagram of the group actively brainstorming all the aspects that would go into this suit. 

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Studio?Streams??Wearables???

Semester 2,

This course so far has been amazing in terms of being different from others,

When I heard of the fact that we’d have different streams in studio I was honestly surprised, as I thought the papers would still be quite vague.

I was intrigued by the Image, space and sound stream, but I got chosen into the Wearables. Which i took happily as a learning opportunity. I have never thought about wearable technology and that industry in particular. However, it was a good opportunity for growth and seeing  as I went in and met a group with a really good idea that got my attention.