Arduino Wearable Projects

Tony Olsson

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2015
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781785283307
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Computer Science General
• Index: Computer Science

Design, code, and build exciting wearable projects using Arduino tools

About This Book

• Develop an interactive program using sensors and actuators suitable with wearables
• Understand wearable programming with the help of hands-on projects
• Explore different wearable design processes in the Arduino platform and customize them to fit your individual needs

Who This Book Is For

This book is intended for readers who are familiar with the Arduino platform and want to learn more about creating wearable projects. No previous experience in wearables is expected, although a basic knowledge of Arduino programming will help.

What You Will Learn

• Develop a basic understanding of wearable computing
• Learn about Arduino and its compatible prototyping platforms suitable for creating wearables
• Understand the design process surrounding the creation of wearable objects
• Gain insight into the materials suitable for developing wearable projects
• Design and create projects including interactive bike gloves, GPRS locator watch, and more using various kinds of electronic components
• Discover programming for interactivity
• Learn how to connect and interface wearables' with Bluetooth and WiFi
• Get your hands dirty with your own personalized designs

In Detail

The demand for smart wearable technologies is becoming more popular day by day. The Arduino platform was developed keeping wearables, such as watches that track your location or shoes that count the miles you've run, in mind. It is basically an open-source physical computing platform based on a simple microcontroller board and a development environment in which you create the software for the board. If you're interested in designing and creating your own wearables, this is an excellent platform for you.

This book provides you with the skills and understanding to create your own wearable projects. The book covers different prototyping boards which are compatible with the Arduino platform and are suitable for creating wearable projects. Each chapter of the book covers a project in which knowledge and skills are introduced gradually, making the book suitable for all kinds of readers.

You begin your journey with understanding electronic components, including LEDs and sensors, to get yourself up to scratch and comfortable with different components. You will then gain hands-on experience by creating your very first wearable project, a pair of interactive bike gloves that help you cycle at night. This is followed by a project making your own funky LED glasses and a cool GPS watch. You'll also delve into other projects including creating your own keyless doorlock, wearable NFC tags, a fitness-tracking device, and a WiFi-enabled spark board. The final project is a compilation of the previous concepts used where you make your own smart watch with fitness tracking, internet-based notifications, GPS, and of course time telling.

Style and approach

This is a project-based book that introduces each project to the reader step-by-step. Each project starts out by covering all the components individually, and then explains how to combine them into interactive objects. Each project contains an easy-to-follow guide to design and implement the electronics into wearable objects.

Arduino Wearable Projects

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Table of Contents

Arduino Wearable Projects

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

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Why subscribe?

Free access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Boards

Components and tools

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Downloading the color images of this book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. First Look and Blinking Lights

Wearables

Installing and using software

The Arduino IDE

First look at the IDE

Getting to know you board

The FLORA board

Other boards

Connecting and testing your board

Some notes on programming

External LEDs and blinking

Different speed blinking

Summary

2. Working with Sensors

Sensors

A bend sensor

The pressure sensor

Light dependent resistors

The accelerometer, compass, and gyroscope

Summary

3. Bike Gloves

Electronics needed

Trying out the TSL2561

Detecting gestures

Making a glove

Summary

4. LED Glasses

Making the glasses

Entering the matrix

Programming the glasses

Making a pattern

Finishing the glasses Knight Rider style

Summary

5. Where in the World Am I?

Hocking up the OLED screen

Getting the position

Making the clock

The final sketch

Summary

6. Hands-on with NFC

Reading a card

Connecting the motor

Putting the pieces together

The final code

Wrapping things up

Summary

7. Hands-on BLE

Hello Blend Micro

The Blend Micro app

Gesture tracking

Wrapping things up

Summary

8. On the Wi-fly

The Particle Core

Programming for the Particle Core

The Dashboard

HTML control

Connecting to IFTTT

Monitoring data changes

DO – a function

Summary

9. Time to Get Smart

Components

Let's get started

Watch design and soldering

Desoldering

Connecting the pieces

Leather time

Finishing up

A smorgasbord of functionality

The end of the beginning

Index

Arduino Wearable Projects

Copyright © 2015 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: August 2015

Production reference: 1250815

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78528-330-7

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Credits

Author

Tony Olsson

Reviewers

Tomi Dufva

Kristina Durivage

Jimmy Hedman

Kallirroi Pouliadou

Gabriela T. Richard

Johnty Wang

Commissioning Editor

Priya Singh

Acquisition Editor

Vivek Anantharaman

Content Development Editor

Pooja Nair

Project Coordinator

Suzanne Coutinho

Technical Editor

Rupali R. Shrawane

Copy Editor

Charlotte Carneiro

Proofreader

Safis Editing

Indexer

Rekha Nair

Production Coordinator

Manu Joseph

Cover Work

Manu Joseph

About the Author

Tony Olsson works as a lecturer at the University of Malmö, where he teaches multiple design fields with the core being physical prototyping and wearable computing. His research includes haptic interactions and telehaptic communication. Olsson has a background in philosophy and traditional arts, but later shifted his focus to interaction design and computer science. He is also involved in running the IOIO laboratory at Malmö University.

Besides his work at the university, he also works as a freelance artist/designer and author. Prior to this publication, Olsson published two books based on wearable computing and prototyping with Arduino and Arduino-based platforms.

I would like to thank all the people and students of the IOIO laboratory and the K3 institution, both current and past. The work we do together has always been inspiring. Thanks to my sister and mother for all their support. A special thanks to David Cuartielles and Andreas Göransson. Without our endeavors together, this book probably would have never been written. I would also like to thank Hemal and Pooja at Packt; it has been a true pleasure working with them on this book. I'd also like to thank the rest of the Arduino team, Massimo Banzi, David Mellis, and Tom Igoe, for their impressive work with Arduino; and the Arduino community, which remains the best in the world. Last but not least, I would like to thank Jennie, I can only hope to repay all the support and understanding she has given me during the process of writing this book.

About the Reviewers

Tomi Dufva is an MA in fine arts and a doctoral researcher at Aalto ARTS University. He is a cofounder of Art and Craft School Robotti and lives and works in Turku as a visual artist, art teacher, and researcher. Tomi researches creative coding at Aalto University, in the school of Arts, Design, and Architecture. Tomi specializes in code literacy, maker culture, pedagogical use of code, and integrating painting and drawing with electronics and code. Tomi has taught in schools from kindergartens to universities. You can see Tomi's research on his blog (www.thispagehassomeissues.com).

Kristina Durivage is a software developer by day and hardware hacker by night. She is well-known for her TweetSkirt—an item of clothing that displays tweets. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and can be found on Twitter at @gelicia.

Jimmy Hedman is a professional HPC (High Performance Computing) geek who works with large systems where size is measured by the number of racks and thousands of cores. In his spare time, he goes in the opposite direction and focuses on smaller things, such as Beaglebone Blacks and Arduinos.

He is currently employed by South Pole AB, the biggest server manufacturer in Sweden, where he is a Linux consultant with HPC as his main focus.

He has previously reviewed Arduino Robotics Projects for Packt Publishing.

I would like to thank my understanding wife, who lets me go on with my hobbies like I do. I also would like to thank Packt Publishing for letting me have this much fun with interesting stuff to read and review.

Kallirroi Pouliadou is an interaction designer with a strong visual design and architecture background, and experience in industrial design, animation, and storytelling. She explores technology as an amateur maker.

Johnty Wang has a masters of applied science degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of British Columbia. His main area of research is developing New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME), and it is supported by his personal passion for music and human-technology interfaces. He has a diverse range of experience in hardware and software systems, developing embedded, mobile, and desktop applications for works ranging from interactive installations to live musical performances. His work has appeared at festivals, conferences, and competitions internationally. Johnty is currently a PhD student in music technology at McGill University, supervised by professor Marcelo Wanderley.

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• Arduino Wearable Projects