For our Physical Computing midterm, my teammates Olivia Greco, Chi-Ching Tsai, Jiya Seo, and I decided to create an interactive horoscope calendar with capacitive touch sensors for each sign.
We were inspired to use capacitive paint as a way to create beautiful capacitive touch sensors in an office context. In shared spaces, like an office, people like to interact with bulletin boards and shared posting spaces. Therefore, we imagined a shared calendar of sorts where people could interact with a physical shared calendar, but receive personal/customized information back. As we began to think how this would work in practice, we came to the idea of horoscopes. Not only would this be a manageable scope of personalized response, but people also quite enjoy the fun of hearing their daily horoscopes.
We started with a proof of concept of both the capacitive paint as a sensor working with the microcontroller as well as setting up the processing code to test how we could use the reading of different capacitive sensors to connect to a specific visual output. From there we built the circular wood board and used nails to carry the conductance from the paint to the wires hidden behind the object in a stable manner.
We decided to project the symbols of the horoscope on to the circles because it allows the signs to show up clearly AND allows for the flexibility in changing what the calendar can be used for. Instead of horoscopes it could be used for a season or holiday or moon cycle. It all came together so that whenever a user touches their sign on the circle, their corresponding daily horoscope gets projected to the center of the signs.
Below are some photos of the wiring and a schematic of the components of the calendar.
