Ingrid and I finally got the heart rate thesis modulator working. Basically the idea is inspired by the second years who are typically pretty nervous during thesis presentations. Most people aren’t great at public speaking so we wanted to hack into the body and see if there was a way to expose what was going on while giving a presentation and also give the user feedback on their autonomic system. The way it works it that you wear a heart rate monitor while you give a presentation. As you look at your slides (hooked up to processing), your heart rate is mapped to a blur filter effect. So, as your pulse gets more rapid, the blurring effect over the slides increases. We’re not sure if this will actually be effective, but given enough use over time it might actually be (note this is definitely not something to try testing a week before final thesis presentations).
We are planning to test this out Tuesday and during class on Wednesday. Results to follow!
What the slides look like with a normal heart rate:
No the picture isn’t blurry, this is what the slides look like when your heart rate increases:
The arduino:
