Bioeletronic Interface

About

Body

Nervous System - Sensors and Actuators

Integumentary System - PH Level Sensor

Circulatory System - Ferro Fluid Channel

On Wednesday, in the first moment of the morning, I went to Plaça del Espanya to a store that I located that potentially had Iron Oxide to make the DIY ferrofluid composition. However, when arriving in class, we made several tests with one kilogram of the material in different kinds of mixtures, and none worked well considering the low attraction to the magnets we used with different strengths. As a consequence, we've chosen to sand some iron and see the reaction with the magnets, which in the end was way more effective than the ones bought at a ceramic store at the beginning of the day.

On the second day of the challenge, we could organize, make diagrams, and understand which part each one of us belonged to and wanted to explore considering the idea of the artifact we wanted to produce, our interests, and previous experiences that could benefit to each other as a group. Javier got more focused on the integumentary system, how the color would change in contact with sweat; Zimming was more directed to how body reactions could be measured with sensors and translated into actuators, in this case, electromagnets; at last, focused on the circulatory to understand how the ferrofluid would work inside of the device and how it would be organized between the other systems.

With that, during the day were made some drawings and schematics to understand how the device would be placed on the skin and how it could be adapted to its production considering the low amount of time to materialize the artifact between its process of functionality. Moreover, it was developed along the day and structure of how the system would be distributed and placed on people's necks considering its interaction. It enables the user to see its autonomic responses represented in the technology to not interfere with the reactions. In addition, it was discovered that the college already had a ferrofluid composition mixed and ready to be used.

On Thursday, with the molds already developed, it was time to focus and get the necessary materials to cast and use 3D printers to make the project feasible considering its dimensions. Some materials developed by Javi using the BTB color reactive component could be used in some of the printed molds, however, considering the complexity of the code and the low number of already prefabricated electromagnets available in class, some fast and urgent changes had to be made into a new structure for the artifact, that for now would considerate the intensity of the magnet or its use like a switch button.

By printing all the molds, some tests already could be developed using different kinds of silicone mixes, however, some of them were not specifically good for our use considering their color, blue and pink, which could complicate the visibility of the color changing effect for the artifact. Some biomaterials made by Javier could fit the molds easily even with small details such as the pore entry structures for capturing sweat, however, they've broken a lot considering the low amount of agar placed to hold the material together.

Some of the molds work pretty well, even with thin structures that were placed inside of the mold blocks, and using silicone to glue different layers worked very effectively. In addition, the day was based on changes in the molds, testing different silicones, seeing their properties and bending reactions considering their shape, and at last, testing once again which material could be a good medium as a suspension liquid to sustain the ferrofluid stable, one thing that got almost successfully done by mixing water with salt.

Reflection