Project Statement

HeartSync is a fashion tech piece that tracks the wearer’s heartbeat, visually representing it in real-time through a futuristic heart design connected to the body by a vessel-like structure.

This piece aims to heighten the viewer's awareness of the heart’s presence and significance, its literal design emphasizing that while technology can enhance bodily functions and improve health outcomes, its primary role is to support and protect our core systems—an aspect we often overlook.

The design features a mirrored geometric covering that mimics the biological shape and structure of the heart, complemented by wires resembling blood vessels that connect to the heart.

By hightening awareness of the continuous unseen work of the heart, we hope the project can also encourage care and attention for it.

How does this relate to human augmentation?

Human augmentation is the term for technologies that improve human capabilities.

HeartSync relates to human augmentation as it enhances body awareness, both for everyday purposes such as tracking stress, exercise, emotional response, and the overall heart health, as we as for philosophical purposes of not losing sight of the inherent value of the body itself.

How does this relate to human augmentation?

Key Design Objectives

Externalize the Internal: We are making the normally unseen heart visible, and this is to bring awareness to its presence and significance, reminding us of our humanity, and our biology that keeps us functioning.

Highlight Technology’s Role: In our project, we would like to demonstrate how technology can enhance bodily functions and aid in prevention, but ultimately serves to protect the core system.

Precedents

Our past project

During the studio we made quick design sprints, Margo's focusing on futuristic tech while Charlie's focused on visualizing the heart. We wanted to take aspects of both of these projects to create a new one.

Interest in awarness of heart health

Both of us were interested in bringing awareness to heart health. Charlie was most excited to highlight the importance of the heart while Margo was most excited to highlight how tech plays into our health.

Shilo Shiv Suleman lung art piece

We took insparation from an art project done by Shilo where she had an art piece that could connect to the viewer's actual lungs and show it to them

Sketches

Prototype 1

Pros

1. Simple, yet it shows the action of blood moving.
2. Very visually stimulating, which draws your eyes to it.

Cons

1. The wires show a lot
2. Very bulky looking, heavy, and the LEDs would take too much power to run
3. Would take away attention from the heart

Prototype 1

Prototype 2

Prototype 2

Pros

1. The geometric pattern brings in the futuristic style we were looking for.
2. It now looks like a heart.

Cons

1. Not very clean, we would have to change the material.
2. Glueing style makes the pieces stick up awkwardly if hit at a specific angle

What Changed?

We made a shell for the heart to showcase its movements better and resemble our initial sketch better.

Prototype 3

Prototype 3

Pros

1. The motion mimics the pulsing of an organ.
2. Clean looking.
3. It manages to imitate both mechanical and organic movements.

Cons

1. No proper shell or way to pin it onto the body
2. Doesn't look like a heart.

What Changed?

In this prototype, we shifted to servos instead of leds, that way we could better mimic a heart.

Prototypes for final parts

We decided to do this combination of geometric patterns and vessel-like wires to create a visual statement about the intricate relationship between the human body and advancing technology. We decided we'd make the final out of a reflective surface to encourage self-reflection, prompting viewers to consider their perceptions of technology and their vital systems, reinforcing that our bodies are not just subjects of technology but are at the very heart of its purpose.

Arduino + servo, and how it'll attach to the base

Final Product

Key Design Features

Servo Mechanism

Wire Frame

Geometric Covering

Pulse Sensor

Arduino + servo

Base

Thank You!