Process (Wakeup Necklace)

Zachary Zhang

By nature, I'm a sleepy person, as I'm sure my family, friends and annoyed teachers will likely tell you, and I have difficulty staying awake or in some cases focused on the current situation, be it a lecture in class or driving on the highway, something that (should I fall asleep) could be irksome in the former and life-threatening in the latter, an issue that I'm sure many people struggle with on a near-daily basis. As such, my project was to create a wearable necklace that simply keeps people awake and focused on the task at hand. The design went through many iterations, from releasing some type of smelling salts, to pushing pressure points on the back of the wearer's neck, to even releasing an electric shock/jolt if the wearer didn't pay attention for very long, though each and all of these ideas were eventualy scrapped because it turns out (from personal testing) the actual motion of something moving on your neck is already enough to wake someone up and/or refocus them. 

Designing the necklace itself went through several phases as well. The original cardboard design was made initially as a gear shape, with two gears rotating against each other, but the design itself was unwieldy and stiff - not really characteristics of a good necklace. Eventually, we made the transition to bicycle chains as the necklace necklace, more flexible and easier to wear. The pendant itself (the moing bit) was originally meant to resemble a scarab/beetle, and consists of 3D parts and two motors and gears to move it.