

Ask HN: Help me create my own feelSpace belt - adk

First, some background on what it is I am looking for:<p>http://feelspace.cogsci.uni-osnabrueck.de/en/index.html<p>http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/esp.html<p>Basically, it is a belt with a bunch of vibrating pads going all around and an electronic compass. Whichever pad is pointing north, vibrates. The end result is that "the tactile perception of the vibrators [disappears] whilst conscious information processing is displaced by a new 'sense of direction'."<p>I have wanted one for a long time. At first I hoped that modular components would be easy to find and put together. Apparently not so.  I then toyed with the idea of making it out of old nokia vibrating batteries and an electronic compass component, but I quickly realized this is way out of my area of expertise.
So then I thought, no problem, I'll hire someone with the right skillset. Except, I don't know what the skillset is, or where to start looking.<p>I figured there would be someone in the HN community who'd be able to point me in the right direction.
======
sasmith
I built a mediocre prototype around November, and am currently working on a
hopefully better prototype.

Useful info about the following: I am a cheapskate, and am interested in
producing this very cheaply. If you're willing to drop $80 on the compass
module, certain aspects of this will change.

My first prototype was built out of cell phone vibrating motors, a belt I
stole from a friend that had good holes for the motors, and a compass from
<http://www.robsonco.com/Dinsmore/>. It worked alright, but the motors were
prone to getting stuck, the compass module wasn't as consistent as I'd like
(eg, it gave around 30 degrees to cardinal directions and 60 degrees to
diagonals). To build this, you'd probably want basic soldering skills and
preferably a basic understanding of electronics. If you were seriously
interested I could send you instructions.

For my second prototype I'm using coin-type pager motors, so I don't need to
worry about the heads hitting anything. Specifically, I'm using:
[http://www.pagermotors.com/index_files/Products/DiskL/DiskL....](http://www.pagermotors.com/index_files/Products/DiskL/DiskL.htm)
(and fwiw I measured them at 40mA). I'm also using an AK8973 compass chip,
although I haven't yet tested it. This is _not_ a hobbyist friendly chip, and
it's kind of a pain to get. On the other hand, I got them for $7 a piece and I
expect it to give me better accuracy than the Dinsmore module. I expect to use
a microcontroller interpret the output and activate the motors (I may need
more cir. For the belt I'm essentially using a canvas strap. To do all of this
(mostly to deal with the newer compass chip) I've so far needed to etch my own
circuit boards (you can get around this pretty easily for approx $20), will
need to solder better than Santa's elves, and will need to program a
microcontroller.

~~~
adk
sasmith, thanks for the information. Would you send me your email address?
(andrej.kostresevic@gmail.com)

------
jurjenhaitsma
I read about this a while ago (slashdot?) and thought it was quite intriguing
myself. I believe there were some complications with withdrawal symptoms so
buyer beware.

As for your request, most competent electronics hobbyists / engineers could
likely build a crude version, but I could see complications arising from the
vast number of electrical sources potentially disrupting your "north" signal.

Which led me to ponder a refinement - by using gps, although encoding location
is quite a complication, it would be an incredible extension of the idea. A
possible implementation would have latitude and longitude pads that could
either vibrate at a varying frequency or (for extra leet points) activating a
series of binary pads to encode the lat/long.

