Rachel-Measuring Device

The Dis-empathy (Awkwardness) Collar

At its most abstract, this device measures the empathetic distance between two people, or awkwardness. A temperature sensor measures the heat rising off the bearer’s body, which increases as the bearer becomes embarrassed. The number displayed corresponds to the level of embarrassment the bearer feels, which is generated by the cumbersome devices as well as the reactions it elicits. The device, while covering up part of the body that flushes with embarrassment, still displays this emotion in quantified form. However, the cold,inorganic numbers cannot convey the emotion, only express its presence. The person interacting with the bearer has no way of knowing what emotion the bearer is experiencing, in fact the bearer might not be experiencing emotion at all as far they know. I think this turns the bearer into a sort of robot, confined to an uncomfortable slave collar of their own emotion, yet unable to release that emotion.

I arrived at this idea through the 7 segment display. I find it cold, emotionless, and robotically ugly. It is connotationless, un-symbolic, and inorganic. It serves a single functional purpose, to convey some information as numbers, stripping that information of interpretation and meaning. I wanted to make something that expanded this quality to the bearer, turning their human emotions into meaningless numbers.

/*Rachel Moeller, Dis-empathy Collar*/
#include 

#include "Adafruit_LEDBackpack.h"
#include "Adafruit_GFX.h"

Adafruit_7segment matrix = Adafruit_7segment();

const int tempPin = 0;

void setup() {
#ifndef __AVR_ATtiny85__
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.println("7 Segment Backpack Test");
#endif
  matrix.begin(0x70);
}

void loop() {
  float emotionLevel=getVoltage(tempPin);
  float num=1.0;
  float outputNum=emotionLevel*100;
  outputNum=map(outputNum,40,90,0,20);
  int outnum=abs(int(outputNum));

  matrix.print(outnum, DEC);
  matrix.writeDisplay();
  delay(2000);
  }

  float getVoltage(int pin)
{

  return (analogRead(pin) * 0.004882814);
}