Susana Passinhas @Fab Academy 2023

Final Project

Everything is energy

“Quantum physics … is the study of the behaviour of matter and energy at the smallest levels – molecular, atomic, nuclear and even smaller … In modern physics, it is used to refer to the smallest possible discrete unit of matter or energy that can be predicted and observed by various means."¹

The color spectrum

“Light can move as waves or as particles … The only wavelengths that you can see fall between 400 and 700 billionths of a meter. All of the colors that you can perceive fall within that range… Light waves are also measured according to their frequency, which is how many waves can pass a given point in a given amount of time. Frequency is measured in Hertz, or Hz for short. When it comes to visible light, your eyes can pick up anything from 430 trillion Hz -- which you understand as red -- to 750 trillion Hz -- which you see as violet… Visible light can also be measured by its energy. All waves are made of traveling energy, and the amount of energy contained in each wave is related in proportion to its frequency. The more energy a wave has, the higher its frequency, and vice versa. When it comes to visible light, the highest frequency color, which is violet, also has the most energy. The lowest frequency of visible light, which is red, has the least energy.” ²

Hawkins scale of emotions

"Hawkins was a renowned psychiatrist, physician, spiritual teacher, and lecturer...Hawkins was particularly interested in how humans could reach a state of “Self-realization” in their lives. He found that rarely if ever does such a state occur in a scientist or physician, so he wanted to bring this state into his own consciousness and do so in a way that could be understood scientifically...the Map of Consciousness is a numbered system from 0–1000 showing exactly where your consciousness might fall from the lowest (shame) all the way to the highest (enlightenment) levels of consciousness." ³

Mapping the color frequency to the emotions

The human body

"Our bodies naturally conduct electricity. In fact, every organ and cell in the human body has its own field. The magnetic field produces electrical currents that are weaker than you may first think... As all electricity does, this activity also creates a magnetic field. Once our bodies’ exposure to the magnetic field stops, so does the current. However, as these electrical currents are tiny, they are unable to affect the nerves and muscles in the human body." ⁴

So what can we measure?
Humans give off radiation, mostly infrared radiation, which is electromagnetic radiation with a frequency lower than visible light. Humans emit thermal radiation and we can measure that with a sensor.

Concept

Based on the principle that everything is energy and that we humans are energy too, I want to explore how can we use that energy to serve as an input to a device. The idea is to use the human body (electromagnetic field, voice frequency, temperature) as an input(s) that result in an output of color and sound.
In a more ambitious perspective, the person(s) interacting with the device could control the output by controlling the input (change their emotional state, the temperature they use has an input and so on). This is a conceptual project intended for art installations sites or similar.

Iteration 1

My first idea is to create a device that can measure the human body electromagnetic field, measure it and map it with the color frequencies and emotions described above. It can be used individually or in group producing different results depending on the input values detected.

The output of the device can be shown in the device interface by lighting up the correspondent led color (with the correspondent emotion legend craved).

In a further iteration, the machine could evolve to be connected with a digital display for the output, such has a screen or a projector. (Also another possibility would be to connect it with HUE Lights)

In the context of exploration, this device could also evolve into a musical instrument for example, mapping the input with colors and musical notes.

Ideally the device can also serve the purpose of research and investigate further if there is a relation with the emotional state of the person interacting with the machine and the machine output.

Iteration 2

After doing a bit of research I found out it might be really hard to measure the human body frequency, because it's very very low (still I want to try in in out input week).

I started to think more and more about this idea of having an object/device that can sense (EMF, Temperature, Frequency) and that take the measurements to map it out with light/color and sound. I started to think about this project as an hybrid musical instrument, with 7 modules (hexagon shape to be re-arrange as desired), each module being a color (7 visible colors in the color spectrum) and a musical note(7 musical notes) (output) and all being sensitive to the same input (or several).

Research (WIP)

Input sensors

• FrequencyDetector (voice input)
  Measure the main frequency of analog captured signal. Detects frequency from 38 Hz to 9612 Hz. Signal can be delivered e.g. by a microphone.

• SparkFun Qwiic AS7341L 10-Channel Spectral Sensor (light input)
  Configures and communicates with the SparkFun Qwiic AS7341L 10-Channel Spectral Sensor. This library allows the user to measure light spectrum in 10 different channels: 415nm, 445nm, 480nm, 515nm, 555nm, 590nm, 630nm, 680nm, clear and near infrared. This sensor will measure the color components in a specific target, decomposing light into these individual components.

• MLX90614 infrared temperature sensor (body heat input)
  The MLX90614 is an infrared thermometer for non-contact temperature measurements.

• EMF (Electromagnetic field input)