Bellies

Bellies is an interactive sculpture by Laura A Dima. The interactive sculpture consists of two silicon pods. When holding one it will sense your presence, heart- and breathing rate and transfer this (wirelessly) to the other pod and vice-versa. This way two people can feel each others vital signs through this digital interface.

For this project I developed all the software that works inside of the pods. Special care went into making sure a consistent stream of sensor data is available wirelessly with minimal setup (no wifi networks or passwords) while still being secure and reliable. The final project holds 3 microcontrollers per pod that each communicate with each other and the other 3 microcontrollers in the second pod.

This project explores mediated social touch through wearable devices and sculptures. Mediated social touch refers to the use of technology to simulate and facilitate physical touch between individuals who are physically separated.

The concept revolves around two remote individuals who can communicate and connect through haptic sculptures. These sculptures, serving as extensions of the body (as an extra organ or a pregnant belly) simulate the bodily parameters (heartbeat, breathing pattern and temperature) of the other person. The motivation behind this project is to inspire feelings of empathy and connectivity by merging two bodies as giving birth. In this way, people can feel each other in an intimate and safe setting without biases/prejudices. Furthermore, they will have options to explore tactile feedback from one wearable to the other by squeezing and touching the bellies.