DIG 3602 Project 2: Hoodie Soother

When I initially received this assignment, I sincerely could not think of what to do for my protest object. What could I use that would allow me to satire something while also protesting an important social issue. It wasn't until I found out that a protest object could be an object that I realized what I could use: a hoodie. Within the past several years, the hoodie has risen as a symbol of solidarity among the people as a way to protest police violence, racial profiling and deaths of young black youths following the widely popular case of Trayvon Martin, a young African American child who was murdered for simply wearing a hoodie and walking around in his aunt's apartment complex by a neighborhood watchmen. But how would I be able to implement my Circuit Board Express with a hoodie?

I went about gathering the materials I needed create my protest object. Obviously, I needed to acquire a hoodie. I found a rather cheap $10 black hoodie that actually looks similar to the one Trayvon Martin wore on the day he died so many years ago. I proceeded to use the same materials I used for my previous San's project which includes my Circuit Playground Express, lithium ion battery, USB to Micro USB cable and electrical tape with scissors. My goal for this project is to see that, by using the circuit board's sensors, I can play both my custom animation and song without using a button but, instead, by putting my arms up.

After using MakeCode to recreate (to the best of my ability) the first five chords of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" along with a functioning set of code, I was able to set up my board. I had set it up so that, if my sensors detected around 2 gs of force, the lights on the board would flash between different patterns of red and blue eleven times in order to simulate the colors of police sirens. If the sensors detected 3 gs of force, then the board would play the first five chords of Rick Astely's song.

Once I was satisfied with my code and saw that the circuit board worked, I used my electrical tape and scissors to tape both the lithium battery and circuit board to the right hand side of my hoodie. I made sure to tape my circuit board near my wrist so that people would be able to see it better once I put my hands up.

In this final demonstration, I show off my hard work. Although the sensor is at max volume, it is still a bit hard to hear if someone isn't standing near the board. Nevertheless, I am very pleased with the final result. The battery was able to stay in place thanks to the tape and the battery was able to stay attached to my arm for much longer than I had anticipated. Now, if I'm ever walking around a gated community full of upper and middle class white people and they happen to get suspicious of me due to my hoodie, I can simply put my hands up and the flashing lights and soothing tones will put their minds at ease so that they don't call the police and shoot me for merely existing.