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XSense

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be touched or seen - they must be felt through the heart"

 

- Helen Keller

Overview

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A pendant - containing the "iconic scent or perfume" of loved ones of a person - that taps into olfactory senses to evoke memories of loved ones and make one feel closer to home even when far away.

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Role

Researcher

Designer

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Team Members

Shaan Chopra

Vedant Nanda

Varnit Jain

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Duration

3 months

Motivation

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XSense is inspired by MIT media lab's Essence, which was also published at CHI 2017. We build on this idea and build XSense, and wearable designed for astronauts who live in space for a prolonged period.

When a person is far away, especially as far away as space, they miss their family. Absence of family members or loved ones makes a void in one's life. Astronauts, when in space are reduced to interacting with family members via either looking at photos or interacting with them via skype. These interactions are visual and use the sense of sight. Some evidence of yearning for loved ones while in space is provided in tweets by Scott Kelly - a retired American astronaut affiliated to NASA, who spent the year 2015-2016 in the international space station.

Given that humans have various other modalities for communication, interaction and emotional exchange, we posit XSense, a wearable which allows astronauts to feel close to their loved ones by tapping into their olfactory sense. As the Essence paper states, many at times we associate a characteristic scent with a person. It can be a perfume, body odor, a shampoo, etc. By releasing such a characteristic scent reminiscent of loved ones - based on certain triggers (we focus on kiss/touch and time-based triggers) - we posit that astronauts in space can experience an added sense of proximity to the ones they care about.

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Key Challenges​

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  • Designing a wearable which would actually be "wearable", that is, keep in mind the design for wearability criteria of size, shape, social acceptability, etc.

  • The wearable should have novel interactions that tap into the emotions of the person.

  • Building:

    • ​The mechanism for release of scent from the bottles

    • Scent release triggers (kiss or touch-based and timer-based)

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Low-Fidelity Prototype

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PROTOTYPE 1: WRIST BAND

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In the shape of a wrist band or charm bracelet which has photographs of each of the loved ones of the person along with the bottles of their characteristic scent as their respective charms.

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PROTOTYPE 2: PENDANT

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In the shape of a pendant with photographs of the person's loved ones on it. The initial shape of the pendant was prototyped to be egg-shaped with the scent bottles contained inside it.

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After getting feedback on the prototypes, we decided to go ahead with the pendant as in terms of looks and placement of the wearable, the pendant appeared to be a more suitable, less intrusive, and more gender-neutral. Other positions such as the fingers (for rings) were dismissed due to size constraints.

We imagine the final prototype to contains two bottles used to store the scents. It would also contain a motor used to transfer the scent. When the astronaut kisses the pendant, the two copper tapes get connected completing the circuit and hence, triggering the release of the scent. 

Design & Implementation

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PROPOSED DESIGN CHANGES BASED ON FEEDBACK

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  • Increased number of scent bottles from two to three to ensure symmetricity (however, there is a tradeoff in terms of the size of the wearable)

  • Changed the shape of the pendant from an oval (which would constrain the amount of space) to that resembling a cylinder to allow for a more modular design

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OUR IMPLEMENTATION

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Our wearable is in the form of a pendant with scent bottles each containing scents specific to cherished people. When there is a trigger, the motor facilitates the release of the scent which reminds the individual of their family members. The motor is controlled by a small microcontroller (Eg: Arduino micro or Arduino lilypad) which operates on a small battery. The bottles have a cover which the motor displaces slightly. Since this wearable is to be used in outer space where there is no gravity, the scent will automatically be released (no need of a pressurized can).

 

The trigger is an important component of XSense. Releasing odors may not be desirable by the astronaut in all situations. Thus, we trigger the release based on two indicators: when the pendant is kissed (or touched) and based on a certain timer set by the astronaut.

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TRIGGERS

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touch-based

The pendant is associated with a sentimental value as it lies close to the person's heart. The person can attach a picture of their loved ones in or around the pendant. On kissing the pendant, the circuit is completed and the corresponding scent is released.

timer-based

​The timer is synced with time at the person's home on Earth. This trigger allows the person to stay connected with their life on earth, amidst their loved ones. If the person's child comes home at 2 pm from school every day, the scent unique to the child is released every day at that time.

PROCESS & TECHNIQUES USED

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  • We used OnShape to create essential components of our wearable and 3D printed the parts.

  • To detect a kiss, we used a velostat. Behind each photo of the loved ones, a separate velostat is attached. These velostats are connected to the analog pins on the Arduino. Any change in pressure on the velostat is detected by these analog pins and based on which analog pin detected a change, the servo motor rotates by the required angle.

  • The other trigger is based on a timer. The code which detects both these triggers needs to be uploaded to the Arduino once and after that, there is no code-based maintenance required. For the code and circuit schematic, check out our GitHub repository.

  • We soldered the circuit such that there are minimal wires hanging out and also so that the device is robust to external forces.

  • We took care of the design for wearability criteria such as that of having a proper heat sink and making sure the device does not obstruct any other movements by making sure the pendant remained compact. The placement of the wearable is also chosen carefully so that it is close to the nose and not much extra effort is needed to trigger the release of the scent.

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Novelty

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We used the idea proposed by MIT Media lab's Essence of tapping into olfactory senses to add the following novel features to our product:

  • More than one scent; modular design to extend it to N number of scents, where N is the people you love

  • Adapted design of release mechanism for space

  • New interaction based on kiss

  • Added a second interaction based on a timer-based trigger

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Limitations & Future Work

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The biggest limitation of our idea is the inability to test it in zero gravity conditions.

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Further, while we have implemented the entire product, it does need some finishing touches. Following are the future works:

  • Add battery and make Arduino go behind the neck along with the battery to ensure the product is more easily wearable

  • Add a mesh above scent bottles to make sure not all scent is released in one go

  • Expand the scope of the product to be used on more relatable situations on earth. For example, for old parents living away from their children or vice-versa.

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Video

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Team

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