Social Distance Hat

For this week’s assignment to visualize the world around us with data, my idea is to find our connection with the world around us, and then try to visualize it. Thus, my initial idea is that many people now have social phobia, fear of crowded people and face-to-face communication with strangers in real life, so I would like to design a hat that belongs to them.

The hat is made of PVC material. The edge of the hat is surrounded by a ws2812b light strip, and connected with an ultrasound sensor and a heart rate sensor. When a stranger approaches, the user’s heart rate will increase due to tension, and when the distance between them reaches a certain level, the light on the hat will turn red to warn others not to come closer. When friends get close, because the heart rate will not change as fast as it changes due to tension, it will emit warm yellow light, and welcome friends to talk. When you are alone, it will emit green light. In addition, because it’s during the epidemic period, even friends should keep a certain social distance, so if the distance beyond the safe range, the hat will quickly alternate lights to remind others to keep a distance.

I also want to add a small challenge. If the person that the user really like come close, the heart rate will also be faster. In case the red light on the head scares that person at this time, I want to add a gesture controlled car to let the car go to eliminate misunderstanding.

Here is the sketch