How can we make people aware of the senses we take for granted?

Using a mechanical arm and a Wacom tablet to skew a person’s proprioception (the ability to know where your limbs are without looking). We believe we can make people aware of the difficulties certain people may face when attempting to functionally take advantage of the movements the arms and legs have to offer.

The idea of proprioception probably never crosses paths with the average Joe’s life, at least not that they aren’t aware of. Proprioception exists in almost everything you can imagine doing. The idea that you can control your body’s movements subconsciously and not have to stop to think about what to do next isn’t something you normally think about. We wanted to create a project that could bring awareness to the topic for the general interest of the public but mostly to give the people with proprioceptive disabilities a chance to be understood. There’s a certain population of people who face disabilities making them unable to control their body’s movements as well as others due to a lack of proprioceptive ability. As technology improves and sciences finds ways to scratch more than just the surface of the comprehensible existence, we’re given opportunities to take advantage of such primary senses in ways we could never imagine. Situations such as a doctor given microscopic surgery using a robotic arm, or even as simple as reversing bike handlebars to be flipped, shooting the basketball in goggles that shift your vision, or understanding goats by living like one, are all perfect examples of how we can train our brain to learn and benefit from proprioception.

This project consists of 3 main components: a drawing tablet, the arm that moves, and a computer connecting and transferring information between the two. The general idea for an exhibit would look something like this: you walk up to the tablet and start to draw and see that it moves the arm. The arm wouldn’t function as you hoped and would probably draw something very off from what you had hoped. Depending on whether you’re determined or not, you will probably believe that it’s on purpose and not just broken. Hopefully the exhibit is explained well enough that a user would be able to see that as you keep drawing and failing, you will be learning how to change your movements to achieve the external outcome that was originally hoped for. In theory if you get good enough you can show off your mediocre art skills and look like a genius when no else can do it.

The entire goal is essentially to make an interactive, multi-sensory, brain game. It is to give someone the opportunity to really put their brain to work and to see how well they can focus on the other arm rather than their own. To show how well the human brain can learn in such a short period of time. The idea is also that it is supposed to be engaging and something that you feel valuable to your time. Through the recognition for being able to successfully inhabit the external proprioception as well and the satisfaction of completely a possibly difficult task should give people a deeper appreciation for proprioception itself as well as people with the disabilities.

How can we make people conscious of the kinetic movements we take for granted?

Through the use of a mechanical arm and a drawing tablet and by skewing a person’s proprioception (the ability to know where your limbs are without looking). We believe we can make people aware of the difficulties certain people may face when attempting to functionally take advantage of the movements the arms and legs have to offer.

                It is important to bring proprioception, an often misunderstood or completely unheard-of sense, into the spotlight. It is often hard to sympathize with a person with proprioceptive disorders. Additionally, it is important to achieve a deeper understanding of how humans can mold and change their own proprioception. Doctors performing laparoscopic-robotic surgery are required to understand the movement and control of their surgery robots on a level deeper than conscious, much like we understand our own bodies.  

                The exhibit includes a Wacom drawing tablet connected to a computer, and an Arduino. The Arduino uses pulse width modulation to control the angles of two servo motors acting as arm joints. Code converts the X and Y coordinates input from the Wacom tablet to two angles to be written to the servos. In a previous model, Bike chain connects and turns the second “elbow” joint from a motor located at the first joint (the shoulder).  Far too late, however, that the stepper motors could not turn the chain or the whole assembly,  so the project now consists of two servo motors and connecting Popsicle sticks. 

                The main goals of the project were to create something interactive yet engaging, and challenging yet intuitive. The ideal interaction between the robotic arm and a user might look something like: The user walks up to the drawing pad with the pen; he/she touches the pen to the pad; the arm moves somewhere; the user tries to move the pen and finds that it does not move the way they wanted; maybe they will give up and think the arm doesn’t work, but more persistent users may try again in a different way. Hopefully, after trial and error most people will be able to figure out how to draw what they want. Through this experience of learning to use a new device, he/she may receive a greater appreciation for proprioception.