A Haptic Bracelet For Physical Computing

[Tinkermax] has been reading about the Internet of Things and wearable computing and decided it was time for him to have a go at building a device that turned computing physical. The result is a vibrating wristband that connects his sense of touch to the Internet.

The electronics for this haptic wristband are a mix of old and new technology. The radio and microcontroller come from an ESP-8266 module that was programmed with [Mikhail Grigorev]’s unofficial SDK. The mechanics for the wrist-mounted computer consist of six pager motors mounted around the wrist. These are driven somewhat ingeniously by a TLC5917 LED driver chip. This meant the ESP would only need to use two of its GPIOs to control six motors.

Right now the software is simple enough; just a web page, a few buttons, and the ability to buzz any of the pager motors on the wrist band over the Internet. Now it’s just a question of making this wearable useful, but connecting each pager motor to different notifications – a new email, a new SMS, or some emergency on the Internet – should be pretty easy.

Video below.

[wpvideo TIySIoiN]

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