What is a sensory weaver? [Curiosiate] tells us: “A device which takes sensory data feeds in and converts it in various ways on the body as information streams as though a native sensory input.” As an example, they’ve built one.
This one, called “MK2 Lockpick” is a wrist-mounted array of linear actuators, with a lengthy design/build log to peek into. We don’t get PCB files (blame EasyEDA’s sharing), but we do at least get a schematic and more than enough pictures for anyone interested to reproduce the concept – the levels of bespoke-ness here warrant a new PCB for any newcomers to sensory weaver building, anyway. We also get a story of a proof-of-concept thermal input sensory weaver. The team even includes a lessons learned da, and plenty of inspiration throughout the posts on the blog.
This kind of tech is getting more and more popular, and we are sure there will be more to come — especially as we keep getting cool new gadgets like linear actuators in form of replacement parts. For instance, the actuators in this sensory weaver are harvested from Samsung S23 smartphones, and you could probably find suitable ones as iPhone replacement parts, too. Looking to start out in this area but want a quick build? Look no further than the venerable compass belt.
Everything is a sensory weaver.
Well, not quite – just devices that take information from beyond biological awareness and convert it into a data stream within awareness, for purposes of doing sensory substitution, addition, or expansion – because it’s too much a mouthful when the device can do all them, even simultaneously.
lets take a stone as an example, if you grab a stone in your hand and watch it. then the stone is providing a sensory feed to your hand and eyes, converting mass (or weight??) into something you can perceive and your eyes are doing something similar but with light so you can say hey look there is a stone on my hand! Sadly, our mind is prisoner of our senses and time. This bring to my mind a hot debate we had at my alma matter years ago, someone stated (and I still agree with him) that there is no such a think as “digital sound”.
Rule 34. Has to be.
For that you should be more thinking of https://github.com/buttplugio, which I did consider for these augmenting purposes, briefly… (And hope isn’t against comment rules to mention)
How about a nice game of chess?
Already a thing for chess https://learn.adafruit.com/cheekmate-wireless-haptic-communication/overview
Some related content in this podcast:
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/your-brain-doesnt-work-the-way-you-think/
“Hearing” with body parts other than ears, for example.
Went crosseyed after a couple of sentences into the linked site’s description of “sensory weaver”. Why use five words when a thousand convoluted ones will do?
The ur-example that really should be linked is the North Paw, which has popped up on HaD a few times. https://hackaday.com/2015/08/13/hackaday-prize-entry-a-sixth-sense/ is one implementation.
Why do I think at an old 007-Movie now, where the villain played a kind of “computer game” against bond and “enhanced” the experience with fancy electro shocks? :-)
Ahhh, I remember, “Never say never” – https://youtu.be/MI9_cLu5-JY?si=aDey0G7tuMSa24p6&t=72
That’s a lot of syllables to say “haptic”