A starting point for this project was to combine electronics and observations on animal behavior, bats in particular.
Bats use echolocation to prey and navigate, the method is basically the same as how the ultrasonic sensor works. I created a helmet, that simulates the bat’s vision. The helmet is equipped with a sensor, speaker, and arduino. It takes the data from the ultrasonic sensor and transforms it into audio that is played in a small speaker inside the helmet. There are also LED’s placed inside the “bat’s ears”, to indicate that data is being received. The pitch and the length of the tone vary depending on the distance from an object, for example, a person can hear if he is approaching an obstacle. The system is similar to the parking raydar used in cars. The helmet is painted black, so that the person wearing the helmet can’t see anything, like a bat.
There is an input and output, and brain is the third sensor where the information is being processed. By wearing the helmet one can imagine, what it is like to see how the bats see, and reflect it on our own perception of reality and it’s limitations. A next step would be to make it more robust, so it could be worn and tested in a public event easily. Also I would like to create a short movie/mocumentary film around the object, working title “Batman returns a book”.
How does it feel to be a bat by Thomas Nagel: http://organizations.utep.edu/portals/1475/nagel_bat.pdf
Bats at the Museum of Natural Sciences: http://www.luomus.fi/museo/vaihtuvat/lepakot/index.html
The real Batman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drMB5-8eNrk
Kamppeet 