The HMI lab wants to showcase the work that you do. In order to share different ways of solving problems and to let others know the kind of equipment we have to offer.

This tutorial is a two-part approach; one is a tutorial for a low-cost (recyclable) Bluetooth button, and the other is to act as a template for sharing your projects. Reasoning and what to include for each section are noted in Italics.

If you have a project you want to show reach out to the lab to get started.

Context aka why I made this thing

This section lets others know why you built what you did and gives you a chance to describe what you did and what makes it interesting or cool. It also can provide a jumping-off point for others to adapt your idea to their project.

For a prototype I need to create for a class we needed a low-cost Bluetooth button, we wanted the button to be large, easy to connect too and can be recycled or dismantled in a way that is environmentally sound. We chose to order simple Bluetooth keyboards and attach buttons to them that we made.

Supplies

This is the place to list out supply use and where people can find them, try and list all the materials used so that people can gather them ahead of time and where they can borrow tools like from the design lab or the interaction lab.

• Bluetooth keyboard (1 per button)
• Cardboard (in this case empty pizza boxes)
• Non-stretch fabric to slightly larger than your button template (in this case canvas, and cotton, which we had from a left-over project and what we found at the design labs recycling section)
• Velcro (stick on kind can be found cheaply)
• Thread (heavy duty polyester)
• Tape (painters is optional)
• Phones or laptops to connect to (we borrowed them from the lab and used our own)
• Scissors and sewing needles with a large eye.

The software aspect

Many of the activities we do at the lab have a software and a hardware component, by letting people know what parts are hardware and which are software and where they connect, we can all plan our resources better.

For this project, we set up a website that collects the inputs from visitors (the phones connected to keyboards).

The hardware

For the parts of projects that we are building or adapting, physical products. Make sure to add safety information where appropriate.
_By dividing the steps into bullet points people can more easily follow the steps. If they will need to use equipment try and add where they can borrow it and where they can find training if needed, like in the design lab workshop. _

Step 1: The buttons are made of cardboard sewn into a dome shape and covered with fabric.

• To sew the buttons you will need to cut a circle out of cardboard, you can find a template below.
• Cut the slites according to the template and make the holes marked out on the template with an awl or some kind of hole-making tool (make sure to take safety measures at this step as you can hurt yourself in the process)
• Using a strong thread sew the dome according to the diagram below making sure to keep the same thread on the whole button to reinforce the edge.
• When this is done cut a piece of fabric bigger then the template but do not cut the slits or punch the holes.
• Sew the fabric on top of the dome using a running stitch, using binder clips to hold the fabric in place and keep the top of the button smothe.
• This completes the button, make as many as you need.
• In order to make sure the keyboard only selects one key when the button is pushed cut a few small key sized squares out of cardboard and tape them to the key you want to use.
• For the keyboard cover it in fabric using thread to keep it closed (by sewing in a zig-zag pattern in order to make it reusable). It is useful to make a note on the back of the keyboard about where the on and off switch of the keyboard is and to note what the device name is.
• Then using a block of styrofoam or cardboard attach the block to the underside of the button and then attach it to the fabric using Velcro tape.
• You can now turn on the Bluetooth on the keyboard to connect a phone or laptop to control the interface you build.

Instructions to make the template

• Cut a circle and mark the cuts you need according to the template seen below (you can print it or fold in 1/4ths and then again in 1/8ths)
• To make the button have a higher dome make the overlap larger.

Step 2: linking the phones to the site

• navigating to the webpage on the phone connected to the keyboard let us use that input in our project.