Heart and Lungs
The heart and lungs project was my first EL wire project. Created in 2000, the design was based on actual human anatomy that I pulled from an anatomy coloring book. The animation mimics the beating of an actual heart with its two-stage rhythm.
This is the third time I've built this project. The first two involved custom sequencers that I created. In 2015, I updated to an Arduino Teensy 3.1, adding my own custom board to handle switching for the EL wire. And for the first time, the Heart and Lungs will show my actual heart rate. The switch to Arduino made it easy to integrate with a Spark Fun board that can read heart rate data from a Polar chest strap.
The Sequencer
The Heart Rate Board
Here is a video of the new and improved Heart and Lungs animating to my actual heart rate.
If you ever see me wearing this piece out on the playa, feel free to stop me and ask questions. I love to help other artists figure this stuff out.
