prototype. Properties: Diameters 10mm, 20mm, and 40mm, rating length

30mm– 9,000mm, no stick-slip effect, low weight, hermeti-

cally sealed. Application: Actuating devices connecting the Hylite plates into

a singular networked whole.

The Black Box (by ONL and HRG with Festo air valves and switching components): A hard-edged box housing the switching mecha-

nisms: I/O boards connected to the 72 valves controlling the

air pressure lock of the fluidic muscles. The box has provisions

to attach the compressed air intake pipes through distribution

channels; houses the CPU and power back-up mechanisms. Application: Used as a secure container, housing the brain of the

installation through which the fluidic muscles are instructed to

attain the contraction or relaxation modes.

Flexible Skins: Hylite panels: Hylite is a sandwich sheet comprising two thin

aluminium layers with a plastic core in between. It was devel-

oped for car body parts. It integrates high flexural stiffness and

extreme lightness. Compared to sheet steel with the same

flexural stiffness (0.74 mm) and aluminium ( 1.0 mm), Hylite is

65% and approximately 30% lighter respectively. These

results have been obtained by combining the best properties of

aluminium and plastic in a single material. The Hylite panels

were specifically selected for the skin of the prototype due to

the flexibility criterion and the ease involved in its handling. Lycra-based fabric: Lycra is a stretchable fabric often used for

sports clothing. The translucency of the fabric varies according

to the degree of stretching. Application: Spatial envelope, interactive furniture surface, pro-

jection surface.

Control System: Sensing devices used to enrich the activity

recognition criterion of the prototype. The selection of the

sensors involved two basic distinctions in the manner in which

we wanted data to be sensed: the global level—dealing with

proximity of users with respect to the prototype; and the local

level—dealing with finer adjustments made to the panels by

means of individual inputs through touch sensors, hence pro-

viding partial control by the user.

Sensors: Proximity sensors for sensing the distance of the

occupant from the installation and touch sensors for sens-

ing the amount of pressure exerted upon a surface.

Software: Virtools Dev 3.0, software is used for developing

an inherent connectivity between the sensed data and the

expected behavior output from the prototype (by means of

programming output rules for the system). The software is

used as the main computation tool that receives inputs

from the MIDI device (sensed data), processes data in

accordance with the scripted behaviors programmed into it

and sends output digital signals via PCI cards device, which

are directly linked with actuating mechanisms.

The graphical scripts are systematically composed to

communicate dynamic data, related with proximity of users

(through sensors) to a set of arrays built into the software

file, which act as the interface between the real and the

virtual worlds. These arrays are constantly updated via the

‘sensor reading script’ developed at the HRG, which pri-

marily utilize MIDI inputs for this purpose. Apart from this

script, a parallel operation that concerns the status of each

system unit (a component attached with the muscle) is

tracked constantly in real time by means of updating the

corresponding valve status linked with the pistons. These

two operations formulate the so-called first-level opera-

tions of the scripts, which are aimed at capturing the con-

text within which the prototype is embedded. The second

level involves a ‘data processing’ script to check in parallel

with the previously acquired information: the Status and

the Sensor reading scripts, hence abstracting the change in

context by means of reading the updated array and the

current position status of each system unit. This informa-

tion is gathered by means of compiling it in the form of

genotypic numeric strings, which are forwarded to the

Smart lab PCI cards.

The PCI cards, as mentioned earlier, further relate

these numeric strings in correspondence with the airlock

valves status and runs re-checks for any updated

arrays in parallel to create a phenotype string, which

involves a long numeric string equivalent to the

number of pneumatic muscles in the prototype and repre-

sents the new on, off status commands by means of

numeric 1 and 2 codes. This processed data directly com-

municates with the airlock valves and results in the open-

ing and closing of valves corresponding with the numeric

data delivered to the black box, hence actuating specific

sets of pneumatic muscles to produce an appropriate system response. ^c