Pam modeling the Detectair vest.

The Detectair vest was a project undertaken by two third-year Industrial Design students from the Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Using the Arduino microcontroller and sensor technologies, the Detectair vest reads ambient air quality and outputs the data in a 'humanized' form that mimics the body's natural function of breath.

Embedded LEDs in the chest emulate breathing based on the level of toxic gases in the air, and small vibrators let the user know when they have stepped into an unsafe air environment. The collar on the vest is reinforced, allowing the user to manipulate it around the neck and face according to the toxicity of the air quality.

Our main motivator behind the project was the humanization of data, and bringing some of the functional components out of industrial realms and into everyday environments.

This was my first foray into sensor technologies and using the Arduino microcontroller and coding it.