Make Your Own Sonic Sound Scarf!

Transport yourself through sound ! Instead of using traditional headphones - this circle scarf has speakers embedded in it, along with a lilypad MP3 player so you can listen to music/sound through the fabric! 

Gather materials :

Fabric (I used a lighter weight material to line the inside and used fleece for the outside) 30″ wide x 60″long
Conductive Thread (I used extra thick weight) 
Speakers
Micro SD card 
Lilypad MP3 Player 
Regular thread and needle for sewing / can sew by hand or with machine 
Sound Files to load onto SD card 

First I made sure all the hardware worked when connected with alligator clips. 

Find a pattern that works for you. I followed the one labeled "Fur Snood" found on this website : http://www.cottonandcurls.com/2012/11/diy-infinity-or-circle-scarf-tutorial-aka-the-snood/

"Cut 2 pieces of fabric, the outer piece will be about 33″ long x 12″ wide. The second piece of fabric is the liner, cut it to be 33″ long and 2″ shorter so the outer piece will roll over into the inside a little. Pin and sew right sides together the edges together"

I use a sewing machine - but this pattern is fairly simple and you can just hand sew as well. 

Next, I sewed the circuit traces onto the fabric with conductive thread, leaving room for the actual lilypad. 

Draw dotted lines to map out where the conductive thread should go, and then begin sewing the conductive thread into the fabric. 

Sew the lilypad to the scarf with conductive thread- I made a pocket for the battery and the speakers ( which were positioned close to where my ears hit the fabric when I tried it on).

I decided to just create a button that is essentially touching the two pieces of conductive thread together (the longer one with large diamond shape fabric is the ground and the smaller triangles are each of the three triggers). You just have to make contact between the large diamond with one of the tracks for a moment to trigger it (Do not hold the pieces of thread together for too long or it won't work right). Because of the way the Lilypad Mp3 is programmed, when you touch a new "button" or trigger, it will stop the previous track and you will set off that new track. 

You can see that when you or the wearer puts on the scarf you will want to arrange it so that each speaker is near each of your ears. However, it doesn't have to be exact, the volume of the mp3 is actually pretty loud so that you will be able to hear it very clearly- although, other people won't hear your sounds which makes it perfect for commuting on the train (similar to headphones!!). 

I chose to use my scarf to demonstrate a binaural sound experiment. I recorded myself walking from my apartment to school using two microphones (one positioned at each ear). The sounds were mostly ambient city noises with snippets of conversations overheard as I passed by people. I wanted the scarf to create a virtual acoustic space, in which the illusion of a virtual sound source outside the listener's head is created. This sound localization project was my first attempt in reifying a relationship between soft circuits and augmented reality.