Observation Project 2
Observation Project 2
The Weatherproof Umbrella
We had some problems, getting everyone in the group to meet up the other week, so we all decided after class that we had to get our act together and come up with something. It was a reaally horrible morning the day we met. It was pouring and even with an umbrella I got soaked! It used to rain in Malaysia all the time but I never remember getting to soaked! I guess the main difference between the rain here and rain in Malaysia is the wind. When it rains in Malaysia it pours, but the wind was never as bad as it was in NEW YORK! So as long as we had an umbrella in Malaysia we were fine…not in New York though!!
So naturally, Sam came up with this brilliant number right before we met up at ITP. Sam along with the rest of us didn’t like it when a gust of wind inverted our umbrella and exposed us to a vicious raindrop attack and we all agreed that the problem is and has always been the umbrella’s classic design. Yes, the design is good at shielding your body from rain, but because of its non-aerodynamic, parachute shape, it is constantly begging to fly away with a mighty wind. If you hold on tight and don’t let it fly away, it will bend out of shape, rip, expose eye-gouging spokes and ultimately become so warped it ceases to function as a portable rain barrier device. So on Sam’s long subway ride he came up with this solution:
Pressure sensors attached to each spoke ending of the umbrella will detect changing air pressure (wind) and trigger a mechanism that will shift the top towards the direction of the current wind. The umbrella shaft will have an adjustable joint of some sort (maybe a ball & socket) that will give it a maximum range of motion to compete with naturally changing wind directions. As of yet, we do not exactly know what mechanism we will use to accomplish this movement, but we do have a few options we would like to experiment with. Muscle wire or Nitinol (a nickle - titanium alloy) is great because it requires a very low voltage, is super-light and easy to manipulate. Muscle wire shortens in length when electrically stimulated and can lift thousands of times its own weight. Another possible candidate is the solenoid, which is an electro-mechanical device that when triggered can use a magnetic field to open/close metal levers. For powering purposes we can have a replaceable 9-volt inside the handle or a rechargeable battery that can be hooked up to a DC charger. We will experiment next week and see what works best. Of course, the entire unit must be water-proofed, especially whatever is not under the umbrella, like the exposed air pressure sensors.
