INFO(AT)OZANTEZVARAN(DOT)COM
Are you alive?
Interaction Design
April 2025,
During Various Interaction project times, I came across the pulse sensor in an exhibition at OK PLATZ in Linz, Austria. (I WILL COME BACK HERE TO WRITE THE EXHIBITION NAME.) As a person who enjoys drama, I fell in love with the idea that I can do things with my heartbeat.
At first, I’ve done the work It’s not you it’s me: an attempt at connecting a pulse sensor to Ableton with the following structure: Arduino >> MAX/MSP >> sending analog data as OSC to Blender. I will also add details from it.
Later, while building this website, I wasn’t happy with the animation. While smashing the heart live with my own heart—figuratively—the cloth simulation was just not happening properly. So I decided to make this, a simpler version of things:
Are you alive:
I used an ESP32 Wroom 32D and a basic pulse sensor. With Arduino, I wrote a script to read the pulse as an analog signal and send it to TouchDesigner over serial.
In TouchDesigner:
The signal goes from Serial → DAT → Math (to smooth it out) → another Math (to remap values from 0–4095 down to 0–1).
That final value is used to scale a text object, so it “pumps” in sync with my heartbeat.
I also added a logic check to see if the heartbeat stops:
If there’s no pulse input for 1.2 seconds, a timer finishes and switches the display to a “not living” text.
When the heartbeat returns, a logic CHOP detects the change and switches back to a “yes ur living” animation.
Bonus: When the heartbeat is active, it also triggers audio playback.
It’s a simple setup, but it gave me a good intro to working with biosignals and connecting the body to real-time visuals and sound. (doing the logic felt good)
At first, I’ve done the work It’s not you it’s me: an attempt at connecting a pulse sensor to Ableton with the following structure: Arduino >> MAX/MSP >> sending analog data as OSC to Blender. I will also add details from it.
Later, while building this website, I wasn’t happy with the animation. While smashing the heart live with my own heart—figuratively—the cloth simulation was just not happening properly. So I decided to make this, a simpler version of things:
Are you alive:
I used an ESP32 Wroom 32D and a basic pulse sensor. With Arduino, I wrote a script to read the pulse as an analog signal and send it to TouchDesigner over serial.
In TouchDesigner:
The signal goes from Serial → DAT → Math (to smooth it out) → another Math (to remap values from 0–4095 down to 0–1).
That final value is used to scale a text object, so it “pumps” in sync with my heartbeat.
I also added a logic check to see if the heartbeat stops:
If there’s no pulse input for 1.2 seconds, a timer finishes and switches the display to a “not living” text.
When the heartbeat returns, a logic CHOP detects the change and switches back to a “yes ur living” animation.
Bonus: When the heartbeat is active, it also triggers audio playback.
It’s a simple setup, but it gave me a good intro to working with biosignals and connecting the body to real-time visuals and sound. (doing the logic felt good)
Later, i broke my pulse sensor. Its not living anymore.
ITS NOT YOU ITS ME
September 2023
https://github.com/maybites/blender.NodeOSC
Crazy stuff.
Wondering about how to develop Blob Tracker to Blender tool. In which parameters it can be used?