Is it possible to take data from a grip strength machine and have that effect current being passed to a light bulb?

[William Steele]

Hello North East Makers!

William Steele from Life and Limb Puppets here.

As you can see I am in the market for a solution to the above problem.

In short I'd like to make a piece of kit which can be used for audience feedback, namely that people can grip a handle or grip strength machine and the level of their grip increases the brightness of a bulb. Doesn't need to be exhaustive or even particularly accurate just to create the effect. 

Is this possible? If so how could one achieve this? 

Thanks so much for any assistance or advice you can provide!

Best

Will

[Will McElderry]

Yes it is possible.

I don't know what you mean by a 'grip strength machine' - is this something you already have or something to be created?

Depending on a lot of factor, this could be simply using a scalextric controller to control current through an LED by wiring in series, or you may want an MCU to read the voltage and use PWM to control the LED, or even send data to a remote server.

Hope that's food for thought!

W.

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[Stephen Moorhouse]

You can buy load cells on amazon, that'd be a good basis for a strength gauge. 

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[Glen Beestone]

Yes,  I was thinking more along these lines too. 

A solid U shaped hand grip made of aluminium or steel  with a strain gauge at the bend on s way less complex than a something like a ready made exercise spring grip and then trying to add something like a potentiometer or position encoder on to it,  to register how far it's moved.

G

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[William Steele]

Hello all!

Thanks so much for your thoughts! There are grip strength meters already commercially available like these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vive-Precision-Grip-Strength-Tester/dp/B087G2X7X7/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=348T2LJJO4M05&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.LrQYOlUNa7igjHUJJdsdU1VuHlaMf3zRdBOSOH2p7b5Cubbhiy91a6Ayu2WgqBbZ9gJ6OipB5ose3KYbL2Dgd0vINZd2d_leTm8asx7mVYeIORqBFOVaz-I_z1KpjLoizdDiX4lsajVunm-_Odpj1AsntKoVCsGoarA8CQ3vcRrg-CjdTXxkulGu8z38GGp8bTpknw9KuuVJwRW4GdYwgHp8-9ja8sH3oFBel6yTOox0_1Chl_bgNAv8ZURVhWaX_Pv57yifPx_biYXPNEARiw_AZZTMJiy4SZGCHyvLjRo.Zp2rqdz-8phjQ1ncpNv-Emm5GIZIkRRUNQIr8B4NMcg&dib_tag=se&keywords=grip+strength+tester&qid=1736946887&sprefix=grip+strength%2Caps%2C213&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

I am not a technical person by trade and was hoping there might be some way to take the digital data from this meter and somehow have that be 'translated' into sending power supply to a light source rather than an analogue approach. But I don't know much about what that would take in terms of code. Is that avenue a potential option?

Thanks everyone!

Best

Will

[Will McElderry]

Hi Will,

It is possible, but it is not easy.

If you are not technical it will take you a long time to learn how to do it, to the point most people would be better off not starting.  Consider if you want to learn the skills and are happy to dedicate a fair chunk of time to it!

There are multiple ways to do the two parts you've asked about:

 (1) capturing the grip strength

 (2) output a light level (though you did specifically mention 'bulb' so maybe some are not appropriate?)

Here's a few options I can see quickly:

Grip strength capture:

 - load cell/strain gauge

 - off the shelf (use the cheap device identified - attempt to hack the data output)

 - off the shelf with external data link (bluetooth/WiFi/USB)

        [A quick search found bluetooth and USB enabled devices, looks like they are all 'ask for price' aimed at professional athlete trainers, so expect expensive and closed source - not easy to interface with]

 - machine vision to read the display (with or without AI)

Light level output:

 - smart light interface

 - LED string (optionally addressable)

 - analog control of a DC bulb or AC bulb

Recommendation for DIY:

All of them require significant technical knowledge, but I think the load cell/strain gauge and LED string with an Arduino would be the least technical knowledge requirement (or maybe just most approachable given all the arduino tutorials available), depending on how you do the enclosure design (custom 3D printed being the most technical, but given your link to puppetry you may have other means to create it).

I feel concerned that it may still not meet your requirements (accuracy, portability, appearance, other functional requirements?) though there are probably ways to correct for your requirements by increasing complexity - but there will be a limit depending on the approaches you take!

Alternatives to DIY:

* You may be able to get some Makers interested in the project if you tell us more about what you're doing it for

    (NB: It is rare for Makers to take on other people's projects as they usually have more than enough of their own!)

* You may be able to pay someone to develop a solution - but I'd expect it would not be cheap!

All the best,

Will.

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[Brian Degger]

A question: why is grip strength the particular thing you want to visualise?

to expand slightly on one of Will's ideas:

a hack could be to use the group strength gizmo you have pointed out, and have a webcam pointed at the resulting digits. then some sort of machine learning on a raspberry pi to 'read the display' (here is a collection of blogs on the topic: https://community.element14.com/challenges-projects/design-challenges/sci-pi-design-challenge/b/blog/posts/any-measurement-to-pi---blog-10-summary) then it could control a light through wled(https://kno.wled.ge/).

However this isn't me volunteering, like most makers, I have lots of other makery things to do, and the devil is in the detail. And to say nothing of the robustness. 

At this point, I am reiterating Will's discussion.

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[Jonathan Rodgers]

Other ideas would be to display a representation of the output on a large needle meter, LED bargraph display or similar, rather than just a bulb brightness. A needle meter could have also a scale on it to help with comparison of grips for audience delight.

For a really easy way to broadcast from the device you have linked, a webcam mounted to view the LCD screen, connected to a laptop, and the HDMI output of the laptop connected to a large TV or even a projector. This would show all the details you have on that little LCD screen on a large screen for an audience. You may want to think about a 3D printed webcam mount, and possibly even a little light or torch to light up the display well to make sure it is picked up on the webcam.

[Simon Veit-Wilson]

Hi Will, 

Will each member of the audience have one of these devices. In which case cost is an issue. 

I have worked with grip strength devices used in health care. Grip strength is a good measure of health. Is this anything to do with your objective? 

Is the objective a visual effect of many different  bulbs being illuminated? Or one bulb at the front fading and increasing in brightness depending on audience approval? 

My first point: cost, if it’s for audience feedback might the volume of clapping or some other expression of approval be an option? 

Loudness of clapping, Arduino, microphone, program, output. 

Little pinch meter with bulb.

Clothes peg, AA battery, potentiometer, bulb.rubber band to increase pinch resistance.  

Hand grip exercise thing (on Amazon) and as above. 

3d printed box for electrical gubbins to tidy up the looks. 

Thoughts. 

Simon. 

[William Steele]

Hello all!

Thanks for all the help so far. I will add more detail to make things clearer.

So this device would be for after a public performance of a theatre show so not during the performance, it needs to be used one a time.

Really what's important is that some physical input ideally grip (as the shows concepts are around holding onto precious things) can be used to create/instigate light and hopefully make it stronger so the harder one grips the more light one generates and therefore the more satisfying it is. the metaphor of this action being that the harder one holds on the more light one makes.

Regarding measurement this is secondary but would be useful as we could test average grip strength and then compare our audiences after the show to see if there is an increase in strength which we could potentially use to gauge emotional arousal via muscle recruitment. This would give us a fairly decent argument to demonstrate the emotional affect of the work.

If that is not possible we could approximate levels of engagement with something much simpler like numbers of people who wish to perform the task etc etc.

Obviously as the team and myself are not technicians the simper the better really as it would need to go on the road with us. That said we would obviously be able to find budget to make this happen if the project does go ahead which is funding dependent.

Thanks everyone! You are all stars!

Will