This Last Saturday, Uli and I met at his workshop and within 3 hours, the first Tron beatjazz "Afro" helmet had been birthed from metal, plaster and plastic!  or rather i should say "Prototype" helmet.  this helmet is made of thermoplastic and its purpose is two-fold. to provide a general idea of "a" shape that the final helmet may have but also, more importantly, to provide a means of testing component placement inside the helmet.  This helmet will be completely self contained and wireless so that means it will have the lip and breath sensors permanently mounted,as well as the mic and monitoring system and an accelerometer.

the realization of this first solid step towards the creation of this performance system, is not taken lightly. seeing something that you only dreamed about, taking shape right in front of you is a profound experience.  it gives you the courage to keep taking the chances that are necessary to make anything happen. 

this weeks schedule is extremely varied, but the primary goals are to keep doing as much as is possible with the limited funds that have been raised so far.  much of the more component involved work such as incorporating the accelerometers and the wireless mesh network will proceed once funding is at a level where the components can be purchased.

 until that time there is much to do, such as making a playable first version prototype by the end of the week.  to do that, i will spend most of my time, working on the sensitivity issues with the components i have already.  as well as trying to determine whether certain issues are with my programming, my ancient-ass arduino board, my wiring...or all three! 

the other project projects this week will be to create a head harness for the inside of the helmet and to start working on the next couple of chapters of my book, "a 21st century musicains guide to street busking".  i'm 80 pages in, and counting.  and finally, going to see the wonderful people at the auslanderberhorde (immigration) to do the beaureacratic tango, but that's just what ya gotta do, so its all good.

this week should prove to be very interesting.