The Museum of Lost Interactions presents

The Velocity Officer's Helmet

The Museum of Lost Interactions was founded in order to increase public awareness of the history of interaction design. Many people assume that the discipline we now call interaction design began with the emergence of the personal computer, but sensitive professionals have been conceiving and crafting our interactions with objects for centuries, long before digital technology.

Each 'exhibit' within the museum is entirely fictional but is designed not to trick the viewer into believing it really existed (although, they often do) but to encourage them to think about the intricate details of the interactions which have been crafted.

I worked with Calum Pringle on the Velocity Officer's Helmet. This was our story...

To enforce the new 20mph speed limit the Police Department of 1903 introduced the Velocity Officer. A member of the mounted branch, with a unique helmet with brass and copper embellishments, the Velocity Officer had the power to issue on the spot fines.

The helmet had a forward facing fan attached to a complex system of gears that drove a brass shaft in a 180-degree arc respective to the speed at which the fan was rotated by the moving airflow. A red flag attached to the shaft indicated to the officer when he was at a speed greater than 20mph, signalling to the officer the law was being broken.

The hat was based on an original police helmet from the early 20th century. It was designed with the era in mind and incorporates hidden modern components to make the whole illusion 'real'. A front mounted fan is attached to a dynamo which when turned produces a miniscule voltage which is then read by an Arduino board. A servo motor attached to a brass bar and flag rotates around the side of the helmet; as the airflow reaches it's critical velocity of 20mph the flag appears in the wearer's field of vision.

The entire project involved many skills from programming logic to sewing and was thoroughly satisfying to complete.

I also designed and built the exhibition's website, visit it here.