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Color-changable Bag

featured on Core77Solo project

This is a bag woven with a single transparent tubing that can change its color patterns based on users’ preference. The fact that it’s filled with fluid liquid allows infinite computatinonal patterns out of one form.


I was so intrigued by fascinating color patterns on traditional woven bags that he wondered if he could have all the patterns without buying all the bags. I took an alternative way of injecting colored liquid into a transparent bag woven by only one single tubing. A pattern can be formed when the air and liquid is injected sequentially into the tubing.

As for the material, I used the 1/4' OD, 1/8' ID soft tubing. It's natural flexibility and the small bending radius enables an easier weave as well as adequate space for the liquid to flow through.

In order to programmable control the pattern formed inside the tubing, I uses pumps to inject the colored water into the bag. And a microcontroller is used to precisely control the on and off of the water pumps and the air pump. In that way, the colored liquid can be separated into regular stripes and dots by the air pumped into the tubing. For example, the water pump injects pink liquid for 2 seconds, the air pump runs for 1 second before another round of water pump with green liquid, so that the two colored liquids can be separated by the air gap between them. 

With the correct timing control, I was able to create dots and stripes with different colors forming many patterns on one single bag


Process

seperating colored water & air

Problem unsolved: air lock

I thought I could create very tiny patterns like some many little squares or triangles on the bag. But I noticed that I cannot control the pattern very precisely becuase of air lock, a bothering phenonmenon happens in long tubes.