Socially motivated.

A gear/outfit/scenario proposed to me the other day by Suichi based on a picture he had linked me. Lost the link, but it's not that important.  Girl in catsuit, with corset, heavy posture collar, MSA millenium gas mask with tubes attached.  Anyways, the idea was that wearer of the outfit would be Kat, and the tubes attached to the mask would be connected to timer controlled cut off valve (when the timer runs out, the valve closes, and she wouldn't be able to breath).  It'd be something she would be put in for wandering around a fetish convention to force her to interact with people.  She's normally a shy person, but gets even more so when she's in a large group.

To combat this her friend and landlord Rob, whom she would accompany to those sorts of events, put together the valve mechanism and backpack setup in an attempt to help her with her social phobias.

The initial idea is that the cut off valve is controlled by a timer, and she has to go and talk to people she doesn't know and get them to reset it for her so she can continue to breath. While that is still what is happening with the idea, after talking about it Su and I had decided that instead of just cutting off her air flow that it would force her to pull breath through a bubbler bottle.  A mild punishment of heavily labored breathing, maybe a strong scent, and the noise of the bubbler drawing more attention her way.

I think that instead of just being able to run up to someone and simply ask them to reset the timer for her she would have a short script she would have to follow.  Introducing herself, telling a bit about herself, and introducing Rob who had put the unit together or Suichi's Mel, depending on which one was acting as her handler at the time.  If Mel is doing the handling, then Rob would be hovering around taking pictures.

Anyways, I did some sketches of things as well, so I do have a reason for bothering with a blog post.

A quick mock up of the shut off valve mechanism.  It's not super complicated.  Worst part of it would be building the timing circuit, and that's just because I have no idea about doing something like that.  A simple solution I had was making a mechanical timer/switch with one of them kitchen dial timers, you know the ones, they go "DING" when they are done.  The bit with the battery powering the motor closing the valve would be the same, it's just that the timer hitting zero closes the circuit and the motor is powered.  When the dial is wound back up the circuit is opened and power is cut, allowing the spring on the hinge to reopen the valve.  Allowing for much easier breathing.

The idea was added that when the valve closed instead of simply cutting off her air, it would be diverted through a bubbler.  Accomplished here via a series of T connectors.  She would still be able to breath enough where she wouldn't pass out, obviously, but it'd limit her ability to converse, and she probably wouldn't be doing any sort of aerobic activity (voluntarily anyways).  Air moves through a system through the path of least resistance. When the valve is open it offers no resistance to the air's movement and the bubbler does and that's why there wouldn't need to be some sort of fancy flow divergence valve for switching between open and the bubbler.  Not sure why I felt the need to explain that (badly) but I did.

Another thing the above sketch shows off is that she would have her arms tethered to keep her from either removing her mask, disconnecting the tubes, or reseting the timer herself.

And this is really just an excuse to draw a new suit design, and when I say "new suit design" I mean a design I borrowed extensively from done by the fine talented people over at Anatomic Latex.

And then some color.

Anyways, I've been working on this post for so long I'm losing track of what I have and havent said.  So at the risk of saying everything twice I'm going to call it here.  

Later

-Rab