Week 6

It was nice to have a bit of a rest from this subject for a week and have time to focus on other subjects. Today in the class we started work on our next project. To start thinking about possibilities and opportunities with the topic of news we did 3 concept bombs as a class. I feel this was a good way to get us thinking and engaged with the project. We had all been doing research tot help with the project, but I know a lot of us hadn't really started thinking about concepts to explore throughout the rest of the semester. 

It was kind of nice to do concept bombs again like in first year. I know we did some last semester as well  I think they are a very useful exercise. The requirement for quick thinking and ideas in response to a brief, I think builds skills that we wouldn't have had otherwise. 

CONCEPT BOMB 1.

The first concept bomb I found surprisingly un-stressful. I got an idea straight away and was able to work with. I had a bit of a panic during the twenty minutes though, when Yasu was talking. He was telling the class about these devices they attached to bicycles. Which is what my concept was based upon. Thankfully the purposes of the two ideas were quite different. Phewwfff! In the one Yasu was talking about, the cyclists rode around and the device would measure air pollution and quality of the area. My concept was a handlebar attachment which included a motion sensor. The sensor would gather information about traffic. As the cyclists were riding around, the sensor would pick up any movement from cars driving past. However if there was heavy traffic in the morning and the cars were at a standstill, nothing would trigger the sensor, indicating the heavy traffic. The data could then be sent elsewhere. 

CONCEPT BOMB 2. 

This one was a storyboard format and was more focused on a scenario or experience rather than an actual physical product. We were asked to think about how we could keep in touch with someone who wasn't in the same space, but in a way as if they were. The concept I explored was considering the relationship of  a young child and a parent, but when a parent is far away and not able to be there with the baby. My particular scenario was a father who had to go for a business trip and leave his family for a while. The father gives the child a bangle. He also has an armband which he wears to stay connected to his child. The babies bangle is fixed with an accelerometer. The device monitors the child's movements and delivers them to the father. Different degrees of vibration signify babies movement ie. playing, emotion and activeness. When the fathers band is still, this means the baby is sleeping, calm or quiet. This device allows the father to still feel a bond with the baby from a long distance.

CONCEPT BOMB 3. 

This brief was definitely the most difficult out of the three. This one was quite particular. It makes it quite tricky not being able to rely on screens, but i guess this does make you think more outside the box. My concept was, a large picture of a world map to be displayed on the wall. There are tiny bulbs all over the map. These bulbs light up a particular colour based on what category of news they are displaying. For example if all the bulbs are blue, they are making indications about the weather, if they are purple, they are showing particular design notices around the world. A hand clap by the user will switch news topics. The bulb's light vary in intensity. The brighter the bulb, the bigger the story, if it is only a dull/dim glow, then the story in this place is quite small. A very bright light that is flashing signifies a breaking world story. A press of the particular light bulb enables an email to be sent straight to the user with details of the story.

Going around and marking off selected concepts for each of our class mates was a great way to see a whole range of all creative, innovative and feasible concepts. I found a lot of the students' third concept bombs were the most interesting and valuable concepts. Which is interesting, as I think this is the one most people struggeld with the most. It took a lot of people a while to think of a concept to work with. But i think this shows the rewards of exploring a difficult topic and thinkining more deeply into he possibilities. I also think that a lot of the students individual markings were based a little bit on the presentation. I found this personally, that the most poorly presented concept got the least number of ticks. This is just something to keep in mind when looking at final concept selection.



SELECTING A FINAL CONCEPT FOR THE GROUP

As a group we decided to go with one of Georgina's concepts which was quite interesting and try to combine the ideas with my third concept (above). 

 As a group we discussed some of the elements and main points that we wanted to utilise for our final project. 

• Communicating friends/family etc all around the world
• Creating an intimate experience for people separated by a long distance
• Using the  individuality of handwriting to create a personal and special way of communication 
• The ability to see hands and the touching of a surface from another country
• Using sensors and lights to indicate the closeness of a person
• Mapping to keep track of friends 

I think the class has been quite successful and the group has made a good productive start to the project. 

Final Presentations

PRESENTATIONS
The exhibition today was quite enjoyable. I liked the format, where we could just walk round and see everyone's models in an informal way. There were some very cool ideas from the other groups.

Models from the exhibition

All of the ideas and concepts were really different. Some models were really good and some videos were really good.

Models and concepts which i particularly liked:

1. The big green model with the heart rate lights. 
The team had obviously put a lot of work (and probably money) into building the model. Was quite impressive. The concept was pretty cool as well, would have been amazing if it had worked the way they designed it to. 
2. The trolley game.
This was a clever concept and the model was really well put together. Was great to see a full working model and was set up in a way that really demonstrated it's use. 
3. Traffic light game. 
The model was great! Really cleverly put together and was good that we could all try it out. The video was also good in that it showed their real model being used out and about in it's context. 
4. Dj water pump.
I really enjoyed the video for this one. I think it was the best out of all the movies, in the sense of strengthening the narrative and concept. 

Week 5

So everything went well for our presentation I think. I feel like we had a strong narrative with appropriate inputs and outputs and we got some good feedback from the other students. 
In the end we we able to get all of the separate components of the circuit (fan, speaker etc.) working.  However we didn't manage to connect them all together using the digital thermometer as it was just too difficult as we hadn't been taught that in any of the tutorial activities. This was a bit of a shame but in the video you can see the whole concept and what it would be like if it all worked seamlessly together. 

Here are some of the things we used for our final presentation. 

Georgie did these drawings. This is how she saw our concept as a full usable product. It's quite interesting how a whole electronic circuit with numerous parts and attachments could possibly be compacted into a potential object. 

Here is our final circuit diagram and sequence diagram. They show the inputs and outputs and how they all work together and what makes them start and what makes them stop. 

1995 Prediction of The Internet

This short video is of a group of American students in grade 5 from 1995. In it they predict what the internet will be like by the time they are in college. They predict that the internet will be their shopping centres, telephone, television and workplace. All of these things have become a reality. They are excited by everyday things such as being able to research rain-forests and check soccer scores overseas. These are such basic things for us now, and it shows how much and how quickly technology progresses. The expansion of internet allowed for a degree of communication and exchange of information that was so new and thrilling. In twenty years we will probably look back at today and think it humerous or cute at the kind of innovations and technology that we think is amazing and revolutionary today.  

GPS devices, video calls, mp3 players. 

Perhaps some of these things we will look back on one day and see them as basic and trivial. 

NEWS

What is news?

My definition:
News is the communication of real life stories. It can be at any scale; insignificant personal news that friends share with each other, to larger scale events that are shared across the world. 

Oxford Dictionary's Definition:
"Newly received or noteworthy information, especially about recent events"

Key words from Various Definitions

INFORMATION UPDATED EVENTS RECENT CURRENT REPORT REGULAR BROADCAST PUBLISHED

How is news shared at present?
Tv- news programs, talk shows
Radio
Newspapers and magazines
Internet- publications online, advertisements, email, social media
Verbal
Overhearing
Pictures and photos 


What does the future hold for news?
Format- adaptions or completely new mediums
Technology basis- growth of existing capabilities or arrival of new technologies 
Consumer/market- specialised smaller niches 
Advertising- new ways, absence of or more extreme 
Content- expanded information, personable or changes in delivery or speed 
Interaction- Inclusive or separating 

What will our current technology be like in the future?

"8 Current Technologies That Will Shape Our Future"
From: http://mashable.com/2011/09/18/future-technology/

This page describes 8 ideas in how the popular technology we have at present will expand and improve to fit more and more into every day life. These concepts are very much possible as the technology already exists, however, here they are explored in much more intense ways to utilise their potential.

1. SMART-PHONES
Will take place of a watch and sit on the users wrist as a fashion statement

2. WIRELESS BROADBAND

A stable wireless access at all times. Even in remote places. Will be ultra fast, and signal strength indicators will no longer be required. 

3. CLOUD COMPUTING
This system will become mainstream, allowing everything to be accessible at anytime from anywhere. 

4. EYE TRACKING/VOICE COMMANDS
"Near invisible and natural interface." Wearing information glasses to view visuals. Asking questions and being shown an answer. 

5. AUGMENTED REALITY
Floating text, 3d visuals and symbols will be part of a camera's video feed. Experience products virtually. 

6. SOCIAL NETWORKING
Personal accounts will be managed in an extremely personal way. Filters will allow only relevant updates to be seen. Will become part of everyday components that arrant technology based, such as calendars, address books and gps systems.

7. CAD, 3D PRINTING AND CUSTOM PRODUCTS
Cad will become a simple program that consumers can use to create their own products that can be manufactured in reality. Products will become incredibly personalised and unique. There will be significant growth in companies providing customisable products.

8. AUTONOMOUS CARS
Vehicles that do not need a driver to be controlled. Sensors all around the car will make it safer than a person driving. Simply get in the car and tell it where to go, and your off. 

The Future of News

This future vision is not much different to other vision's on future technology that I have seen. I don't think this one has much in the way of innovation. The central idea is purely communicating with people via the computer, which is already very much possible. Although, I think it is an interesting showcase of how technology can be used in different contexts by different people to potentially make positive experiences everyday. 

This one is called A Day made of Glass 2 by Corning. I think most people have already seen the first one. While this film is very exciting to watch, all based around interactive touch surfaces, it is important to remember that our future news project should not be based around touch screens. But I think this one is a good one to watch because of it's ideas of people's everyday interaction with technology. I think the classroom scene is the most relevant as it presents some innovative new ways in which a group of people can share and explore information. The use of interaction through graphics in this scene is also very effective and enforces the ideas of visual communication and learning. 


While researching I came across a video that was documenting the conceptual ideas from a journalism firm in 1994, Knight Ridder. It's quite lengthy with a large amount of talking so i'm not going to put it up.  The video shows a group of journalists, designers and researchers discussing their plans to create an interactive tablet for viewing the news. The team have realised that with the world becoming increasingly digital, the world of newspapers in which they worked would be threatened and would have to adapt to survive. The video shows their "revolutionary" idea of having a tablet that merges audio, graphics and text together into a portable electronic device weighing just under a kilogram. The screen is to replicate ink on paper in it's readability and appearance. Any of these ideas sound familiar? Rodger Fiddler, the founder of Knight Ridder, the company deriving the concept at the time, spoke of the time as being, "one of the most exciting places to be in the newspaper industry today." He believed he and his team could play a role in changing history.  I think this video was quite amazing in that it was almost twenty years ago that these people were even thinking about things like the ipad and kindle. It is a great example of how innovations come about as a result of a changing market and society. Change was becoming inevitable at that time, with technological advancments changing the way people lived and the way they wanted to live. Even though this team may not have managed to produce and launch this product, their predictions were spot on and they envisioned a future that is very much a reality today. This team challenged what had been occurring successfully for 500 years and recognised that it was time for change. This is similar to what is expected of our future news project, so I think that we should do the same. 

Week 4

Aims:
To complete these weeks arduino tasks
Finalise concept's inputs and outputs fully
Make a start on building the final model for the exhibition

Achievements:
Outputs and inputs finalised
The deconstruction of more products

What we did:

We started off in the workshop and deconstructed the 3 new products that we had.
1. Toy tank
2. Toy plane
3. Plane's controller

These items gave us these new parts to work with:
1. Working set of cogs
2. A small motor
3. Wheels
4. 2 propellers
5. Small battery (flat)
6. 2 thumb controllers
7. Red and green LEDs


After these deconstructions we thought it would be time to start working on our model for next week. Our finalised concept required using an electric thermometer that could be left inside a bowl of melting chocolate, which could be connected to arduino to communicate the temperature. We thought we had this thermometer device available to borrow from Yasu, so I went to see him to borrow one out for us. 

Thermistor- a pin used to sense temperature

He told me a number of things that were very useful for the group.
Firstly, we shouldn't use a digital thermometer as they are quite tricky to use. Instead we should use an analogue one, which turns out to already be in our pack! (See picture) However, the problem with this was, this piece is directly connected to the breadboard. Which is not exactly what we had envisioned. It can be used the measure the temperature of the air around it, or the temperature of something touching it. The temperature is not recognised immediately, it would take a little while until it was read completely. This pin was not ideal for the concept we had developed. The pin would be so close to the board that it could not sit inside a bowl of chocolate (unless we soldered them to make them longer). Also, Yasu told me it would not work with chocolate, as this would ruin the circuit. However, water could be used as it conducts electricity. This would mean we would either have to; change our concept slightly so that it incorporated water instead, or simply just use water for presentations sake and just convey the function with a different substance. 

In the end we decided we did not want to compromise the concept or the presentation and thought we could try buying a battery run thermometer and take it part like what we had been doing to all the other products. From here we could try and connect it up to the rest of the circuit.
So we took a quick excursion to the city and found a cooking thermometer that we thought might just do the job. The man at the shop warned us to be careful when taking it apart in case the wires became detached. But this would not be a major concern as we could just solder them back on if that happened.

So the thermometer was taken apart successfully, and much quicker and easier than expected. 

The sequence of inputs and outputs have been finalised to fit in with our narrative. We have 3 different outputs (fan, vibrator and speaker) and one input (the digital thermometer). Hopefully having only one input is enough. Each different output indicates the reaching of a particular temperature. As the exact temperature is very important throughout the process of tempering chocolate, our device will make the task a lot easier and increase the success with this tricky process. The image bellow shows the sequence of our device. 

The first output, being the fan, does not turn on until the chocolates temperature reaches 43 degrees. The fan is felt by the cook and is recognised as the symbol to start the cooling step. Once the chocolate is cooled to 28 degrees the vibrator begins to work. Here the vibrator switches between on and off to signify the chocolate needing to be taken off the heat and stirred a few times. It is vital that the chocolate's temperature never exceeds 31 degrees after this. Once it does the alarm sounds through the speaker. This is the end of the sequence, and the result should be perfectly tempered chocolate.

Now we have to connect all of the separate elements together and program it so that it all works nicely together and does what it is supposed to do.  

Concepts

Here are some concepts I did at home of some sequences involving inputs and outputs, that are possible with the pieces that we have collected over the weeks. 

A device to assist sleep walkers at night. If a person steps out of bed at night, they will step on the push button on the floor. This turns the bedroom light on in an attempt to wake them up. If the person continues, the motion sensor will detect them walking out of the door. This sets off a beeping alarm to notify the rest of the house so that they are able to put them back to bed. 

To be used in an office scenario. If the receptionist gets a visitor or a phone call and the boss is busy in his office. The receptionist presses the button on her desk which alerts the boss in his office that there is someone waiting for him. Two presses of the button makes it turn red which means there is someone waiting in reception for him. One press turns the light green and indicates a phone call on hold. The toggle can be used to increase or decrease the brightness of the light, to signify it's importance. After a certain amount of time, the vibrator will go off on the bosses desk, which means he has been keeping someone waiting for a very long time.

This one has been designed to be used at a club or party by the dj. The thumb trigger will start up the music. Holding it down will increase the volume. The lights are connected to the music and will flash in time with the song. The toggle allows the dj the have some control over the lights and move them in the direction they would like. A simple push button starts the fan which is used to spread confetti and streamers.

A contraption which allows for the monitoring of people numbers inside a particular public venue. The user will be outside of the venue, pressing down on the trigger every-time a person goes in side. The screen will show up the number of times the trigger has been pressed ie. the number of people inside. When the people count begins reaching the maximum amount the vibrator goes off to alert the person that not many more can fit. Once the venue is full the light will go off. This also indicates the people wanting to go in, that they cannot as the space is at maximum capacity. If the limit is ignored and too many people enter, the alarm will go off. 

Pete's Sonic Art Research

I have been looking at the blog that was suggested in class. There are a whole bunch of cool installations that are based upon playing with relatively simple technology as a means to achieve some kind of interactive communication or display.

Here are some of the ones that particularly interested me.

PICCOLO
video url: http://vimeo.com/diatom/piccolo

This one is amazing because it is run purely on audrino and relates right back to our experiments in class. It shows the kind of mechanism that is possible with the program. It is much more advanced than what anyone has been doing in class, but it very cool to see the possibilities and opportunities that are capable using arduino. In general it is also quite a clever little concept .

SHOCKING VIDEO

This one was really intriguing to watch. At first I thought the people were moving their faces to create the sound, but after reading up on the experiment I discovered what was really going on.
An Electronic Artist had hooked up his friends to his "face visualizer". The wires were programmed to send myoelectric charges into the face, causing uncontrollable muscle twitches. It looks incredible with the four faces going at once. This experiment has quite an extreme out put, very interesting but certainly not anything that could be replicated for this project.  I think this interatcion is quite different because in most cases, any human movement would be the input. I haven't yet come across anything that has a human movement as the output.

Reading- Inmates are Running the Asylum By. Alan Cooper

I have begun reading sections of this writting. It quite an interesting and easy read because of the short chapters. 
Here, I will note some of the interesting ideas and comments I have come across and share my thoughts on the concepts being suggested. 


INTRODUCTION

This first chapter expresses how computers and technology have been ruining our lives by making everyday activities much more frustrating and difficult than they need to be. Despite everyone realising how impossible some of today's technology can be, nobody takes another option as we are so completely dependent on modern technology.

I think this is a very true statement to make. We all just accept the difficulties and complexity of  technology as "just the way it is". I think we believe that because it's new technology, it must be great. It does all of these amazing things that we could never do before, but maybe it's all just more trouble than it's worth? 

We should all consider the stametment Cooper makes;

"Human's designed the interfaces we hate." 

Sometimes I think we forget that behind every new piece of technology is an engineer or programmer who designed it. The way a certain piece of technology is today, is not the only way it can be. Anything can be utilised in a more effective and productive way. It is not the touch screens or computers we hate. But it's the way in which they work with human interaction that we hate. And this human interaction is a product of it's human creators. Designers and consumers must realise that things can be better and we have the option to make them better. 

AN INDUSTRY IN DENIAL

Engineers believe that the only way to improve user experience and to make things easier is through new technology. 

I think this is most definitely the wrong approach. This is like covering up problems with even more problems. Simply adding more technology will only add to the complexity and confusion. I think that it is not until the first element of technology is completely understood and usable that further technology can be added to compliment and work with the existing features. 

"Programmers and engineers have been put in charge, so their hard-to-use engineering culture dominates."

The creators of these electronic products thrive off the the amazing technology and power that they have produced and this is their utmost primary concern and focus. In doing this, they overlook important usability and interactive issues that present themselves after they have been bought. Sometimes these issues are so extreme that Cooper even wrote that certain technology;

"...diminishes and degrades the people who must use it in their everyday lives."

TECHNO-RAGE

It's interesting how a video spread all of the internet could have some personal understanding and connection with so many people who watched it. It shows how common this frustration with technology and computers really is. I think it is something that almost everyone these day would have experienced in some scale. The movie and it's response really shows the extent of technological based frustration. 

DESIGN IS A BIG WORD 

This chapter talks about how the ideal design process should go, in an interactive design situation. The programmers would still be required to make important design based decisions during the process. However, they should not be the ones reliable for design and decision making based on the user experience, interaction or usability. This side of the design should be left to industrial designers, psychologists or others who are experts in usability and human interactions. 

Design not affecting the final user= Program Designer

Design affecting the final user= Industrial Designer or other specialised design professions

Must consider the differences of HUMAN vs. TECHNICAL

The principles and approaches which are used for technical applications are much too different to be understood or used in the same way for human situations. 

Week 3

Aims:

To get a speaker to work with arduino

Enable a red and green LED to connect to audrino and be controlled through push buttons and rotating switch

Devise a concept for a working model to be presented in week 5

Begin working on or thinking about a model for the presentation 

Deconstruct some new gadgets

Achievements:

Succeeded in getting a speaker to make sound when connected to arduino

- had some difficulties with this throughout the class but managed to get it to work by the end of the lesson which was great!

This was our first (unsuccessful) attempt at getting the speaker to work

Success with the speaker!

This video shows the speaker in action and the two separate ways of controlling it. 

Connected an LED which is both red and green. Using two push buttons we were able to control the brightness of the light. See video below. 

Deconstructed 3 new objects (calculator, toy car, and motorised fan toy)

-Elements currently available from our deconstructions:

• triggers
• push buttons
• toggles
• vibrators
• screens
• speakers
• lights
• fan
• motor

Formulated a number of possible concepts for a model (with one more favourably selected)

CONCEPTS

1. A device for exhibition style lighting

Using the light bulb from the torch, the toggle from a controller and the rotating switch creating a lighting system that is movable. Lighting direction can change by a person using a toggle to manoeuvre the focus. The rotating switch could also be used to control brightness and dimness.

2. A system to enable children to communicate to each other in a fun way

The arduino attached to the top of the moving car toy. Also attached is the screen where messages can be typed onto, using the push pad from the calculator. A light is also connected for use at night. The car is controlled using the controller joysticks.

3. A system for teachers of small children to use in class to get their attention

Lights that flicker, blink, flash and move whilst being controlled by the joysticks, rotating switch and push buttons. The lights are accompanied by  a range of strange and loud noised coming from the speakers.  

From the components and model made today in the session

using: 

Fan and motor

Vibrator

Light

Screen

Speaker 

Using these components part of a working model was built, with the potential to add further technology to the sequence. This video shows how we connected the fan and were able to adjust the speed using the rotating switch that came in our pack. 

From our deconstructions we have so far been able to work with the fan head and it's motor as well as the vibrating mechanism from last week. 

There were two different scenarios that we came up with for the device to be used. 

1. A device used in a cooking environment for determining the temperature of melting chocolate. As this is a very precise process and the temperatures must be exact for it to work, the creation would be very useful. A thermometer probe would it inside the bowl of chocolate to be melted. Once reached a certain temerpature the thermometer would link back to the audrino. As the temperature was reaching the intended heat a light would begin flashing to signify this. Once the temperature was exactly right the fan would turn on. However, if the temperature of the chocolate began to decrease, the thermometer would connect to the vibrator which would begin making nosies against the surface as it moved, alerting the person that the tempertaure was dropping. The screen connected to the system would tell the exact temperature of the chocolate. 

(The favourite concept of the team)

2. A similar device used in the situation of a sick child at home. The device would monitor fevers of a child sick in bed. This way the parent could be in another room whilst still looking after the child. The gadget would include a thermometer connected to the child to monitor the fever. If the temperature was above a certain amount, the fan would switch on cooling the child. The intensity of the air flow could be controlled by the child with the rotating switch. if the fever began getting dangerously warm, a sound would emit from the speaker alerting the parent.