Before i set up all the devices, i made a evaluation to see how would the intended experience go like. In our initial concept, there would be 4 receivers with audio players in the front, back, left and right, and the user would paly the game in the middle of these devices. I had a concern at that time that can the user identify the directions when playing this game? Because turning back can result in losing directions for people cannot see. Therefore i conducted this evaluation, i let 3 roommates get blindfolded and simulate the game experience. As expected, they lost directions after turnnig back and shooting the back receivers. Because it would foce them move their footsteps,and cannot find the original position. However, shooting at the other three directions would never let them move footsteps and get lost, because they don't need to move their feet to da that. There finally i remove the auido and receiver at the back.

The whole project is divided to each team member, the intended interaction plan would be complete when everyone's work connected together. At that time, the whole project will be like a hering and shooting zombies game. There wil be a background story telling the user that he will play a blind hero with super hearing ability to fight against zombies for protecting their family in the plot mode. The main interaction is to shoot at the direction where the sound of zombies' attack come from. In addition, there will differenet game mode as well. For example the hard mode has interference from other sound, like the rain and wind. The frequency of zombie's attack will be increased, as well as the interval will be shorten as the the difficulty of the game increased. Besides, the user can start/end the game and select game mode by a voice recognition system.

After the successful experimets with the infrared remote, i decided to make the remote controllor into a gun, which can enable the users just pull the trigger to transmit the signal. Meanwhile, considering the controller is a gun, i even made up a story for this game that the zombies strikes, destoried the electric power and forced people into a building. People cannot see where the zombies come in at night, our blind hero stands out at this time as he can hear the zombies' movement and know where they are with his super hearing ability. And then shoot against zombies attack. To make our hero a weapon, i disassembled a Arduino remote controllor and a remote car controllor, transplanted the chip in the fomer to the latter.

The circuit for each button on the Arduino remote control has 2 electrodes, the connecting with the 2 electrodes means this button pressed. Therefore i connected them with wire jumpers and attached them with the gun trigger, which means pulling the trigger equals connecting the electrodes.

Work Done

In this week, I mainly focused on making my prototype. After the failure experience of making the patterns in Unity, I decided to use LED strip to show the patterns.

Firstly, I used a canvas as the frame of my device. To make a better visual effect, I drew some patterns on the canvas.

The LED strip and the pressure sensor were pasted on the back of the canvas. The position of the LED strip coincides with the blank space on the front of the canvas. As a result, the users could watch the LED lights without the pigments. The pressure sensor was set on the middle in the left of the canvas. So, the pressure sensor could detect the pressure from the user easily.

When the user exercises on my device, the LED lights will light by the pressure from the user. Each action of the user can correspond to two LED lights, a group of 20 actions. When a group of sports is over, the LED lights will all turn off. When the user is unable to insist on leaving after completing a set of sports, the LED light will suspend lighting. When the user returns, the LED light will record again.

This is the sketch of my prototype.

About the code, these parts are the code of controling the pressure sensor and the LED strip.

The plan for next week

In next week, I will put my document and video on the MIro board and write the appraisal for the other team.

Also, my teammates and I decide to go to Bunnings and Jaycar to buy some more materials for making other final product. The materials are intcluded the acrylic board, a bigger pressure sensor and some longer wires.

This Week

Over the weekend I put together my demo video for my initial prototype. This was a big effort finding the space to present my work and being able to edit this and put this together in the form of a video. After that was submitted on Monday, I have had a bit of a break from working on my prototype.

Today we sat down as a team to discuss our allocated team's appraisals.

We worked well together as a team to stay connected via Zoom and talk about each of the individual's videos and reports and give relevant and constructive feedback to them. Rather than doing this individually which how it is done most the time in DECO it was good to hear the other thoughts from my team members and be able to put this together in the form of a comment to benefit the individual.

I also received my speaker in the mail which I was going to add to my build. This would form as the voice for Emily and she can start talking to the users in their home. She would also say some annoying things to the users if they were not turning off the fans or air-con. I have had a little play around with it so far. Whilst I was playing around with the speaker and looking up tutorials I came across these hexagon paddle pop structures in my Pinterest feed. This instantly gave me the idea of framing my current hexagons in this and this would also allow me to hide the wiring and Arduino board behind it.

The hexagons are easy to make after watching a few videos and I think I will be able to play around with the overall form of Emily and how I can attach this to a wall, with minimal wire hanging out.

I post this week’s journal late because more content I want to record in this journal and I need time to tidy them. For example, I have done interviews in this week, but need more time to do the transcript.

In the contact session of the last week, the tutor said that my previous concept is not good, because of it complex and focuses on a lot of aspects. She suggests me design things that focus on one aspect such as encouraging the user to stretch their body or doing time management for the student to reduce their stress. Before design, I should do some user research and some literature review. I think one of the previous concepts is not very complex but can meet the design for encouraging the user to stretch their body, but forget to consult why that concept is not good as well. But personally, I am more interested in doing things to help university students solve procrastination and helping them are managing their studies better to relieve their stress of study. So, this week, I focus on developing a concept of time management.

Research

First, I have read some articles about university student’s time management and procrastination. A survey result showed, in the article “evaluation on time management skills of university students”(https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uq.edu.au/docview/2070394882?rfr_id=info%3Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo),that university student’s cannot study effectively and need support about it. Another article called “Academic Procrastination, Emotional Intelligence, Academic Self-Efficacy, and GPA: A Comparison Between Students With and Without Learning Disabilities” (https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.library.uq.edu.au/doi/full/10.1177/0022219412439325) reflect that a huge amount of university students’ suffer from procrastination, it makes them have low GPA and make them facing stress of study.

Then, I have done research about ways to solve procrastination. I have search a method called “pomodoro method”. This is a time management method that use timer break work in every 25 minutes with 3-5 minutes break, and have a long break every four of 25 minutes working period. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique). This is a good method that can be considered to be used in manage our study to avoid making user feel tired and boring on study. However, personally I think 25 minute per session is short and may interrupt student’s focus on study. So, I have consult two of my friends about it, they all think it is short and give me advice of 50 minutes to 1 hour per session. I have read articles about method of stop procrastination. An article called “8 ways to stop procrastination and start studying” (https://student-cribs.com/blog/student-life-advice/8-ways-to-stop-procrastinating-and-start-studying/) have introduce some useful tips that may useful for helping user to stop procrastination. Another article called “Measuring and reduce college students’ procrastination”(https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uq.edu.au/docview/896736008/fulltextPDF/1AC052A2766242A5PQ/1?accountid=14723) involve computer based evaluation to collecting data about the different effects of different study mode involve students’ study efficiency.

Finally, I have done two online interview as the initial enquire. The transcripts are listed as follow. (A- interviewer, B- interviewee)

Interview 1

A: Hi, I want to interview you some question about your study and time management, which will be used as data in my course. If you might I use your response in my assignment? Anytime you don’t want me use it, just tell me and I will not use it.

B: That’s ok.

A: Let’s begin. The first question is, as a university students what kind of things make the you feel stress?

B: I will feel stress on catching deadlines of assignments and always worry about the exam. I always need to catch the assignment day and night on the last 2 days before the deadline, which make me tired, nervous and worry about the grade. I always feel have no enough time to prepare exam and feel stress on doing exam and after exam. Sometimes I feel nervous about social communication. I am an not outgoing person. I am afraid of doing the presentation and don’t have good skills in making friends. I feel hard to know other’s mind, I mean sometime I really don’t know why their feel angry.

A: What kind of factors may cause you delay the study?

B: I always attracted by my phone when I am studying. When I am studying, I always check social media on my phone. So, it is really interrupting my study and affect my study efficiency. Another thing is that I always feel that it have a long time until the due date, so I do work slow, however, I always need to catch the deadline day and night on the last few days. And, I am not good at doing housework, I need a lot of time to do it, and after a long time working on housework, I don’t want to study. So, it’s hard for me to begin study.

A: What kind of effort that you have done for decreasing procrastination or just for increasing your study efficiency?

B: I have attached a calendar on the wall in front of my desk which has marked the due of assignment on it, but it is not useful, I always ignore it. I believe that study with other’s can improve my study efficiency that I can easy to begin study and can discuss the difficult parts of the assignment with others. However. It’s not useful. I have tried to study with my friends, but I still interrupt study due to I always check my phone, and we will chat together when we sit for study.

A: How do you think about the study period of your study should be? For example, you can think about “pomodoro method”.

B: I think one hour study with 15 minutes break is good, and I only study 4 hours per day.

A: That’s all my questions. Thank you.

Interview 2

A: If I can do a short interview with you about your study and time management and use your response in my assignment as data? Anytime you don’t want me use it, just tell me and I will not use it.

B: Ok.

A: Let’s begin. The first question is, as a university students what kind of things make the you feel stress?

B: I feel stress on catching deadline of assignments, worry about its result, and always feel no enough time to prepare the exam, so also worry about the exam. Some time I worry about the financial problems, I need to feed myself as an adult.

A: What kind of factors may cause you delay the study?

B: I always think the assignment is not a huge meal, but finally, find it is a challenge that really needs more time to finish. So, finally, my grade is not good if I really hurry to finish a big meal. I am a night cat, I always read the novel until 3 pm in the morning after I stop study on the night. Even though I don’t study at night, I sleep at 1-2 pm. Sleep late makes me wake up late, and will not use the majority of daytime to study. So, it’s hard for me to begin study. And, when I stop the study, I mean I just want a short break, but I have attracted by my phone and then not come back to study. I really have strong procrastination.

A: What kind of effort that you have done for decreasing procrastination or just for increasing your study efficiency?

B: I use my calendar note on my phone, so it can jump message to warning me things that I have to do. I think it is useful to go shopping and do other things but not very useful for warning me to study.

A: How do you think about the study period of your study should be? For example, you can think about “pomodoro method”.

B: I think 50 minutes study with 10 minutes break is fine and I want to study 3 hours per session.

A: That’s all my questions. Thank you.

Concept

A box that can help university students to release their stress by offering time management service. The box should be put on the desk for better visibility. It can help the student to arrange their time of study and their life around studies such as sleep and eating. The box will warn the user to study, warning the user to sleep when students study late but have courses in the morning, warning the user to have rest or eating lunch if it detected that user keeping study for a long time. In the front of the box, the days left from the deadline and the time of hour that the user should work on today (such as the task is 3h per day, but have studied 1 hour, it will show 2 hours, or it will show more hour if the task of yesterday didn’t finish). To make sure students sit for study, not for play, it requests user set phone as no internet mode and Vibration mode, put it into the box before the study, so the user can receive an emergency phone call but will not be interrupted by social media. It will lock the phone in the study period even in the break, because user are easy to be attracted by phone and hard to come back to study, unless it detected shake which means phone call. When the user puts the phone into the box, it becomes to calculate the time as the student keeping study and will warning the user to have a rest between study (pomodoro method) and warning them to come back to study after the break by voice output and light effects. Meanwhile, a progress that can detect the progress that running in the computer will run. When it detect user sit for play game rather than study, the time that user sit their will not be record as study time. It allows the user to set their weekly study plan on an app and will work base on it. User can delay break or stop waring to study more time as well.

Technique

I have thought about what kind of technique should be used base on this concept. I think that I need to use the Arduino kit, and need to learn neo-pixel strip, press button, LCD, touch sensor and pressure sensor. I will learn it after I get feedback from the tutor about the concept.

Overview

This week I was focusing on the prototype. So, I spent the whole week time to make the prototype, write the report, and make the prototype video.

Prototype

My prototype consists of three main parts, which are blocks, Arduino, and computer.

Blocks

For the front side of each block, I put the simple code on it for users to reorganize, each code has a meaning, for example, W means Move forward, L means turn Left, R means turn right and so on.

For the right side of the block, I put the QR code on it. And each QR code has the simple code of the same block in it. After putting it in front of a computer camera, the computer camera can detect the QR code and read the data in it one by one and save them in a list and send the command to the robot.

Arduino

I use the Arduino button as a trigger for each round of the game, once user gets ready and press the button, the python program will get the signal from Arduino and start to access the computer camera and start to detect the QR code and read the data and save it. After the user finishing the input code, he can put the Go! block in front of the computer camera, once the camera detects that, the program will terminate the camera and will save the code it has caught at that time in a list.

Computer

I wrote a python program for the project, as you can see the computer can detect the QR code, and once it has recognized it successfully it will display the content above the QR code.

Prototype video:

Domain research

Observation

I have encountered difficulties when searching for suitable sources from Youtube. I’m not sure if because of the method, I could not find suitable videos for me to observe the children's interactions with the toy.

Interview

In week 8, I have started the interviews to consolidate the concept and receive suggestions from the target audience. There were 3 participants which were parents and child care teachers. The questions below were asked:

a. How are you related to the children from 3-5 yo (parents/child care teacher)

b. How long does the children play the toy per day?

c. What toy does the children has regarding colours and shapes?

c-1. Does the children taking the toy to play by themselves?

c-2. What is the style of toy the children is playing? (plush toy/blocks)

c-3. What is the limitation of the current toy

c-4. What advanced features do you think can be developed based on the current toy?

d. Do you have any suggested physical learning style

e. How do you usually encourage your children? What is the most useful approach?

f. What kind of interaction is interested to the children?

g. Does the children has any special requirements regarding the toys? (features, appearance, peer)

h. What kind of toy will you buy (teaching-oriented/)

• Explain Concept

a. Do you think your children will like it?

b. Which feature do you like the most?

c. What form do you think is the best way to present? (plush toy/blocks)

d. What age group do you think is the most suitable for the concept?

e. Do you think the interaction is playful enough?

f. Do you think the kids will be able to get out from the toy/learn?

g. Further suggestions?

Concept

With the feedback I’ve received, I have altered my concept to develop children’s cognitive ability such as concentration and memorising skills.

Concept 1

The first concept was developing a flappy bird game, and the children played the game using the pressure sensor. The larger the pressure is, the higher the flappy bird will fly. The goal of the concept was to practice the kids control with the small muscles, however the major concerns were that the children did not incorporate enough motor skills with the toy and the game requires screen to display, which may negative impacts on children exposing to the games in such young age.

Concept 2

With the concerns and the suggestions from the teaching team, the concept was reiterated.

Prototype development

Pressure sensor is implemented through the online resources, which is used as an input from the children to the system. I have use the code to learn how the pressure sensor is measured and use. Basic LEDs and buttons were also tested to familiarised with the Arduino Uno.

Pressure sensor link

Things needs to be done

More researches in terms of the concept itself, background and users are needed to support the concept. Furthermore, the basic prototype needs to be more concrete and research of the materials and functions needed.

This week I continued my prototype build and worked on my prototype documentation and video for the submission next Monday. I am quite confident with my progress so far on the various deliverables and understand the rest of the work to be completed well - I have made myself a clear plan of how I am going to structure my documentation and what content I am going to include in my video.

Studio:

This week we again did a report back and split into our groups afterwards. My team had a few questions regarding the documentation that we discussed with Lorna. As our team is all working on individual directions, we split off to continue our work after this. I continued to work on implementing my colour mixing code. I cam across an issue where mixed colours would flicker with the two individual primary colours, so I will ask Alison and Clay about this in the Friday workshop.

Workshop:

This week in the workshop I was having some issues with my colour mixing and got some help from Clay and Alison. In my void loop, I have an if statement to display colours when the colour pad is pressed and then separate if statements if two colours are pressed. My issue was that each time I wanted two colours to mix, it would do so, but also loop through and show both individual colours as well which created a flickering on the Unity display. I eventually discovered that it was doing so because I had never said that when two colours are pressed, the individual colours should also not be displayed. I ended up solving this by making each colour display if it was pressed and all other colours weren't pressed e.g. if the cap touch reading for red is > 80, every other colour has to be <80.

Build:

As I have already completed most of my core functionalities for my functional prototype, I focused on implementing all colours on the mat and making a small scale version of the mat to connect my capacitive touch sensors. I made the mat very simple as I know I will be making a full-scale, durable mat later in the semester. I simply printed out 8 circles for each of the primary colours and tones and stuck them onto a A4 piece of paper.

I used the cap touch example and also the Free Draw asset to create the drawing function:

Playground.arduino.cc. (2020). Arduino Playground - CapacitiveSensor. [online] Available at: https://playground.arduino.cc/Main/CapacitiveSensor/

Foolish Mortals. (2020). Free Draw. Available at: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/painting/free-draw-simple-drawing-on-sprites-2d-textures-113131.

Last week I had only completed colour mixing for red, yellow and blue so I implemented all 8 colours throughout the week. Currently, I simply have if statements in Arduino that write a number to the serial port and a separate number for each 2 colour combination. This meant I had to write a large number of If statements for only 2-colour combinations. As I know this method works, despite being very inefficient, I have decided to use it for this delivery and then investigate more efficient methods of colour mixing for the final prototype - I will try and do this by making a method that automatically mixes the selected colours.

I also decided to use capacitive touch sensors because the small scale prototype will require users to use their fingers to select colours. Capacitive touch is very accurate at detecting touch so is a good method of detecting when colours have been pressed. I am aiming to create a larger prototype for the final delivery using the mat from my visual prototype and instead use buttons or pressure sensors to detect when a colour is stepped on.

This week I also created my visual representation prototype so that I could accurately illustrate the intended form and interaction in my video. I did so using a Twister mat with my specific colours attached on top.

Twister has been one of the main inspirations for this concept and I really wanted to incorporate the fun and playful atmosphere that Twister creates into my own concept. The initial probe I conducted highlighted that young students highly value the theme of "play". Combined with the studio domain that calls for "playful" interactions, I aim to create playful experiences as much as possible with my prototype. I am also making the assumption that some users will recognize the similarities between Twister and Twisted, and in turn, immediatly assume that multiple users can interact with the prototype at once. This will help in aligning with the team domain in that collaboration will be facilitated through use.

Testing:

Once I was happy with my prototype and couldn't find any issues with functionality, I got two of my family members to test it. I gave them a set of tasks to test how they would draw and make various colours. All functionality worked well and didn’t indicate any technical errors. The only feedback was that it was pretty rudimentary and could get boring. I think this was mainly because the testers were much older than the target audience and their interests were therefore very different to what I have designed for. Nevertheless, I will look into ways to make interaction more involved and exciting.

Reflection:

I received feedback from the proposal report this week which included a suggestion that I look into something that leverages and expands on the movement intention such as potentially incorporating time pressure/speed or having moving objects. As I received this feedback when I had already made significant progress on my prototype I haven't yet implemented any changes. I like the idea of moving drawings however, and this will definitely be something I will look into for future versions. I like the idea of the interactive wall "coming to life" with moving drawings e.g. Birds flying around the screen and plants moving in the wind. I will look into this more once I have finished this next delivery. This addition is supported by the prototype testing where a user said that the interaction seemed slightly rudimentary as it would add another level of interest and interaction. It would also align will with the broader studio context and make the concept for playful and novel. It does seem like it will be quite hard to implement so it will be explored more later in the project if time permits.

The progress made this week has made me confident for the prototype submission next week. The coding issue was leading to quite a lot of frustration so it is a big relief to have fixed that issue. This minor obstacle helped me to develop better work strategies however, as I recognized that I needed tutor help and moved on to the documentation until I could receive assistance in the workshop. In doing so, I saved myself a lot of time that I could have spent stressing unnecessarily about the issue, and instead solved the problem efficiently. When the development starts getting more intense towards the end of the semester, this is definitely something I need to keep in mind to save myself unnecessary frustration.

The progress I have made this week has also been very rewarding as I am now seeing how my physical prototype really reflects the desired outcomes and broader studio context. The prototype certainly creates a playful experience, and provides open-ended interaction, both focal points of my inquiry. My family members who tested it also said that it was a new and interesting type of technology which supports that it provides "novel" interaction - another great achievement in aligning well with the studio domain. Overall I can see my prototype aligning well with the studio domain, team theme and team domain which I consider a great success.

Over the next week I will finish the final element of my prototype (implementing the changes to fix the glitch), finish off my documentation and make my demonstration video.

Individual work

Key related work:

For example,

Acti is a multi- functional and multi-user interactive platform, which can be modified. This inspiration gives a great inspiration about the subsequent multi-user interaction ability.

https://medium.com/@wondojeong/how-can-design-promote-sedentary-workers-health-better-75f06b48bd2d

Smartwatch app can record and improve users' awareness of sedentary behavior. This related point of view is of great help to the whole wearable device and its interest is worth studying.

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/be51/be50e21d8655942eb82eb9da3843c12e5fd2.pdf

The prototype would combine the user's comments and their thoughts to readjust the practicability and operation of the function and the impact of the function. Although creativity in production is essential, prove whether the product can meet the needs of the public or whether the function can help users in their daily life, which is very important.

Vibration: Beep sounds is a more exaggerated sound mode than ring tones. However, in the office area, 28% of people hate beep sounds very much, which will directly disturb the working state and make people bored (Hesse.J, 2015).

https://realbusiness.co.uk/revealed-the-top-10-most-annoying-office-noises/

Stretching: Stretching in the workplace can reduce fatigue; prevent muscle; strain injuries and improves posture (SocietyInsurance).

https://blog.societyinsurance.com/benefits-of-stretching-at-work/

Office-worker: According to the UK, workers spend 75% time to sitting without moving

(HR & Training News, 2019).

https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/office-workers-sitting-down/71612/

Operating process:

Step 1: the user pastes Neo pixel ring on the arm and calf respectively, and determines the ring direction is accurate

Part 2: normal working state of user (sitting down)

Part three: after 60 minutes of users' sedentary behavior, bracelet will change its lighting.

Part 4: users need to find other users according to the direction provided by the light

Part 5: after users find each other, the multiplayer interactive game starts

Part 6: the system will randomly transmit the light source to several users' bracelet, then users need to make simple stretching movement to touch their ring, then the light source will be transmitted to other users, and other users will touch their own devices.

The last part: after the sports time, users return to their jobs.

Work Allocation:

The prototype we designed has 6 functions. Andy and I designed the prototype together. I am responsible for vibration, touch and data transmission, and then these parts of the function are shared in the whole design. Andy is responsible for technical functions, Mount detection functions, LED control and some parts of data transmission. However, it is temporarily impossible to track the flicker of another user's location through a neo-pixel ring, so this function is only displayed by simulation. We have tried to use the GPS sensor to sense the position of another device, but because the position transmission received by the GPS sensor is very large, the short distance detection cannot be realized. In addition, infrared and ultrasonic were also considered, but due to the volume of materials, we gave up trying them. Next, I'll explain how to build and contribute to this prototype.

First, when the user pastes Neo pixel ring and triggers the startup function, the LED light will start timing. When all the LEDs are on, in the meantime, the vibration function is on to remind the user to stand up to find other users. The vibration function will read the result of time timing to activate the vibration function. In addition, the vibration function will be turned on when the system is running, waiting for the end of the timing function. After the user finds another user, touch the user and pause the vibration. The display of vibration function is after all lights are displayed, then there will be a strong vibration (adjustable degree). Then the connection point of the vibration is P5 in the plate and then activated according to whether Neo pixel ring is all on.

Second, the touch function is the parts of all the additional sensors. When the user operates and triggers, the sensor transmits the information to the next step. Next, the user can take an interactive picture of this surface, and then the user can transmit the light source to another device through the pressure sensor on the Neo pixel ring. My solution is to install a pressure sensor in this place. It can read the power from user pressing. After that, the original device will transmit the light source to another device through the wireless transceiver.

Third, in the transmission function, I built the multi-user interaction function in the nano development board, and then I configured the wireless translator and nano board together. Through the information transmission with Andy's other half, the whole information process of mutual transmission is realized. This configuration function is to pass the signal source to other users. My main function is to send the signal transmission process.

Document and evidence individual work done

Domain research:

Observation

An online office observation was conducted this week, key works that relate to this domain was used to search something about office, such as ‘office workers’, ‘office’, and ‘office observation’. A number of useful sources are listed below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpUeKQl-s-8 -> American office observation (news reporter)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYIFefUXc_c -> software design company office

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAplyNf7uuE and some other videos

1. People stop sitting normally because they want to get water, print out files, chat with other colleagues, and go to restroom.
2. The offices are quiet most of time: It links back to the responses from interviewees. Office workers might need to concentrate on the work, and it is important to ensure that the product is workplace friendly so it would not affect others as well as their work efficiency.
3. Compared with private spaces such as home, offices involve multiple people working in the same space: It can actually be an advantage/resource that private spaces do not have. If multiple people can be connected to take same actions together such as walking or stretching, then users might be more likely to do light-activities, especially for users with introverted characteristics.

Based on these information, I made some changes to the concept mentioned in the previous journal

1. New annoying feature: The patch starts to vibrate instead of bleep constantly after long-time sitting. It aims to reduce the impact on work efficiency.
2. Multiple users (office workers) are involved: Two playful interactions (games) mentioned in the original concept were removed. A new playful interaction that involves multiple users was created.
3. A new relax and ease-of-use interaction: As mentioned in the concept on the front page, users will be gathered together, and one patch among them will be randomly selected and lighted up. The light can be removed by simply touch its surface. Then, the light would ‘jump’ to next user, and so on.
4. Extra changes for work efficient and easy of use: It can be turned off by removing the patches from the clothes. Also, reduce the number of patches to two.

Design principle

On the other hand, a design principle was searched and trying to implement it into my concept because the concept is designed for everyday life with playful and open-ended interactions. It might involve a series of interaction process, such as how the user explores, discovers, and adjusts it. So, it is important to ensure the user interacts with it without confusion. So, based on research, Valk, Bekker, and Eggen (2015) develop a model for playful interaction. It involves three stages, which are invitation stage, exploration stage, and immersion stage. The overall interaction process was checked and improved based on these three stages, and a number of improvement was made in the concept. For example, LEDs on the ring can easily get user’s attention and show the changes. So, they will be used to represent the changes of system state and interaction process. For example, all LEDs are activated means that the sitting time is long enough. Then, all LEDs will be turned off, and specific LED will be lighted up to tell the user the current step is completed, and to guide the user what to do next. Moreover, responses should be provided to the user every time when he/she tried an action so that the user is able to explore how to interact with the patches. For example, if touching the wrong patch, then the LEDs on the correct patch will keep flashing. Finally, while users are gathered together and interacting with each other, the provided responses from the patches should be similar and coherent in ongoing engagement. Specifically, the light’s color and brightness should be the same while passing it to other users.

Prototype construct:

In addition, I also started to construct the prototype for my concept. Two features were build. First one is to activate LEDs on the neo-pixel ring by pressing a paper. I formed an overall construction process for this feature:

1. Simply set up the ring on the Arduino Uno board to explore how to use the neo-pixel ring since I have never used it before, so I am need to get familiar with its basic functions and codes.
2. Then, try to write simple codes to activate some specific LEDs on the ring, which is a good warm-up for the latter part of this feature.
3. Thinking about how to activate the ring by pressing something.
4. Connecting the pressing function to the ring.
5. Add the point 2 to the feature so that it is able to activate some specific LEDs by pressing something.
6. Adding counting time function into this feature so that I am able to activate the LEDs every few seconds or minutes by pressing something, which is for implementing the feature that after sitting, one LED on the patch would be lighted up every 5 min.
7. Test the completed feature to see anything needs to be improved.

Arrange the jumper lines on the board to make it more clear and structured.

Detail:

A neo-pixel ring was simply placed on the board, and connecting to pin 2 for data input, ground, and power. After following the construction guidance online, a basic code to activate the ring was created. Then, I got a basic view of the ring:

Then, through exploring the code, I am able to activate specific LEDs on the ring.

After that, I took a look the materials I got, and I found that the pressure sensor could be used to detect whether user is seated or not. After press or pinch the sensor, the value would be read in the system. So, I think it is really helpful for my feature, and I can activate the LEDs by comparing with the value from the sensor and a pre-set value. Then, it is possible to detect whether the user is seating or standing, and activate the LEDs. After that, I combine the functions I created with the pressure sensor, so the point 5 is fulfilled.

Next, I used ‘delay()’ method to freeze the whole system for a specific time so that it is possible to activate one LED every few minutes. However, it caused a problem that nothing can be conducted during freezing the system, so if the user stands up during freezing, then I am not able to detect it through the pressure sensor. I have read through some projects, and I found that using two variables to track and count the time is a more flexible and efficient way to solve this problem. As the figure below:

Finally, I combine everything together, and create this feature:

I simply tested this feature by pressing the pressure sensor, and the LEDs are activated every specific time, so it was successful. Then, I rearrange the jumper lines, sensor, and led to make it more clear:

Things need to be done

Based on the concept, a number of features need to be constructed in order to form a prototype, which are code improve, vibrating function, construct another device, and data communication between two devices. I will work on them at the end of this weekend and next week as well. By the way, the appearance of the prototype also needs to be improved.

External source

https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/ingo-lohs/myadafruit-neopixel-ring-with-12-leds-unboxing-15c9d1

According to this source, I learned the basic structure of the neo-pixel ring and its code. For example, through calling Adafruit_NeoPixel to activate the overall functions of neo-pixel ring. Moreover, through calling begin, clear, and show to control the LEDs. Also, the combination of these methods can easily turn off and on the ring, which is quite helpful to solve what I have struggled in the feature. For example, I could not turn off all LEDs at one time, so I turned off them one by one. However, after I have read through this documents, I found out that the combination such as clear() and show() can just quickly and simply deactivate all of them.

Prototype construction & user research

This week, I spent most of the time on building prototype and connected my components with my teammate, because his part of data processing needs data input from pressure board.

At this prototype stage, I used a stack of paper to simulate the pressure board. There is a palm area guideline on the paper. The pressure sensor is hidden in the second layer to assure sensitivity and to lower the influence while users are putting their hands on the board. The sensor is also linked to the computer by cable to transfer pressure data.

Other than reading pressure data from computer, I decided to provide signals to let users know how much pressure they put on the board, so I add a LED light that can change the brightness depending on the pressure applied on the force sensitive resistor.

At this stage, the collected pressure data can be shown in three ways: one is direct values through serial monitor, second is through pressure waveform on the serial plotter, third is through LED’s brightness. Additional interactions will be added for the next step.

Next step

• Connect with teammates’ components to deliver a single prototype
• Look for additional data resources as input
• Replace the existing FSR by a larger sensor

Video editing and document writing

This week I've spent writing the prototype document and editing both my own and the teams video presentations. It took a lot more effort and time than I anticipated, but its mostly because I wanted it to look and feel professional so I spent extra time adding elements to improve the overall experience. I started with filming the parts that needed live footage from both the building and interacting with the prototype. I then made some animations in after effekts so illustrate what the narration was talking about. I think my video ended up being pretty good at least I'm quite happy with it.

Going forward

I've been thinking a lot about what kind of improvements I can add to my prototype after the presentation on Tuesday as I've concluded the basic intended interaction + added some additional features. As mentioned before I conducted a user testing which provided useful feedback. Not only for my prototype but also for the the concept in general. Several additional features was suggested and some could be relatively easy to add and will increase the user experience. What I think is the most important element to remember is to keep the concept user friendly.

I hope the presentation on Tuesday will go well and that my team and I will be able to write good appraisals relatively quick since there are a lot that will be happening going forward.

Prototype

---

In last two weeks, I focus on building the function to translate the signals into python codes, so that the robot can follow the codes to navigate the map. In terms of the time, I haven't had chances to combine my part with Solomon. Therefore, I need to simulate the signal by the manual input. To make the input easier, I use the number to represent specific commands. Like number zero represents the robot.goForward, numbers 1 and 2 respectively represent the robot.turnRight and robot.turnLeft. For instance, if you input number string 0101010, it means the robot will drive in a square. However, the loop function and 'if' function are both complex because of the nest relation.

Besides, although the robot can recognize particular markers to identify the object, the detected distance is out of control, which means the robot may identify the object with an unexpected position. If you want to program a function that when the robot detects a wall, I want it to turn right. However, in this situation, the robot will turn right before the schedule.

Furthermore, it is my first time to combine the map and the robot, there happened lots of issues like rugged surface may cause the robot to change its route.

This week has largely focused around the finalization of prototype testing, creating the Video and the Supporting material for the prototype submission. As per usual the creation of the video took longer than expected.

Tuesday meeting:

After the studio on Tuesday, we had a group meeting where we decided on what each member was to do in preparation for the prototype delivery. For the team section of the video, Sigurd and I were responsible for making the script and structure of the video as well as recording most of the video required which was a lot easier for us since we live in the household, and finally, Marie used all the overmentioned materials to put the whole thing together.

Thursday meeting:

Based on the feedback we got from the tutor we decided we needed a paradigm for the whole concept so to do that, during our meeting during the workshop we decided on the following. Sigurd and I became responsible for writing the scenario we used for our team section and Tuva was responsible for drawing it.

General Thoughts

For the most part, creating the video was fairly straight forward, after creating a script the rest comes together fairly easy. When created properly the script shows all the required footage needed. Sometimes the timing can be somewhat challenging, luckily Tuva had the great idea for us to wait with our filming until she had a chance to record the voice bits, this made it so that we had a much easier time recording video because we now knew how long the shots had to be useful. Although this type of delivery including video usually takes longer to put together when comparing it to a pure text-based delivery, I have to say it is a lot more enjoyable and it was a nice break from writing the conference paper for my Thesis, the downside obviously being that it took away time from me being able to that, but you can't have everything.

For this week I have been focused on creating the individual and team video in addition to writing the prototype document for delivery.

Studio

In Tuesday's session, we had our regular Stand-up. As with most weeks, there's not much to say about the stand-up. We talk about where we were at with our prototype, what we had recently achieved, last-minute tasks and concerns. I had in the previous week finalised my prototype and started to conduct user research. I've noticed that it's rather difficult to get testers these days as both Thomas and I combined have only been able to recruit a few. My guess is that people do have a lot going on these days. As for week 9, it was mostly going to be spent working on the submission itself and I didn't really have any concerns around the delivery.

After Studio

After the studio, we had a short team meeting to discuss who was going to work on what parts for the team-based sections of the assessment. Thomas and I were to create a script for the team-based video and for the interaction plan whereas Tuva was going to record a voice-over and draw the interaction plan. We decided that Marie could put the video together once all elements were in place.

Workshop

The workshop was rather uneventful. Few people showed up and it took a long time before we got started. Once started there didn't seem to be a plan of content other than the tutors being available if we needed help. Given that I did not need any help I kept on working with my deliverables.

After Workshop

On Thursday we had a short meeting to discuss the interaction paradigm of our concept and then went on to work more on the deliverables.

Rest of the Week

By Friday Thomas and I had filmed some footage to put in our team-based video and handed that off to Marie for her to put it in the video. For the rest of the week, I mostly worked on my individual prototype document and video. This week was pretty straight forward. The most confusing and difficult part was to analyse and understand what we actually were meant to have in the video and supporting document as descriptions were a bit vague and abstract, resulting in a lot of back and forth to get it right. As for my own video, I had to redo a couple of video clips as I found out I had filmed it in the wrong orientation and then later found out I had to few clips to fill out the movie. So, I decided to shoot some filler clips.

Lastly, I took Sunday off just to have a breather as I've been struggling with a severe lack of motivation lately.

The end of week ended up being dedicated to finishing the supportive document and working with the video. This took a lot longer than I anticipated. I struggled with finding good sources related to my problem, I found it hard to know what to include in the interaction plan and I had no idea how to create the objectives and the success criteria. For the latter I had to google a lot, ask the tutors and I'm still not entirely sure whether it is enough or specific enough.

The video making always takes longer than anticipated, but luckily I managed to get it approximately how I wanted. Today I'm just going to fix my fonts and backgrounds so that they fit with the group theme, and add the group video to my own video. Then tomorrow its time for appraisals!

We now have a problem. The brightness of our laser sensor is too low; usually, the laser irradiation distance is very far, so we can use it to do our interactive module. But now our laser sensor can only be used within a distance of less than 5 cm. For our device, this is almost useless. We need to consult Ben next Thursday and hope he can give us some suggestions about this laser sensor.

Issue 1

The second problem is that we have not solved the problem of how to play background music so far. Our background music is divided into two parts, 1. sound feedback, 2 background sound effects. The background sound effects are synthesized by 3D music, and at least four speakers are required to work simultaneously. But during this period, it also needs to be synchronized with sound feedback. So we have not been able to play these two contents at the same time so far. The plan B we now consider is to use a computer to connect a speaker to play background music, and then the four speakers around are only used to play sound feedback, such as the sound of hitting the enemy. But doing so will affect the user experience of our device. So we need Ben to give us some suggestions.

Issue 2

Regarding the feedback last week, many people suggested that I change the sound of the ultrasonic sensor because the buzzer sound is too harsh. This is indeed the case, but at present, there is still nothing that can replace the buzzer. In the course last Tuesday, Paula showed their group of small speakers. I think this may be one of our next options. We can directly use this small speaker to play some immediate sound effects instead of harsh buzzers. Or use the computer to play these prompts.

But considering the safety, the sound of the buzzer is actually not a bad thing. I mean, if the alarm emits a softer sound, it is likely not to serve as a warning. Only when the buzzer sounds loud enough can people realize that they need to return to a safe place. Maybe I can use distance as an element to adjust the volume. The sound will become louder as the distance becomes smaller.

About how to connect the work of the four people in our group, this can be a very tricky business. Because at present, each of our work is a relatively independent individual. If you connect everyone's work, you need to make some changes based on the existing code. But none of our group is good at C #, so in the foreseeable next few weeks, we may have to concentrate on doing this.

code of ultrosnic sharing

void setup() {

pinMode(trigPin, OUTPUT); // Sets the trigPin as an Output

pinMode(echoPin, INPUT); // Sets the echoPin as an Input

pinMode(buzzer, OUTPUT);

pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);

Serial.begin(9600); // Starts the serial communication

}

void loop() {

// Clears the trigPin

digitalWrite(trigPin, LOW);

delayMicroseconds(2);

// Sets the trigPin on HIGH state for 10 micro seconds

digitalWrite(trigPin, HIGH);

delayMicroseconds(10);

digitalWrite(trigPin, LOW);

// Reads the echoPin, returns the sound wave travel time in microseconds

duration = pulseIn(echoPin, HIGH);

// Calculating the distance

distance= duration*0.034/2;

safetyDistance = distance;

if (safetyDistance <= 120){ //Enter the Distance 

  digitalWrite(buzzer, HIGH);

  digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);

  digitalWrite(relayPin, LOW); 

}

else{

  digitalWrite(buzzer, LOW);

  digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);

  digitalWrite(relayPin, HIGH); 

}

// Prints the distance on the Serial Monitor

Serial.print("Distance: ");

Serial.println(distance);

}

Report back

Recap

Theme: digital sensation and creative learning

Goal: Aiming to teach elementary children about environmental protection and sustainability in their everyday life at home. Creating a gardening terrarium to teach children about doing good things so it would give water to the gardening; otherwise, it would produce smoke and kill the plants.

What have you achieved in the last week towards your prototype goals?

I got the rocks I need from the park and I started to build my Terrarium. Growing my mini mints from cutting but before that, I would need to soak them into the water. Then plant them later when the roots grow.

In the technical part, I am still working on my smoking. I managed to light up one wire that could make the smoke; however, it was too hot and lit up the cotton or it was too long and the voltage is not strong enough. I am not sure if I didn’t have glycerol on the cotton. I also was trying to get the temperature sensor working and show the information on the LCD screen.

The interview with the elementary student and our team gathered 20 questions. We hope we could get at least three user interviews by Friday.

What are the last-minute tasks you need to complete before prototype submission next Monday?

I had most of the material for building the terrarium but I haven’t put them together and hoping to have the smoke effect working.

What are your concerns/needs in regard to getting those done?

What my concert would be hoping to get all the parts working and putting together, making the video, and writing the report. I think it seems like I am concerned about everything.

Prototype building process

Temperature sensor

On Thursday I finally got the LCD screen working YAYAY!! Hooray!! :)

To me, this is an improvement and good progress. Even though I didn’t write the code myself, reading the code, it’s a challenge for me. I used Arduino before, but when I don’t know how to fix it or modify it for my needs, I tend to get back down. The feeling of anxiety starts growing on me when I don’t get anything, especially when the deadline is close by. At that point, I didn’t have an intention to learn or tried to understand it step by step. Still, I would still try to make it work for the sake of turning in the project.

This time, I want to enjoy it while I am doing it. I still feel anxious when I don’t know how to make it work. But I kept telling myself to stay calm and kept looking for a solution. At first, I had no clue why it’s not working. I kept going back to the board overview since everyone on the Youtube tutorial had slightly different modules. Most people connected the LCD on the breadboard, but my breadboard was too small, so it won’t work. Testing back and forth, Ben told me I could place it right on the top, and it would be easier and fewer wires. It still didn’t work. I tried to connect the wires to the LCD directly, yet it still has no sign at all. I thought I could test the LCD to make sure it was not broken. From there, I know the LCD is working, and I should set the LiquidCrystal lcd to (8, 9, 4, 5, 6, 7), and I also tried turning the potentiometer in the top left to adjust the contrast of the LCD. Then I realized what Ben told me about setting the LiquidCrystal lcd code to (8, 9, 4, 5, 6, 7). I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me that my code was wrong when Ben told me what I would need to change and check. I guess after working on it for too long my mind was not functioning.

I was initially wanted to use this in my prototype but I will put a hold on it for now after I refining my concept a bit.

Smoke effect

I finally finished making the smoke machine. It took me a Long time of trying to figure out what was between the voltage, current, and resistance and testing out 5 different wires from soldering the wire to each edge and testing, connecting, and reconnecting to the battery. It’s a lot of work, but I am enjoying it. However, I felt I didn't have enough time because my parts didn’t arrive until 30th of April. I am worried that I would have less time to work on it. Anyways, I finally got it to work this week. I am so happy.

In this Friday tutorial, I shared what I had with tutors, and Clay suggested a better way of building my smoke from a YouTube link. I gave it a try since I ran out of ideas and still didn’t find a way to have cotton surrounded by the nichrome wire. Clay told me that I would need to cut the nichrome wire shorter to make it work. I was a little bit skeptical about it because I was afraid if I messed it up, I won’t have the material to make it again. Most important was that I was afraid I won’t make it on time for the deadline for the video. If not give it a try, then I wouldn’t even know if it would work or not. It ended up helping me a lot, and I spent all my time in the tutorial session building the smoke machine.

Thinking back from disassembling a hairdryer and testing all the nichrome wires’ resistance using multimeters. I went through a lot of trial and error but at the same time, I am glad that I had learned some new skills. This is my first time disassembling electronic stuff by myself and I succeeded in doing what I was intended to do. This is fun and cool.

Reference:

Temperature sensor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBIXxS4xTao&t=23s

smoke effect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-4Umnbnn5A

I realised I hadn’t considered the instrument as much as I could’ve. The xylophone was a bit of a “in-the-moment” idea. In my feedback for the previous report, the tutor suggested I looked at doing a guitar which is more body-controlled, and it put me into quite a bit of panic considering I had to potentially change my idea completely. After calming down a bit, I chose to simply do research on what instruments were good for visually impaired children, since I had not considered that at all, unfortunately. I learnt that while pianos, guitars, and violins were great for visually impaired children, instruments like a xylophone is terrible, as one source stated - due to the requirement of a stick to use it. I realised that the entire time I had really been creating an electronic piano, rather than a xylophone, however chose to conduct a bit further research into the instruments, since taking the form of a guitar is something that may feel a bit more comfortable to the user, and just from some brief thinking, having something similar to guitar hero could be interesting and rather novel. If users could press a number (simulating the holding of a string/chord), and then strum to input that number, it means that there doesn’t have to be an awkward placement of the braille on the key of the xylophone.

For now, I've stuck with a piano and will consider it for the next prototype. With the piano idea, the keys go down similarly to a real piano, which is a physical indicator that a key has been pressed for users. This is what a big part of my "xylophone" idea was causing me to think too closely about the instrument and trying to make it work, rather than finding an instrument that worked for visually impaired people, and making that work with my prototype.

This week from Monday to Friday, every afternoon, our group go to the library to cooperate for several hours. We brought all the things we were doing to the school and then formed them into a prototype. In the process, we encountered some difficulties.

Difficulties

1. A student in our group is responsible for purchasing related equipment in the chemistry laboratory. In the past few weeks, we first linked the relevant sensors on the board in their respective homes. After we arrived at school, the first problem to be solved was how to fix various sensors on chemical experiment tools. The hardest thing to fix is the button. The four legs of the Button are very short. We used a lot of stupid and primitive methods to fix it, such as entangle the legs of the button with the wire, and then use string and tape to tie them. They all failed in the end, so we tried to find other tools in Building 78. Finally, the tutor provides us with a better button.

1. Secondly, another problem we encountered is that "Solder" is really not a good way to fix and connect wires and sensors. Sensors that have been soldered will break after about 3 days of use. In the end, we still chose the stupid way, which is to fix them with tape at the junction of the wires.

1. Another problem is that there are too many wires used in the entire device. Our improvement method is to use pull-up resistors instead of ordinary resistors in Arduino. This method can only remove some resistance, but for analog signals, this method is not good. At the beginning, after we used the PULLUP resistor, we removed all the resistors，and connected the sensors of digital signals and analog signals to the positive and negative electrodes, but the entire device was no longer running. Opening the monitoring window, we saw that all the printed characters are garbled. Later, we discovered that the sensors using analog signals interfered with other sensors. Therefore, we only placed resistors at the connection of the analog signal sensor. Now, the simplified circuit still has many wires, which is very ugly.

1. We currently use the tilt switch to control the delete function of the test tube and beaker. Because the serial port on the board is not enough, we hope to reduce the number of sensors. In our design, we have a playback function, this function requires the use of 6 vibration sensors. We tried to use the tilt switch to control two variables, one is to let the tilt switch use "1" and "0" to control whether to delete the sound. Another variable is that within 3 seconds, the tilt switch count is above 20 so that the sound is played.

Mixing section

Regarding the mixing section, this section has three functions, one is to accept the sound stored in the test tube and jar, the other is to play the mixing, and the third is to delete the mixing. According to the experience of chemical experiments, people usually use pouring method to pour liquid from test tubes and jars into flasks. Therefore, I decided to use the tilt switch to detect the placement direction of the test tube and jar. When the direction changes, the tilt switch can be triggered. The way to use the flask is usually shaking, so I plan to buy a sensor to detect shaking. During the purchase of the flask, I saw the flask on the product poster and mistakenly thought that the actual kit also contained a flask, but when I opened the product, I found that there was only one beaker. Since I did n’t have enough time to buy the flask, in this demo, I replaced the flask with a beaker.

It was originally planned that in the entire device, all delete functions will be triggered by the button, but in actual production, because the four feet of the button is very short and cannot be well fixed on the beaker, I considered two other methods for the delete function. Method 1: Make a trash can, install an infrared distance detection sensor on the trash can, and delete the sound in the beaker when it detects the beaker approaching. The second method is to use a tilt switch. The tilt switch in the beaker controls two variables, one is the shaking trigger mixing function, and the other is the dump trigger deleting function.