So this week I have been attempting to figure out how to match my poses from an image already uploaded. Currently, my approach is getting all the x,y positions of the keypoints (lefteye etc) and placing these into an array. I am also doing the same for the poses. To try and match these poses I am trying an approach that was inspired by Google's move mirror in which they try to match poses with GIFs.

To do this, one matching method they used is cosine similarity. This measure of similarity is between two vectors: basically, it measures the angle between them and returns -1 if they’re exactly opposite, 1 if they’re exactly the same. Importantly, it’s a measure of orientation and not magnitude.

Currently, I am still struggling with getting this to work due to the fact that the package I'm using to compute the similarity is having a bit of trouble to determine. Further down the track I will continue to work on this

To reflect on this week's progress, I probably should have tried this cosine similarity method earlier as I had found it earlier but just brushed it off because I thought it was too difficult. I realised that this was wrong and I should have probably tried to implement this earlier and if I got it incorrect I could have more time to try and get it right. Furthermore, I could have also asked my team members about what they have found so then if there was an easier method, I could try to implement it. To rectify these changes, I will try to make myself more available to team members and I will try to try new things earlier.

Heyo,

As mentioned in the last blog, I conducted a survey to gather some further insights into my individual direction. The questions in survey revolves around exploring what the tester thinks about the current concept, how it may be different to their mental models and if given chance what would they change about it. The survey can be found here.

Responses and changes -

Through the testing, it was revealed that the interactions themselves are sassy and makes sense to testers but further improvements can be made. The testers suggested some reactions when the robot is stopped. This reaction can be verbal or some other minor retaliation. When asked for ways to stop user from stopping robot further, testers suggested that robot plays by rules of user and later retaliate. This lines up straight with our idea of the robot gaining control over user's devices in order to retaliate more. When asked for features to include, the response was for inculsion of interactions that made the robot happier. Based on the summary above, few changes were made to concept and interactions -

• Addition of reactions when robot is stopped (These reactions would come under my team mates focus, such as the robot screaming would be handled by Ben).
• The robot plays nice and doesn't sass in verbal ways, when it is stopped. It rather stops the TV or controls TV and doesn't express it. Not expressing helps robot from being stopped again.
• One more interaction would be included that makes the robot happier. This gives user the chance to apologise to the robot.

A reflection on ideal finished product -

In the previous entry, I said the ideal finished product is similar to what I'm developing. Looking back at it, there a few things I would have included. I left the part where robot has reactions. If I had more time, I would have liked to see reactions from the robot, such as yelling if its ear is pulled or going around in circles if its view is blocked. As of now there is not much I can do to make them work.

Work Done & How it Relates

Today I attempted to create ProtoPutty again... This time I used water and dishwashing liquid in substitute for cornstarch and it went a lot better! Being able to gather and pull apart the silicone in the water made it a lot smoother and I was able to remove the stickiness faster. I was then able to mould it onto something (this time I chose a bowl) and create something more from it. The end result was quite soft and probably not thick and strong enough to place another bowl on top and hold together to form a hollow bowl. Whenever experimenting with new materials, it's always going to be a matter of trial and error. I've been given a few more suggestions by the teaching team that I want to explore and see if it will be more suitable for my design. I have put a lot of focus on the physical form over the past week and have been trying to ensure I have the right material so that I can source it in time if not. After hearing everyone's report back in the studio today, I feel like I really should start investing my time in the technology aspect to my prototype. Lorna also suggested that we should watch movies such as WALL·E to get a feel for how they portray non-speaking objects with a big emotional part.

My attempt #2 at ProtoPutty

I also had more of a play around with Arduino and what I can do with the sensors I have. I have tried to play around more with sensors that I would use in my project but I still have a few more to explore. I mainly played around with tutorials but I would also like to explore the sensors themselves and understand the workings behind them to then grasp their potential for my project.

Playing around with Arduino and the RGB lights.

Over the last week I have also been conducting some research related to my concept and what I will be trying to achieve with such. My research on feedback in digital technology showed that some important characteristics to have were feedback sign, comparison, tailoring, modality, frequency, timing and duration. The aim is to alter the user's habits by presenting them with behavioural feedback. I have planned to incorporate this into my project where the user will receive specific feedback relative to which energy consumption habit they are in breach of. In regards to energy use in the home, one of the papers I read stated that in needed to be in everyday life, attractive, interesting and accessible to all household members to create discussion between different members about their consumption. This also fits in with the project theme requirement of being a novel, playful interaction.

Work to Do

I still need to break work on implementing the technology aspects in my project (focusing on the temperature and light sensors for the meantime) and then finding a solution for my form. I would like to have this completed soon so that I can complete user testing after and alter the results accordingly.

Work that Inspired/Interested Me

I started to really struggle for inspiration on my form and what materials to use. I was getting frustrated and started to even look for a snowman that I could buy and use as my form instead of building it like I was planning. Upon a little trip on Pinterest, I found some really cool and creative ways that people have made snowmen with stuff they have around the house. As a lot of people don't get snow in their area, people have posted their own snowmen and it gave me more inspiration to easy at-home ways that I can build my device if I cannot achieve what I envisioned.

Reflaction & Feedback

• How to release pressure

The vast majority of comments made this suggestion, so we focused on this aspect. Indeed, in our design, hitting items were selected for pressure relief. Based on our initial research, this may be suitable for some people. But in the comments we received, we also found more suggestions, such as touching virtual animals or meditation, which are some more peaceful ways to relieve stress. We discussed the current design principles in detail, and according to the suggestions received, there are indeed some violent factors in our plan, which may not be healthy for our target group. After discussion, we hope to find a healthy way to relieve stress. In the comments, we found suggestions for exercise to relieve stress. We quickly adopted this suggestion. First of all, sports are more suitable for our current ideas. Then, in the initial survey literature, we also found effective evidence that exercise can relieve stress. Therefore, we decided to change the direction to exercise to release pressure. In the next plan, we will conduct more investigations in terms of exercise to relieve stress.

• Positive and negative pressure

This is a very worthwhile point of view. For different people, the stress in life may bring positive or negative effects, which may be related to everyone's feelings about stress. In our design, our target group is the pressure group. Such a statement may not be comprehensive. Our design should be based on user needs. Therefore, the concept should be aimed at people who are stressed and uncomfortable with current stress and need to relieve stress. As mentioned in the comments, stress has positive effects, but in our concept, we should focus more on the negative effects of stress and help those who are facing the negative effects of stress to relieve stress.

Team discussion

In Tuesday class, we report back on what everyone had done and any concerns. Everyone was answering the same question that they had done last week in the report.

After that, we have a team meeting, according to the feedback we have a new idea for our concept. We will remove the idea of the theme of environmental protection and create a new movement method for decompression. We think that this can highlight the idea of decompression rather than environmental protection. If there are too many themes, our work will feel messy.

Individual part

Next week

Determine the preliminary prototype

❖ Make a survey of preferred exercise method

❖ Evaluate the survey

❖ Design preliminary prototype

This Week

This week I worked on constructing my prototype and getting the key user interactions in place.

I first began working on getting the two lights working - red and green (bad and good). I used the serial logger, to log the temperatures so I could see when the temperature would change and then anticipate a colour change in LEDs. This allowed me to do some extensive testing on an appropriate temperature range for my prototype so I can test other features. I decided to hard code the WeatherApp temperature, as I have not had a proper chance to look into working the API and merging that with my Arduino. I used the temperature sensor supplied through the Arduino kit and it worked well to capture the approximate temperature in the room. I still need to figure out where and how I am going to attach the temperature sensor to my actual prototype so it is hidden. By doing this it may also affect the temperature reading and accuracy of data.

Later on, I started work on touch sensitivity. This interaction on the prototype forms part of the "playful - annoying" feature. Once the light turns red and stays red, the users have to try and figure out why it is red. BY touch all the hexagon panel the red light can be switch off and hopefully by then, they have fixed the place in the house that is not being energy efficient. Along with the touch, I also want my Arduino to say some phrases as well to add to the annoyingness. LIke when the user is touch the panels, Emily can say "go close the door" or "turn the air-con off"... something sassy to make the user thing about their actions.

I began testing the capacitive touch with a coin (conductive). Later I found the sensitivity of the coin was not enough and I needed more. As you can see in the images below, I tried 4 different types of materials attached to alfoil to test the sensitivity and which one worked the best. The red foam worked the best as it provided the right amount of pressure for someone trying to touch the hexagon and switch off a light. Once the prototype develops further the touch sensitivity will need to be looked at again.

I also managed to change the two LED lights to a strip light. This is a shorter version compared to the one I will be using in the hexagons as I am still waiting on some parts for my own strip lights.

Next Steps

Next, I need to start doing some pre-lim testing to gain a better perspective on how my prototype is going and what I can do to modify it. I also need to work out how I will mount this to a wall and have people interact with it that way. I will also start to record some voice clips for Emily to say when the house is not being Energy efficient. This forms part of the negative reinforcement.

The Helping Hand

This concept is a physical robotic hand that moves and creates gestures physically to interact with people around it. A User would wear or hold the hand near them, as a communication device to interpret to the people around them if they want to talk or not. To put it simply, if the user wishes to be left alone or not talk to others, then the hand will be rude or make dismissive gestures, to try and get people to leave its user alone. Alternatively, if the user is happy to be approached, the hand will be friendly, giving thumbs up or beckoning others over to the user.

The hand reacts in the way the user sets it, being friendly or hostile but the hand will react to how these people approach it, rather than simply waving or flipping the bird, gestures will be made depending on how these people approach, with the end goal of interacting with their facial expressions, speed and even what they say, mocking them or reacting accordingly.

This week I have finalized the individual concept after team discussion and consult the tutor’s advice. In the team discussion, we reviewed the three options of the team project. Due to the reason that one of our teammate come up with an idea that he wants to separate the work and create a game that can help students release stress as a team project. However, after discussion and consult the tutors about three options, we find that the options one is hard to achieve in this special period. We finally decide to choose option two, we share the same domain, the target user group, and one element that effective to destress that is the sport. We will develop a different prototype to help university students to release their stress and the sports is one way that can help to destress will be involved in all individual prototypes.

My individual concept is that an electronic device that sits on the desk which can detect student's stress levels and can help them destress when the stress has been detected. It will attract the user’s attention when the stress is detected by emitting sound and light. To snooze it, the user can drink water (a cup connect with the device) when the first warning comes. The other way to stop it can be to work in any warning time, which is that the user needs to play with it for a while. After the user plays it for a while, it will encourage the user to go back to study. Base on the tutor’s suggestion that a couple of different approaches for stress relief should be offered, I read more websites to find activities of destressing. I find that candy, yoga, sport, herbal tea, bright light, soft music, deep breath, nature, life, and study plan are useful in destress (Jennings, 2018) (Liu & Qu, 2017) (Melnick, 2017). Then, I come up with two designs that show in the picture below.

The one on the front part of the picture shows a digital calendar that has digital screen, stress light, boxes, and cup in the main part that sitting on the table. It links gloves (GSR), basket, and yoga blanket. The student needs to wear gloves when they study for detecting their stress. The calendar will record the user’s study plan (show weekly plan on the screen) and life plan and will warning students what they want to have warning by voice output, and will warn them to drink water, eat lunch, go to sleep and get up. The screen of the calendar will change when the stress is detected. It will show different things when the user does exercise. For example, it will show pictures of nature when people do deep breathing and will show a yoga tutorial video when the user does yoga. When the stress is detected, the stress light will shine and twinkling and soft music will be played. Users can stop it by drinking water for the first time. On the second time, the user needs to do activities to stop it. Some activities can be chosen that are deep breathing (detected by lavalier microphone), yoga, and shooting a basket. To encourage the user to do the activities, the box that contains candy (must have some chewing gum) and chocolate will be opened when the user finished the task. Sweet, soft music and herbal tea are helpful in destress.

The other concept (the bottom of the picture) is a simple device that combines with a box with a ball and a cup. It links gloves and a lavalier microphone as well. It can warn student’s drink water as well. When the stress is detected, the box will twink and the soft music will be played. Users can snooze it buy drinking water at the first warning time and can stop it by doing the activity as well. Users can choose to do deep breathing or throw the ball for a while to stop it. When the user does the deep breathing the light twinkling rate will decrease, finally, the light and the music will be turned off. The light effect change is the same when the user throws the ball.

References

Jennings, K. (2018). 16 Simple Ways to Relieve Stress and Anxiety. Retrieved 27 April 2020, from https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/16-ways-relieve-stress-anxiety#TOCTITLEHDR_3

Liu, C., & Qu, M. (2017). 10 ways to rlease pressure, one minute effective, let's try！. Retrieved 30 March 2020, from https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2017/04/20/a1321182.html

Melnick, M. (2017). HuffPost is now a part of Verizon Media. Retrieved 27 April 2020, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/stress-relief-that-worksn3842511

The Interview and Re-design (Improvement) concept

We prepare some normal question and deeper Q for three people (two office worker and one home worker).

This is the three complete feedback we collected.

Depend on feedback and consider more ideas.

Annoy:

The type of annoy that vibrates or is physically stimulated

1. First is annoy
2. Second, reminders
3. Third, help massage

Multi-person interaction:

1. for the time being, we want to connect people who have been sitting for about an hour. We can consider putting the first game in. For example, one person's patch will light up, and one person will pass it to another person at random after shooting.

a) But the significance of the post is gone - > because it makes people feel tired to concentrate - > the purpose is to make people do activities - > it is not reflected

1. Foot ring, but we don't add this kind of action to slap first - > stick the patch on the thigh and calf - > it can be based on the user's motion frequency or action amplitude - > timing - > over time - > the patch generates vibration - > the value reaches 100% - > the user gets up - > the patch reduces the percentage according to the action amplitude - > the greater the action amplitude, the faster, The faster the percentage drops - > the value can be lowered slowly if you walk normally - > the faster the percentage drops if you exercise violently

1. Install a sensor. If the same equipment is found within 10m, the vibration level will be doubled.
2. PK model

1. Everyone's stickers are taken when the company comes in and then pasted on their bodies. After a while, they will randomly select 2, 3 or more people, and then their stickers will light up, and then they will go to find the people who light up
2. If No.1 can be displayed on the patch to find No.2, No.1 will be displayed on the patch to do push-ups or raise legs for 30 seconds, then No.2 will watch No.1 and take a picture of his patch No.1 to unlock it
3. You can set the movement direction when you get this patch. There are up, down, left and right four action instructions. For example, user B clicks up, down, up, right, and then use a paste on his arm after setting. When touching user B with user A, the movement requirements set by B user will be read when unlocking. Then a should swing his arms up, down, up, right, and then finish

Next plan

Do the Physical Product as soon as possible and find the material.

Entry

What is my concept / individual focus / individual responsibility for the project? Include a text-based description and imagery to support (sketches, photos etc).

The concept is Four Strip Patches, which are targeted to people who have long-time sitting at home. This concept addresses the negative effects caused by the sedentary behaviour by providing a visual and playful indication, which aims to increase the user’s awareness of long-time sitting and reduce the sitting time by encourage the user to do light activities. They are four patches (8cm * 2.5cm) with display areas (fiber optic material) on the front and attachable material on the back (figure 2.1). The user is able to attach them anywhere on the clothes and remove them from the clothes, which aims to provide a more flexible and personalized way to wear the devices (figure 2.2). Moreover, they are easily accessible and portable so they can be used in different environments and places.

The patches start to count the time once the user sits down with patches on his/her clothes. The time is expressed as a percentage on the display areas, such as 0% at the start. Also, as an additional reminder, the display areas will gradually illuminate over time (figure 2.3). Patches begin to bleep constantly when the percentage of the time reaches up to 100% (55 minutes).

Based on the distance between each patch, after that, one of two interactive games below will be activated.

Case 1: When patches are close to each other (figure2.4).

It is similar to the game of Whac-A-Mole (figure 2.5). A patch is randomly selected by the system, and the lighting on this patch starts to appear for 0.2 seconds. Then, it is fully off and another patch will be selected. It is repeated until the game is over. The user is required to slap the patch, and the game is over when the user can successfully slap the patches for 20 times.

Case 2: When patches are far away from each other (figure 2.6).

The user is required to move/shake the body parts that have patches on the clothes constantly, and the percentage of the sitting time will be reduced gradually. For example, if the user sticks patches on the sleeves, then the user needs to shake his/her arms constantly until the number turns back to 0 (figure 2.7).

In order explore the problem space in different directions, reducing sedentary behaviours in office (public space) is focused as my design direction.

What is the ideal finished product? (not what you think you can implement, achieve, but what you would like to be if you had all the resources/skills you need?)

This question will be answered in the following part.

Individual work done & relate back

this week, online interviews were held in order to answer the questions identified in the previous report, such as how target audience think about the concept in terms of wearable technology, playful elements, and annoying features, their requirement and needs in terms of reducing the sedentary behaviours in office, the impacts of their characteristics on reducing long-time sitting in office, and explore the things in office that can be used in our concept. Five interviewees were invited. They are our friends and they are also work in office. The interview session were held via Zoom.

There are a number of key findings:

1. Introverted interviewees are more likely to be affected by the office environment, such as the colleagues around them, whether they can be easily seen by them, and whether the playful interactions can disturb them. Based on what we got so far, I think it highly affects the performance of the concept. So, it is necessary to consider the potential solutions to address them.
2. The concept involves some annoying features, such as the Beep sound that occurs after the user seat for long time, shaking arms/foot. However, introverted interviewees said they might disturb other colleagues so they could not accept these features. Especially for the Beep feature, although it is designed for creating annoying feature to users so that they can follow the guidance, some of them said they sometimes are quite busy and they are not able to follow it. For instance, a discussion session might be lasted for 2 hours. So, these features might need to be reconsidered.
3. Two interviewees reported that they just want to relax such as simple stretch when they have seated for long time, and the playful interactions might make them much more tired rather than relax. However, other participants gave a positive feedback to the interactions. So, we might need to further discuss about this feature within the team. On the other hand, a participant gave us a really good suggestion that users might feel bored after they interact with it for long time since the mode is not various enough. It would be much more better if it has enriched interactions and personalized interactions. Such as users are able to adjust, change, or even make the mode by themselves so that the open-ended feature could be highlighted, and users are more likely to accept it.
4. On the other hand, they also said that they don't want to spent too much time on the interactions since they might be busy. A more easy and not time-consumed interaction might be needed.
5. Summary and other requirements for the features: work efficiency, reminder, ease of use, supportive environments.

Possible requirements/strategies:

• Involving multiple users to engage in the playful interactions.
• Change the Beep.
• Focusing on relaxing.
• Would not affect other features including the wearable tech.
• Maintain work efficiency.

Current improved concept based on these information:

The improved concept is mainly based on the previous concept, and three features would be changed. Firstly, the number of strips is reduced to two from four. Secondly, it involves multiple users to interact with each other, and the annoying feature ‘Beep’ is also changed. Specifically, when multiple users are sitted for long periods, such as one hour, their strips will start shocking and light up with the same colour. They can only unlock the strips by touching other people’s strips with their own strips, which means they need to walk around and search the colleagues who have the same colour. Moreover, when they are getting closer to each other, the light will flash more strongly. It aims to guide users to find each other rather than walking around and wasting time. Furthermore, the playful interaction is changed. In the previous concept, it has two modes based on the distance between strips; however, they might make users much more tired rather than taking rest. So, a new playful interaction is implemented. Specifically, it is similar to the first mode, but multiple users are involved. After the strips are unlocked, a simply interactive game that aims to stretch body is activated among them. One of strips among these users will be lighted. The user who owns the strip needs to touch it, then the ‘light’ will move to another user’s one of strips, and so on. The game will be finished after few rounds.

The ideal finished product would be, firstly, a wearable strip with main functions can be built up rather than multiple components that implement different functions. Also, the strip’s appearance should be well enough. I mean there is no circuit or cables showing out of the strip. So, it reaches a basic level of aesthetics. In addition, users are able to interact with it without confusion, which means the overall operation and interaction are acceptable and easy to learn and use.

Next step

Explore a design principle, and implement it in the concept. In order to systematically and scientifically develop the concept/product, it is necessary to implement design principles. Since it is designed for everyday life with playful and open-ended interactions, which means it might involve a series of interaction process. For instance, how the user encounters, explores, discovers, and adjusts it. So, it is important to ensure the user is able to interact with it without confusion. Additional academic research is needed to discover which principle is suitable for the concept. The retrieval range can be the study of design cases in which an interactive, and open-ended playful environment.

Concept

My concept is to make a wearable device to help the user perform breathing training during jogging to enhance the exercise effect. As mentioned in my last journal, the current desktop research has pointed out that breathing training during exercise is helpful for wellbeing, and users also said that they have tried breathing training and felt effective, but they will have difficulties in the early stages of training. Therefore, I specified the target users as those who have just begun to try jogging breathing training.

The input of the device uses a microphone, and the output of the device takes into account the user's listening habits during jogging, so visual feedback is preferred. Therefore, the ideal design of this device will be a glasses-like device with a microphone.

Ideal product

The preliminary ideal design is shown in the figure. It will use a microphone to detect breathing, and an accelerometer to detect cadence to help determine the breathing frequency. A small display is set in the upper left corner of the glasses to remind the user of the current situation. There will be a beating ring and a fixed ring in the display. When it enters the inner ring, it will prompt the user to exhale and leave the inner ring to inhale. Users will get feedback if they deviate from the recommended frequency. The ideal design is that it should be a smart device that can synchronize data with the mobile phone as the record of exercise. But still, there will be two buttons on the glass legs, including start/stop button and a reset button, allowing users to quickly control.

Individual work done

Project:

Miro：

In Miro's first "look for ways of seeing," I chose YouTube video to watch the source of railway station passengers. Because it can collect experience results rarely seen in normal life. The other interesting way I see it in other people's works is through social media. With the increasing of modern social platform, it has become the most important mainstream resource in life. This activity showed me some interesting and novel research directions and methods.

Work：

We discussed that our project is divided into two design directions, which is the home-worker and office worker perspective. To enhance people's attitude towards sedentary behaviour and reduce their sedentary behaviour in public places such as the office is our team concept and my key point to focus on research and discussion. First of all, sedentary behaviour can be divided into different times according to different behaviours and different places. Our team concept is to explore long-term sedentary issues in this area. The team concept is a large-scale extension and research, which may not be efficient for the future development direction. However, the direction of design is to extend the scope in more detail. The aim is to further explore how public spaces such as workplaces can change or influence sedentary behaviour, then reconceptualize and uncover problems in this area.

second work:

The second activity is ‘Breaking down a project’. Each team works on its own Miro board to further break down and elaborate on each section of the project. But we just drew down on the paper which is easy to edit.

The direction and focus of exploration in our team concept is to prevent sedentary behaviour for the public, such as sedentary workers because sedentary behaviour will cbehaviourting damage to body sedentary workerstion, sedentary will behaviour the prevalence of a large numbersedentarys. That change people' behaviours towards sedentary needs to enhance their cognition of sedentary, change people's habits and change their using methods in daily life. My aim is in the same direction and focuses on the same domain. The new concept is completely related to team domain. My direction can use their physical environment with technology to combine playful elements and open interaction, which can be effective for the public. The key point is that it is easy to use on frequent action, which can make it easy to approach the body and be more attractive.

I'll keep my thoughts for a while, and then focus on this wearable device because, in a typical sitting intensive office work, it will make users aware of the immovable period. It is well known that sitting for a long time can harm health. The next step is to further study the target audience. The work in the team's report reveals only key aspects of changing behaviour, but it still lacks the needs of the public. Also, these data are very important for the design of plans.

Also, my direction meets the requirements of wearable devices, because wearable technology is the most important part of our concept. Also, high portability can remind users in time and then change their habits to the greatest extent. The purpose of sedentary conduct a complete type of behaviour self-monitoring and goal management. Thereafter, my direction also meets behaviour elements of wearable devices, because wearable technology is the most important part of our concept. And, high portability can remind users in time and then change their habits to the greatest extent. The purpose is to conduct a complete type of behaviour self-monitoring and goal management.

External Resource

The design process of the shirt followed a clothing design process. To identify design space, we started by sketching different scenarios for the garment and narrowed down the user group, i.e. office workers who were more likely to have a sedentary lifestyle. The target user for the prototype shirt was chosen to be a female, which influenced the style of the design. Furthermore, we selected a blouse as the platform for the ambient display, since it is not obscured when sitting, and their design traditionally involves patterns and fabric manipulations. To brainstorm the style of the garment, we also created a mood board of well-fitting, attractive outfits, and concluded to a conservative but stylish, casual business outlook. Additionally, we made a storyboard which outlined a normal office working day in the wearer’s life. The Idle Stripes shirt promotes healthy working, encouraging the wearer to break up their office desk work with walking breaks. The design prototype is constructed of a fabric with integrated optical fibers, which are illuminated based on the sitting time detected by an app running on the wearer’s mobile phone.

Reflections

The Proposal of our team and the independent part of each team member have been successfully submitted this week. In the studio, we mainly researched and discussed alternative methods for further observation and interviews. There are many alternative ways for us in class, and then we choose to explore its pros and cons. I chose online video interviews and online questionnaires. Because we have identified our target users as students, we have the most contacts with participants who are similar to our status and status, so that we can easily find participants and get better data. But we still need to discuss the questions and format of our interview.

Plan for next week

The next week is Mid-break. I will use this week to make a good adjustment, because I feel that my recent state is not very good. I need to make an adjustment to meet the intense learning that has ended. I might go fishing, watch movies, read books and relax, not today, I will also learn Arduino during this holiday, and I have found tutorials on the Internet. Perhaps my direction of learning will focus on speed sensors and vibration feedback. Hope this is a pleasant holiday.

Reflections

During this week, our group encountered some changes, and one of the group members withdrew from our group, which made every member of us feel stressed. After discussing our situation with Lorna, our group was combined with another group that had the same situation as us, so that our group had a total of five members.

After the combination of the new group, we first carried out mutual familiarization of the group members. Each person introduced their respective areas of expertise and what contributions they could make to the group. Secondly, because of the recombination of the two groups, we all came to the group with different concepts, and we spent a lot of time to unify the concepts.

After this week's contact, we had a systematic discussion on the concept, and then we created a zoom room to invite Lorna to provide valuable ideas for our concept. Because we have directly discussed a new concept, and despite the relevant background and theoretical support, there is still a lot of preliminary research. The opinion we obtained from Lorna is that we need to re-discuss our target audience and problem area. , From the beginning to sort out, this can make our next research more directional, rather than based on imagination out of thin air.

Concept

After receiving constructive suggestions, our team members conducted a division of labor research. We reintegrated our two concepts after reorganization and re-evaluated the contents of the two concepts, focusing on the target audience and problem areas of the concept. Conduct detailed research and discussion. Combined with a series of research and analysis, we chose our problem domain to relieve people's daily pressure through exercise, and combined with various considerations, we selected our target user as a student group.

At the end of the week, we sorted out the outline of Proposal and assigned corresponding work to each member. Then we started to write Proposal.

Plan for next week

The arrangement for next week is to first complete the team's Proposal, and then submit it after integration and correction. I finally received the Arduino kit this week. I ’m finding resources on the Internet to learn it. Then this week I will find a concept to start designing and start making it.

After discussion with my teammates, we decided to use prototype our concept using augmented reality for the greatest accuracy and capabilities to the original concept possible. We intend to use Vuforia, which i had never heard of before today. As such, I had to spend this week reading up on Vuforia and what it can do, as well as starting to install the SDK and exploring and geting used to it. I will definitely be seeking some help from the tutors in the workshops this coming week. We mainly chose this due to the easy access it allows us to have since it only needs a mobile phone, not anything else since we do not have access to the labs or other equipment. The phone also allows it to be easily tested in the current pandemic. My teammates have conducted user testing, while I am still focusing on adapting it for team gameplay.

The concept I am working on is that of a pong game that works with the entire household as a team competing against another household. The gameplay for this remains largely similar to that of my teammates, the difference being mainly in setting up the game as well as a different scoring system, since different households could have different numbers of people in ut, and limiting the competitors to only those with the same number of people would severely handicap the usability of the game. Further imagery and diagrams to follow as it is made.

While we are only capable of producing an augmented reality prototype, We would love for the ideal finished product to be a cohesive system with smart walls imbued with sensors as well as displaying the ball, as well as bouncing seamlessly and realistically between each person. It would have the sensitivity and flexibility required where the different cleaning tools that are used would all be compatible with the sensors, regardless of type or texture, without any complicated modifications needed.

This week was largely spent researching possible methods to build the prototype, given that the projector idea would no longer work. Researching possible sensor options that could be used. Filtering through all the sensors they had, I narrowed it down to these options and researched it further into the technical capabilities of each and how compatible they would be.

• Hand Gesture Sensor Module for Arduino https://www.jaycar.com.au/hand-gesture-sensor-module-for-arduino/p/XC3742
• Arduino Compatible IR Obstacle Avoidance Sensor Module https://www.jaycar.com.au/arduino-compatible-ir-obstacle-avoidance-sensor-module/p/XC4524
• Motion Sensor LED Light with Solar Charging https://www.jaycar.com.au/motion-sensor-led-light-with-solar-charging/p/SL3503

Some of these would mean a lack of sensitivity in gameplay, where any sweeping gesture would have to work and have it assumed that that would hit the ball and make it bounce, where it could work, would also mean that it would be almost impossible to not score and have no difficulty included since no precision is required to hit the ball. I decided to look further as this would not be good enough.

Other additional work I did alongside this was to go through what The work i did last year for Digital Prototyping (DECO2300) to refresh my memory as well as explore how the sensors could be swapped out for the other potential sensors

My concept is an electronic xylophone connected to a digital interface.

Each key numbered 0-9 has a distinct colour and tune, with each numerical operator also having a unique musical tune. All audio also includes a reading of the name of the element as well (e.g. “one”). Each key has (non-conductive) braille of the numerical value, allowing the user to feel what number they are about to touch. There are two modes of the interface - ask, and answer. Users can either ask for the answer of specific equations, or play a game-like format where they can practise answering basic mathematical equations. Audio will be outputted through the computer, and the music aims to enhance the memory of the user, while making an enjoyable and auditory experience for those with visual impairment, in something that is rather visual.

Our team focus is looking at musically-enhanced learning, and my individual approach is for visually impaired children. I’ve considered taking a simple approach, since it’s been difficult enough to source children at all in our current situation, however sometimes the easiest ways to go isn’t the best way to go, and it’d go against my goal of wanting to provide a better and more inclusive learning experience for visually impaired children. We’re all responsible for building our individual projects, which you would hopefully find in the same classroom.

I’ve still been struggling with self discipline and motivation, but I watched a Simone Giertz video and got to work on OneNote to figure out my sensors and the actual build. She created a “proud parent machine” using items she found around her workshop (which has many more items and tools than my minimally furnished apartment). She used the arm of an old lamp as the arm of her “proud parent” and used a motor to move it in such a way that resembled a parent patting her on the shoulder. She’s a great source of inspiration for me, with her interesting projects, and her interesting approaches to accomplishing them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1B3gATS0GE

In my scribbles, I looked at what materials I would make my xylophone keys with - colour is an important factor, so I wanted to make sure my keys were colourful, however i don’t have many colourful conductive materials, so for now I’ve chosen to settle on giving the key a coloured outline, drawing inspiration from the electric field touchpad. I brainstormed a few different materials for the braille - carboard was the easiest, but I remembered I had clay and thought that could be an interesting approach. However, it is rather delicate and it gets shockingly messy - I also have a tendency to get sidetracked and make random objects out of the clay - like these ducks I made once upon a time.

I also had a look at some other materials, and I’m yet to settle on just one. It doesn’t need to be conductive, but I want to make sure it’s easy to handle, move, and work with other components to really ease the process. Planning is essential in ensuring no tedious processes are required further down the line for things I hadn’t carefully considered.

In our workshop, our tutors also helped us sort out what technology we may need. I have a number of options - from the electric field Lorna posted in slack, or modular touch and pressure sensors, and simple capacitive touch that I set up in DECO2300. In my OneNote scribbles, I wrote down any concerns, any ideas that popped up into my head, and again, any concerns about those ideas. I’d discussed with my team about our approaches, and how each of us may need to create just the simplest version of our prototype, thus I thought that maybe I’d begin with a single key of the xylophone, and hopefully go up to a 4-key xylophone, and gradually to a 10-key xylophone like my original plan, if all goes well. This straightforward approach also makes starting it a bit less scary, since I’m not overwhelming myself with incredibly high expectations, which I’m unlikely to achieve in my current circumstances - physically and mentally (and also a bit financially).

If I had the materials and time I would create a piece that could be used without the connection of a computer; this means it would have a physical interface, and be a portable device children can move around the classroom, with the internal components soldered in. I would also explore having the xylophone interactive either with touch or with a physical object (similarly to a real xylophone/glockenspiel). I really looked forward to using the physical workshops at uni, so if I had access to there, I would really go off with creating a metal glockenspiel or wooden xylophone that’s been carefully crafted, and a large piece of work that isn’t just limited to a single key, like my current stage of the prototype. Currently, I’m a bit scared to venture into the unknown since I could hit a dead end where materials aren’t accessible, but I’m also worried about that restricting me, which is why I’m currently working with what I have and what I know.

What is your concept / individual focus / individual responsibility for the project? Include a text-based description and imagery to support (sketches, photos etc).

Our concept has three main functions, they are recording, playback, and mixing. My main responsibility is the mixing code, interactive functions, and the design of the mixing device. When the user shakes the flask, the mixing will start. The sound will be played during the shaking process. The hardware of the entire mixing section will be installed in a flask.

I am mainly responsible for the mixing function, which includes additional functions for making mixing, technical implementation of mixing, the operation method of mixing, the interaction between the user and the mixing device (flask) as well as the visual and auditory effects during the mixing process.

What is the ideal finished product? (not what you think you can implement, achieve, but what you would like to be if you had all the resources/skills you need?)

First of all, users use a dropper to absorb their favorite sound. When the sound is saved in the dropper, the dropper will emit a bright light. Then, the user transmits the sound from the dropper into the test tube. When the sound from the dropper is received in the test tube, the test tube will emit light. Only one sound can be kept in each test tube. Finally, the user can select more than two test tubes, pass the sound from the test tube to the flask, shake the flask, multiple sounds will be mixed, and a smoke signal will be emitted when the mixing is successful, and different lights will be lit inside the flask light. In addition, we have added jars, which are similar in function to test tubes. But it is used to store daily sounds, which are recorded by users themselves. The main melody is stored in the jars, they are light music, piano music and so on. The flask can only transfer music from one jar at a time, but it can transfer music from multiple test tubes.

On Monday of this week

I focused on the part of mixing sounds. I have learned how to use a mixing music software before. In the beginning, I hoped to be able to write some code and use the code to control the playback keys and mixing keys in the music software, but I checked a lot of information and found that this method is not feasible. Then I hope to find a simpler music software, and find the code related to this music software, hoping to use the sensor to control the keys in the code by changing the source code. This is the music software and code I found. However, this code is too complicated because music software has too many functions. After reading its code for a long time, I decided to give up this method.

http://the-synister.github.io/

https://github.com/the-synister/the-source

YouTube Video link：https://youtu.be/2gIWWTVIps?list=PLYWFpgV3xQfIc1QMMu0vjfDmzUabY9vU）

After this, I came up with another way to do mixing, which is to play multiple music files at the same time. I hope the first step is to be able to play multiple music files at the same time so that it sounds like a mix. So, I first studied how to play a music file. Method 1: Use speaker module https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/gadgetprogrammers/diy-auto-voice-record-and-playback-7a47d7

Method two, use the DFMini Player MP3 module

https://www.dfrobot.com/blog-1462.html

https://code.google.com/archive/ ... tation.wiki#WARNING

http://www.mp3tag.de/en/ it can export the tracks in the directory and rename the mp3.

on Tuesday

One group number who responsible for the recording function said that she encountered difficulties and need my help. So, from Tuesday afternoon, I started to study the recording function. Because the team member said that the relevant code for the recording function was not found, I decided to solve the recording problem in an unexpected way.

Method 1: I chose to start with Arduino and look for related recording modules. However, I found that the recording module can only store sound for about 10 seconds. https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/gadgetprogrammers/diy-auto-voice-record-and-playback-7a47d7

https://www.digikey.com.au/catalog/en/partgroup/electret-microphone-amplifier-max9814-with-auto-gain-control/49467

http://www.lab-z.com/phoneseat/

https://www.jianshu.com/p/2b031a7fd2e6

Then, I wanted to solve this problem about sound storage, so I found some information https://www.avrfreaks.net/forum/sound-recorder-using-microcontroller

https://www.cnblogs.com/Ray-liang/p/9786154.html

https://blog.csdn.net/holmes733850/article/details/53431518?depth1-utmsource=distribute.pcrelevant.none-task-blog-BlogCommendFromBaidu-1&utmsource=distribute.pc_relevant.none-task-blog-BlogCommendFromBaidu-1

We want to use the SD card to solve the problem of sound storage, but the new problem is how to transfer the contents of the SD card to the computer for mixing. We need to manually install the SD card on the Arduino, and then insert the SD card into the computer after recording. These operations seem complicated and stupid, and do not conform to our design.

What I did

Development Plan

What I did

My main job this week was to conduct user research. The methods that have been used include online interviews and questionnaires. In the interview, I mainly asked users about their interest in the game process and the storyline of the game. The questionnaire was more about the interest in the concept itself and how to make users like our project more. I think these feedbacks are very helpful for me to continue to improve the current game levels, and I once again feel that the substitution of the game plot has a huge impact on the user experience.

What to do next

Next, I will conduct a survey on the experience of game manipulation through online interviews and discussion groups. In addition, I hope to obtain different feedback through the investigation of experts, such as how to design the game control method to be more reasonable, how to take into account the barrier-free design, and security considerations.

In addition, I will organize my work one after another, and use these contents as the material for my video demo. In the next week, we will complete the summary of the survey results and make corresponding adjustments based on the data to develop our conceptual design.

I found that, during the mid-semester and beginning of week 7, I struggled with the prototype because I felt a bit lost and confused with what I was going to create and how to go about making some of the functionality work for the current idea. This was due to the fact that I hadn't spent enough time thinking about the overall project, what parts were the most important to focus on and get finished and if there are better ways or sensors to use to create the functionality. Fortunately, through the workshop, working on my concept mind map and spending time thinking about what I wanted to create by the next deadline, gave me a clearer understanding of what needs to be done and therefore, I felt less overwhelmed and worried that I wouldn't have any functioning part of the prototype working.

The main issue I had with the prototype was, how to get the side of the dice to light up when rolled and have sounds play that represented the number of that side. The original idea was to use push buttons; thus, requiring users to push down on the dice. Fortuitously, the tutors gave me some suggestions in the workshop on how this could be accomplished. The suggestions were to use an accelerometer with a gyroscope to determine the side facing up or use a web camera and Vuforia to determine the number rolled by using icons/images to represent each side. These ways are far more interesting to explore and make building the prototype easier as I could leave the dice being a solid object that didn’t need to be pushed down and also fewer sensors. These suggestions have made me less overwhelmed as I feel more confident about making the prototype.

A tutor made an interesting comment about choosing the best approach as it depends on the form of the prototype and whether I want everything contained in the dice or would I be happy with having multiple parts to the prototype. Ideally, as mentioned in the previous post, I would want all the sensors contained within the dice; however, I don’t believe this will be feasible for me to make; therefore, I have explored the Vuforia method as I currently don’t have the accelerometer and gyroscope as it hasn’t been delivered and I have used Vuforia before and, thus, I am more comfortable with it.

What has been done this week including ordering the accelerometer, making a cube appear when the image target was detected in unity, using Vuforia and having a LED light turn on when the image is detected. I would have liked to achieve more this week, such as creating the dice out of balsa wood and having icons for each side of the dice; however, I plan to spend more time on this project next week.

What needs to be done for the project is to try and fix how the dice rolls, by making it easier for the user, then using balsa wood to make it. Other tasks to finish off involve coming up with questions to ask the users with the team, interview a teacher aide, record sound recordings, get multiple lights working with Unity 3D and Arduino, create icons for each dice side and build an initial foundation for the web camera and dice to fit inside of. Another task would be, to work on a way to get the led light turn on and play sounds, using an accelerometer when it is delivered. When a somewhat functioning prototype is created, then user testing will be completed.

Changes to the idea will be that buttons are no longer going to be used; therefore, the user will not have to push down on the sides.