Individual Responsibility

Based on the new design concept and the limited number of team members, I mainly focused on the appearance design of products, which included product materials and product appearance. This is directly related to the shape of the final outcome of our project. In my current explorations, we may use plastic or resin for making petals, magnets, and iron to make petals detachable to the blossom, and hollow plastic tubes for making flower rods, while leaves can be applied to plastic with a similar texture to petals, or softer cotton cloth can be used.

I hope to find the best materials that can well show the design concept and inner technical part of our team. For example, the petals will have different colors, so the material of the petals must be transparent. From this week's studio, Lorna gave me advice about using Hand-Moldable Plastic products can achieve our needs.

e.g.

Moreover, the petals are detachable, so the user needs to have a moderate suction of the magnet, to enable the user to smoothly and effortlessly pick the petals, but also to make the unpicked petals on the stamen of the stable suction.

In order for the flower to wiggle, the stem material needs to be able to support the flower firmly and bend. My current idea is to use many truncated hard plastic tubes in series, but the final solution still needs to be determined by experimental comparison.

Ideal Finished Product

If I had all the resources and skills that I need, I have the confidence to let the appearance of the LOME reach the original idea that we had maybe even more refined since it will be 3D and more detailed than the sketch.

References

Amazon.com.au : Materialix. Amazon.com.au. Retrieved 24 April 2020, from https://www.amazon.com.au/s?k=Materialix&ref=bldpsweb0.

The project is well and truly underway. We have had a few weeks over the break to play test with arduino and figure out the 'how' for our project.

So what is it we are trying to achieve?

Story line

Our idea is a robotic companion (sent from the future) to warn its family members of the troubles of technology. It seeks to see you reduce your screen time, so that it doesn't overtake your life (like technology did in the future). From a health perspective, there are links between too much time looking at TV and computers and detrimental health affects such as sore eyes, tiredness, as well as neck and back problems.

The Bat Sqwad is working together on the same project, each focusing on different aspects. My aspect is looking into how to hack into TV's and computers. In order to do this, we are going to use IR sensors. In order to control devices which aren't controlled by IR, I am going to use either the Bluetooth module HC05 or the ESP32 which is like the Arduino Uno but more powerful with built in Bluetooth and WiFi.

Work done so far

In order to get the required sensors, instead of buying my own, I repurposed a few from an old RC helicopter. RC helicopters are great, as they contain both a receiver and emitter sensor.

Pulling apart RC remote. The clear looking LED is an IR emitter. This remote had 3 in unison to connect with the helicopter. This allowed for a wide beam of data being sent unlike a straight beam sent from your TV remote

The IR emitters. I used a Gerber saw to cut them off.

The helicopter with its protective casing removed. IR receiver location. Had to fully dissemble the copter to get to the chip it was attached to.

The brains of the copter with the IR receiver. Clearer shot of the receiver - I was a bit worried because of rust.

Using this program, I was able to test the receiver by hooking it up to Arduino and aiming a remote at it. The setup was quite simple. A power line, ground and line to a pin.

These are the hex codes shown when a button is pressed. I can then use these same codes and emit them back to the TV to have the same effect. For example, the turn off button has the code 4CD0391B, I can then program an emitter to send that code back through the Arduino and hack the TV. This is the future plans.

We used Miro to explore ways in working out how to get data about things in the current climate. As we cannot go outside we need to make the most of technology to collect data.

Breaking down the project

Working out where to start

Mapping out the project

1. work out the overall mass of the project
2. identify areas of weakness / strength in your concept
3. identify missing information
4. scope the stages of the project
5. doing this as a team ensures everyone is on the same page.

What do we know about the items form?

1. size
2. shape
3. material

What do we know about the items function

1. processes (input / output)
2. storage (data storage, where, form)

Context of use

1. where in the world (eg. home - where in the home)
2. fixed space or moveable (is it designed to move)
3. can it be used in one place or many places
4. characteristics of location (busy, quiet, small, spread out)
5. who is going to use it?
6. audience characteristics (is that group of people constant)
7. is time important (use during day / night)

What we do know helps us figure out what we don't know. Setting a minimal list of requirements.

On Wednesday I attempted to play around with ProtoPutty! My little sister was very keen to join in on making a little mess and we set up an area outside to play around. It took us a while to even just open and get out the silicone but once we got it all out and working, the time was on. You only have about 10 minutes before it starts to harden so I didn't plan on taking this attempt too seriously but just seeing how it worked/failed. We added a fair bit of pink food dye and then squeezed out (what felt like) a lot of silicone. It got really messy and the cornflour seemed to help calm that but just not enough. It was sticking to the gloves and it became too hard to try to stretch out so we rolled it up into a nice ball which then formed quite nicely. It set pretty face and is just like a little bouncy ball. Even though I squeezed a lot of silicone into the bowl, we ended up with a really small product. A lot of silicone was also stuck to the gloves so we lost all that but I feel like I would need A LOT of silicone for what I was wanting to do.

After it kind of failed, I looked into other youtube videos of protoputty trying to understand other people's techniques and methods. One girl commented that it actually sticks badly to latex gloves so she took them off. She also used dish soap and water instead of cornflour which was interesting. I'm keen to try again and see how that works out as I really like the idea of using silicone to even create moulds to then create the form. It was a messy experiment but in the end it was still a bit of fun and an opportunity to get outside.

I really would like to try working with resin as well but I've heard that's also messy and hard to work with and I don't actually have any so it would take a while to order it and get it shipped. For now, my focus will still be trying again with Protoputty and seeing if any of the tips would work and then if all else fails I can work with paper mache for this prototype.

We discussed in the team report above 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 behavior and reduce their sedentary behavior in public places such as the office is our team concept and my personal key point to focus on research and discussion. First of all, sedentary behavior can be divided into different times according to different behaviors 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 behavior, then reconceptualize and uncover problems in this area.

The direction and focus of exploration in our team concept is to prevent sedentary behavior for the public, such as office workers, because sedentary behavior will cause lasting damage to body functions. In addition, sedentary will increase the prevalence of a large number of diseases. For adults, engaging in 30 minutes of moderate intensity PA on at least 5 days a week helps to prevent and manage over 20 chronic conditions, including coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, cancer, obesity, mental health problems, and musculoskeletal conditions (World Health Organization, 2010, p.10). Sedentary behavior is caused by a lack of exercise habits. That change people's attitude towards sedentary needs to enhance their cognition of sedentary, change people's habits, and change their use 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 own 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.

In addition, my direction also meets the requirements of wearable devices, because wearable technology is the most important part of our concept. In addition, 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 behavior self-monitoring and goal management. Thereafter, my direction also meets the requirements of wearable devices, because wearable technology is the most important part for 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 behavior self-monitoring and goal management.

What Is Your Concept?

Focusing on Elevators and their surrounding space to improve the dull area. I am specifically focusing on how I can make residential elevators an exciting and new space. Team CDI came up to have two or separate interactions for if the elevator has one or several people within the elevator. To add a physical factor, for the single person, the elevator gives the user an image of a human silhouette posing. To continue, the user must pose the same for the elevator to move. When theirs several people in the elevator, the elevator gives one person a charade word then the person then acts out the charade topic and the other people must guess what that user is acting out. After one person correctly guesses the charade topic, the elevator verifies and starts moving to the selected floors.

Individual Focus

Specifically, I will be focusing on how users interact with the elevator and their emotions in how they use it (if they get frustrated, happy, excited). More specifically I will be looking into how residential people access and use elevators on a day to day basis. As residents of a high rise use an elevator every day, my focus is to find out how i can make this mundane space a more exhilarating and unique elevator journey(focusing on their emotions). I want to be able to find out if these users are willing to move away from their comfort zone and participate in something that could be potentially embarrassing. Being in an elevator it will be interesting to see what tasks users would complete going to their apartment quicker.

Individual Responsibility

My Individual responsible for this project is to re-create and simulate an elevator experience as well as test these on potential users. This includes making an ‘elevator’ as well as programming and connecting devices to test the functionalities of the new elevator. This incorporates using a camera to detect the poses (this also will require to use a machine-learning algorithm to learn specific poses) as well as a microphone to detect the words for the charade game. As well as using an Arduino kit with led and buttons to create the buttons and lights you would see in an elevator.

Ideal Finished Progress

My ideal finished product includes having an elevator frame alongside the camera and microphone working to detect if what the users are doing are correct. This includes using the camera to detect that the poses are correct and that the audio responses from the computer are correct with the charade word being generated. Below are some sketches of the ideal finished product.

Step 1

Building the frame is the first step. Just a basic rectangle-prism would work

Step 2

Adding a sheet or something that acts as a wall is the second step.

Step 3

Lastly is then setting up the mic, cam and Arduino which all require programming at some point.

Current Progress

The Following is the current set-up

This is the make shift working bench.

The Wood Pieces for the elevator frame

Elevator Frame

Elevator frame just needs more supporting wood for the corners.

Characteristics of children that influence their motor skill learning ?

This research talks about the gender differences in throwing for distance. Researches evaluated the relationship between throwing performance and several biological and environment variables in 100 boys and girls who were 5 years old. Boys were able to throw further than girls and exhibited a more mature throwing form. However, one hypothesis about girls’ throwing performance lagging behind boys is that practice will produce a “Catch up” effect. Researchers evaluated five studies that trained young boys and girls (age 5-8 years) using meta-analysis techniques and found that girls gained slightly more than boys as a result of training, but the gains were not significant (Information collected was limited due to only 5 studies). These results suggest that the differences are difficult to overcome with training, however, it depends on the specific tasks that they are doing. Elite female performance has continued to become closer to elite male performance over the past 50 years.

I want to find out if there is a difference in motor skill performance for different gender. I found out that motor skill performance is more similar than different for both genders. This helps me gain a better understanding towards the motor skills of both genders.

Young children fail to use cognitive strategies to improve performance in many tasks including motor skills. When evaluating developmental cognitive features that influence motor performance, the lack of strategy use may be attributed to maturation or lack of practice (Cognitive processing views). The neoPiagetian model (Working memory increasing in a stage like way across childhood) was limited to explain why young child fail to use cognitive strategies to improve performance.

Limitations of Piaget’s Theory

Is motor skills development link to cognitive development

Optimum development involves early recognition and prompt intervention of motor skill abilities in a developing child. Making learning fun by including movement is an important element in teaching young children. According to research, 85% of school age children are natural kinaesthetic learners. Implicit learning (Learning through your body) is more powerful than explicit learning (Text, facts, and basic recall).

Motor learning, like learning in all other skill areas, is part of an individual’s total development. Educators are becoming more aware that motor development is linked to cognitive development. Both motor and cognitive skills may have a similar developmental timetable with accelerated development during childhood. This literature consistently reports that increased physical activity time in school have enhance academic attainment, executive functions, and on task behaviours in children and adolescents. Active children tend to have better health and cognitive outcomes when compared to their less active peers.

Conclusions

Conclusion : Depending on the tasks, there is not much difference in motor skill performance for both gender. Deficits in motor performance associated with cognitive function were more likely due to lack of practice rather than structural limitations such as mental space. Children’s performance must link with work on children’s cognition and motor performance. Repeatability of fine/gross motor tasks are beneficial for children’s health and cognitive outcomes.

Links :

https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uq.edu.au/docview/861360500/5040AED4FE9F4CEEPQ/2?accountid=14723

https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uq.edu.au/docview/218547044/5040AED4FE9F4CEEPQ/1?accountid=14723

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Piagetiantheoriesofcognitivedevelopment

Spud

Spud is a small robot personal assistant/space manager that sits on the user's shoulder. It uses its face expressions and body language to convey its feelings and its sassy personality..

Modes

Depending on the mood of the user, Spud can switch between two modes: distancing others and befriending others. This helps the users in two different types of awkward and embarrassing situations like rejecting someone or trying to befriend them.

Testing

1. The first testing was done to find the best appearance of Spud. Participants were asked to choose their favorite sketch of Spud and give their opinion. The final sketch of Spud:
2. The second testing was done to find the suitable body language for different emotions. A stuffed toy was used as a model for the participants to position its arms, head and eyebrows to show different emotions.

Form

A simple prototype was built with cardboard to think about the look and the actual size of Spud and positioning of its technical parts inside.

I realized that Spud would be too small to hide all the parts inside so a bigger prototype will be built to showcase the functionality while a smaller prototype will be built to display the look and feel of Spud.

Work to be done

I will start working on the movement of the eyebrows, head and arms with servos. Research has to also be done to think about using cameras and facial recognition instead of the ultrasonic sensor.

Recap

Domain: Body as controller

Problem space: Breathe for wellness

Target audience: People with lung disease

Breathing method: Pursed lip breathing

The original concept was a breathing lamp that can train people to do the 478 breathing technique. However, it is not scientifically proven of its effectiveness and some people have feedback that holding breath for 7 seconds in the middle was difficult. Therefore, the target audience has changed to lung disease patient and studies have proven that pursed lips breathing exercise improve their breathing conditions and wellbeing.

Concept Sketches

After doing some researches and watching many videos on projects that are done with Arduino, I have came out with my concept sketched below name as "The Midnight Garden". The garden will come alive after all the mic sensors have been blown!

Concept and Intended experience

When user blows to each microphone sensor, the object will light up respectively. For instance, if the user blow at the windmill, the led lights on the windmill will be activate and if the user blows at the tree trunk, the branches will start lighting up etc. In addition, I am considering of adding speaker with cricket sounds as the background to fit the picture theme even more, to provide further and better immersive experience to the audience while they practise their breathing technique. The design of the visual and audio effects on my installation are aiming to promote relaxation and calmness as much as possible. As recommended for lung disease patient, it is best to do the breathing exercise

Prototype draft

To convey my concept to the audience easier, I have make a simple prototype to show how to interact with the "garden" and the responses they will receive. This is only one of the object, each object will be embedded with a mic and lights up when receiving the blow out from the mouth.

Inspiration

Arduino

I have received both kits and purchased some materials that I need for my installation. While waiting for the delivery, I have play around with the LED light strips and LED ring, using FASTLED library in Arduino. They are pretty and amazing. I have also purchased some rgb led strips that can be addressed individually so that I can program them to different colors and patterns.

Next

1. Prepare interviews to collect feedbacks and gain insights.
2. Get some art and crafts for the installation and do some testing with Arduino
3. Set up the prototype and video

My Concept

This prototype focuses on the incorporating fine motor skills to encourage kids to learn. For my concept I will be using this prototype to teach kids colour. There is a term called Learning Experience Design (LXD), where the goal is to help someone learn something in the best way possible. One of the most important parts of LXD is the UI that supports and enhances the cognitive processes of learning.The article also stated that it is useful to set learning in a real-world context, which is the learning experience Itzy provides. Having a real-world toy/object to interact with will help transfer the skill and knowledge to a real-world application.I want to find out if practising motor skills can be another way to help kids learn.

This was an initial concept that I have after looking at some of the feedback received from the pitch. This revised concept doesn’t require a laptop connected to the bear, the screen on Itsy’s belly will be used to show the colours that the kids are required to find. The kids will then bring the bear along to find the colours. Upon finding the right colours, the kid will scan the colour of the object by using Itsy’s eye. If the colour of the object matches the colour of the screen, Itsy will project a soothing voice that encourages the kids to want to learn more.

This concept will be improved by incorporating certain fine motor skills to help kids learn. However, this is just another way that I can think of to help kids to learn colours.

.

Encouraging kids to learn Colours using fine motor skills

I will be making a buzzer game when kids of age (3-5) will be able to use the twizzer to pick out the colour balls from Itzy. I was inspired by the board game (Operation) where players must remove organs from their “Patient” without setting off the buzzer. The buzzer is connected to a flashing alarm.

How it works ?

There will be a medicine kit and in the kit there will be different colour ball where kids can use the Twizzer to put the balls into Itzy to save him. The kid will be holding on to the colour detector (Which acts as a torch) to scan the holes, and a speaker will tell the kid which colours should he/she use from the medicine kit in order to save Itzy. This is my concept for now.

What will I need ?

For the board Game

• Led pins
• Vibrating mini motor discs
• Buzzer
• CR2032 Lithium Coin Cell Battery
• Cardboard

Kids Motor Skill Curriculum

I looked at the Kids motor skill curriculum to see if they are able to handle simple simple motor skill task like using a twizzer and at the age of 2-3, kids are able to grab things with their thumb and a finger. This piece of information if useful for me as i know that kids are starting to have the strength to grab certain things.

Link : https://childdevelopment.com.au/resources/child-development-charts/fine-motor-developmental-checklist/

Inspiration

Link : https://learn.adafruit.com/low-tech-operation-game/overview

What is my concept?

My concept falls under the collective team domain of designing for "a creative learning initiative to teach colour theory to Year 1 students through active engagement and open interaction techniques."

I took this domain and the first round of user feedback into consideration and decided to focus my individual design direction on contextualising colour for the visually impaired/ colour blind. As my concept currently stands, I aim to achieve this through providing relevant audio and light feedback to a given colour.

I am currrently facilitating colour mixing and drawing as can be seen below:

My original concept aimed to have the users then draw their current emotional state in the centre of the mat. However, I think the interaction scenario became overly complex and user feedback highlighted a desire to draw and create without restrictions.

Thus, I am learning towards faciliating total creative freedom and experimentation with colour and sound. My individual design direction should facilitate the understanding of colour mixing and colour theory both visually and audibly.

What is the ideal finished product?

The ideal finished product is a large scale stand-alone mat that can be incorporated into a year one classroom setting. Users with and without visual impairments should be able to actively engage and benefit from interaction with the system

The mat would be approximately 1.5m in diameter and have a large circular canvas in the centre where the users can draw with their mixed colours and audio. Each colour has an associated audio track which aims to form an objective link between the colour selected and the sound being played (ie blue = running water).

Applying pressure to one of the buckets around the outside of the mat would select that colour. Users can select multiple colours which will mix those colours, and related audio tracks, together. The newly mixed colour can be experimented with on the canvas in the centre of the mat.

Just as the colours mix together (blue + yellow = green), so will the audio (blue audio (running water) + yellow audio (birds chirping) = green audio (leaves rustling)). This acts as an audio equivalent to the colour mixing process and hence forms an audio narrative to pair with the users drawing.

LED lights would also illuminate the paint buckets which are currently selected to clearly represent which colours are currently being mixed together.

Ideally, the finished project would also facilitate collaboration with multiple users so that experimentation and creativity could be explored in a communal environment.

In summary, my individual design direction should allow visually impared and colour blind users to obtain an understanding of colour theory through providing light and audio feedback. Users should then apply this knowledge to draw and express themselves in the centre of the mat.

My Concept & Focus

The prototype’s focus is “create an Energy Saving Emily device that has interactions to annoy the user whilst positively change their behaviours and mindset to become more efficient in the home”.

“Emily” takes the perspective that adults have forgotten or are now too busy with their work lifestyles that they have forgotten the basics of being energy conscious. The device animates, illuminates and provides feedback to the users. “Emily” is a physical fixture in the home and something that cannot be put to the side by the users. Energy Saving Emily is to be an essential fixture in the home that continuously monitors, interacts and improves the energy efficiency in the home.

Ideal Finished Product

*This was described in detail in my Week 7 Part 1 Post

This would look like wall decor in the house and will not be too invasive but will annoy people once it activates. I have decided to build my prototype in two parts. The focus of my prototype will be on Temperature in the house. Emily will monitor the temperature, weather, and air-con usage. And moderate if there are energy savings.

Further Resources

For this project, I think it would have been better working together as a complete team towards one final prototype. I am finding now there are so many elements to this prototype I want to have worked and it just will not be possible with the time and resources and the current situation we are all in. I would have loved to have a second arduino or multiple so that I can have various components of the prototype work on different arduino and that I can combine all aspects. I would have also liked to have access to a 3D printer to print some more artifacts that will come in handy for testing. Right now I am struggling on how to incorporate the temperature element into the prototype. With temperature, I want to be able to monitor the whole house and check for various things. For example if a door is closed or windows open, the temperature of a room, air-con on or off. I am not sure at this stage how i am going to detect these things from using my arduino. Right now I am thinking of putting in placeholder data, so that I can test the main functionalities of the prototype and test for user interactions.

Studio activity

This week in the studio, we were able to catch up on what everyone has been doing over the break. it is interesting to see what other students have been coming up with, some having already completed their prototypes. I was quite concerned when I heard some students being so far ahead with their developments, this, however, did not last long as I realized that most of the students and my team members were in the same boat as me - still figuring out the best way to approach the situation.

For me, I only worked on prototype sketches and product research other the break, I wanted to ensure all the components I purchased was Arduino compatible and as my prototype could be executed in many different ways, I wanted to solidify one model that I think will be the best approach and stick with it, allowing me to buy components for it and continue on my development process. In hindsight, I should have put more time into the project during my break but instead, I spent most of my time binge-watching tiger king- which I thought was well deserved after my 2 big submissions.

Concerns

The main thing I am concerned with at the moment is reaching our target audience. initially, I thought to post questions online and in Facebook groups were going to be easy, however, no one really takes time out of their already busy days to answer interview questions from a stranger. most of my attempts were ignored- which is completely understandable, but it makes the SDLC very very difficult as I don't have a base of user testing to iterate changes on my prototype. as an alternative, I've decided to reach out to my parents to help me identify potential users for me to contact lol. Hopefully, it will go better than having questions post online.

Project wise, I am still quite concerned that my idea is too simple. having students trying to build robots and really cool stuff made me self conscious but bless my teammates for always supporting my idea and giving me feedback as to what I should focus on, which is focusing on a good idea that fits the brief despite me thinking its too "simple".

This week

This week, I'm working on using components in the kits I've received to build something that can act as an MVP before all my other components get mailed to me. I will also be working hard to get hold of a few potential users for me to interview. instead of targeting exactly my stakeholders to be interviewed, I have expanded my testing audience to anyone who has experience with children before, I understand that the raw data will not be as accurate but in these circumstances, it might be my best bet.

For my individual concept, I am focusing on the audience of office workers and making a pose elevator that tries to hype up workers by making them perform power poses e.g. wonder woman pose and match these in real time. Below is a screenshot of what I have so far as a concept (just using a webcam and using a colour outline of the skeleton of the user). I have just decided to use a cupboard for the elevator for now

The ideal finished product will be able to make a physical, portable elevator that can be taken anywhere and to be able to match poses properly in real time. However, due to the resources I currently have I probably can't make it portable. The only limitation for this pose concept is that the full body area has to be shown.

To reflect, during this process, I felt that I needed to be more assertive in creating this prototype as at the current moment, it is just with a timer and doesn't actually "match" the pose in the backend. I had a chat to Steven about this and he was able to clarify with me that I needed to actually code the matching process. Going forward I will try to be more assertive and ask the tutors more questions so that I can get answers quicker and I can proceed and furthermore be able to show a better effort in the further assessment pieces.

My source of inspiration for this week actually came from a skit from the Ellen show which made me think more about the awkwardness of elevators and how my concept could be abused in a way. Have a look at the video below if you're interested.

One of my work is to research for the related work. All the work below was completed during our project proposal, but i haven't described in my journal.They include literature reviews about similar exploration, guidelines for design and some theoretical support, as well as some published games for the blind.

1.Literature Review

Lahav, H. Gedalevitz, S.Battersby, D. Brown, L. Evett and Patrick MerrittComputing and Technology Team: Virtual environment navigation with look-around mode to explore new real spaces by people who are blind. Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK.Pages 1072-1084 | Received 17 Aug 2016, Accepted 20 Jan 2017, Published online: 10 Feb 2017

The original intention of searching this article is because after our presentation pitch, in feedback some people mentioned a game for the blind people that uses sound and haptic feedback hints to explore the unknown space, such like exploring the maze.I also believed that this mode will bring a interesting game experience, suitable for the theme of our hearing ability-centric theme as well. However, i found that this concept has already been explored. In the article, in a virtual cane system simulating a room similar to the reality, the authors presented a new look-around method which enables the user to explore the unknown by the auditory information without moving in addition to the traditional walk-around way in which the user has to explore while walking. Besides, the authors selected the Nintendo Wii device as the visual and movement orientation controlller due to its widespread, easy and novel manipulation. In the experiment, the participants explored the unknown space and the obstacles information in it by these two methods. By comparing the accuracy and efficiency of the drawing mental maps, the authors verified the effectiveness of the look-around method.

Although the new direction of our project theme we wanted to work on has already been done by others, we also learned a lot from others work. First, the effectiveness and the ability to exercise spatial skill of this look-around method has been verified, which means we could apply this pattern in our design to help users perceive the gamified scene. Second, the Nintendo Wii controller can be a option or we can use the settings of his button to determine what necessary functions are available in our own controller. Third, we planned to add a voice prompt system to describe the virtual environment to our users, which has been introduced in this article as well. The authors provided their participants with obstacle information by different kinds of the auditory and haptic effects. Last, it presented us a method of verifying the validity of the design through comparing the mental map and map model, which could be taken to test the connection in the design of our auditory system and game scene.

Kristjánsson Á1, Moldoveanu A2, Jóhannesson ÓI1, Balan O2, Spagnol S3, Valgeirsdóttir VV1, Unnthorsson R3. Restor Neurol Neurosci: Designing sensory-substitution devices: Principles, pitfalls and potential. 2016 Sep 21;34(5):769-87.

In our future design, there is a great possibility to use voice and haptic system as input and output. Due to the loss of visual sensory, it is an inevitable challenge to convey information to them completely and accurately. Since when conveying information, different personal understanding, unclear expression and sensory caused by redundant information etc. are all the potential risks for unexpected results. Therefore, we have to follow certain rules when designing sensory substitution for the blind. In this article, the authors highlight some main points in the sensory substitution devices

1. Only convey critical information.
2. Focus on task.
3. Need research in basic psychophysical representation.
4. Must not interfere other perceptual function.
5. Feedback modality can be various.
6. Need consider the spatiotemporal continuity for different senses.

Although the sensory substitution system is slightly different from our design concept, because this system is designed to pass the information of the real environment to the blind people in the way of auditory and haptic, and our game environment will be a virtual scene. The design guidelines proposed by the author are also of great reference significance to us, because their common ground is to accurately convey information to users in the same sensory function.

On this basis, we have to mention the Voice-User Interface(VUI), a voice platform that makes human interact with computer. Nielsen also mentioned that the VUI is very suitable for the cases that the users can’t see because of the disabilities or other issues[1]. It also has been widely used in products, such as the Microsoft Windows, Car Navigation, Android and OS etc. There are some practical tips should be informed for our design as well:

1. Simple and conversational communication.
2. Confirm of the finished task.
3. A personality of the VUI.

Dunai, Larisa ; Lengua, Ismael ; Peris-Fajarnés, Guillermo ; Brusola, Fernando: Virtual Sound Localization by Blind People, Archives of Acoustics, 2015, Vol.40(4), pp.561-567

In addition to designing a game with a new experience for the blind, the original intention of our project is more important to help them train their hearing ability. The hearing ability is such important that it enables them perceive the environment, predict the danger and localizing, etc.The level of this sensory function largely determines the quality of their lives. Therefore, we wish our game could contribute to improve this ability.However, at that stage, we have not yet sought theoretical support for our will. For instance, can hearing ability be improved through training? Will our game settings have a positive effect on this? Fortunately, all our concerns have been confirmed in this article. At first, they demonstrated the blind people have a better performance on localizing sound than sighted people. In addition, through the experiment, the authors concluded that the blind can interpret the sound in the real environment more effectively after practice with the headphone. Sound sources in real life are often confusing because they are mixed with noise and the sound is mobile. However, after training in an ideal environment with earphones, the blind people's recognition of the sound source in the interference environment has also improved. In short, all kinds of theoretical support and experimental verification ensure the theoretical support and significant meaning of our project.

2.Published Games

At present, there are not many games specially developed for the blind, the American Foundation for the Blind website(https://www.afb.org/node/16207/games-and-activities) listed some typical games, which mainly consists of two types: the haptic physical game, and the auditory electronic games. For the former, most of them are card and chess board games, players mainly distinguish game objects through different touch senses. For the latter, the game mode is mainly to let users make direction and simple decision-making promptly changes through voice or vibration information. A more complicated video street fighter game (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX0oPwQPo9A) provides the player a training mode to remember the attack sounds of different characters, in this way the player can imagine what his opponent is doing. It inspires us a lot that we can apply a similar training model to help the player get familiar with the different sound effects as well. In addition, a game with a storyline published by Tencent(https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1003921/new-tencent-games-highlight-challenges-of-visual-impairment) provide us reference to set up game flow and voice cues.

Development

During this time, a lot of what was done was domain research to decide upon factors to focus on within the project and completing the first major group assessment piece this semester. As a team, we decided that we would all like to pursue the idea of Emily, but we will explore varying aspects. Each of us will be developing Emily to suit different target audiences, and we will each focus on a form of our choosing. We've also decided to look at varying energy saving practices, depending on our interests. Most of my team members appear to be leaning towards the heating and cooling aspect that I previously mentioned, however I'm tossing up between that as well as light consumption within the home. I'm really excited to see all the outcomes that the team has, as we all seem to have really different takes on Energy Saving Emily! We are all very willing to help each other out where possible and share any findings we discover during the process.

My Direction With Emily

I have decided that I would like to explore Emily in an adult household. I believe that sustainable living is something that has only just taken off recently, and due to it being a novel topic, it is hard for adults to adopt such methods at home, due to the living styles they are so accustomed to. I would like for Emily to educate adults playfully and make an impact on their household energy savings. Taking on peer feedback, I would like to find ways in which to induce more discomfort into Emily in order to prompt energy changing habits. I think that adults would be able to tolerate such levels of discomfort more than children would, hence the selection of my target audience. To induce further discomfort, possibilities that I was initially exploring included ideas such as making the aircon temperature colder when using it unnecessarily, or similarly doing the same with water. The most prominent idea that I have had which I think would be within my skill range is to implement light restrictions during night time should a user use too much light during the day time. I would probably only restrict this to one room in the house though (ie. living room) as I think it would be quite cruel to leave a whole house stranded in darkness at night! I think to balance such an act, it would be humorous for Emily to be a bit cheeky and almost taunt the users slightly when the darkness strikes, but still be funny and hopefully somewhat endearing.

Reflection

I'm happy with the progress I've made on the development of the idea, and how the project is functioning in terms of individual work and team collaboration. I'm still nervous about the implementation of it, however I have made some progress on the Arduino Kit booklet, which has given me a bit more confidence. Something I'm not happy with is my journal documentation! I have definitely been losing a bit of motivation to document and have some catching up to do which I'm definitely not happy about. I originally thought journaling would be the easiest part of the course, but clearly the motivation part is not as easy as I thought it would be.

Future Progress

Things that I am needing to do from here is working with the Arduino Kit to implement my idea, and of course coming up with a unique form for Emily! I haven't had any burst of inspiration yet, but I'm hoping that through developing a functioning prototype, I will be able to come up with a form that suits her functionality and personality. Finally, I am going to try and allocate a time on certain days to do some documenting on my journal posts once or twice a week (fingers crossed I can stick to it somewhat)!

To start the week off, we looked into different methods of discovery we could use in the case of a pandemic. For the exercise, we had to look at observing passengers on a train. To do this, I watched a youtube video with people on the train being encouraged sing a song. From this I gained some insights and the going forward I will be watching youtube videos related to my concept to get some valuable information.

Also as a team, we were able to break our project down using our miro board to really break down what we need to discover in the future.

Over the past week by myself, I made a basic questionnaire for people of my target audience to fill out about what they would like to see in an elevator setting to interact with.

I also was able to look into how I could use arduino with the concept we have and something I came across was posenet, which looks at pose estimation.

The plan ahead for me is to do some arduino practice and grab some materials to start playing around and get a solid prototype going. I also will try and play around with posenet as well and see if this can work for my concept.

Finishing the proposal

The last week before the break, my team and I manage to finish the proposal. The week before we had finished the team part of the writing so this week I wrote my individual part. It was much harder than writing the team part because of all the uncertainty and lack of knowledge on what you are doing exactly and what you need/expect to happen.

Starting on the project

My team decided to go for the first option on how to divide the project which was working on the one concept just divide the different part between us. The part that I was allocated was creating a server to which the devices will upload and download the content on the balls and also develop the upwards trow which indicate the sending of the information currently stored on the ball. During the mid-semester break I managed to create a server on UQCloud which was more challenging that I anticipated. I have made zones before, but this time I only needed a server and not a webpage so I decided to install an image (Ubuntu) instead of the regular one, but what I didn't know was that neither npm or node was install on this one so it had to be done manually through the terminal. There was also some concern on whether or not a vpn had to be used every time one accessed the server but this was later revealed to not be necessary. To create the server I used socket.io which was a request by one of the team members who had some previous knowledge on it.

The next following weeks I plan on finishing the prototype and developing the throwing motion with Arduino and also conduct some user research and maybe starting on the video for the presentation.

The concept

My team has gone with the strategy of working on the same concept. The concept is working as follows:

The idea here is for people close to each other (friends, family) that in these time can't see each other, to share thoughts. This is both to vent and to share positive emotions.

Because of the circumstances, we have divided the concept into four different parts. I will be working on the part of the prototype where the user shakes the ball to determine a colour, as many times as they like until they are happy with the colour. This is step 3-7 in the drawing.

The ideal solution

Ideally, we would like to be able to put the individual parts of the prototype together as a coherent part; in the end, a bowl of balls where each ball is able to send and receive data to and from other bowls of balls.