This week we presented our project inspiration concepts. I did some preliminary sketches when coming up with and developing my idea. This initial design was inspired by the resources I linked in my project inspiration post. I did not make many changes from this design as I liked it and could not see any issues. The initial idea did however have more focus on the light element, with the ball intending to project light around the room creating images on the walls and ceilings. While I think this would be cool, there isn't much justification for it and there is already a lot of sensory aspects:

Throughout the week we watched the rest of the presentations and critiqued each one based on the idea and the presentation. There were many projects which I thought were great ideas and hot the brief, however there were also some that missed elements of the brief. I will think further about some of the ideas I liked and how I can build upon these interactions modes and themes:

After presentations wrapped up on Wednesday, we did some exercises to determine overarching themes that were evident through the ideas generated.

We began by writing ideas that fell under certain themes and stuck these on butchers paper. This provided an overall view of the main reoccurring themes.

After this process, main themes were derived from the listed themes and written on the board. We then wrote ideas under the theme it best matched.

We then has to place the posters under the theme they were in on the board. My concept fit under the theme "stress relief through physical movement":

This activity uncovered the prominent themes among the generated concepts and will be used for further ideation. Over the next week I plan to do some brainstorming into the themes and potential concepts that could be developed from them.

Area Induction:

This week I also completed the area induction. We went through the safety information, rules and how to use various pieces of equipment. I have signed on for the Innovate induction next Monday but am yet to find a soldering induction that I am free for. I hope to complete this next week as well. The area induction helped me a lot as I was initially unsure as to the limits of what I could produce with the provided resources. Now that I know what materials and services are available to me, I can better understand what I will be able to create, and enter the ideation phase with a bit more clarity on this matter.

Reflection:

The work done this week was really engaging and provided me with a wide range of diverse themes that I could potentially focus on. Whilst the determination of certain specific themes may be 'constraining' the possibility of concepts, I actually feel that it has helped me a lot to brainstorm for concept idea or interaction forms when I have a defined theme. Over the weekend, I will revisit the photos I took and look into what themes excite me the most, apart from the ones that my interactive stress ball fell into.

This week we heard some project inspiration and ideas from other students which were very interesting and even after hearing some of them, many other ideas were inspired and could potentially be used as a viable concept.

On Tuesday, I also soldered together a circuit to turn a light switch on and off. Below is the example of the circuit we were provided

On the Wednesday, we listened to some other presentations and critiqued them accordingly. I was very interested in the Kids be shh concept delivered by Jessica. It could be very interesting to try and incorporate this in a school setting and see how kids react, whether the abuse this by just yelling heaps or try to make a competition out of it by trying to be the most quiet student.

From this point going forward from the themes generated from the session done on Wednesday and hopefully we can gather more ideas and narrow these into a nice coherent concept.

Yesterday, we started with looking at the ideas people have had over the first week. Aware of the fact that this is just a bouncing off point, it felt a little early to give strong or detailed criticism about any of the ideas.

Obviously the following quite the unfair assessment , but there wasn't a feeling of being awestruck by the potential of any ideas, although I did see some ideas where I could picture myself contributing significantly to an amalgam of them.

That being said, particularly meaningful for me were ideas from the dozen or so designers who were students of mine in a previous course, it was exciting to see the industrious spirit toward design they had there carry forward here, I can't wait to see what they make next.

We didn't have many horrific ideas... I was sorta expecting to hear more things that made my bones rattle in disgust and intrigue at how we could make something really out there, a real life thing to inflict upon the world.

I guess it's because it's still early in the semester. People want to put their best foot forward, and not be remembered as a sociopath. An understandable position, I think I make many people uncomfortable, and as little of that as possible would make finding and maintaining groups easier.

I even went with my safest, most milquetoast idea to do the same - maybe once we are more familiar with each other, it'll be cooler to expose our more twisted machinations.

Sharing an idea is like exposing a part of yourself, a bolt of electricity bursts out of your mind and onto a piece of paper. Hm, actually, is the idea in truth really just a part of you? Perhaps this fear of sharing something that troubles people is because of the perception that when people reject your idea, it can sometimes feel like they reject you?

But it's nothin' personnel kid. People rarely hate you (I hope). I think even when they dislike the idea, they rarely come to a wide eyed, narrowed pupil realisation about you and recoil in horror, just because you said a thing. Maybe the vast majority of people tune out unintentionally, and are just involved enough that they can keep track of things, but strong emotional reactions, positive or negative, are to be earned.

I was captivated by Seamus' idea for Smoker Baby. I envy the will to bring it forward. The kind of thing that makes me wake up at 11.50pm even after I headed to bed early, to start writing about it. I hop around my apartment in anticipation at how crazy we could make that. Like, having the doll be on a podium in the middle of your house, a pedestal where you cant reach it, and if you smoke, it breaks down, and you cant do anything about it. You now live with a skeleton doll, that you wake up to every morning.

A deteriorating voodoo doll kinda thing isn't something you hear about every day, and I almost want to pick this up and turn it into an amalgamation of small "oh nos" that make me seriously reconsider my life up to that point. Like giving the doll a bunch of extra arms, and animatronic components, so that it literally falls apart if you pick it up after smoking...

Er... alright, might have dwelled on that for too long.

Reactions weren't even excessively strong, maybe there was room for A Cog for the Machine or Panopticon Go-Karts after all.

Critiques

Ideas from early in the first session stood out the most, likely because it still felt fresh to hear the ones that came up early. Critiques only being two minutes or so long meant that for some of them.

Especially in the second half of the session, I found myself feeling less willing to give detailed and concise feedback... it felt like some of my critique there was a bit too nitpicky on ideas that were otherwise alright.

Theming

The theming session that followed was... alright. Could have gone better I think having everyone in the room work on it individually meant that there was... a lot stepping on each others toes metaphorically speaking, and more repetition than necessary.

An endless sea of ideas... just waiting to be butchered.

I didn't feel too useful after putting down two or three post its, and took a step back to reflect for this entry rather than participate in the arranging of the post it notes into themes. Maybe the issue was just too many hands in motion, going in different directions - so parts of it felt incoherent.

I found myself more helpful when trying to break down my thoughts out loud. A chance at conversations and some exposure to other people' perspectives, and explorations on what happened today, and even last year too - given Allison mentioned some projects last years students came up with.

I'd be inclined to say this tendency to pull back and think was more useful to myself, than the collective, so for tomorrows session I might try doing something different - although I think that in this kind of activity I'd simply be strongly inclined to pull ideas toward a topic I want to cover for my project, which again isn't great, but it's not as... disengaging as just hopping out.

Maybe we could have people with explicit roles - everyone still writes down their points, but we have people whose tasks it is is to collect post it notes into themes, and people whos roles it is is to place those post its in the final positions. Then, after x amount of time, the roles get switched

Here would have been a good time to break down the common themes... I think I'll need to follow this up tomorrow with a collection of all the ideas... I feel like some of my perspectives may have... less legs to stand on once seeing what the remainder of the class has in the cards.

This week I had my Space induction. This was a session whereby we learnt how to most appropriately and safely use of the building 78 workshop room.

During the session, there was a heavy emphasis on health and safety. Checking tags, visual inspections of the tool prior to use and never force a tool were the main takeaways from the session. Closed in shoes must be worn at all times and due to the size of the class, we cannot "claim" an area in the workshop.

Relfection

In today's session, we were inspired by other ideas presented to us by fellow peers. Although each presentation was succinct, most who presented today conveyed their ideas and concepts with clarity.

I noticed a trend in ideas whereby emotions, shoes and music were hot topics regarding individual concepts.

Tasks completed in the session

Feedback

It was very useful and effective in completing these critique forms as each student presented. This was an effective way to ensure we were engaging in the presentation and also providing an opportunity to provide valuable feedback.

On Monday

I went to soldering induction, We learned something about safety rules about the soldering, and the tutor gives some components to use for soldering.

Inspiration:

Some days ago, I had a dream where I played electronic music with my friend. So I though music theme could be a good idea.

Concept

Wearing gloves with sensors, people can make noises of bongo drum, tambourine, snare drum and so on. In this way, it is a product that combines music and social.

How to play

• For two people

Person 1 wears two gloves named a,b. Person 2 wears two gloves named c,d.

When a touches c, the sound is bongo drum.

When a touches d, the sound is tambourine.

When b touches c, the sound is snare drum.

In this way, these two people can play music by clapping hands.

-For more people

More instruments and combinations of them can be prerecord for people to play. It could be like a hand band.

It can be a children clapping game (from Lorna).

Sensors can also be put on legs, hipbone to represent notes (from Jenny).

challenge

I think the most important challenge is learning and creativity. Because we need to learn all basic knowledge before we design, whatever products or idea. We could create new things only after mastering the knowledge. The hardest part is how to create after learning. About learning and creativity, the main issue is find the balance between serious and fun. If more serious, students may not interest at them. If more fun, it's hard to concentrate on study.

TASK BOX

Background and social problem:

In contemporary society, parents always encounter many problems when educating the next generation. For example, students have poor self-learning ability, poor learning habits, and low efficiency in doing homework。Therefore, there is a need to understand the influences of human factors to design digital learning environments that best suit every learner (Chen & Wang, 2019). Enhancing the fun and self-learning is the consideration of cultivating good habits for the next generation.

Research areas:

New learning styles of young learners

Idea detail:

It is a task box, which consists of six electronic screens.

Users can record tasks at each time of day through voice interaction. Tasks are arranged in the text on the electronic screen in the previous section. When the user completes the task within the prescribed period, the corresponding task on the screen will disappear.

The upper part of the box is an electronic calendar, and the color of the corresponding date part on the screen will turn green. When all tasks for the month are completed on time, the box will open from the top, and users can take out the reward gifts that parents put into the box early.

Target user:

The younger learners 6 to 12 who have poor self-control in learning.

Design aim： Provide a playful new type of auxiliary learning method for younger learners who have poor self-control in learning and finished school task and life task

Interactions method: Voice interactions

Automatic Speech Recognition（ASR）：The machine converts the user's voice signal into corresponding text through recognition.

Natural Language Processing（NLP）：It focuses on communication between computers and humans using natural language.

IInspiration

About the Idea, my inspiration comes from the seven HCI grand challenges. From the sixth part, the book describes the challenges for learning and creativity in technologically advanced and intelligent environments. There reference one main issue about the new generation of learners.

#Voice interactions# #young learners #

Reference

Chen, S., . Y., & Wang, J., . H. (2019). Human factors and personalized digital learning: An editorial. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 35(4–5), 297–298. doi:10.1080/10447318.2018.1542891

Title

Mind Speaker

Description

• Mind Speaker is a pixelated Tangible User Interface (TUI). It uses sensor or bluetooth connected to the shape to be present.
• Add LED with electronics on the pins

Concept

3D holograms in real time

How to use it

Basically it can be used before people take a real action as a simulator.

1. Use sensors to capture the movements
2. Use bluetooth connect to IoT devices

Use Cases

1. simulate a physically shape

Display a wave to represent the ratio of wave height in the sea comparing to a person

2. As a smart home IoT device, be an alert of phone or cook

Connect to smartphone to alter you the message or coming call

When you are busy in another room and the food is ready in kitchen

Touch the weather

Normally we use different colors to represent changes of temperature in the real world. Blue means cool. Red means hot.

Instead of telling you the degree of temperature and vague weather in words, Mind Speaker can change the temperature on the surface to represent the variation of how it really feels like.

3. Accessibility

It can also be used for blind people to touch the shape of things that not easy to reach

Tags

• accessibility
• LED
• vibration
• TUI
• tangible

Inspirations

Link to resources

• Sci-fi concept - Holographic interfaces from Iron Man

• 3D Metal Pin Art Board

2D Metal Pin Art Board

• a tangible one - inFORM

inFORM is a tangible bits displayed in low resolution to present dynamic 3D shapes on a surface. It can capture the human movements and also can be a tangible smart home device.

• a virtual one - Universal LED Holographic Projector 3D

About me

Hi, my name is Gai Jiang and you also can call me Lance. I am very glad to join this course. In last year I make many fantastic works with my teammates, like a vending arcade, a travelling website and my first python software. I am looking forward to the challenge in the future.

About the course

This course is a double-weight course, it means it needs more time, more energy and cooperations. In the last year, our work is only focused on one side. This year, we will create something includes design and function. I am curious how far we can go and what we will make.

Design

In today's society, people are under too much pressure, such as study and work, many people need a different way to relax. This smart music player can help people relieve their stress in a new way. The cube can help people relieve their stress by analyzing their mood and playing different songs.

Inspiration

1. Music variety Rubik s Cube game Mode

This is a cube game, cubes will show different digital color, people need to match them.

1. Munckin Mozart Music cube

It is a cube, This cube has a bunch of different buttons that people can touch to make the cube play music

How to use it

This cube will detect the heartbeat rhythm of people and analyze people's mood through the heartbeat rhythm system. This cube will play suitable music for people to listen based on their different moods, which can relieve people's pressure.

Audience:

Adults or children of any age, anyone can play.

Inspiration

Do we know how much water we drink in a day? It is essential because, on average, the human adult body contains about 60% of water, and we need water in our daily life. With the theme of water, I came up with a fitness running game called Run for life 2.0. I got my inspiration from a G Active sport’s drink commercial and the Switch game called Ring fit Adventure.

Why the droplets it’s important in this concept?

The droplets are an abstract way of representing our body water losses in 3D water human shapes. In this game, it would be the sweat loss when we are doing an exercise.

How to play?

Before playing the game, the wearable on the wrist will help the player to detect if they are dehydrated or not. It will show you an average of water you needed in a day and how much more you need to intake.

When the user interacts with the game, the water machine at the top will simulate the user’s movement with water form. The water human shape is the user’s character in the game, instead of only seeing the character in a digital format on a flat-screen. I want to bring the character vividly to life. There is a pad that the user would stand on. It has two buttons to help the user to get through the game. The visibility of the character depends on how fast you run. For example, if you run slow, the character becomes burry; hence, fewer water droplets. It might cause the character to tumble through obstacles in the game and lost life. At the end of the game, it physically shows the amount of water you had lost and told you how much water you need to consume to gain the water back.

Reference:

Amount of water in the human body. Nestlé Waters. (2020). Retrieved 2 March 2020, from https://www.nestle-waters.com/learn-about-water/general-needs/how-much-water-is-in-the-human-body.

G Active. (2020). G Active- The Making of Active Water [Video]. Retrieved 2 March 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z7lAxEMF74G.

Water: How much should you drink every day?. Mayo Clinic. (2020). Retrieved 2 March 2020, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/water/art-20044256.

Inspiration materials:

G Active - Water Made Active

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

G Active - The Making of Active Water

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7lAxEMF74

Ring Fit Adventure - Adventure Trailer – Nintendo Switch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD6Ua4NfPZ4