Due to the travel ban, i can't back to school untill week 3. To be honest, I have never been so eager to return to the classroom. Studying remotely and isolatly makes me feel restlessly that i'm afraid i would miss something due to not fully engaged. Luckily,two weeks are not that long.

What is conjured up when you hear “Physical Computing & Interaction Design”?

I think it could be a advanceed design project, a grand challenge to me as well. This course would foucus on "Physical" and "Computing", the former could invovle Arduino things, need more handwork, and must contain circuits. The latter must be aboout programming, which i fear most.I have participated too much in the activities without programming in my previous projects. Less practise results in my unfamiliar with programming. I wish i could be skilled with one programmming language. But what i feel most excited about is the physical part. Creating a physical and sophisticated product can bring me more sense of fullfillment.

What is physical computing?

In the first class, we viewed some examples of physical computing design. I think they all meet the requirementss. First, they all contain novel physical interactions, which are nothing normal. The interesting operations come from computing as well. And then, their positive intentions meant to sovle problems or enhance interest in our daily life. To sum up, we are supposed to create some novel physical interactions by computing and hardware to enhance human values in the everyday life.

Among the design shared by peers, i love this backpack robot most.This extra arms can help you complete task together in case you need a help. What's more, it can be controled remotely by your friend, friend can see what you are doing through a camera and operate the arm. It's not only sci-fic, but also practical.We always need a hand in the daily.For example when we replacing a bad lam. And the remote control function is pretty useful as well. It reminds me of the Arduino course last semester, it would be convinient if there were a friend help me figure out my problem remotely when i got stuck, instead of guiding me by audio,which caused many misunderstanding. I find myself prefer those cool design with practical meaning.

The other design inspires and touched me a lot is this positive "synth man". He's born without an arm, but this never beat him, instead he works even harder for the things useful and interest him. He's armed with an mechanical arm, which can be controlled by the signal pulse from his muscle. And he loves music,so then upgrade and plug his arm into a synth.The idea and design is pretty cool, his positive spirit is even more inspiring.But at the same time, i think of those disabled people, not every one is equiped with this advanced equipment as him. But they deserve to live a convinient life and pursue their hobbies as others. But the fact is that not everyone could afford such expensive products, and there are not as many as products designed for them.Since then, i generated a strong willing to design something for them this semster, I wish i could come out something would make their live convinient or entertainment device to bring them happiness.

7 HCI GRAND CHALLENGE

My grand challenge is Human-Tecnology sysmbiosis.From my perspective, there are two main concerns. The first is that the human should be the host totally. That means we should control the technology. Since the technology has been growing too smart that they can even thinking on their own way, they could do things without letting us know. This causes human be isolated out of the control loop.

And another thing is that to let the technology live with us together. They should meet the our needs in every possible way. As the technology updating and the society changing.People’s needs are constantly changing, and even tricky. That requires the technology find out and meet our needs in all the way. For example, the initial mobile phone can be only used for calling and messaging, but the smart phone now can do all the things we want.