This week I mainly listened to the presentations of other groups, and responded to some of them. In addition, our group also held a meeting to study the suggestions of other students and our work plan for next week.

Reflection:

One of them suggested that "instead of making random sounds you could take sound parts out of a certain song and the right combination could output the chorus of the song etc." I have to admit that our design cannot control and match the sound, Because our current design just mixes different sounds randomly, but does not allow users to freely adjust its rhythm and so on. In other words, if the user records the sounds of birds, water and wind chimes, the user can only combine the three sounds together. The effect sounds like playing three different sounds at the same time, and cannot control the rhythm or time of different sounds. However, because there is already enough interaction in the current design, we will not add more complex features for the time being.

Another student suggested that we make a music frame and then add new sounds to it. I think this is a good idea. Mixing various sounds in life directly and randomly is likely to produce noise, which will bring a poor experience to users. If you record a fixed main melody first, and then the user selects the sound of the accompaniment, the final sound will not be bad. However, we haven't figured out how to implement this function yet.

Regarding the interaction method, the students and teachers also brought us a lot of new inspirations. For example, when the mixing sound is completed, a burst of smoke is generated. The members of our team really like this idea, and in the future, we will look for equipment that can generate smoke. Hope that can happen. Some friends suggested that we use the brightness of the lights to indicate the duration of the music, which is also a very clever idea. In our original plan, we planned that assuming that the entire test tube glowed, it means that the recording time is 2 minutes, and if only half of the test tube glows, it means that the recording time is only 1 minute. But the test tube is transparent. How to let only half of the test tube glow is a difficulty, we have not overcome. But if use the brightness of the light to indicate the duration of the recording, it will be relatively simple.

Another friend proposed to use temperature to control the speed of sound, which also brought us new inspiration. Temperature can be considered later as a new method of interaction. Use different temperatures to control music, so that users have more possibilities for operation.

Some students hope that our product can accurately capture their favorite sounds in a noisy environment, and eliminate other noises. This is really a big problem, and after discussion, we decided to ignore it first this semester. Because we don't have the ability to ensure that the sound lab produces a professional perfect mix.

Group meeting process:

In the first meeting, we reviewed together the advice given by the teaching assistant. This suggestion is about how to make a personal product. Among them, the tutor said, that we can do memory for one person and music for another person. We should do different designs for different users in the same domain. We can share materials during the design process, and the final products are similar. To be honest, we don't understand this suggestion well. Our questions are as follows: 1. How to share materials? If working remotely, we can only share some inspiration or code, and we cannot share equipment, tools, and props. 2. The main function of our product is recording and mixing sounds. If according to the tutor's example, one person collects memory and one person collects music, then this only collects different sounds, but technically, this is still recording sound. We also discussed different works for different users. For example, one person uses the tools in the chemical laboratory as the display form of the final work, and the other uses the kitchen utensils as the display form of the final work. The only difference was that the recording equipment was installed on a test tube or on a plate. In addition to the carrier, we also discussed the way of interaction, or control. Our original main interaction was shaking the beaker for mixing.

Because the first meeting did not plan everyone's future direction, the second meeting focused on the possibility of cooperation. Because we have a place for cooperation, and other reasons, we will try to work together in the future. We would like to apply to work together to complete a project for the following reasons:

1. We have sufficient conditions to cooperate: one of our group members lives alone in a large townhouse. Due to the impact of the epidemic, her roommate chose to leave school and stay in China. In the next three months, her roommate has no plans to return to Australia, so her home will be a safe place for us three to work together. The other two members of our group have their own cars, and they can pass safely to ensure they will not be infected on the way. In addition, we have adequate equipment for self-protection, such as facial masks and disinfectants, etc. We will do our best to ensure each other's health.
2. Our idea involves multiple interaction methods, and the entire design is complicated. If we made it into an individual approach, we would have to cut back on some features and change some of the initial interaction methods, which is not what we want. We consider that separation is not conducive to cooperation and learning, which will limit the knowledge that everyone can learn in the design process. We want to maximize the initial design of our team.
3. At present, the Arduino provided by the school does not meet our design. We still need to purchase any other equipment, tools and props, such as test tubes, recording equipment, players, etc. If we can cooperate, we will avoid going out multiple times for purchasing equipment and can save the cost of purchase. Because such equipment are not common things in life, buying three sets is a waste.