Work Done

Over the weekend I finished up my video and prototype document. I ended up leaving both of these to the last minute as I wanted to have as much functionality working in the prototype to get the best feedback I could before the final submission. I think the video still turned out pretty well in spite of this, but I think the document could have had a bit more work to structure my ideas better. For the final delivery, I want to finish the prototype a bit earlier to give myself time to really perfect the deliverables as it will be seen by the public and not just my peers and the teaching staff.

In class on Wednesday, we mainly focused on completing the appraisals. Our team did this through the zoom breakout room and google docs to easily collaborate. First, we individually watched the videos, taking notes as we went. This allowed us to first have our own opinions that weren't disregarded by groupthink. We then added our individual notes to the google doc and discussed what each of us thought, having more in-depth discussions in areas where we were confused or had vastly differing views. We then collated all the different points into a paragraph and took turns posting to Miro. This method worked really well as we were able to incorporate all our individual ideas as well as coming to some conclusions/suggestions as a team.

As we only do report back mainly as audio, it was really cool to see where everyone has got with their projects and what they currently have working. I'm really excited to see everyone's final result as there are some really cool projects in the making!

On Thursday, I attended the prac where we were asked to report back on the biggest hold-up in the final delivery. My response was that my current prototype doesn't have that many negative reinforcement elements so I'm worried it won't fit our team's brief enough. My text-to-speech module arrived in the mail yesterday so hopefully, I can get that working in the next week so that I can do some user testing around how annoying Emily is and if the combination of light, vibration, and sound are enough to annoy the user into change. I also asked Ben and Steven if it would be better, in the end, to actually connect and read data from the weather API or if I should just leave the outdoor temperature being simulated by the nob attached to my prototype. Steven said I should show that I have planned my prototype around being able to have the functionality (one of the reasons I moved to an esp-32) and have this working to show how it would work, but also have the simulated outdoor temperature to easily switch between states and show the full functionality of the prototype for the final demonstration. I think this will be the best bet for my final delivery, so I need to have another look into the weather APIs now that I have moved to the esp-32.

Work to Do

As I said above, I need to have a play around with the text-to-speech module and connect it to the esp-32 and speaker as well as looking into the weather API. Now that I have all the elements that will be included in the final delivery, I want to move it off the breadboard and solder it so that it can fit inside the cactus. I'll need to redesign the print to have cutouts for the temperature sensor, speaker, and ultra-sonic sensor. I also need to reevaluate the logic behind the acceptable temperature combinations Emily allows, so I might have a conversation with the other members of my team also doing temperature or discuss with the teaching staff some user testing or other research methods to figure this out. I have a lot of work to do but I'm really excited to see the prototype coming together!

Related Work

I read a paper talking about the differences between energy consumption in an office environment compared to at home. It was really interesting and stated that in the office people are influenced by others and more motivated to be energy conscious, however, at home there were other barriers that stopped them. I think adding this text-to-speech functionality will not only add to Emily being annoying but may also act as an influence that others in the office provide.

Paper: S. C. Staddon, C. Cycil, M. Goulden, C. Leygue and A. Spence, “Intervening to change behaviour and save energy in the workplace: A systematic review of available evidence,” Energy Research & Social Science, vol. 17, pp. 30-51, 2016.