Documentation & Reflection

Week 15 was spent working on the critical essay that is due on Monday. I spent a lot of time deciding what content I wanted in my essay along with how I wanted to style my essay. I decided I would have a short section regarding my design process and the different challenges I faced. I also encluded a section which talks about my personal growth througout the course. I also disassembeled my project and went into uni to return the kits to uni. Whilst there Lorna gave us all a little reward for finishing a hard semester. I had finished my Critical review essay and was officially done for the course on Sunday.

Week 14 was exhibition week, It was an extreamly exhausting but fun and exciting week. The first two days were spent finilising the website and submitting it for the stage one Portfolio on Tuesday. This included proofreading all the content finilising the style and embedding the video into the webpage. Wednesday was exhibition day. I chose to go into uni to do my exhibit, I believe this was the right decision as I felt like it was a more professional enviroment for me to work in compared to at home. The exhibit was stessfull but I felt like I portrayed the main concpet of the device well and all the feedback I received was either constructive or positive. After the exhibit we met as a team and decided what we wanted to do with the team report and worked on that. I also had a final review of my portfolio website which included adding links to the journal and the prototyping report.

This week primarily consisted of working on the annotated portfolio before exhibition week. I made the decision on Wednesday that I would stop attempting to add any additional features to my prototype and just focus on the portfolio. The majority of my time was spent doing the style for the website as website design is one of my weaker points and is something I would like to work on. After I was happy with the style i continued proofreading my content and tweaking the webiste. The later half of the webiste was spent working on the video demonstration for my project.

Week 12 was spent doing some user testing with the diffuser working, seeing how the target users react to the different features of the device. This also allowed for me to find out what last minute changes were necessacery before the final exhibition display. The Website for the exhibition was also worked on in great detail. I spent most of my time initally doing the design for the website and planning what content within the webpage is going in what spots. I also started to work out what I wanted to get done for the video demonstration.

I spent week 11 getting the diffuser to activate with the code run by my Arduino. It now activates when it a certain amount of recycling is added to the bin. I did this by using a reed relay my code to simulate shorting the switch and activating the diffuser. I also started making some design choices when considering how I want to present my final project on exhibition day. I want to work out the best way to put my device on display and show its full capabilities. I also need to consider what features I want to have implemented by exhibition day.

Throughout this week in class prototyping and peer critiquing were done this week. The three different teams I looked at were Giraffe, CDI and MoBody. I believe this activity of peer critiquing is very beneficial as the different technologies that are used in the projects can provide inspiration for your project. Feedback for my project was also received during this session, with a major focus on different methods to provide feedback when rubbish is put in incorrect bins. This week my soldering iron arrived, this allowed me to neaten my cabling and allowed me to experiment with looking at how to simulate a push of the button on the diffuser with the Arduino.

Week 9 was largely spent working on my prototype and prototype demonstration. I focused my time over this week on getting the main concept polished rather than adding auxiliary features. This was done as I thought feedback focused around the main concept would be much more beneficial to me. Once I was happy with the latest iteration of my prototype, I started working on both the video and prototype document. As a team we compiled a list of questions that were used to interview members from target audience and these interviews were recorded. I also did a separate interview focusing specifically on my branch project as an attempt to refine my conceptual model. There were two notable conclusions that were taken away from the interviews. Firstly, the students will try to put the incorrect rubbish in each of the bins and secondly, the idea to make a competition between each of the classes with a prize given to the ‘greenest’ classroom will greatly entice the student to interact with the device.

I spent week 8 writing some of the programmings for my project. I started with very basic pseudocode on a whiteboard and then eventually moved to Arduino. I managed to get both ultrasonic sensors working in unison. I also went to Bunnings to get some parts and two cardboard boxes that will represent rubbish and a recycle bin. I have labelled each of the ultrasonic sensors, one as rubbish and one as recycling. Next, I managed to make the sensors control the NeoPixel strip as it detects objects passing within 20cm of the device. Each time the rubbish sensor picks something up it gradually turns the strip red, and when the recycle sensor picks something up it turns the strip green. My focus from here is how I aim to put the device into the cardboard boxes and incorporate the sense of smell into the project.

This week and the midsemester break all worked towards the same goal when looking at the progression of my project. I made some good progress with working on the Arduino. I first created a script that just turned the “NeoPixel” Led strip on when the Arduino started. I investigated how the strip works when considering colour changes and individual light selection. Next, I played with the ultrasonic sensor; I got the readings to appear on a console through a serial connection with the Arduino. Finally, I managed to get the led to turn on when an object would reach within a certain distance of the Arduino.

We met as a group at the start of this week to discuss two major topics, what option we wanted to proceed with for the rest of this semester and secondly how we wanted to go about the completion of the proposal report. We decided as a team that the second option, all group members focusing on the same domain however individually looking at the solution from a slightly different perspective. If time allows, I intend to look at recycling within schools, focusing on the sensations of sight, smell and possibly sound. Secondly, we met about the proposal report. The report took up most of my week. My main focuses were on the target audience, their intended experience and the relevance to our theme. I feel like we all could’ve managed our time better and we will keep that in consideration going forward.

Week 5 consisted primarily on report writing for both the team based and individual reports. We initially met as a group and discussed the feedback given from the lecturers regarding our initial design concept. We then each had to bring up two different input methods as we agreed the binary method wouldn’t work along with finding two different peer review articles on the domain. My research focused on how children reacted to different ways of teaching about sustainability and what methods are more effective than others. In the next week I must narrow down my scope and choose which physical senses I would like to focus on towards our group project.

This week we made the transition to online study, I was unable to attend the first class for the week due to network connection problems however did meet with the group and was given a recap of what went on. We also had the 3.1 Proposal Pitch video due this week that was completed before our session on the Wednesday. This project went quite smoothly with the only problems occurring with the sound on the video. My contribution towards the video was a Skit that demonstrated the base idea of our project.

We also had to continue developing our concept idea and met frequently as a group to discuss options and how we plan to move forward with our design concept.

In this week of classes, we formed groups, I was grouped with Jay, Kuan, and Qisi under the theme of Digital Senses Made Physical. During the session, we made a “Team Rules” document outlining methods that we want to follow to make our work as efficiently as possible along with different strategies towards handling complications. We also created a “Notion” workspace for our group, this will help us keep all our group work in one place and keep a structured timeline for our assessment and workload. Finally, we also did some ideation when considering the theme “Digital Senses Made Physical” and the results can be seen below.

This week throughout class we spent our time listening to our peers project ideas and inspirations and providing feedback on these ideas. We also presented our two minute individual idea pitches in the sessions. I found it interesting how there were a large amount of similar ideas and inventions in over the two sessions. I also noticed that there was a large focus on mental health and physical heath within the pitches.

When constructing my idea, I didn’t just sit down and think of new brilliant ideas to change the world. I just went about my day like normal but knew I would have to come up with an idea before my presentation. I drew my inspiration from everyday tasks and how I could reinvent some of these tasks to make my day to day life easier. My idea is to reinvent the toothbrush and create a new ‘Smart Toothbrush’. The idea is that you buy a new toothbrush and stand that is linked wirelessly to your phone or computer. You brush your teeth every day like usual however the toothbrush maps the inside of your mouth and will be able to tell you the areas of your mouth that you miss as you brush.

I would also have the capabilities to track the health of your teeth and alert you should you need to go see a dentist about fillings, cracked or chipped teeth, and other common dental issues. If the toothbrush detects anything wrong with your teeth it will alert your phone or computer and send a copy of the scans to your dentist to aid in the repair of your teeth.

When constructing my idea, I didn’t just sit down and think of new brilliant ideas to change the world. I just went about my day like normal but knew I would have to come up with an idea before my presentation. I drew my inspiration from everyday tasks and how I could reinvent some of these tasks to make my day to day life easier. My idea is to reinvent the toothbrush and create a new ‘Smart Toothbrush’. The idea is that you buy a new toothbrush and stand that is linked wirelessly to your phone or computer. You brush your teeth every day like usual however the toothbrush maps the inside of your mouth and will be able to tell you the areas of your mouth that you miss as you brush.

I would also have the capabilities to track the health of your teeth and alert you should you need to go see a dentist about fillings, cracked or chipped teeth, and other common dental issues. If the toothbrush detects anything wrong with your teeth it will alert your phone or computer and send a copy of the scans to your dentist to aid in the repair of your teeth.