It took more than two months from inspiration to the exhibition. Because of the impact of the epidemic, we were forced to make many changes to our project. For example, from the original samurai to a gunman and the weapon from a katana to a laser gun. But for us, we have largely completed the plan in the proposal, and we didn't build a castle in the sky.

This video can show how to use this device for those friends who have not participated in our exhibition. And to facilitate the visually impaired people to use what optimization we have done. And how this device works,

In fact, I have experience using Arduino last semester, but the rejection was severe at that time because I wouldn't say I liked programming. However, in this project, I was responsible for a lot of code-related work. I had to learn about programming. Through this project, I know how to use the Bluetooth module and wifi module to form a small Internet of Things. I even now know how smart homes work. In the process of our project, we also made an intelligent watering device, which looks interesting.

This link is my YouTube channel, which contains a lot of content related to our project that has not been uploaded.

After the first version prototype of voice control, we know that the Google Voice service is not available in Australia. Therefore I intend to use the Internet of Things-based service to design voice recognition functions. I have check some information about this kind of service. I found that Blinker is a home IoT app similar to the Home app on ios devices. We can use it to connect the smart devices via Bluetooth or wifi, and It is highly editable, including Interface and function settings. So this software is much suitable than 'Arduino voice control' for our project.

This time, I choose the JDY-16 Bluetooth module as the bridge connecting the different parts. It has several advantages, low power consumption，Bluetooth 4.0. These two advantages allow us to connect Bluetooth terminals more steadily. We don't need to worry about too much power consumption that can cause Arduino to drive too many modules (I have encountered too many modules on Arduino before, and Arduino cannot Stable power supply).

We did a lot of things this week, re-changing the voice control code so that it can run without the support of Google voice service. And after testing, it can be successfully identified.

More importantly, I only need a small amount of code to complete this function, which is very suitable for novice programmers like me

code sharing

void button1_callback(const String &state) 

{ 

  if (state == BLINKER_CMD_ON) 

  { 

    digitalWrite(7, HIGH); //relay on 

    BLINKER_LOG("Toggle on!"); 

    Button1.color("#FFFFFF"); 

    Button1.print("on"); 

  } 

  else if (state == BLINKER_CMD_OFF) 

  { 

    digitalWrite(7, LOW); //relay off 

    BLINKER_LOG("Toggle off!"); 

    Button1.color("#FFFFFF"); 

    Button1.print("off"); 

  } 

} 

The mention of 3D sound effects reminded me of ASMR. I am very impressed by the unique and realistic effect of this audio, so I thought about using Adobe Audition to synthesize ordinary sounds into ASMR-like sounds. So I tried to put two identical mono files into different channels. After synthesis, you can hear the different sounds from the left and right headphones when you put on the headphones as long as we placed the sound document on the left channel. The user can recognize the position of the sound through the headset. So we can complete the sound in the left and right directions. Through the analysis function of Adobe Audition( right part of the image). We can view the virtual position of the sound. In this way, by adjusting some parameters, you can get a sound in front of you. So based on these principles, we can make 3D surround sound.

In the next time, I will work with my teammates to adjust some details, hoping to have a perfect performance during the exhibition.

Last week, there were four main tasks left in our project.

1. Voice control (There are some problems that we cannot solve because Google voice service can only be used in the United States)
2. Difficulty setting (we originally wanted to use different sound effects or storyline to distinguish different difficulty)
3. Integrate all the current work into a whole, which can be used by people.
4. Play sound effects (Sd card, or use unity)

Let me talk about the fourth question. I have tried many methods before. I even want to solder some wires to the sd card with an electric soldering iron, and then connect the Arduino to read the information. But there are many problems involved, and through communication with the tutor, I finally gave up this idea. Then our thinking turned to unity. We have established communication between Arduino and unity. In other words, we can directly use unity as a platform to receive Arduino signals through unity and give feedback. The feedback includes various sound effects and prompt sounds.

Voice control update

I am currently mainly responsible for voice control by using Bluetooth or wifi. The previous idea was to use an Android phone as an input terminal (because we failed to buy an Arduino speech recognition module). There are two benefits to using an Android phone. First, the Android phone, as a flexible smart platform, allows users to connect Bluetooth headsets (the headset has a mic). Second, we have the Bluetooth communication module JDY-16. This module will enable us to establish a communication connection between the mobile phone and the Arduino in a faster way. With this theoretical foundation, we try to use Android phones as part of our voice control. We downloaded the Arduino Voice Control app, which allows us to connect our Bluetooth communication module using a mobile phone. After we configured the Bluetooth module, the phone was able to connect successfully. But there is one problem that needs to be solved: Arduino Voice Control needs to cooperate with Google voice service to work.

New plan of Voice control

However, Google Voice is currently unavailable in Australia, so we have encountered some problems in this part of our voice control. Fortunately, we found an app that is very suitable for our use. Blinker is an IoT access solution designed to allow people to DIY their own IoT devices. ios, android Both support, local and remote support, Bluetooth, and WiFi support, you can drag and drop layout device control interface and easily create your IoT device. In other words, this is an app that can support people to connect their own smart devices. Because before this, I have written some code related to Bluetooth. And I'm sure our Bluetooth module is working correctly. So our first test was very smooth. Blinker was able to connect to Arduino successfully and received the signal from the mobile phone on the computer. By looking at the blinker's user manual, we found that the buttons on blinker support customization and users can use voice commands to complete the operation of a button. So we only need to bind a specific function to a button. Then add voice commands to this button. We can complete the voice control.

We have not much work left. Although there are some problems, in theory, we can find a way to solve them. The most important thing now is to integrate all the work of the four people (now we have started to do this work). We hope to complete this part of the work by Friday. Also, we need to make a shelf with some wood. We need to place some sensors on these shelves, such as laser sensors and ultrasonic sensors. Let these sensors and shelves form a monitoring system, which can always ensure that our users will not be injured due to some unexpected situations.

Plan for next two weeks

This week I'm starting to check anything about voice control and sound effects. Because these are two essential parts of our project, voice control can maximize the use of visually impaired people; they do not need to use any physical remote control, only need voice commands to complete the relevant operations. Sound effects can directly improve the user experience of the device. The central part of the safety alarm has been completed, so this time, I want to discuss these two aspects mainly.

voice control

Regarding voice control, I considered using Siri as a terminal to receive user voice commands. Shortcuts in iOS 12 let get things done with our apps, with just a tap or by asking Siri. In addition to running shortcuts available on your iOS device, we can use the Shortcuts app to create custom shortcuts, simplifying everyday tasks by combining steps across multiple apps.

I have successfully used shortcuts to control my desk lamp (not a smart desk lamp) to turn on or off. So my current idea is to use software that can remotely control Arduino as our remote control. Then through a series of measures, the app is connected with shortcuts. In this way, you can bind Siri's voice commands to the Arduino's buttons. Thus, a series of operations can be completed through voice commands. So based on this theoretical basis, what I want to do now is to find a suitable app that can connect to the Arduino Bluetooth module. Then I need to write some code for the Bluetooth module to make it work. When these tasks are completed, our voice control should be ready to use.

Sound effects

In the initial plan, it was considered that people needed to wear eye masks for testing. So we don't want our users to wear headphones. Because the human ear is also an important organ to distinguish directions. So we still want to use sound to play sound as much as possible. As it happens, Bonnie and I both have a HomePod, which is a speaker consisting of 8 speakers and a series of sensors. It can detect the surrounding environment based on where it is placed. With spatial awareness, it automatically analyses the acoustics and adjusts the sound based on its location. Direct sound, including the main vocals and instruments, is beamed to the middle of the room, while ambient sound is diffused into the left and right channels and bounced off the wall. So the entire space is filled with rich, well-defined tones. (From https://www.apple.com/au/homepod/)

In other words, we may only need these two speakers to create a very realistic sound effect. So what we need to do is to use Adobe Audition to make some analog surround sound. As can be seen from the following figure, in the audition, we can set the left and right channels of a music clip, and through some adjustments, a single channel of music can become multi-channel, or from the left channel to Right channel. In this way, to the user, they can actually hear a sound from left to right, just like someone running in front of them. And audition can also analyze the location of the sound. We can carefully adjust some parameters by viewing the analysis results to make the final sound more realistic.

So based on these theories, I will try to complete a sample in the next two weeks. If successful, I will invite some students to do a user test.

This week, each of our groups conducted some evaluations of other groups. Although it is still taught online at this stage, the advantage of using miro is that it allows us to see some details of the installation. I mean, in the past, although we were able to communicate face-to-face in the classroom, in reality, we rarely had the opportunity to view the work of other groups, because the time in the classroom was limited. We had to concentrate on making our installations. After all the teams uploaded their assignments to miro, in addition to being able to comment on each other, we can also check those interesting devices in our spare time. You can also read some pdf documents, which makes it more convenient for us to understand the students' mechanisms. Similarly, I have received a lot of feedback, some of which can improve our product experience.

---

Feedback 1:

We found your focus area intriguing and are happy to see that you have considered the safety of your users. Your scope and the intended functionally are clear and provide valuable information. It seems like you have a clear understanding of how Arduino’s work and utilise their potential effectively. With that said, you are lacking some background research. It would be useful to look into existing solutions that guide the visually impaired. Although the audio indicator that the user is outside of the safe zone is clear it is both loud and sharp and we can imagine it could become annoying. You could consider a milder or more pleasant sound without the indicator losing its core functionality. Some user research on what sounds would actually make sense for the users (do they understand what this loud annoying sound does?), would be great to see.

How I think about feedback 1

I entirely agree with some of the issues mentioned in this feedback. He was right. I did not do some background research when designing the safety alarm, such as reading relevant literature. The reason I used the Ultrasonic sensor is that I used it as a radar in a course last year. Since then, I have learned how this sensor works-detecting the distance between an object and the sensor. I used to spend a lot of time changing the code required by this sensor, so when I encountered this topic this time, I was able to think about it for the first time. So for this problem, I think, first of all, I want to figure out what I need to do with this device. I need a tool that can prompt the user. Specifically, users need to complete the tasks we designed within the prescribed scope. But because our equipment is for visually impaired people, we need to wear eye masks in our tests. This will cause a problem. People will quickly lose their sense of direction, which will lead to getting out of the safe range and causing some dangerous situations. For example, our sensors will be placed on some shelves. If people lose their sense of direction, they will easily trip over the shelves. As another example, we may choose to use a wooden stick as a sword. Therefore, it is even more necessary for the user to be within the venue at all times, because if people close their eyes to use it, it may hurt the surrounding crowd. This is what we don't want to see.

Feedback 2:

However, showing what will happen to the users when they cross the safe area might be more realistic for us to see how it would be like when users are playing the game. Having more distinct sound indication to tell the users that they are crossing the safe area rather than having beeps might be more beneficial to users as it will be easier for them to understand. In your documentation, potential risk like falling or tripping might be more prevalent for visually impaired users. How would your concept prevent this from happening as they are playing this game? It is good to consider the safety issues of this game to allow your target audience to have a safe and enjoyable experience.

How I think about feedback 2

If I understand correctly, this feedback is about our demo video. I showed in the video how the ultrasonic sensor detects people's location and how the buzzer works after people cross the safety line. This feedback mentions that it may be more beneficial to use more clear voices to prompt people, which will make them easier to understand. This suggestion is excellent, and indeed people may easily misunderstand the alarm sound. But I think it's the first reaction from people. Most people will stand on the spot when they hear the buzzer alarm and give up the actions they would have done. This will allow enough time for people around to remind the user to return to a safe location. But if the alarm sound is changed to a sentence, then when people realize the meaning of this sentence, it is very likely that the danger can no longer be avoided. So I may change the frequency of the buzzer instead of choosing other ways to replace it.

I found this video by searching related content. So in theory, we can set the tone of the buzzer ourselves.

My point of view：

These are two suggestions from two different groups. Both of these suggestions are related to my alarm system. You can see from the video that so far, the sound of the alarm is single, only the sound of the buzzer itself. In fact, this sound is very annoying and harsh. But in fact, our original design was to prompt people to return to safe places by playing people's voice prompts. But because we have not been able to solve the problem of using a memory card to play music. In the workshop, Ben suggested that we use buzzer temporarily.

Because our device is composed of many systems, for the moment I am only showing a part of our device, so it is not playable. In the next few weeks, our team will form the results of each person. Complete the device, then invite everyone to help test, and give some feedback.

We now have a problem. The brightness of our laser sensor is too low; usually, the laser irradiation distance is very far, so we can use it to do our interactive module. But now our laser sensor can only be used within a distance of less than 5 cm. For our device, this is almost useless. We need to consult Ben next Thursday and hope he can give us some suggestions about this laser sensor.

Issue 1

The second problem is that we have not solved the problem of how to play background music so far. Our background music is divided into two parts, 1. sound feedback, 2 background sound effects. The background sound effects are synthesized by 3D music, and at least four speakers are required to work simultaneously. But during this period, it also needs to be synchronized with sound feedback. So we have not been able to play these two contents at the same time so far. The plan B we now consider is to use a computer to connect a speaker to play background music, and then the four speakers around are only used to play sound feedback, such as the sound of hitting the enemy. But doing so will affect the user experience of our device. So we need Ben to give us some suggestions.

Issue 2

Regarding the feedback last week, many people suggested that I change the sound of the ultrasonic sensor because the buzzer sound is too harsh. This is indeed the case, but at present, there is still nothing that can replace the buzzer. In the course last Tuesday, Paula showed their group of small speakers. I think this may be one of our next options. We can directly use this small speaker to play some immediate sound effects instead of harsh buzzers. Or use the computer to play these prompts.

But considering the safety, the sound of the buzzer is actually not a bad thing. I mean, if the alarm emits a softer sound, it is likely not to serve as a warning. Only when the buzzer sounds loud enough can people realize that they need to return to a safe place. Maybe I can use distance as an element to adjust the volume. The sound will become louder as the distance becomes smaller.

About how to connect the work of the four people in our group, this can be a very tricky business. Because at present, each of our work is a relatively independent individual. If you connect everyone's work, you need to make some changes based on the existing code. But none of our group is good at C #, so in the foreseeable next few weeks, we may have to concentrate on doing this.

code of ultrosnic sharing

void setup() {

pinMode(trigPin, OUTPUT); // Sets the trigPin as an Output

pinMode(echoPin, INPUT); // Sets the echoPin as an Input

pinMode(buzzer, OUTPUT);

pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);

Serial.begin(9600); // Starts the serial communication

}

void loop() {

// Clears the trigPin

digitalWrite(trigPin, LOW);

delayMicroseconds(2);

// Sets the trigPin on HIGH state for 10 micro seconds

digitalWrite(trigPin, HIGH);

delayMicroseconds(10);

digitalWrite(trigPin, LOW);

// Reads the echoPin, returns the sound wave travel time in microseconds

duration = pulseIn(echoPin, HIGH);

// Calculating the distance

distance= duration*0.034/2;

safetyDistance = distance;

if (safetyDistance <= 120){ //Enter the Distance 

  digitalWrite(buzzer, HIGH);

  digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);

  digitalWrite(relayPin, LOW); 

}

else{

  digitalWrite(buzzer, LOW);

  digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);

  digitalWrite(relayPin, HIGH); 

}

// Prints the distance on the Serial Monitor

Serial.print("Distance: ");

Serial.println(distance);

}

Yesterday I rethought our entire design logic. If we follow the current plan, we should add some restrictions for players. For example, complete the corresponding task within a specified time, or complete the corresponding task in the corresponding venue. This can limit the scope of the player's activities and ensure the safety of the crowd (ignore the use of infrared guns, if you use a long sword, the user may have some potential risks to the surrounding crowd when doing a sword swing). So I decided to use some ultrasonic sensors to limit the player's range of activity. When the player walks out of the game range, they will receive some sound prompts.

In order to better detect the user's location, I think that multiple sensors can be added at the same time, and each sensor is installed on a servo. And the servo can rotate freely. Multiple sensors working simultaneously can effectively avoid dead ends.

The picture above shows a newly added restriction system, which can limit the range of users' activities and protect people around them. If this system is placed next to the four speakers, it can actually detect the distance between the enemy and the user, resulting in some new gameplay. This may require some data to be collected in subsequent tests to analyze user feedback.

Final Circuit Design

What has been done

I completed the installation of the entire project to ensure the safety of players. This device is assembled from multiple ultrasonic sensors and connected to a relay. The other end of the relay is connected to the power cord of other equipment. When the player stays in an unsafe area for more than a period, the entire device will automatically power off, interrupting the game to ensure that no accidents occur.

The detection distance of the ultrasonic sensor is set to 1 meter, which is an acceptable distance after testing, although it seems very far. But this distance provides people with a specific buffer time, allowing people to have enough time to return to the center of the venue after entering an unsafe area. Effective Angle of ultrasonic sensor − <15 °. So it may produce dead corners. I placed each sensor on a servo motor to prevent players from entering the detection dead corner and causing some accidents. In this way, the entire device looks like radar and can be rotated left and right, which can effectively eliminate the dead detection angle.

In addition, we tested this device during the group discussion today. The entire device can determine the position of the player in time during the operation, and when the player crosses the "boundary", it can immediately emit a harsh alarm sound to let the player return to the initial position. And I tried to cross the "border" from different angles, the device can still give sound feedback in time. So this device has been able to successfully complete the task of reminding the user so far.

Another thing is, I need to consider how to connect my work with the unity code of Shawn. Because of the impact of the epidemic, each of us is responsible for different content. The codes that may be used are different. What I want now is to use Siri or Google voice as a bridge between various systems. Or use a relay. When we make a voice command, we can control the relay to open or close. In this way, we don't need any operation, just need to give voice instructions.

Because our package was delayed, we decided to make Plan B. Changed the samurai sword in the original design to an infrared gun. Keep our gaming experience to the greatest extent. In Plan B, the receiving device is changed from a laser to an infrared receiver. People need to use an infrared gun to aim at the target, pull the trigger, and complete a kill mission.

We spent an afternoon transforming the remote control of the toy car into the infrared gun we needed. We disassembled and modified the Arduino remote control. The schematic diagram is as follows,

For our project, we have completed the most basic functions. Next we need to create a surround stereo sound effect, and after a group discussion, we decided to add a virtual venue to the game. Four ultrasonic sensors are used to locate the user's position, so that when the user goes out of bounds, they can get some feedback. At the same time, this function can also help us avoid some unnecessary risks.

Unfortunately, we are still waiting for the package of the Arduino kit we purchased. We have now simulated most of the work through the computer, and also completed part of the code work. Because our initial plan was based on the Laser tripwire system, so laser makes the most critical part of our entire project, we can not complete this project without this kit. Of course, to prevent accidents, we have prepared a Plan B.

First, let me introduce the circuit we originally planned. In simple terms, it is composed of two parts system, laser, and laser receiving system. A 9v battery powers the laser. The main component of the laser receiving system is the photoresistor. When the laser light hits the photoresistor directly, the resistance value will change. This will help us detect the movement of the sword. The other main component is the speaker, which can play our storyline and some task prompts to assist the user in completing the task. And can provide some sound feedback. For now, our initial plan is to use four speakers (four sets of Arduino in series) to complete the entire project foundation. On this basis, further improvements are being made, including the possibility of using headsets in the future or using VR technology (the user base will change).

Regarding our Plan B, we have now completed the first test with the existing Arduino kit, and the results show that this solution is feasible. Use the infrared remote control and an infrared receiver to form a system to replace the original laser receiving system, so that our game interaction may change from sword to firearm. Tomorrow we plan to buy some necessary tools, such as electric soldering iron, hot melt adhesive, and some wires. I hope that in the next week, we can successfully receive our package.

We are busy writing our project proposal. In writing a proposal, there is a lot of work to be done. In the Presentation, which ended last week, we received a lot of feedback. It can be seen that many people are interested in our project and made some suggestions. The first thing we need to do is to filter these feedbacks. We need to find useful (and within our ability) feedback. Then you need to search for related content and determine the difficulty. Although this course does not require us to make all the plans in the proposal, but I still hope we can make a complete one, and will not affect our user experience because of any technical problems.

Team task

The Team Domain (Concept/Context/Problem Space): Cindy

Response to Feedback:Yanhao

Related Work: Shawn

Audience & Intended Experience: Bonnie

Relevance to Theme: Cindy

PROJECT PLAN: Bonnie

For Individual task

My current work to think about some of the hardware or sensors that our project needs. And we have tried to sum up some of the feedback we got from last week's presentation through an afternoon discussion. The feedback is roughly divided into 4 categories. In the proposal to be completed next, we will further analyze these four types of feedback and find out those suggestions that can improve our project based on our capabilities.!

Last Saturday we had some discussions online and identified that the 'Hasaki' is the project we want to complete in the near future.

Theme of Team

Our theme is ability-centric interactions, which require us to design interactions from an ability-specific point-of-view for some specific targets. For our project, we are going to create hearing-somatosensory games, which focus on improving hearing ability, especially for blind people.

Original Idea

The initial intention was from a YouTuber, Bertolt Meyer, who's born without an arm. However, he made himself a mechanical synthetic arm to satisfy all his needs, including his love of music. I was touched and inspired by him and wanted to design something for the disabled to make their life more convenient or bring them more happiness. As hearing is one of the most essential sensory to feel the world for the blind people, and the level of hearing ability determines how much they fell the real world. Therefore, our human value hopes to provide them with exciting entertainment, which can help improve hearing ability at the same time.

What is this project/ installation looks like?

How it works

Scenario

Some Warning

Safety is something that needs to be taken into consideration since waving around a sword of some kind leaves risks in it self. Another thing is that the target group (blind people) is a very sensitive target group and you guys should therefore be careful when making something for this group. What mean by that was just be aware that this is a protected group when it comes to research so keep that in mind.

However, at the moment it seems quite simple and could get boring quickly so I think we need to add another element/story/object to engage users.

More function

maybe come up a way that present visual information using sound, rather than just sound comes from different directions

On a technical note we can get full 3d audio just on a pair of headphones. The examples we showed had the people using their hearing to move getting more information from the surrounding environment than just enemy direction. Having people listen for quieter sounds and giving the player the ability to move around the room would add interesting complexity. Other control methods could also be added by using a cane as well for the user to be able to feel their environment.

So in one word, We need to think a lot about how can we make this installation more playful and meaningful. Since our potential is the people we need protect them avoid the potential risks.

Review the poster

Through world cafe, I realized that I only focused on the form of this interactive installation, and ignored that every idea needs to meet some conditions. To be honest, I don't want to give up this idea, because I think it is very creative to make Low-resolution display with umbrella, so after the world cafe, I rethought the idea.

In Blackboard, There are summarized 17 different topics. I think my idea fits the theme of "Enhanced mundane spaces". In my presentation, I mentioned the use of Ultrasonic sensor to calculate the distance between people and the facility, And it will carry on the corresponding opening and closing movement along with the user's body movement.

However, I think I was in a wrong way to complete this poster. I have re-think the whole installation. Being an installation, It must fitting into the everyday life. It may can do something for people by using some simple and specific way. Several things we need to think, How the interaction could change over the time, How the installation can encourage commuters to talk to each others, and how the installation can remind people or give some information to them.  In addition, I also think maybe there are some interactions can encourage them to do something to maintain health.

So, I add some functions, like Deep breathing by following the changing of the umbrella grows and shrink like Apple Watch.

When the bus gets closer to the station, the umbrella will gradually shrink. Now, If there are more than two commuters play together, It can give them some different Interaction animation by controlling the umbrella.

World cafe

Affected by the coronavirus, I am still in Thailand, but I can return to Brisbane the day after tomorrow to participate in the course. After speaking this week, I found a lot of interesting ideas. I sorted them out and said some of my thoughts.

The heart-warming maze

As the article mentioned, as AI matures, it will be critical to study its influence on humans and society. There will be many challenges, such as, between automation and human control, working strategically towards becoming more dryven my humanistic concerns than deterministic ones, and taking into account the social dynamics involved. And as technology matures, they should be able to respond to human emotions and promote human security. And as technology matures, they should be able to respond to human emotions and promote human security. And these new technologies should not violate some of the hidden dangers mentioned in the three principles of robots

Visualization of health

This is a health related device. First of all, it is portable, and it allows people to see their health more intuitively. Especially now, coronavirus is spreading almost everywhere in the world, if everyone has such a device. That way people can check their questions anytime, anywhere. When some symptoms appear, you can achieve self-isolation and effectively spread the virus.

Multifunction Mask

This is a very meaningful interactive device that can help autistic children and deaf people communicate with the outside world. The user only needs to bring a mask-like device. Make some communication through what is shown on the mask. But I think the form of masks may not be a good choice, because people look like wearing masks to refuse communication. So I think it would be better if I changed to another way.

Table dating

This device can reduce the chance of breaking up between couples. For couples who are in college, when they are on vacation, they will return to their homes for months without meeting. Although now extremely powerful smartphones can allow them to make video calls or chat online. But this approach is just a matter of equity. The device mentioned by YIFan can make people have a real face-to-face dating experience, not just limited to a small smartphone screen. But if there are other ways to replace VR glasses, it is better, because this device is not very friendly to myopia users.

The Rhythm Exercise

As it happens, I have watched this video mentioned by TianYi. If I remember correctly, in the video, the author placed more than a dozen ultrasonic sensors on a driver board. These sensors are very sensitive to ultrasonic waves and can convert sound waves that people cannot hear into sounds that people can feel. It's actually interesting that if we really have such a device, we might be able to look at the world from the point of view of a puppy and see which sounds are not animal friendly, so that we don't feel the animal's inexplicable restlessness Surprised. So I think from this perspective, this device will become more interesting.

Smash It

I need such a device so much. Too much has happened in the past three months in 2020. And many people are unable to attend school on time due to the effects of coronavirus, which makes them more stressed than usual. If there is such a device for painting, these stressful and angry people can use these devices to relieve their stress. However, the material of the device may be taken into consideration when designing. After all, the explosive force when people are under great pressure cannot be underestimated. If the material is too strong, it may cause harm to users.

Good MEM Box

When we were young, the teacher asked us to keep a diary. We just kept journals just for homework. Later, there was slowly no separate time to write his own diary. This device helps us to record memories. Recording good memories in life is a very happy thing. By using this device, people can help them remember these wonderful things by completing a mini-game-jigsaw puzzles, and can share them with their family and friends, and may encourage them to share good memories.

Melo Catcher

It can be seen that people's stress is really heavy. I have seen a lot of topic is related to stress. Jianing's design is different from that of several other students. She wants people to ease the pressure through music. Melo Catcher is an interactive music box that lets people play music by touching a wall, table, or other object. This has the great benefit that people no longer have to spend a lot of time learning a musical instrument. But one of the obvious flaws is that if the user's pressure is particularly high, they may not have the patience to rotate the handle. I think that it is better to control the music box by using the handle than to use other methods, such as gestures.

Umbrella

umbrellas have found their way into many areas

protecting somebody from sun, rain, snow, wind, sand…

I was inspired by the small umbrella on the cocktail，It’s small but fully-equipped. Same as other umbrella，It consists of rib、canopy and a handle.

Its simple mechanical structure can control canopy closing and spreading.

Seen from the top of the umbrella. If canopy is regarded as a circle, then the circle becomes larger in the process of the umbrella from the closed state to the fully extended. So I think this can be used as the display part of a device.

I was thinking, if each umbrella is fixed on a servo motor, and it is ultimately controlled by Arduino. In this way, dozens or even hundreds of such umbrellas can be used as a screen display. And, in a course last semester, I tried to use Arduino to make an interactive device, which uses Ultrasonic Sensor, which is a sensor that can calculate the distance between objects. In this way, if people approach or move away from the device, the displayed picture will be different. If this device is hung on the wall, then this is a subversive decoration.

closed state

spread state

display

Reference

YouTube - Need the video id from the URL - the bit after watch?v=

Daniel Rozin, Artist and Professor, Interactive Telecommunications Program, NYU, makes mechanical "mirrors" out of uncommon objects that mimic the viewer's movements and form

Imitating this art form, I can express the mirror in the video as an umbrella, and make some changes to the way of interaction. I think this work can greatly attract people's curiosity.

The challenges in HCI

Because of the coronavirus, I had to choose to return to Australia after 14 days of self-isolation in Thailand. Due to the unfamiliarity with the network environment, in the past week, I had a hard time keeping up with the progress of the class, because my Internet speed was not enough to support me to update the screen on zoom in real time. So in this reflection, I just want to talk about my own views on the 7 challenges.

It can be said that the past decade is the most breakthrough and innovative decade in human history: the maturity of smart phones, artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, cloud computing, gene editing, and the commercialization of genomics. Overall, these new developments have led us to reconsider the challenges facing modern design.

For me: I think one of the most important challenges is learning and creativity. Creativity and learning are two closely related concepts that form the concept of creative learning and should be pursued within the scope of current and future education curricula. And I think creativity is the foundation of all design. Finally, new technologies have the potential to support emerging learning styles, which have recently evolved and are universally influenced by the technology of everyday life in the new generation. Personalization of future learning will be very important. So I think creating and learning is the most important challenge.Also, Changes and innovations in educational methods can really provide great convenience to people and thus improve their work and learning efficiency. For example, the distance learning method that we use now, it still has a lot of imperfections, and it can't be compared with the face-to-face traditional education method, just as we are now. So, I think education is the most important thing, and that's why I think Learning & Creativity is the most important thing.

Who am I

I’m Horace, a master of Interaction Design student. This is the 3rd semester of my studying. I’ve been studying several skills in the previous study. Last semester I used Arduino to make a radar device that would keep people away from mobile phones. Since then I find this course of making physical interaction models very interesting

Expectation

As I mentioned above, I love these physics model-based courses. So this semester, I want to learn how to use laser cutting machine. However, now that I am affected by the coronavirus, I am undergoing self-isolation for 14 days, and I hope to apply for studio training after the isolation. In addition, my undergraduate major is animation, and I am very good at graphic design. I have strong hands-on skills, but my programming level is very poor. So this semester I hope to be able to team up with some students who are good at programming to complete an outstanding work.