This week I got to see the feedback which people gave to my project by looking at my video, and reading my document. They had many good suggestions and ideas regarding my prototype. I already thought so many other possibilities once I read their comments.

So the biggest concern regarding my project was the competition among the children and how it can make them sort of cheat and make them throw the garbage in the wrong side of the bins (non-recyclable waste in the recyclable ones) in order to gain more advantage over other classrooms. To tackle this I had to come up with another method of taking their input. I decided I didn't want any competition among the children, and wanted this to be a collaborative effort to bring a change to the environment. This is because after all the main motive is to make the build a good habit, and due to this distracting competition, the product might loose its actual objective.

Some comments also suggested me to make a camera system which would detect if a garbage was recyclable or not. I think would a very complex system to make, and would probably require a big team to work towards it, but as my team was working on individual solutions to the problem space.

I thought I would talk to my tutors about this. They suggested a possibility of making a system which would detect the colour of the object, and later I can simulate it to show that it is detecting different items. I think this could work with the current system I have. But of course, I have to work with sound as an output as well before I can move any forward.

Ofcourse during this time, I just feel working towards a common solution would have been a lot less stressful as this is a 4 unit course. I think we as a team could have achieved a lot more by this point if we were to work together. But even after I had asked my teammates to work together earlier, they suggested that we worked on individual solution, which in my perspective wasn't the best way for this course. I think we as a team also lacked proper leadership. Leadership not in a sense where a leader has divide work or anything like that, but someone who would make sure that the team works together and come up with a solution to any problem no matter what. I would have taken this role during the starting, but as I am already doing 10 units this semester, I was already overflowing with work (and the stress which comes with it).

Anyhow the team still managed to keep contact from time to time.

You can also see the 'globe' i ended up making due to the lack of time.

Reflection (my submission):

After I completed making my first prototype, I recorded the different parts of the video using my phone. I asked my flatmate to be a part of it and do the actual demonstration. I thought that would be a better way to represent rather than me using my own product for demo. I also asked a few questions to the user regarding my product.

Overall I think the video was of a very good quality with both goof audio and video.

During the studio, we were meant to give detailed critique to a 3 other assigned teams. We decided to watch the videos one by one per team and read each document and give critique before moving onto the next person's video and document. I think this was a good and quick method. As we all waited for each other to complete writing our critiques, we were getting more detailed ideas and improvements for the projects we were looking at. What I had from previous courses as well was that the best way to give feedback was if I pointed at something that I didn't found the best, I suggest a better or a different way. This way, the person would be able to think about other ideas as well.

After we went through all of them, We thought it'd be best if we divided all the individual project's critiques that we all wrote and basically summarised the points. In the end, we all got to summarise 3 to 4 appraisals. This didn't take too much time as we all had written good, valid points for the appraisals.

Report Back

What have you achieved in the last week towards your prototype goals?

My theme is digital sensation and creative learning and my goal is to create a product which teaches its target audience a good habit. The good habit being disposing of any waste and garbage properly. My target audience are children going to school of age between 6 - 16 years. Since last week, I went to the workshop and clay helped me get a new Arduino as there was some problem last week with my Arduino. Once I got my new Arduino, I worked on connecting a NEOpixel ring. Once I connected it and it started working, I next connected the 2 ultrasonic sensors and made sure that those were detecting things properly.

What are the last-minute tasks you need to complete before prototype submission next Monday?

Before submission of my prototype, I need to make sure that the ultrasonic sensors and the lights work together. Basically I need the light to change whenever either one of the ultrasonic sensors are used.

To be specific, I need the colour of the neopixel ring to turn into red when the non-recyclable waste ultrasonic sensor is interacted and turn green when the recyclable waste ultrasonic sensor interacted. As I have already made sure that the colour change is slow and is done in a smooth motion, it should be easy to connect the 2 devices properly.

What are your concerns/needs in regard to getting those done?

What could be a greater concern than both the devices that I talked about in the previous question not working together? That being my greatest concern, I just have to assemble the prototype itself as well, which shouldn't take much time as I a box and a plank which I will be using to make the 'Globalzoo', the bin itself.

Prototype Development:

Other than the functionality, I have to figure a way out to show the globe itself. I can either make use of a translucent paper and cut into a circle and draw the earth itself on it or I can but a spherical glass lamp of some kind. I am not entirely sure if the cardboard box will be able to hold the weight of the lamp. But the amount of time I have left, I think for this prototype, I will just go with the first option of using the translucent paper.

I started playing around with the Arduino Uno and found that for some reason it is not working. I am trying to make the example program which comes which the application called "blink" which when connected will make the 'L' LED blink every second. But apparently it is not working. I tried a few troubleshoots like changing the USB cable, tried different ports, tried reinstalling the Arduino app, with the latest update. And after reading a few threads online related to this, I found that there might be a problem with my Arduino bootloader. I also posted a question regarding this on slack. Hopefully I get this sorted ASAP, and I start working on the actual project.

I also made a few questions for the interview/questionnaire that we will be using in our team to ask questions to children. Eddie will be asking his sisters and cousins who are younger than him and I will do the same. The questions are related to recycling, global warming and our protect overall. We tried to simplify the questions so that our younger audience will be able to answer the questions.

This week I started working on how the device - Globalzoo is going to work. I made a simple diagram which looks like system architecture diagram or a work flow chart so that its easier for me or anyone else to understand how this will work.

This diagram shows what I want to achieve on the initial stage of this project. After I complete making this, I want to introduce in sounds to this project. As the target audience is children, making it visually and audibly interactive can bring more attention to this device.

I am also working on making a list of all the materials that I will be needing to make the globe. I am thinking of buying a spherical lampshade cover to give it a shape of the globe and maybe draw the continents using a permanent marker. The only problem is, they are too expensive or not in a very good shape, so I will have to keep looking.

upcoming week, I will be starting to build the input part of the physical prototype itself which will be related to the ultrasonic sensors.

Week 5

I had a rough week 5 because my accommodation kicked everyone out due to rising cases in COVID-19 in Queensland and for safety because of which I couldn't attend either the Tuesday's session or the Friday's session. I had informed my team about this and was trying to keep my communications as quick as possible. My team had communicated with me and had decided that we will be proceeding with the Option-2 for our team concept and individual prototype building part.

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Week 6

This week, I had to finish the team part and the individual part of our proposal report. We had decided that I will be doing the problem space/concept part of the report. I had started researching more about global warming and its cause. I was trying to think about what are the different things that we can use or we can inform children about global warming. I found out stuff such as plastic contributes to greenhouse gas emissions at every stage of its lifecycle, from its production to its refining and the way it is disposed of. Meaning that it's not only bad for the ocean and environment, it also contributes to global warming.

After the team part, I worked on the individual part of the report. I read all the feedback again. Kasey had copied all the feedback and put it on our google drive which made things a lot easier.

As we hadn't finalised any input method, my plan for the break is to come up with a system of input, and output response. A system which should be interactive and fun for children. Although it is easier to come up with the output method from the globe of our concept, I will look into different sensors that can be used as well.

On the Tuesday of week 4, we had our group presentation on a topic which had to be novel, interactive, fun and physical. We had decided that we will be going with the topic of teaching people about global warming with an interactive device. I think live presentation in front of a classroom would have been a lot more fun because we were planning on having volunteers to come up and do a small demo of our concept. But, cause of restrictions we decided to make a video to explain our concept as demonstrating the concept online-live through a skit would have been very difficult.

We had divided into different tasks that everyone in the group will be researching about and preparing for the video. I particularly looked into explaining the problem space. I recorded my voice using my phone (which did not have the quality that I was expecting) and sent my part of the presentation with the recording to Kasey, who was editing the video together and had the rest of the voice over. Eddie had planned to do the skit for giving a demo of our concept with his housemates.

After our presentation, we received critique feedback from the class, all the teaching staff members on slack and via zoom.

After that, we talked to Alison and clay in a private zoom room on the things that we can improve and they helped with different ideas. The main aspects that we talked about were how to make the input more interactive and who will be our target audience.

Later in the week, we had a group meeting to discuss about the proposal-report. We also tried to discuss the various input methods that can be replaced in our original idea, but we failed to do so. Hence we decided to meet again on Sunday where everyone would bring in 2 ideas for 'ways of input' and bring in 2-3 research paper related to any aspect of our concept.

I had mostly researched global warming and sociology, and teaching children about global warming which I shared and summarised to our group. One of the input methods that I preferred that I thought of was having 2 garbage bins as the inputs. One for plastic and the other for biodegradable things only. Depending on how much each bin weighs, it will affect the globe accordingly. such as if the plastic garbage bin weighs more, then the earth will turn grey and brownish with sounds on cars honking, whereas if there is more biodegradable things or less plastic the globe turns green and blue with sounds of birds chirping and rivers flowing. But the only problem that we discussed with this way of input was that it was too binary, like before when we had received the feedback about our presentation.

Eddie came up with another Idea of input where we use a strip which can take our inputs via our finger. We will be able to glide across it to input.

But we still have to research more on the ways of inputting.

Later we also divided the sections of the individual report to make things easier.

Week - 3

After teams were formed in the world cafe session (I couldn't attend the sessions that week as I was ill and a bit paranoid about it being the COVID-19) I met my team later in the week which included Kasey, Eddie and Kaun. Our team meeting included a brainstorming session where we came up with different ideas for the problem space, technologies we can use, target audience, and different emotions that humans have. We also came up with solutions to the problem spaces that we discussed. We used colour post-it notes to divide our topics into different sections.

We also had another meeting on Sunday where our agenda was to finalise on a concept that we will be taking forward.

We decided on a problem space that relates to teaching people about global warming.

Inductions

In week 1 and 2 I had my UQ innovate, space induction session and soldering session where I learned to use different tools and equipment which I might use during the construction of my project. I also learned the importance of following all the safety procedures and instructions.

At the end of the UQ innovate session we were all given a 3-D puzzle which could be assembled into a cube (material used - Acrylic sheet, colour - matte black) with "PHSY COMP" engraved on it (which I found pretty cool).

In the soldering session, We made a small and easy circuit using a perf board, a switch, a red LED light, A 15-ohm resistor, a button cell, a few wires and of course a soldering iron. I think I did a decent job for the first time as my circuit was working fine.

We also had a 78-207 space induction and got familiar with all the rules and also tools that are available there to use.

Presentations

On Tuesday and Wednesday, We had the 2-minute pitch which everyone had to give individually on their concepts and ideas. I loved how everyone had so many different unique ideas and concepts. My pitch was on Wednesday and I like to think it went pretty well. Thankfully I was under the 2-minute mark to explain my concept thoroughly.

Critiques (The Squeaker)

Most of the people who gave critiques on my concept said that it was Relevant & Novel and there was clear communication. Which I highly appreciate. I also loved a few Ideas where someone suggested that a human-sized mouse in an office could be creepy/weird so maybe change it to something else which is a fair point.

Another point that was good was that this review system by punching or high-fiving could be very biased like the user will not give a punch to the squeaker if they know that their boss/head is watching them. I think to change this, The squeaker could be created inside a sound-proof booth or something similar to that.

Something that I think I forgot to mention/emphasis in my pitch was that the squeaker is completely anonymous. But again with 2 mins to explain my idea, I guess I just wanted it to go as smooth as possible so I might have missed a few points.

Problem

Different workplaces have a different working environment. It is very important for a company’s Employer to know the frustration level of his employees. A happier and stress-free environment means that the employees will be performing better which will benefit the company. The stress of work at a workplace may sometimes also lead to a drop in work performance, depression and even anxiety.

Concept

So, I thought of a device that either takes a punch or takes a high five. This will be in the form of a character like a big cartoon mouse.

The users can either

1) punch in its stomach (which will have a soft cushion with a detector for measuring how hard they punched)

or

2) give the mouse a high five (a soft area near its hand with detectors as well).

A punch means the user is stressed while a high five means a user is overall happy and is having a good day.

The Employers will then receive weekly data of recorded punches and high fives which will further tell them if they need to bring changes to their work environment. The data will be collected by the detectors, depending on how hard they high five or punch.

Furthermore, if a user punches the mouse, it will prompt a response from the mouse that will tell the user to do a breathing exercise that will help them relax.

This concept is in motive to decrease the overall work-related stress and make the workplace a happy, stress-free environment.

(open image in a new tab for a bigger view)

Inspiration

I got my idea from talking to a friend about his workplace and the offices' stress environment. He shared his experience with me about how many of his colleagues were stressed out for work but would not say so. I hence started working upon this idea.

References:

Reynolds, C. J. (n.d.). The Sensing and Measurement of Frustration with Computers. 92.

Services, D. of H. & H. (n.d.). Work-related stress. Retrieved March 2, 2020, from https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au:443/health/healthyliving/work-related-stress

The Power of The High Five. (2017, October 5). Maki Performance Training. http://makiperformance.com/power-high-five/

About Me

My name is Jaskaran Sehmbey and I am a personable and enthusiastic 3rd-year student who is a quick learner and a progressive thinker. I enjoy interacting with others with a positive approach. I am a solid team player and a good individual contributor as well.

I am currently studying Bachelors of Information Technology and pursuing my major in Software Design. I have many interests where I want to work in the future like game designing, Mobile App development, and web-designing.

Expectations

This being my last semester, I hope to build something innovative or something that helps others. I would love to work upon a project where I get to use the tools & equipment in the UQ Innovate area. Lastly, I hope to work hard and achieve good grades by the end of this semester (but who doesn't :p).