World Café was great fun and was a great opportunity to discuss and expand upon the different themes classified by the class last week. There were some interesting developments and discussions during this session, and I thought it was a great extension on last week’s activities. My favourite idea from this session came from the “Improving Mundane Spaces” table, where one of the participants has thought of a dynamic target for urinals to make the bathroom more fun.

After the World Café session, we were asked to preference our favourite themes from 1 – 3 as these would determine our teams for the remainder of the semester. I made my preferences in the following order: 1 – Creative Learning, 2 – Change through Discomfort and 3 – Musical Things. We were also asked to fill out a form to help assist staff in making the right decisions.

On Wednesday it was straight into the remote Q & A session with Bash, a UQ Alumni currently living in London, working as a product designer. It was interesting to hear his journey as a graduate and his experiences in London. As well as the job acquisition process. We were also asked to do a self-reflection exercise, which began with us writing a 50-word summary about ourselves, and eventually ending up with a 1-word summary and having to reflect on what that one particular word meant to us.

We came back from our break and were allocated to our teams arranged by the course staff. I believe the staff have made the right choice and I am excited to work with my new peers, Aizel, Rhea and Summer. We all appear to have met with a good first impression and are motivated to produce a great project by the end of the semester. We have set ourselves the objective of coming up with 3 great ideas each over the weekend and deciding on the best as a team to set as our project. My concern at this stage is the current virus outbreak and how that will affect the arrangements of the course for the remainder of the semester. I hope that everyone remains safe and that there is only a minimal disruption to our studies.

It was a fun and enjoyable week this week in DECO3850, as it was project ideas and critiques week. It was interesting to see all of the project ideas, and the general themes evident within the presentations. A large majority of the ideas were related to emotion/mood and mental health, incorporating the use of light to visualise emotional information. Another popular theme were smart devices and how they can be used to improve daily tasks. There were some ideas presented which have already been solved with pre-existing technology. Perhaps these ideas can be discussed and altered to form a fresh idea.

My idea was titled DrumBeats and aims to teach drums in a new manner via the use of a lighting kit, similar to what’s available for keyboards/digital pianos. Reflecting back on the performance of my presentation, I believe it was sufficient, but it did leave room for improvement. Unfortunately, I forgot to cover some of the specifics of my idea during the short presentation. Next time I will be sure to have some notes with me to ensure I cover all bases. It would have also been beneficial to format the poster in a landscape orientation to increase readability during the presentation. Given my observations of the presentations and the feedback I received on my own, I do not believe it is necessary to change my idea or approach, but it would be great if I can find a way to make the interaction more unique.

The most exciting projects for me were the ones that offered different interactions with music such as the percussion glove and the musical bus. Having new ways to interact with and enjoy music is a very exciting prospect. Overall, I believe the quality of the presentations was high with some projects having great potential for the exhibition.

After the presentations, we were asked to categorise the themes within the project ideas. This was performed by the whole room. I believe we were able to successfully categorise the information and identify the themes present within the ideas. The themes will form the basis of discussion next week. There were definitely a wide range of themes categorised in the session, which will hopefully result in some interesting discussions and ideas next week.

I look forward to the World Café session and team formations next week!

DrumBeats

We have illuminating keyboards to teach us how to play the piano, so why don’t we have illuminating drums to teach us how to play the drums?

DrumBeats brings drumming to life through the use of a modular LED lighting and sound sensing kit. Although LED lighting kits for drums already exist in the market, none of these kits provide a learning feature to users, similar to what’s available for musical keyboards.

Synthesia is a popular piano trainer available on both desktop and mobile platforms, and teaches pianists how to play piano in a fun way. The users simply plugs their keyboard or piano into their device, and the application displays “falling” notes on the screen, much like the popular game “Guitar Hero”, but with real instruments. The users are expected to press the keys at the right time and for the right duration and are notified of their score and performance at the end of the song.

DrumBeats aims to bring a similar experience to drummers, to make learning how to play the drums more fun and immersive. Novice drummers are expected to develop their rhythm and timing when learning new songs. Seasoned drummers can also use this tool in creative manner by creating custom light shows to support their performances. DrumBeats could also potentially include light up drum sticks, which show the drummers which hand to use when hitting a particular drum, or as another lighting effect, further immersing the user in their drumming experience.

It is a well-known fact that music is probably the most popular thing in the world. This means that people from all kinds of backgrounds, and of all ages, are likely to enjoy the additional visual experience and feedback that DrumBeats provides when playing and/or learning the drums.

Poster

Inspirations

Synthesia - The Piano Learning Game

DrumLite - LED Drum Lighting Kit

Hey!

I'm Nelson Gregory, and I'm in my final semester of my Bachelor of Information Technology degree. I have spent many years tinkering around with electronics and working with tools as a hobby, so this course is right up my alley!

I look forward to using all of the tools and facilities at the lab and the UQ Innovate Workshop to enhance my product development skills. These will allow me to break the boundaries between hardware,software and the tangible to develop a new an exciting installation. I aim to achieve a successful project by the end of the semester, all whilst having fun and making friends along the way!

I am keen to work with everyone to see what we can come up with!

Nelson