Overall, the exhibition went smoothly as the team collaborated well to deliver our project to the audience. At the beginning of the exhibition, the team was not familiar with the delivery form and was quite unsure what to do at first when the guests came to our chat room. However, we managed to get used to it and started to develop our own project delivery approach. I have received several feedback either from the guests or my teammates.

• Interesting way to present the concept and the prototype is well-designed.
• The prototype perfectly presents the concept and the logic of it is really clear.
• One of the classmates like the idea of the team getting the same teddy bear so that the visitors can easily see that the prototype comes from the same concept
• The audio feedback itself is distracted thus, is not clear enough to be presented through the video and the user may not be able to understand clearly
• The tone of the audio is not friendly enough and the use of word is too complex for the target age group
• Interesting to see the how the prototype is building in the bear

The feedback from Jen.

This week, I have completed the prototype by incorporating the speaker to it. The Arduino board is then put into the bear to simulate the user interactions. The four leds are placed on the tummy, so that the users can clearly see the colour lighting, the speaker and the pressure sensor are put on the right ear and the mouth respectively for a better user experience, and 4 patches with buttons implemented are the children’s main interaction which are placed on the bears palm and sole.

As the game begin, the bear will welcome the user and briefly introduce how to play the game and then, the users will press any of the patches to start. When the user enter the sequences correctly, the system will output ‘Great job, you have successfully memorised 5 lights’ to encourage the users and notifying them about the progress. If the user insert incorrect value, the system will output ‘you are so close, try again!’ in a friendly tone. I chose the female voice for the audio output since i personally think that the tone is softer and is closer to the the mother’s image.

This week, I was rushing to finish the prototype and start filming the demo. Building the Arduino into the bear took me a lot of efforts since it was relatively hard to stick the components on the fluffy surface and to put the materials in the right position. I have used a cardboard to place the four leds on and use a needle and thread to attach to the bear. Instant glue for rest of the components

Demo

The demo went well, however, the video was a bit long due to the long gaming time. The video demonstrated different situations of the product:

• Welcome and intro
• Instructions to start the game
• When the user passed the challenge
• When the user failed the challenge
• When the user head to the next challenge
• When the children squeezed too hard so that they are hurting the toy
• When the user completed the game

User testing

I have some people testing on my product, and the feedback were mainly positive.

• The concept and the delivery method is novel
• The patches/buttons are not sensitive enough
• The lights are visually engaging as it presents the basic forms of colours and the position within the bear is easy to recognise.
• The audio feedback is encouraging, however the tone is flat

Prototype

Voice feedback

---

• how dare you squeeze / squeeze my hand to match the colour
• Instructions / talked about the games
• Establish boundaries - ‘Owch that hurts!’

Patches

---

• Painting on cottons/objects to match with the lights (easier to find closer colour with the lights
• similar to the light colour: Only direct match colours coz chidden don't know how to read yet
• Reinforcement to learn- put both colours and text on the patches
• Be sensitive coz children will not be able to easily identifies different saturation of colours

Consideration

---

• Level the difficulties up: Define the pacing well - how quickly is the light turned
• Focus on the nature of the interaction / experiences
• Use the light sequence in the bear tummy (Try pixel strips
• Voice input is not necessary

Our team agreed to get the same plush bear to implement the functions in to represent that the concept as a whole. I am currently working on combining the breadboard and the bear with speaker implemented. I have made patches with clays that have similar colour according to the lights for children to respond to as shown in the image below. The similar colour patches and the text allow children to learn faster about the spelling and practice their reaction speed.

Portfolio

I have developed the frame of my portfolio and I will start filling in the contents and polishing the website after the prototype is finalised. The portfolio includes the following parts: Home, concept, demonstration, design process, reflection and about me page. With those contents, I can clearly present to the users what I have been done over the semester.

Future work - Prototype

My goal for next week

• Get the blue LED for the light implementation
• Build the speaker and store the audio feedback/instructions
• Combine what I have developed in the bear

Key Feedback:

• Incorporate more physical interaction between the user and the prototype.
• Project the lights on the wall and the users interact with them
• Change the sound effects
• ‘Try again’ options or additional buttons
• design the first game further
• look into different interaction modes as bop-it / more open-ended interaction
• difficulty level for the target user
• how does the current prototype attract children's interest > maybe develop a storyline
• the consideration of long-term starring at the LEDs
• The feedback of whether the user has pressed the correct button

Concern:

• the suitable way to deliver the concept
• how to incorporate more physical interaction

Key priorities:

• Analyse the feedback and determine the next step
• Talk with our team to decide about the final delivery
• Discussed with the teaching team for further suggestions
• Improve the communication of the work (prototype itself, video presentation)

I have received beneficial feedback in terms of the deliver approach, interaction method and the prototype itself. There are several sections I would like to revised on my prototype:

• incorporate more physical interactions with the users: projecting the game on the wall or on the floor, so that the children can use their whole body to interact with the game. The concern was that it would be hard to link back to the physical toy, ITSY, since the toy may limit the children's physical movement.
• Different feedback: Sound and light feedback will be the output when the user interacts with the prototype. However, the suggestion was that the children may have as they are starring at a small piece of work for a long time.
• Use flow: The use flow of the prototype is not clear enough as the voice interaction is not yet complete as well as the action to be made to complete to the next game. The process has to be based on the prototype, since with the revision above, the delivery form may be changed.

The next step is to determine the form of the prototype in terms of interaction mode and method, difficulty level and the responds to users’ action.

Critique

The method our team have used to provided feedback for the other three teams was that each of us noted down the feedback towards the project and discussed and shared our ideas together and then incorporated into one. The projects I have reviewed were really inspiring, and Twisted is one of the concepts I really like in terms of the physical interactions and the way it engages user with the prototype. Team X is another interesting project, which it uses sound, light and visual feedback to motivate people to exercise. I am interested about one of the prototype, which uses neo pixel as a progress bar to encourage user to complete the whole exercise set, since the way of using lights to represent the progress is an innovative way and can directly present to the users when they are doing exercises.

Reflection on individual project

After reviewing the different prototypes, I have some reflections on my own work:

• The content of the video should include more aspects on the technology use to build the prototype
• Whether focusing on just one game or remaining on building three challenges
• The prototype may not allow children to have much physical movement when they interact with it

I have done more researches towards the benefits of how practicing cognitive can help in the children’s adult life in terms of concentration and memory skills. Research has shown that working memory capacity, which is the ability to keep information a short period of time for cognitive processing, is one of the strongest predicts of future achievements in mathematics and reading. Furthermore, the consequences of low level physical activities are also investigated. It is shown that children having less motor movement results in low self esteem which leads to negative behaviours and psychological conditions.

For the prototype, I have determined the technology and how the prototype will be. I will be developing a system where the children can practice their cognitive skills in a series of games. There were three games where each of them are aiming to develop one cognitive skill. The below image is the interaction process, as it clearly shows how the users interact with the system and the responses the users will received.

My last-minute tasks were to finish up my prototype and report and start recording the video. I have already looked into some existing examples and have tried out some about the LED patterns and how to link between LEDs and buttons. Once my report and the prototype are finalised, I can start recording and editing my video.

My major concern was that I do not have enough time to complete the prototype to what I have expected it should be. I have a relatively tight timeframe, because of the changing concept based on the interview and the research outcome, parts of my report have to revise and the research towards the technology needs to be redone.

Domain research

Observation

I have encountered difficulties when searching for suitable sources from Youtube. I’m not sure if because of the method, I could not find suitable videos for me to observe the children's interactions with the toy.

Interview

In week 8, I have started the interviews to consolidate the concept and receive suggestions from the target audience. There were 3 participants which were parents and child care teachers. The questions below were asked:

a. How are you related to the children from 3-5 yo (parents/child care teacher)

b. How long does the children play the toy per day?

c. What toy does the children has regarding colours and shapes?

c-1. Does the children taking the toy to play by themselves?

c-2. What is the style of toy the children is playing? (plush toy/blocks)

c-3. What is the limitation of the current toy

c-4. What advanced features do you think can be developed based on the current toy?

d. Do you have any suggested physical learning style

e. How do you usually encourage your children? What is the most useful approach?

f. What kind of interaction is interested to the children?

g. Does the children has any special requirements regarding the toys? (features, appearance, peer)

h. What kind of toy will you buy (teaching-oriented/)

• Explain Concept

a. Do you think your children will like it?

b. Which feature do you like the most?

c. What form do you think is the best way to present? (plush toy/blocks)

d. What age group do you think is the most suitable for the concept?

e. Do you think the interaction is playful enough?

f. Do you think the kids will be able to get out from the toy/learn?

g. Further suggestions?

Concept

With the feedback I’ve received, I have altered my concept to develop children’s cognitive ability such as concentration and memorising skills.

Concept 1

The first concept was developing a flappy bird game, and the children played the game using the pressure sensor. The larger the pressure is, the higher the flappy bird will fly. The goal of the concept was to practice the kids control with the small muscles, however the major concerns were that the children did not incorporate enough motor skills with the toy and the game requires screen to display, which may negative impacts on children exposing to the games in such young age.

Concept 2

With the concerns and the suggestions from the teaching team, the concept was reiterated.

Prototype development

Pressure sensor is implemented through the online resources, which is used as an input from the children to the system. I have use the code to learn how the pressure sensor is measured and use. Basic LEDs and buttons were also tested to familiarised with the Arduino Uno.

Pressure sensor link

Things needs to be done

More researches in terms of the concept itself, background and users are needed to support the concept. Furthermore, the basic prototype needs to be more concrete and research of the materials and functions needed.

Concept

My individual focus is a fluffy toy that allows children to identify colours and shapes by exploring the objects. The ideal finished product is that the toy is able to communicate normally with the children with the goal of assisting the kids to learn and explore different objects. The toy will be able to voice output the questions, identify the objects the children are holding in terms of the colours and shapes precisely and send feedback such as voice encouragement and light glowing.

Technology

With the research and consulting with tutors, I have defined the method to implement the prototype. I planned to build an object with various functions:

• Colour and shape processing

This will be achieved by open cv with python, because there is little available Arduino material for shape recognition. Thus, I will use open cv and connect with the camera to do image processing, and then send the results to Arduino to send the output.

• Outputs

The outputs will include colours that show the correctness of the answer and different feedback that will be defined after researching and interviewing.

• Speech input and output

Arduino component, Elechouse V3 Voice Recognition Module will be used to complete the function. However, research will be done to figure out how to implement it and to define better alternatives.

Due to the lack of Arduino components, I haven’t started using Arduino. I have done some researches for different functions of my prototype:

Colour Sensor

TCS230/TCS3200

https://howtomechatronics.com/tutorials/arduino/arduino-color-sensing-tutorial-tcs230-tcs3200-color-sensor/

General resources for colour sensor

https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=291882.0

PhotoResistor

https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Use-RGB-LEDs-to-Identify-Colours-DIY-Colour/?fbclid=IwAR368c9lzzcnEUoqFF4Q6LHPPe0zjYI3gtUp8D0Jl0oNnFX8dRDNX_61I

There are different approaches to achieve the function, and I will be focusing on using TCS230 to accomplish it.

Shape sensor

Pixy2 Camera

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=391dXDjqzXA

The material is quite expensive and complex. However, with the Pixy2 Camera, colour recognition can also be achieved.

There are little arduino components that can identify shapes, and the suggestions from the tutor is to do image recognition through a software and send the data to the Arduino.

Voice Recognition

The simplest way to recognise voice

https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/Jalal_Mansoori/simplest-way-for-voice-recognition-project-using-c-toarduino-105138

This method uses the software on the laptop to process the voice, instead of the material itself.

FTDI convertor (200inr) , arduino uno(400 inr) , Geetech voice recognition module (1800inr)

https://www.instructables.com/id/TukuTuku-Voice-Recognition/

This approach is complex and requires many materials.

Elechouse V3 Voice Recognition Module

https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/kksjunior/voice-recognition-with-elechouse-v3-and-arduino-5b8af2

Bitvoicer

https://www.instructables.com/id/Speech-Recognition-with-Arduino/

I will be focusing on this approach since it is relatively straightforward.

Contact

In the contact session, we have exercises using the Miro board. The first task is the ‘Methods for Discovery’, where we are required to explore alternative approaches for user discovery in the current circumstance. The image below is the progress I have done for the first task.

Most people use the same approach as I did: Youtube video as the source to observe passengers in the train station, which is beneficial since it can access the experiences that are different from what we used to see. The other interesting observation methods I saw on other people’s work is through social media. Due to the prevalence of social platforms, it is easy to observe people's real-time situations or access information to specific groups. The activity allows me to think of alternative approaches to conduct observation rather than face-to-face interviews and I have found many interesting insights and research methods from other students' work.

The second activity is ‘Breaking down a project’. Each team works on their own Miro board to further break down and elaborate on each section of the project. The activity provides the team different aspects of the concept by considering the pros and cons the product has and how it can impose a positive impact towards our target audience.

Reflection on proposal

My experience on the first team-based assignment is quite positive, since the teams are willing to share individual thoughts to improve the concept and make efforts on the team proposal. The only concern is that we completed the proposal very last minute. Thus, the improvement I think after the first collaboration is that the team can set and agree on the time to deliver the work as well as the responsible section for individuals.

Reflection

This week, I felt quite relieved about finishing the proposal and having a temporary break out of the dues and the heavy screening time. During the mid-sem break, I will be working on the prototype and start exploring Arduino and the possible technology to accomplish it.

Individual concept.

Initially,I was quite frustrated when coming up with the individual idea, since I could not find the ideal concept. The listing options are the one I have thought about.

• Shapes

Teaching children recognising shapes by fitting the objects into the box

• Claw machine

https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/-MMM-/homemade-claw-machine-0f26aa

• Using the claw machine to teach kids math. The idea is that the machine will show the questions by voice output and the kids have to insert the correct answer amount of candy to play the game or get back the double amount of candy they have inserted, otherwise, they will lose the candy they have inserted.

Concerns: the concept requires different materials and further Arduino elements to complete it.

The interaction may give children a negative impact of using candy to learn

• Hop scotch

Using hopscotch to allow children to achieve certain motor skills.

Last Team Meeting 29/03

Last meeting, our team started to discuss the proposal by listing out the dot points for each section in order to get a comprehensive view. We reviewed feedback we gained from the pitch and consolidated our concept by researching and discussing among the team. I focused mainly on the feedback part since I have received the direct recommendations from the teaching team during the pitch, thus, I have a better perception on summarising feedback as well as noting down the change of concept from the team discussion.

Contact

With the experience from the previous week, I am more familiar with the online teaching method. I have little zoom connection issues, maybe because of the reducing students per session and the use of voice connection.

We have our team meetings on Zoom and collaborate the documents on google drive, and the two online platforms work fine for us and after a week, our team adapts the situation well in terms of group work and self motivation.

The team's plan for the coming week will be finishing up the proposal and for myself, my priority will be finalising the individual concept and finishing the proposal. Afterwards, I will research the possible technology to build the prototype and look for suitable materials.

My concerns for the coming week includes the use of Arduino kits, and the technology, skills and resources I need to build my prototype.

Reflection after contact

During the report back session, our team realised that we are a bit behind schedule. We have discussed among the group and with Lorna to clarify about the segment of group and individual work. We have discussed breaking down the concept by topics, age groups or interactions.

Personally, I am interested in teaching kids math by using lego blocks, however, my concern is that using lego blocks has limited interaction with the kids besides physically moving the blocks from one place to another place.

After our pitch, we gained lots of feedback from the class. The main concern was that it may have a negative impact for children of pull, twisting and pushing the plush toys.

Pitch Feedback:

• Aim to the ultimate product, Instead of thinking of technology
• After the discussion with the team, we aimed to implement voice output the questions instead of using website (may consider the target user age group)
• The interaction/input may be too violence, maybe hugging the bear the answer of times
• Our team have reconsidered the interaction with the toy so that the children can have more emotional connection with the toy
• Can only hug the bear only if you finish the game
• It is a great solution, since it reminds the kids of achieving certain tasks before getting rewarded (A sense of responsibility)
• Since Math is a hard subject for kids, maybe use friendly tone to interact with them
• The voice feedback will be designed based on the children's age. Instead of 'Its incorrect, try again', 'You're almost correct, have another try' will be implemented.
• If its Math, try using other tools such as blocks
• It will be hard and not really visual for children to use plush bear to learn Math, so if we are going to teach children Math, we will think about another toy that is more suitable for the purpose.
• Ask the child to ‘show me something’ that is yellow
• I think the idea suits our concept very well, since the children can walk around the room to point which achieve our purpose of learning with motor skills
• Scope: instead of teaching variant of thing > learn specific thing > focus exploration on specific things
• This is the problem we will further discussed with research as backup our concept
• Output: glowing patch, heat, buzzing, music, vibration
• The sound and touching sensation are interesting outputs, which will easily catch the kids eyes
• Rethink the age group to younger depending on where you take the education aspect

Next Step

• Determine the age range using Australian learning criteria
• Choose a topic (Math/Colour/English) based on the target group
• The input and output based on the target group and topic of whether reading, listening or speaking

Nagging Cushion

A cushion that will vibrate in order to prompt people to take breaks when they have sedentary behaviours. The idea is comprehensive in aspects of implementation, technology use and feedback. The cushion will give both audio and change of texture output to the users to remind them. In my aspect, the only concern is that it requires the users to carry the cushion when leaving the chair, however, it will be quite annoying in the users’ aspects. The other output can be temperature, so that if it's summer season, the temperature of the cushion will rise as people sit on it and the users have to stand up and walk and take the cushion with them for lowering the temperature, and same idea for winter.

House pong game

The concept is that the families can play games like ping pong when doing chores, which motivates people to do house work in an interactive way. However, my concern for the concept is that if you want to prompt people to do chores, what technology will be used for them to see or feel the virtual ball. Since if the ball is projected or using AR technology, it doesn't really have an actual impact on the users if they are hitted.

Fire (Creative learning)

The game teaches people what tools to use when encounting fires and how to properly utilise those. The game will be built based on AR technology, and although with the vibration outputs, it is still less interactive. In my opinion, the concept can be changed into a physical implementation with tokens presenting different types of fire extinguisher. The installation can be a room or a wooden board with monitors showing different effects of the fires. The users can walk into the room and use the tokens to put down the simulated fire or simply navigate on the board to determine which fire extinguisher to use to eliminate the fire. By doing so, the users can have more hands on experience on how to extinguish fire as well as learn knowledge on the purpose of different types of fire distinguisher.

We had our first meeting on 22/03 (Sunday), where the team concreted the concepts and completed the pitch. Each of us have done researches of synchronised learning and motor skills learning and then shared it to the team.

Problem space

Due to the prevalence of electronic devices, children are incorporating less motor skills to learn and play in their daily lives. There is solid evidence that infants and toddlers have difficulty transferring new learning from a 2D representation to a 3D object. [1]

Traditional learning techniques generally engage just two senses – hearing and vision – when providing access to information. Tangible Interaction promotes the concept of engaging multiple senses including vision, hearing, touch and even smell and taste as a medium for interacting with learning content. [2]

Solution

Itsy allows the user to learn at a more comfortable pace with more than one interactive inputs. This allow for a synchronized development of the brain. Targeting both creative and analytic part of the brain.

Website

Product

The product allows children to interact with the limbs. (inspired from Bop it toy)

Inspiration

Bop it toy

The children will be able to interact with the soft toys by the following means to learn knowledge.

• Pull it
• Twist it
• Push it
• Flick it
• Smash it

The goal of the project is to promote an unique and physical interactive approach for children to learn. The design is a soft toy and a website, where the children can interact with the toy to answer the questions shown on the website.

Research

Tangibles for learning: a representational analysis of physical manipulation

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00779-011-0406-0

• The ability to integrate digital technology into physical objects—so-called ‘digital manipulatives’—has generated excitement over the potential to create new educational materials
• possible limitations of physical objects—most importantly that their symbolic significance is only granted by the context in which they are used

Training the Body: The Potential of AIED to Support Personalized Motor Skills Learning

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40593-016-0103-2

• The training process is based on the learning-by-doing approach and involves correcting the learner’s movements till her optimal movements (considering the own learner’s corporal features, specific physical abilities, performance to date as well as the particularities of the motor skills to be learnt) is achieved
• There are four main issues to be addressed:

i) sensing the movement performed by the learner

ii) modelling and comparing learners’ and experts’ movements

iii) designing the required support to give

iv) delivering the personalized support

Hands-on Learning through Tangible Interaction

http://umi-sci-ed.eu/hands-on-learning-through-tangible-interaction/

• A number of concepts behind Tangible Interaction support this, including the idea of multi-sensory interfaces and support for experimentation.
• Traditional learning techniques generally engage just two senses – hearing and vision – when providing access to information.
• Tangible Interaction promotes the concept of engaging multiple senses including vision, hearing, touch and even smell and taste as a medium for interacting with data.
• Tangible objects, by their very nature, support exploratory activities.
• This opens up the possibility for students to learn through discovery, and engage with the lesson material on a more personal and motivated level.

kids motor skills research

Factors influencing developmental delay among young children in poor rural China: a latent variable approach

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6120651/

• Overall, 35.7% of the surveyed children aged 6–35 months demonstrated suspected developmental delay.
• The prevalence of suspected developmental delay was inversely associated with age, with the prevalence among young children aged 6–11 months being almost double that of children aged 30–35 months (48.0% and 22.8%, respectively).
• Using a structural equation model, it was demonstrated that caregiver’s care and stimulus factors and child’s haemoglobin level were directly correlated, while caregiver’s sociodemographic factors were indirectly associated with suspected developmental delay.

World Cafe

In this exercises, we have exposed to different topics, which gave me a deeper understanding of topics and ideas. I have been in the table of change through rewards, change though discomfort, emotional totems, guided movement, etc. I personally like one of the concepts in change though discomfort, where the shoes will become heavy when a user walks close to the ice cream shop, so that the person could not move forward. The concept can be used within jail, when the criminals try to break the jail, their clothes will become heavy as they move close to the fences.

I was the host for the beautify self, where the idea was combining 3 concepts in a room for users to gain a healthier lifestyle in both physical and mental aspects. Through the exercise of expanding ideas and inspirations based on the original concepts, I exposed myself to different context of use, aiming different target users and combining different ideas to create a new one.

After the exercise, we chose the top 3 topics that was interest for us. I have chosen the Creative learning, change through rewards and Emotion totems. I think creative learning is more flexible in terms of developing novel ideas as well as investigating a novel way of effective learning. Change through rewards and emotion totems are the two concepts I am also interested in, since those have a wide range of topics that can be developed based on the ideas and the concepts also match with my original pitch idea.

Bash

This week, we had a meeting with Bash, who is a UQ alumni living in UK. He shared with us about some tips to get a job such as photo the projects we have done and practice telling stories for interview. We also have a small exercise about developing our unique values.

We were asked to write 50 words in the format:

My name is …,

I am a …,

I am unique because …

Then reduced the paragraph to 25 words, then 12 words, 6 words, 3 words and 1 word left. My last word is Sheryl, then we were asked to think of what does the word and value means to us. I have my own working style and personality and I developed it as maintaining a brand. The exercise really helped me finding my uniqueness and what makes me outstanding.

Team Formation

We were grouped into a team of 4. Creative learning will be the topic of the project for the rest of the semester. Our team first introduced about each other, and started to write and agree on the team charter, which we will be referred if needed. The team have similar goals and working styles, and decided that the punishments are buying bubble tea for the rest of the team members. We have discussed about the idea, and agreed to developed a language learning system like mort, which is a concept about learning morse code by a machine with physical interaction with it. During the weekend, each of the team members will research within the area and propose a solution by sketching out the product.

Idea generate process

At first, I was't quite sure about what is the outcome should be and was frustrated about lacking suitable ideas. However, I have came up with two rough ideas:

The first one is the travel neck pillow with massage machine implemented. The product will detect the users heart rate and the muscle tenseness to determine their stress level and then will automatically the release the users stress.

The second ideas is the presented one: the shoes that determines the users' mood and chooses the most suitable playlist. I have chosen the second idea as my final outcome since it is more related to my needs and the inspiration also comes from personal experience.

Pitch

Feedback from lecturer and peers:

1. Express interest in the colour spectrum that represent people's emotions from the sensors and will be shown on the shoes
2. Concerns towards whether the shoes will be able to detect human emotions.
• Research has shown that it is possible to recognise human emotions based on body action, such as rhythmic movements represented happiness and sudden and advancing movement represented anger. (Melzer A, Shafir T, Tsachor R.P, 2019)
3. After detecting the users emotions, the system can play music that relieve their stress and anger in order to enhance their mental health.
• The idea is technically achievable, since research have raised the idea of music can boost people's happiness and reduce anxiety. (Boothby S, 2017)

Others ideas

During the session, we are giving out critiques to others ideas and grouping the posters into different categories in order to generate themes for future work.

There are several ideas that I am interested in:

1. The smart wardrobe
• In the previous courses, I have developed a project based on similar concept. The method the people present it is very interesting since it connects daily outfits to personal schedules and the weather forecasting, which is highly customised and thoughtful.
2. Smash it
• This idea is suitable for modern society since people usually have a high level of stressfulness in their daily life. As an individual, I would likely to experience the final outcome and monitor the results of how it impacts me.

Soldering 101 Induction

The session was quite interested for me. Since as an IT student, there isn't a lot of opportunities to expose to the hardware and build a simple lightbulb circuit. I was a bit confused in the beginning since I have little experience towards breadboard, but with the help from tutors, I was able to finish soldering and successfully light up the bulb.

Reference

• Melzer A, Shafir T, Tsachor R.P, 2019, How Do We Recognize Emotion From Movement? Specific Motor Components Contribute to the Recognition of Each Emotion

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01389/full

• Boothby S, 2017, Does Music Affect Your Mood?

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/mental-listening-to-music-lifts-or-reinforces-mood-051713#3

Click to view poster

‘YOUR shoes' is a pair of shoes with sensors and leds implemented. The main feature of the product is that it can detect the users emotions based on the movements and pace, and then determine which playlist is most suitable for their current mood. It can be used for the general public with little limitation since the product can be easily accessed and navigated.

It has the following features:

• Detect your emotion based on your pace, movement and play music based on the results

ex, fast pace may because of the negative mood or have something urgent, so the music may have fast rhythm

• Show your emotion with colour spectrum
• Record personal exercise information (how many floors and distance you have gone through for the day)

The product comes with an app, which has 2 main functions:

1. Review the logs the sensors recorded. ex, moving pace, calories consumed
2. Collaborate with the music provider to select appropriate playlists

Scenario

• When a person is running, which has high frequency paces, she might be exercising. The music can be rhythmic, so that it suits the needs for the users.
• When a person have limited activities, the system will know the user is probably sitting, so that the soft music will be played.

Inspiration

• The token exercise we have done in DECO1800. One of the ideas is that the token present individuals emotions by colours, so that each other will understand if the others are in the emotion to chat.
• Personal experience: When I walk on the street, it feels frustrated to pick the right music for the mood at the moment and is quite dangerous of doing so. Thus, I imagined that it would be really helpful if there is an item that can detect your emotions and pick the right music for you.

Future Development Resources:

• Recognising human emotions from body movement and gesture dynamics

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-540-74889-2_7

• An application that works out how you feel and determines the suitable music

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/6xzjx4/youneedtohearthis-septimu-knows-what-music-your-heart-wants

• Recognise emotion from movement

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01389/full

Surviving the first day of uni after the long break is always the hardest. As usual, we have discussed about each others expectations, rumours we’ve heard and concerns of this course. I felt quite relieved that most of the people were worried about the heavy workload as I did.

Examples on Slack

After the sharing, we gained some ideas from the examples on slack. I personally felt inspired by the ‘Water Droplet’, since water in our stereotype is liquid form which is hard to control and have little connection with technology, and the design broke my traditional view of water. The designers made water as a medium to communicate with people, which can be used daily and can be interactive with people. This gave me an idea of how materials can be used to interactive with people and the novel technology it has, which is highly possible to integrated to the future work.

7 HCI Grand Challenges

I was assigned to the ‘Accessibility and Universal Access’ section. After discussing within the group, we came up with several challenges to pursue the goal:

• The high cost of achieving the goal, maybe because of the location of implementing or the material using.
• Different age group have different background, thus, they have their own habit of using the products.
• My grandma cannot accept smart phones but the old ones with keyboard
• Learning ability differs between age, people and interests, thus, it is hard for everyone to use the same technology.
• People have different motivations to use a wide range of products based on their interests, financial status and other concerns.
• The development of different regions. There are some areas where technology is not as advanced as the others so that the people in the area may not be able to access certain products.
• Description: Everyone no matter their demographic and location have access to the products or services.

Consideration:

• Design technology that is for general use instead of specific purpose
• The exercise encouraged me to think of products that have high accessibility:
• Wifi: highly ubiquitous however there are regions such as areas in the mountain have difficulties access it.
• Mobile phone: for contacting purpose, most of the people in the world have a phone but not necessarily smart phone.

* It is difficult to think of an example or a product that has universal access human-computer interaction, since that there are still some areas that don't have the technology to achieve it.

• The readings gave me aspects of the challenges the technologies are facing, which inspires me to think of an idea that can overcome the problem.

Ideation - Card

Design to Reinvent a restaurant using shrink permanently

Shrink represented the following:

• Small
• No water
• Tiny

Context can be:

• Cutlery
• Space in restaurant
• Size of food
1. The size of the restaurant and food shrink by year for people suffering from obesity
• Challenge for people
• Less waste of takeaway box, plastic bags
2. The size of the restaurant expands so that the people in it feels shrinking every time they visit
• Beneficial for people that are not confident in their body shape
3. The restaurant has high rate of evaporation so that the amount of water shrinks
• Makes you feel dry so that you drink more water
4. The cutleries shrink and eventually the age of customer segment becomes younger
• Perfect size for child
5. The restaurant shrinks the foods for the people who have leftovers in their last visit
• For eco friendly and reducing food waste
6. As the budget for hiring people becomes expensive, the restaurant shrinks the number of staffs which causing a long waiting time for the food and services
• I think it is fairly interested to see the word 'shrink' in two different aspect: restaurant shrinking and people feels shrinking as the size of the restaurant expand.
• It is also excited to see of how the ideas connected to different aspects such as due to the size of restaurant and cutleries shrinks, the age group becomes younger. The idea has correlation between age and shrink.
• The exercise prompts our idea from a weird situation, but it is easier to generate ideas.

My name is Sheryl and I’m doing Bachelor of IT in my last year. I am focusing on User Experience Design and Information System.

I felt both excited and worried about this course. Excited about having the opportunity to learn new skills, entering the lab of having hands on experience and seeing how the final outcome will be with the ideas from the team. On the other side, worried about the heavy workload and the ability we need to achieve the final outcome, since there are still many new experiences for me to explore.

I also would like to expand my knowledge towards novel technology such as raspberry pi and Arduino and use my knowledge to design a product that is beneficial to the public.