In the first three days of this week, I had a very hurry and collapse.

Difficulties:

First of all, on Saturday, our team members put all the parts of the product together. Jianing of our group is responsible for the test tube part, which uses Unity to make images of different frequency music. The frequency of the sound is not successfully associated with the sound playback function. At present, the sound frequency displayed when playing audio is made by Unity, but the music uses python to execute the recording and playback commands. During the operation, we need to Input the file path of the recorded sound and the file path of the mixed music into Unity. We have spent a long time and consulted many online tutorials, but there is still no link between the unity function and the Python function.

Then, the second difficulty I encountered was that the wires were too short. Because the breadboard and the development board were not put into the box before, the length of the wire will not be long enough, which makes the user unable to operate. I removed all wires from the parts I made and added extension cords. But in the process of connection, because of some mistakes, the final result is that whenever a computer is used to link the development board, the circuit of the development board will be automatically disconnected. Python programs also display errors. I thought I broke the development board, so I replaced a development board, but the result was the same. I rechecked the code and found that there is no problem with the code. So I removed the cable on the breadboard and reconnected, but I never saw a solution to the problem. This makes me very sad. Everything was working before, but the day before the show, the product was broken. So, I decided to remove all the sensors. When I touched the RGB light in the flask, my hand was scalded by high temperature, which made me realize that the RGB connection may have a short circuit. So I reconnected the RGB circuit, and my product was repaired again.

However, on the afternoon of the exhibition, new problems appeared again. The two interactive controllers I made cannot work correctly. I had to remove the handle I made back, check the wiring, and found that the wires in the handle made poor contact. Fortunately, I repaired the entire product 15 minutes before the exhibition started.

Video(My part)

The video shows the part I made, which includes mixing function, pause function, delete function, and interact with friend function. As shown in the video, after the user pours the sound materials in the test tube and jar of his choice into the flask, the user shakes the flask, the mixed Sound will be played, and the flask will shine with multiple colors of light. If the user wants to stop playing music, they need to cap the cap of the flask. After the cap is closed, the light in the flask dims. If the user's friends like this mix sound, they can shake the handle with a smiling face, and the user can hear applause. If the user's friends do not like the mix, they can shake the handle with a crying face, and the mix will be deleted, and a piece of sorrowful music will be played as a reminder when deleted. After the sound is deleted, all lights in the flask are turn off.

Reflection(my part)

1. The basic functions of the product have been completed, but some additional functions, visual effects and sound effects have not been completed well. According to user feedback, the operation of the product is easy to learn, but the product still has many possibilities for improvement.
2. Technical aspect: I originally planned to use the screen to display the frequency of the mix, but because I did not successfully integrate Unity and Python, I could not achieve this in the end.
3. Visual effect: The appearance of the product is relatively simple, and some wires are not covered, which makes the product look immature and lacks appeal to users. Too many wires bring trouble to the user's operation, they need to pay attention to the safety of the wires. Regarding the smoke function, I did not buy the ideal smoke machine, so I gave up the smoke effect.
4. Sound effect: The sound effect is not as expected. The volume of the melody is so high that the user cannot clearly hear the daily sound. Also, when more than three sounds are added to the flask, the quality of the music played will become worse and a lot of noise will be generated. I will study how to reduce the noise in the next step.

Compared with the ideal product, I did not find a way to install a small screen on the glass flask. This problem also needs to be overcome in future work.

Reflection(team part)

For the entire project, there is some gap between our final product and the ideal product. In the final exhibition, we obtained some user feedback. Some suggestions from users are similar to our ideal products, but because of time, technical level and cooperation methods, we have not successfully achieved the ideal product. Listed below are my reflections on the product.

1. The product has limited space for use: In our ideal product, users cannot see any wires, they can hold each part to move freely, but in actual products, a large number of wires are used to connect sensors. These wires limit the user's moving space.
2. Product quality: Many sensors and lights are used in our products, and they will have poor contact after frequent use.
3. Not all product functions are successful: due to the limited technical level, many functions have not yet been completed. For example, the frequency of the sound is not successfully associated with the sound playback function. At present, the sound frequency displayed when playing sound is made by Unity, but the sound uses python to execute the recording and playback commands. During the operation, we need to input the file path of the recorded sound and the file path of the mixed sound into unity.
4. Interactive mode: In an ideal product, many ideal interactive modes are different from the actual mode. Our ideal way of interaction is exactly the same as that of chemistry experiments. Because we have not purchased a suitable sensor, some interaction methods are replaced by others.
5. Because of our limited time, we originally planned to use the Raspberry Pi instead of the computer to run the program, but in the end there was not enough time to achieve this goal.
6. Product make-up: The products mainly use containers used in chemical experiments, but they do not look beautiful, because these containers are glass products and small in size, so we did not hide the wires very well. If there is enough time, we should customize better-looking containers.

Webpage

I also made a website. I was also confused during the process of making the website. Regarding the assessment requirements, the requirements first emphasized that we need to describe the concept in detail, but said that there should not be too many words. I also read the websites of many other students. I found that some classmates had a lot of text on their websites, and some classmates had very little text. This makes me feel confused. If there is short text, it is difficult to describe my design ideas and design process. I also communicated this issue with many classmates. Later, when I was about to hand in my homework, a friend told me that the teacher's request should be that we try to explain the idea with pictures. However, at that time, I did not have enough time to draw pictures.

Final feeling

This course is over. I feel that I made a product that is much more complicated than the digital prototyping course, but the methods and tools used are similar to the digital prototype course. The final display uses video. It's a pity not to let users operate and experience my products. As well as the final portfolio webpage, I also handed it in without fully understanding the job requirements.

Repurchase container

The first two days of this week, I was mainly buying sensors and some tools, because many stores have opened recently. Previously, in the last prototype display of our group, the test tubes, droppers and other props we used were bought in children's toy stores. They are small and plastic products, which do not look durable. In use, the inferior feel may make the user experience bad. So, we went to a small shop specializing in chemical equipment to buy glass products. There are many types of chemical containers in that shop, and then we purchased the largest test tube, as well as some jars and flasks. These are the transparent glass products we bought. However, considering that each glass product needs to place a lot of sensors and lights, so we have to find a way to block the sensors, but also through the light. Finally, we found white paint in the supermarket. We tried to apply white paint to the glass, but when the paint was on the picture, these test tube flasks could not be seen as chemicals, especially the test tube, it looked like a lamp tube. So, we used a black pen to draw tick marks on it.

About the interactive design of the flask part:

Last week I mentioned adding a new delete function, but the interactive way of delete function is not reasonable. So, I took out the Arduino again, and I thought about what kind of interaction can be derived from the existing sensors. I thought of a few ways:

1. Using a small motor, make a spinning puppet. The inspiration for this idea was some music boxes played as a child. When the music was playing, the puppets in the music box would spin and dance. However, the rotation speed of the motor is too fast. The motor in the Arduino is used to make a small fan. His rotation speed is too fast, and the visual effect is inferior. The puppet rotates like a fan, and it is not clear at all. So this visual design will confuse users, so I gave up this design.

1. My second design is to add a pause function; the sensor used is a photoresistor. I accidentally discovered that my skin water cap could cover the flask, so I designed the pause function. When the flask plays a sound, as long as the user closes the bottle cap, the music will stop playing. Regarding this issue, I also redesigned the lighting effects. Previously, when there was music in the flask, the light turned on, and when the music was deleted, the light turned off. This is a signal to the user, and the user can judge whether there is music in the flask by the light. But now I need to design a new light to represent music pause, so I designed the light brightness. Because a photoresistor is used, sometimes the photoresistor is affected by external light, so I designed a small box for the cap of the flask to block the external light. When the flask lid is closed, the light will dim. The picture shows the codes of different lighting effects and pauses function.

1. My third design is to add an interactive function between friends. The sensor used in this function is a tilt switch. Its mode of operation: Handles made of cardboard with a smiley face and a crying face on the handle. Inside the handle is a vibration sensor, shaking the smiley face handle to trigger applause Sound. Shake the crying face handle to delete the mixed sound. Share mixing and interaction with friends: Select the "smiley face" or "crying face" handle, if friends like the mix, shake the smiley face handle and you will get applause, if they don't like it, shake the crying face handle, after a "sad music" sound, the mix will be deleted.

Future work

I’m going to school next week, and I’ll work with my team members to put together the various parts of our products and make a good-looking appearance for them.

Repurchase container

The first two days of this week, I was mainly buying sensors and some tools, because many stores have opened recently. Previously, in the last prototype display of our group, the test tubes, droppers and other props we used were bought in children's toy stores. They are small and plastic products, which do not look durable. In use, the inferior feel may make the user experience bad. So, we went to a small shop specializing in chemical equipment to buy glass products. There are many types of chemical containers in that shop, and then we purchased the largest test tube, as well as some jars and flasks. These are the transparent glass products we bought. However, considering that each glass product needs to place a lot of sensors and lights, so we have to find a way to block the sensors, but also through the light. Finally, we found white paint in the supermarket. We tried to apply white paint to the glass, but when the paint was on the picture, these test tube flasks could not be seen as chemicals, especially the test tube, it looked like a lamp tube. So, we used a black pen to draw tick marks on it.

About the interactive design of the flask part:

Last week I mentioned adding a new delete function, but the interactive way of delete function is not reasonable. So, I took out the Arduino again, and I thought about what kind of interaction can be derived from the existing sensors. I thought of a few ways:

1. Using a small motor, make a spinning puppet. The inspiration for this idea was some music boxes played as a child. When the music was playing, the puppets in the music box would spin and dance. However, the rotation speed of the motor is too fast. The motor in the Arduino is used to make a small fan. His rotation speed is too fast, and the visual effect is inferior. The puppet rotates like a fan, and it is not clear at all. So this visual design will confuse users, so I gave up this design.
2. My second design is to add a pause function; the sensor used is a photoresistor. I accidentally discovered that my skin water cap could cover the flask, so I designed the pause function. When the flask plays a sound, as long as the user closes the bottle cap, the music will stop playing. Regarding this issue, I also redesigned the lighting effects. Previously, when there was music in the flask, the light turned on, and when the music was deleted, the light turned off. This is a signal to the user, and the user can judge whether there is music in the flask by the light. But now I need to design a new light to represent music pause, so I designed the light brightness. Because a photoresistor is used, sometimes the photoresistor is affected by external light, so I designed a small box for the cap of the flask to block the external light. When the flask lid is closed, the light will dim. The picture shows the codes of different lighting effects and pause function.

My third design is to add an interactive function between friends. The sensor used in this function is a tilt switch. Its mode of operation: Handles made of cardboard with a smiley face and a crying face on the handle. Inside the handle is a vibration sensor, shaking the smiley face handle to trigger applause Sound. Shake the crying face handle to delete the mixed sound. Share mixing and interaction with friends: Select the "smiley face" or "crying face" handle, if friends like the mix, shake the smiley face handle and you will get applause, if they don't like it, shake the crying face handle, after a "sad music" sound, the mix will be deleted.

What is one good thing you can say about lockdown?

For me, the benefits of being at home every day are far less than the disadvantages. The only advantage of being at home is that I cannot learn to cook because I cannot go to the restaurant. At first, cooking feels like experimenting. Search recipes on the Internet and follow the instructions, step by step. Then make it delicious and share it with roommates. However, there was no interest later, because cooking took a long time to wash vegetables, cut vegetables, stir-fry, and clean the kitchen with dishes. The whole process took about 2 hours, and the real mealtime was only 20 minutes. Another benefit of being at home is that I get along with my roommate day and night, and the relationship is very good, because we are the only friends who can communicate face-to-face during this time, and I cannot go out to visit other friends. Before class and study in school, I spent most of my time with my classmates and spent little time with my roommates every day.

Based on feedback to date & what you have left to complete?

In fact, in the last stage, I have completed the main function of the plan. My main responsibility for our project is the mixing section. The main task of the mixing section is mixing. The way to trigger the mixing is to shake the flask. This shaking function uses a vibration sensor. Then the visual effect is that there will be lights of different colours flashing when shaking, in terms of hearing, you can hear the mix.

Ideas about adding new features to the flask

The new feature that comes to my mind is the addition of a delete function. Because of the current technical level, each flask corresponds to a music file. Unless the mixing in the flask is deleted, the music in the flask cannot be selected. This problem was discovered by our team in the initial conceptual design. The flask is made of glass, and we have no ability to make a display on it or install a lot of buttons on it. Here I want to explain the function of the display and the function of the buttons. The functions of the display screen and the buttons are similar, and in fact, it is to allow the user more operating space. Method 1: Use the display screen, touch screen operation, the screen is like a simple function iPad, whenever a new mixing file is generated, the mixing file will have a name and added and displayed on the screen. Method 2: Use buttons, each button corresponds to a piece of music; for example, there are five buttons on the beaker, corresponding to 5 mixes.

However, these two methods only add functionality to me and are not creative. Our theme is the music laboratory. It is necessary to give users the feeling of doing chemical experiments.

If the interaction method provided to users in order to increase functionality is traditional to touch screen operation or key operation, it is very boring for users. So, my last thought was to add a delete function, the way to delete is like dumping chemical waste liquid into the trash can in the chemical experiment. I plan to make a trash can. The ideal way to interact is that when the user holds a flask into the trash can, the sound is deleted. There are two ways to achieve this interaction. One is to add a tilt switch to the beaker. Invert the beaker. The tilt switch is triggered. The sound is deleted, and all lights in the flask go out. The disadvantage of this method is that the trash can becomes a prop. If the user turns the flask upside down, the sound will be deleted. Another way is to place an ultrasonic distance sensor in the trash can. When the beaker is near the trash, the beaker sound is removed. But this method also has a problem; that is, anything close to the trash can, the sound in the flask will be deleted.

What concerns/questions do you have?

There are two issues that I care about more: One is about the time to hand in the assignments. On June 22nd, I need to hand in the thesis and reflection. These two assignments have exactly the same turn in time. Fortunately, Lorna said she would consider changing the deadline for handing in assignments. Another question I care about is how to collect user feedback. The recording function in our project needs to collect outdoor sound, but our product display location is online, how to let users truly feel the product?

About visual effects:

I also have new ideas about the visual effects of the mixing part of the flask. Unfortunately, because I did not find the right equipment, I gave up. Ben recommended me a device for making smoke, but the online display took 30 days to mail to my house, which was too late for me. Currently, users shake the flask, and the flask will mix and play the mix while shining different lights (RGB lights). This means that the user shaking the flask will trigger two functions, one function is mixing, and the other is playback. My new design is that when the user wants the flask 5 seconds before, the system executes the mixing command, and then when the mixing file is generated, the flask will release coloured smoke. This visual effect will make people feel magical, just like the cartoons watched as a child, the wizard will produce coloured gas when he becomes magic. Then, after the smoke ends, the user will continue to shake the flask to trigger the playback function, and different sounds flash in the flask when playing the music.

This week I watched the videos and ideas of the students from the other three groups, they are Team X, Team Hedgehog, and Team E.M.S. I first watched the video of Team X, and then I listed it. I can analyze your works and concepts from those angles.

First: say hello

Second: Overall evaluation is whether the sequence logic explained by the video is clear, whether the video shooting style is interesting, you can consider the time of the video, the sound effect of the video, etc.

Third: advantages

Fourth: suggestions and opinions

When evaluating, start angle/consideration

Evaluate the entire prototype:

1. Evaluate whether the entire prototype concept function is easy to use,
2. Are you creative?
3. Are there similar products,
4. Whether it can help or change or improve certain aspects of certain groups of people.
5. Whether the core functions have been completed.
6. Evaluate whether the prototype is reasonable and whether there are design defects (for example security issues, whether it can really solve the user's problems, will it cause other troubles to the user)

Evaluation design process:

1. Logical problems in the design process
2. Do you need to do other user research
3. Put forward the technical issues to be considered, and the proposed technical implementation method

Evaluation of interactive design:

1. Whether the interactive design method is novel
2. Whether interaction design will make users feel convenient

After Luo listed this table, I would analyze from these aspects when watching every student's video. For the Team X group, I don't think I think their video shows the prototype. The division of work among the three students in Team X seems unreasonable. One classmate is mainly responsible for lighting effects, one classmate is responsible for sensor data generation and transmission, and another classmate is mainly for the Unity part. His task is to generate music from different transmission data. Because our group and Team X often took classes together in the campus life of the previous year, they are very good friends. We talked about the design of their group through instant-messaging tools. I chatted with Tianyi classmates a lot. The main worry of Tianyi classmates was that they could not correspond to the numbers generated by the sensors to different scales to create a piece of music. There are two kinds of suggestions to him; one is: for different pressure values, different scales are generated. For example, when the pressure value is 100-200, a "do" sound is emitted, and when the pressure value is 500-600, a "fa" sound is emitted. Another way is that different pressure values ​​represent different musical instruments and different sound colours. For example: when the force value is 100-200, the sound of "small drum" is emitted, and when the pressure value is 500-600, the sound of "big drum" is emitted.

For Team E.M.S and Team Hedgehog, because they are not very familiar with the students in these groups, they basically rely on watching their videos repeatedly and reading their reports to understand their works in these two ways. Team E.M.S is a game about housework. There are many game modes. This makes me feel that it is not very friendly to users. Users may spend more time to understand the operation mode of the game. In addition, I am very worried about the safety of this design. The space in the home is relatively small, and there are many things in it. This kind of game can easily knock over the items in the home. Finally, I am worried that although this game has stimulated everyone's interest in housework, it may not guarantee the quality of cleaning. I also learned a lot from the video of Team E.M.S. Their video is very logical, the structure is clear, and the production is very intentional.

For the Team Hedgehog group, the user group they follow is special, but at the same time, I guess this is also a difficulty in their design. Research on special populations can mainly rely on reading literature, but in the user test stage, especially now that everyone is isolated at home, I find it difficult to contact the real user group.

Reflection on the learning method of watching classmate videos

The learning and sharing method for evaluating videos with each other is very good, but, unfortunately, it is impossible to communicate with students in real-time. When you encounter video content that you don't understand, you want to hear the creator's explanation. Unfortunately, after commenting on everyone's work, I did not get a reply from the other party. I hope this teaching method improves.

This week I posted a video on miro. In this video, I introduced the background of our group's entire project, target users, recap and my personal work progress. After watching the videos of other students, I think there is still a lot of room for improvement in my video. This refers to the possibility of improving video production and presentation methods. I hope I can make progress when I make the video next time.

Here are the shortcomings in my video that I summarized:

1. No subtitles are used in the video. When there is little text content in the video, the audience should concentrate very much on listening to the content in the video, which requires high pronunciation. If there are unclear words and the pronunciation is not standard, the audience may not understand the video. Content. As a person whose native language is not English, my pronunciation is not standard, so next time I make a video, I will try to add some subtitles to help the audience understand.
2. The picture layout in the video is not attractive. Many pictures in the video only show the title, there is no key point, and there is no picture. Pictures can help viewers understand my project and make the slide content more attractive.
3. In the process of displaying the content of the video, I did not show the order of the content of the speech, such as making a catalog, dividing the content of the speech into several parts, so that the audience can have a clearer idea when listening, they can easily find To their most concerned part. However, my video does not divide the content of my talk into a subtitle, and the audience may be confused when they hear it.

https://youtu.be/fVxlPOXNANQ

Reflection

On Friday, I saw the feedback everyone gave me on Miro. I have listed suggestions related to my prototype and concept. I responded one by one.

1. "You may consider some sound effects either, for example, when users put the sound piece into the trash can, you can add a sound effect of throwing rubbish into a trash can."

The students suggested that we use some music as a reminder. This is a good suggestion, but I will consider whether it is necessary. Because our product is a product that plays music, I plan to use lights, smoke and other visual effects to show the user whether each step of the operation is successful. But there are some steps that can't be expressed with light, for example, deleting sound. Because the deletion of the sound is invisible, when the user deletes the sound successfully, he needs to get a "successful" signal feedback. I may add a sound signal at this step.

1. "Do you have a plan on hiding the wires? We would suggest trying to use wires that are bundled up together to make it cleaner and then wrapping in some some heat shrink perhaps to clean it up."

At present, because we have not yet determined whether to use this set of plastic chemical experiment tools as the final exhibit, and some sensors have not been installed on the beaker. Whenever a sensor is added, 2-4 wires must be added. Our team has also been looking for ways to hide wires. Our current plan is to tie all the wires together to make them look less messy.

1. "you can consider includes defining how each interaction triggers emotional responses in users and link the responses back to your problem space and team domain."

This is a good research direction, I will do some research in the next paragraph. The ultimate goal of our product is to help users create their own mixes and let users design their own exclusive sounds. We will do some user tests and interviews after the product prototype are completed. I believe we will get a lot of valuable feedback .

4 “we would also suggest having a way of confirmation of deleting audio when near the trash can incase a user is holding a test tube and gets distracted by something else and walks near the trash can by accident.”

This problem will be emphatically studied in the next stage of prototyping. At present, the choice of ultrasonic distance sensor will indeed cause misoperation during use. For example, the user does not want to delete the sound, but just accidentally moves the beaker close to the trash can, and then all the sound is deleted. If I can add a "confirm" step during the user's deletion of the sound, it may solve the problem. Just like when we use the delete function on the computer software, a window will appear on the screen to let us confirm whether we want to delete.

This week from Monday to Friday, every afternoon, our group go to the library to cooperate for several hours. We brought all the things we were doing to the school and then formed them into a prototype. In the process, we encountered some difficulties.

Difficulties

1. A student in our group is responsible for purchasing related equipment in the chemistry laboratory. In the past few weeks, we first linked the relevant sensors on the board in their respective homes. After we arrived at school, the first problem to be solved was how to fix various sensors on chemical experiment tools. The hardest thing to fix is the button. The four legs of the Button are very short. We used a lot of stupid and primitive methods to fix it, such as entangle the legs of the button with the wire, and then use string and tape to tie them. They all failed in the end, so we tried to find other tools in Building 78. Finally, the tutor provides us with a better button.

1. Secondly, another problem we encountered is that "Solder" is really not a good way to fix and connect wires and sensors. Sensors that have been soldered will break after about 3 days of use. In the end, we still chose the stupid way, which is to fix them with tape at the junction of the wires.

1. Another problem is that there are too many wires used in the entire device. Our improvement method is to use pull-up resistors instead of ordinary resistors in Arduino. This method can only remove some resistance, but for analog signals, this method is not good. At the beginning, after we used the PULLUP resistor, we removed all the resistors，and connected the sensors of digital signals and analog signals to the positive and negative electrodes, but the entire device was no longer running. Opening the monitoring window, we saw that all the printed characters are garbled. Later, we discovered that the sensors using analog signals interfered with other sensors. Therefore, we only placed resistors at the connection of the analog signal sensor. Now, the simplified circuit still has many wires, which is very ugly.

1. We currently use the tilt switch to control the delete function of the test tube and beaker. Because the serial port on the board is not enough, we hope to reduce the number of sensors. In our design, we have a playback function, this function requires the use of 6 vibration sensors. We tried to use the tilt switch to control two variables, one is to let the tilt switch use "1" and "0" to control whether to delete the sound. Another variable is that within 3 seconds, the tilt switch count is above 20 so that the sound is played.

Mixing section

Regarding the mixing section, this section has three functions, one is to accept the sound stored in the test tube and jar, the other is to play the mixing, and the third is to delete the mixing. According to the experience of chemical experiments, people usually use pouring method to pour liquid from test tubes and jars into flasks. Therefore, I decided to use the tilt switch to detect the placement direction of the test tube and jar. When the direction changes, the tilt switch can be triggered. The way to use the flask is usually shaking, so I plan to buy a sensor to detect shaking. During the purchase of the flask, I saw the flask on the product poster and mistakenly thought that the actual kit also contained a flask, but when I opened the product, I found that there was only one beaker. Since I did n’t have enough time to buy the flask, in this demo, I replaced the flask with a beaker.

It was originally planned that in the entire device, all delete functions will be triggered by the button, but in actual production, because the four feet of the button is very short and cannot be well fixed on the beaker, I considered two other methods for the delete function. Method 1: Make a trash can, install an infrared distance detection sensor on the trash can, and delete the sound in the beaker when it detects the beaker approaching. The second method is to use a tilt switch. The tilt switch in the beaker controls two variables, one is the shaking trigger mixing function, and the other is the dump trigger deleting function.

This week, we adjusted the technical implementation method of the entire design. Before this, we have been trying to use some modules to complete the recording function and the playback function separately. Later, the teaching assistant suggested that we use python to make a program. This week I focused on the code related to the recording function, playback function and mixing function in python. The students in our group who are responsible for the recording function have found related tutorials on the recording function. However, because of problems with her computer, she was unable to download pyaudio. She tried some methods but did not solve them. She asked me to try to use my computer to follow the same tutorial to do the recording function again, so I used my computer to do it again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ4rBLZbbtE

In the process of doing this, I also encountered some problems. But it was finally resolved. In addition, I also found the code about the mixing part, so I completed the mixing function.

So far, our group has completed the recording, playback, and mixing function code. We can record a sound with a Bluetooth microphone and store it in a preset folder. Then we can input the generated file name in the playing code, and run the playing code to play this sound. Regarding the mixing part, we need to input the audio file we want to play into the code, and then these audios will be played at the same time.

The difficulty I need to overcome now is how to make the code of the three main functions into a program that can be run completely.

Iterate

On Saturday, I met in the library with another member of our group, and we discussed how to design the circuit diagram together. In the process of repeatedly trying the circuit, we found that some problems occurred in our learning method, so we adjusted the learning method. At the beginning, we all came up with a circuit diagram in our brains, and then directly connected the breadboard, sensors and development board with wires. Later we found that this method is very inefficient. Because whenever the design of the circuit diagram we designed is wrong, we need to unplug all wires and reconnect the sensor. So we found some circuit diagrams and pictures of development boards on the Internet and printed them. We first draw the circuit with a pencil, and then discuss and modify them. This has improved our efficiency a lot.

In this week's actual operation, we found that there was a problem with the previously designed code. What we planned before was to design a file dump function in the code. This means that when the user transfers the sound of the dropper into the test tube, the audio file in the computer will also be automatically copied from the folder named "Dropper" to the folder named "Test Tube". In fact, this step is superfluous, because in the code of the test tube part, we only need to call the audio file in the dropper file, and there is no need to adjust the actual storage location of the audio file.

In addition, in the previous interaction design, we planned to install a button on each test tube. When the user clicks this button, the sound in the dropper will be transferred to the test tube. However, this design affects the user experience, because in a real chemical experiment, if the staff wants to drop the liquid from the dropper into the test tube, then he needs to operate as shown in the figure. However, if we install the tone button on the test tube, it means that the user does not need to pick up the dropper, just press the test tube to save the sound. Therefore, picking up the dropper becomes a fake action, a redundant action. This does not correspond to the feeling of chemical experiments. Therefore, we changed the button on the test tube to a pressure sensor, so that the user needs to touch the test tube with a dropper to complete the transmission of the audio file.

Next step:

Next week, our team will fix each sensor and button on the test tube, flask, and drip tube through cooperation. Because each of us has only one Arduino, and because the socket is limited, several sensors on a test tube need to be connected to different sockets on the Arduino development board, so we need to cooperate offline. In the picture below, I have listed the number of sensors and lights needed for each part.

What is your concept / individual focus / individual responsibility for the project? Include a text-based description and imagery to support (sketches, photos etc).

Our concept has three main functions, they are recording, playback, and mixing. My main responsibility is the mixing code, interactive functions, and the design of the mixing device. When the user shakes the flask, the mixing will start. The sound will be played during the shaking process. The hardware of the entire mixing section will be installed in a flask.

I am mainly responsible for the mixing function, which includes additional functions for making mixing, technical implementation of mixing, the operation method of mixing, the interaction between the user and the mixing device (flask) as well as the visual and auditory effects during the mixing process.

What is the ideal finished product? (not what you think you can implement, achieve, but what you would like to be if you had all the resources/skills you need?)

First of all, users use a dropper to absorb their favorite sound. When the sound is saved in the dropper, the dropper will emit a bright light. Then, the user transmits the sound from the dropper into the test tube. When the sound from the dropper is received in the test tube, the test tube will emit light. Only one sound can be kept in each test tube. Finally, the user can select more than two test tubes, pass the sound from the test tube to the flask, shake the flask, multiple sounds will be mixed, and a smoke signal will be emitted when the mixing is successful, and different lights will be lit inside the flask light. In addition, we have added jars, which are similar in function to test tubes. But it is used to store daily sounds, which are recorded by users themselves. The main melody is stored in the jars, they are light music, piano music and so on. The flask can only transfer music from one jar at a time, but it can transfer music from multiple test tubes.

On Monday of this week

I focused on the part of mixing sounds. I have learned how to use a mixing music software before. In the beginning, I hoped to be able to write some code and use the code to control the playback keys and mixing keys in the music software, but I checked a lot of information and found that this method is not feasible. Then I hope to find a simpler music software, and find the code related to this music software, hoping to use the sensor to control the keys in the code by changing the source code. This is the music software and code I found. However, this code is too complicated because music software has too many functions. After reading its code for a long time, I decided to give up this method.

http://the-synister.github.io/

https://github.com/the-synister/the-source

YouTube Video link：https://youtu.be/2gIWWTVIps?list=PLYWFpgV3xQfIc1QMMu0vjfDmzUabY9vU）

After this, I came up with another way to do mixing, which is to play multiple music files at the same time. I hope the first step is to be able to play multiple music files at the same time so that it sounds like a mix. So, I first studied how to play a music file. Method 1: Use speaker module https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/gadgetprogrammers/diy-auto-voice-record-and-playback-7a47d7

Method two, use the DFMini Player MP3 module

https://www.dfrobot.com/blog-1462.html

https://code.google.com/archive/ ... tation.wiki#WARNING

http://www.mp3tag.de/en/ it can export the tracks in the directory and rename the mp3.

on Tuesday

One group number who responsible for the recording function said that she encountered difficulties and need my help. So, from Tuesday afternoon, I started to study the recording function. Because the team member said that the relevant code for the recording function was not found, I decided to solve the recording problem in an unexpected way.

Method 1: I chose to start with Arduino and look for related recording modules. However, I found that the recording module can only store sound for about 10 seconds. https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/gadgetprogrammers/diy-auto-voice-record-and-playback-7a47d7

https://www.digikey.com.au/catalog/en/partgroup/electret-microphone-amplifier-max9814-with-auto-gain-control/49467

http://www.lab-z.com/phoneseat/

https://www.jianshu.com/p/2b031a7fd2e6

Then, I wanted to solve this problem about sound storage, so I found some information https://www.avrfreaks.net/forum/sound-recorder-using-microcontroller

https://www.cnblogs.com/Ray-liang/p/9786154.html

https://blog.csdn.net/holmes733850/article/details/53431518?depth1-utmsource=distribute.pcrelevant.none-task-blog-BlogCommendFromBaidu-1&utmsource=distribute.pc_relevant.none-task-blog-BlogCommendFromBaidu-1

We want to use the SD card to solve the problem of sound storage, but the new problem is how to transfer the contents of the SD card to the computer for mixing. We need to manually install the SD card on the Arduino, and then insert the SD card into the computer after recording. These operations seem complicated and stupid, and do not conform to our design.

We currently think of three ways to implement our design

1. Each part is independent

We have four parts: test tube, dropper, flask and trash can. Each part is powered separately, making a separate circuit board.

Among them, the test tube functions as a voice recorder. If the parts are separated, the songs need to be transmitted wirelessly. The way we thought of is to use Bluetooth or WiFi to transmit songs, but there is no idea how to achieve it.

2. All the parts share one development board

Create a large development board with a recording function, playback function, and audio processing function. We will install speakers, microphones, and memory cards on this development board. Then connect the test tube, flask, and dropper to this development board with wires.

3. Using a computer

The computer has a speaker, microphone, storage space and audio processing software. Test tubes, flasks, and droppers are only installed with interactive functions, and the functions related to music are all performed by the computer.

this week our group made a further understanding of the technical aspects of the idea and found that the Arduino circuit board is only 32k, and our project involves sound storage, recording, mixing, etc. Arduino cannot store and run so many functions, If we don't use the recording, playback and storage functions on your computer, then we need to make special hardware (e.g own mini-board, PCB, breadboard, etc.) and purchase suitable speakers, SD card, analog audio amplifier and other tools to complete the follow-up Prototype. Due to the particularity of the period, we may not be able to purchase and produce it within the specified time. At present, the alternative method that we have in mind is to use the sensors in Arduino to complete the interactive function, and use the recording playback and mixing functions on the computer to complete the audio processing.

working principle:

1. Recording: the analog signal of the microphone is converted into digital to an analog signal, and the digital signal is stored in code
2. Play: The stored audio file is decoded, after digital-to-analog conversion, it becomes an analog signal and is released from the speaker
3. The mixing program can be found in the embedded mixing library, FFmpeg is a clue
4. Write the whole program to control the MCU

This forum is talking about the recording function, we are facing a similar problem https://www.avrfreaks.net/forum/sound-recorder-using-microcontroller

https://au.element14.com/texas-instruments/launchxl-f28027f/dev-board-c2000-piccolo-launchpad/dp/3009880?gclid=Cj0KCQjwyur0BRDcARIsAEt86ICPamIAnk4v-LOMn-G3iKraUOx41khQD0Bgwc7i3hvQ8X9TAccygesaAnn0EALwwcB&mckv=sdc|pcrid|380892800521|pkw||pmt||slid||product|3009880|pgrid|76493923343|ptaid|pla-337209890835|&CMP=KNC-GAU-GEN-SHOPPING-TEST-NEW

MINDMAP

1. Read some literature, understand the knowledge of music and mood, or the impact on people.

Depression significantly decreased in the peaceful music group compared to the sad music group after the intervention. Further, significant differences in heart rate variability were identified during the intervention among the groups. The change in low frequency (LF) in the joyful music group was lower than the other three groups; the change in high frequency (HF) in the peaceful music group was lower than in the tension and joyful music groups; and the change in LF/HF in the peaceful music group was lower than in the sad and joyful music groups. Additionally, the subsamples with high state anxiety experienced more change in HF while listening to tense music than to peaceful music, reflecting an upward trend after listening for 10 minutes. The findings indicate that listening to different genres of music induces different psycho-physiological responses. In the present study, participants with high-state anxiety registered elevated parasympathetic activity after listening to 10 minutes of tense and sad music. Simultaneous listening effects were detected only in joyful and peaceful music, which reduced subjective anxiety and depression. The results of the present study advocate that music interveners and clinical care providers select joyful, peaceful, and tense music to help alleviate the anxiety and negative emotions of their patients.

2. In addition to the literature, I learned some music-related knowledge and also used many apps related to our subject.

Among many mobile phone applications, we have selected five existing mobile phone applications. They are Pzizz, Relax Melodies, Calm, Stop, Breath, Think, Simple Habit. We used these five mobile phone softwares separately, and the sound types they used are very similar.

Through analysis, it is easy to find that these software use the sound of nature or the sound of everyday scenes as background music. Use these background music to match the sound of reading aloud or piano and other instruments. Users rated these mobile apps after use and gave a high score of 4.7. In the comment section of the APP Store, most of the users said that this music helped them relax their mood, improve their attention, and bring them a better sleep.

3.In addition to Arduino, I learned about other sensors online, some of which can be used in our design

1. Electret Microphone：This can be installed in a test tube or flask
2. https://core-electronics.com.au/sensors.html This is a website that sells various sensors, I will buy some sensors

According to the observation method I learned in the HCI course, I will take the bus, record the observation data according to my own experience, and count the observation results. I will do some preparations before observing. First, I will prepare a pen, a form, and even interview passengers and make recordings. I will also try to take pictures.

The form will have the following content

Date&Time Location How many people in bus GET ON Get off

I will also record the age and characteristics of the passengers, what they are doing on the bus, what they did when they got on the bus, and what they did when they got off the bus.

Because of the special circumstances, we cannot go out now, so Lorna taught us some other observation methods. For example: Using YouTube (and Online Video) for (Teaching) Observational Studies (added by Robin Smith). I think this method is to find a video and then record your observation notes by watching the video. But I am more puzzled about how to choose the right video among many videos.

Watching a video has some advantages than going to the field. For example, during a field trip, if there were many people at the time, we could not observe the behavior of each person, and the video can be watched repeatedly, so we can observe and record the behavior of each person. The advantage of watching a video over a document is that the document is susceptible to the subjective views of the author.

After our team decided to collaborate on a project, we first discussed the team report.

The generation process of concept

In the pitch of the second week, some students paid attention to the problem of helping people with high work pressure to reduce the pressure, so our domain initially started from this point. After that, we set the target users as people with no music knowledge. This is because of two reasons. One reason is that we want to give more people the opportunity to use our design. Whether it is a child, an elderly person, or someone who does not understand music, they can quickly learn our products and they can easily Operate and use our products. The second reason is that as designers, our group is not a professional musician group. We cannot understand the needs of professional musicians, nor do we understand professional music-creation products. We are just music lovers or People who love songs.

Finally, we chose to use test tubes, droppers and other chemical laboratory equipment commonly used in Lab as the appearance of our products, which was inspired by the design of some students and film and television dramas. In the work of classmates, one person designed to use AR glasses to collect sounds. We hope that the process of collecting sounds become more interesting. In the famous Chinese literary work Journey to the West, there is a story in which a gourd collects the voice of an enemy, and then the gourd will attack the person who made the sound. We tried to find a daily necessity or something more meaningful to record sound. In film and television dramas, when people research and create some new things, they will choose the laboratory as the scene, and our products create music, so we decided to use the common tools of the laboratory as the appearance of our products.

Team domain and problem space

We are step by step from broad problem space to a specific problem space. We first read the literature and conclude that music is helpful to human emotions. Then, we observed that some people like to listen to the sound of nature or daily sound. These sounds are very interesting in some music. The next thing we need to understand is the impact of DIY music on people, and we want to collect data through prototypes and questionnaires. We want to know whether people like the laboratory. We will use TAM to analyze the data.

Team report

We have some questions

1. How you intend to engage the audience in the design and delivery of the project?

We guess this means let us explain how we will design some visual effects or sound effects to attract more people to pay attention to our project.

1. About Explain how the overall idea and planned implementation addresses the studio theme (Designing for playful and open-ended interactions in everyday life); your teams chose the theme/domain and focus for the course (novel physical Interaction with/through technology).

This part feels very difficult to write. After discussion, we determined that our Team theme is music metric, and the keyword of Studio theme is playful, open-ended. In the course theme section, we will focus on explaining physical interaction (squeeze, shake, etc.)

Technical problem

1. How to transfer the recording in the dropper to the test tube, and how to delete the sound in the dropper. We plan to use the touch function of makeymakey. I wonder if we can borrow school equipment?
2. How to remove the sound from the flask by pouring the flask to the trash
3. How to judge the length of time, and light up according to the length of time
4. We need to use a lot of wires and sensors, but we can't install so many wires, buttons, and sensors in test tubes and droppers.

After asking Lorna, we learned that there was no need to consider technical issues at this stage, as this would limit our creativity.

individual part

We designed the following 3 ways to divide our project into three parts:

1. According to the research direction: one person studies the team domain, one person studies the interaction design, and one person studies the target user.
2. According to the team role: one is the coder, one is the researcher, and one is the designer.
3. According to function: one person researches how to collect the daily sounds of the outside world and the transfer of the sound between the devices, one person studies the functions of playing sounds and deleting the stored sounds, one person studies the functions of mixing and controlling sounds, beats and so on.

After discussing with the teachers, we chose to divide the functions according to their functions and classify the feedback of each function.

Feedback for each function

Sound collection function:

1. How to use a dropper to collect multiple sounds. In our previous design, a dropper can only collect one sound, but some people think that this design needs to carry many droppers, which is very inconvenient to use.
2. In the process of collecting sound, how to avoid collecting noise.

Play sound function: We did not design a specific method of using the play function. In the initial design, we designed that as long as the user keeps shaking the flask, it will be able to play continuously. When the user stops shaking, it will stop playing. But in this way, users cannot hear the sound of their creation for a long time.

Mixing function: This function we designed is very simple, in the original design, it is simply to play different music at the same time. But the user hopes to have more operations, such as adding a new sound at a certain point in time and adjusting the sound. In addition, at the moment when the mixing is completed, the user hopes to get a prompt signal, such as smoke and lighting.

This week I mainly listened to the presentations of other groups, and responded to some of them. In addition, our group also held a meeting to study the suggestions of other students and our work plan for next week.

Reflection:

One of them suggested that "instead of making random sounds you could take sound parts out of a certain song and the right combination could output the chorus of the song etc." I have to admit that our design cannot control and match the sound, Because our current design just mixes different sounds randomly, but does not allow users to freely adjust its rhythm and so on. In other words, if the user records the sounds of birds, water and wind chimes, the user can only combine the three sounds together. The effect sounds like playing three different sounds at the same time, and cannot control the rhythm or time of different sounds. However, because there is already enough interaction in the current design, we will not add more complex features for the time being.

Another student suggested that we make a music frame and then add new sounds to it. I think this is a good idea. Mixing various sounds in life directly and randomly is likely to produce noise, which will bring a poor experience to users. If you record a fixed main melody first, and then the user selects the sound of the accompaniment, the final sound will not be bad. However, we haven't figured out how to implement this function yet.

Regarding the interaction method, the students and teachers also brought us a lot of new inspirations. For example, when the mixing sound is completed, a burst of smoke is generated. The members of our team really like this idea, and in the future, we will look for equipment that can generate smoke. Hope that can happen. Some friends suggested that we use the brightness of the lights to indicate the duration of the music, which is also a very clever idea. In our original plan, we planned that assuming that the entire test tube glowed, it means that the recording time is 2 minutes, and if only half of the test tube glows, it means that the recording time is only 1 minute. But the test tube is transparent. How to let only half of the test tube glow is a difficulty, we have not overcome. But if use the brightness of the light to indicate the duration of the recording, it will be relatively simple.

Another friend proposed to use temperature to control the speed of sound, which also brought us new inspiration. Temperature can be considered later as a new method of interaction. Use different temperatures to control music, so that users have more possibilities for operation.

Some students hope that our product can accurately capture their favorite sounds in a noisy environment, and eliminate other noises. This is really a big problem, and after discussion, we decided to ignore it first this semester. Because we don't have the ability to ensure that the sound lab produces a professional perfect mix.

Group meeting process:

In the first meeting, we reviewed together the advice given by the teaching assistant. This suggestion is about how to make a personal product. Among them, the tutor said, that we can do memory for one person and music for another person. We should do different designs for different users in the same domain. We can share materials during the design process, and the final products are similar. To be honest, we don't understand this suggestion well. Our questions are as follows: 1. How to share materials? If working remotely, we can only share some inspiration or code, and we cannot share equipment, tools, and props. 2. The main function of our product is recording and mixing sounds. If according to the tutor's example, one person collects memory and one person collects music, then this only collects different sounds, but technically, this is still recording sound. We also discussed different works for different users. For example, one person uses the tools in the chemical laboratory as the display form of the final work, and the other uses the kitchen utensils as the display form of the final work. The only difference was that the recording equipment was installed on a test tube or on a plate. In addition to the carrier, we also discussed the way of interaction, or control. Our original main interaction was shaking the beaker for mixing.

Because the first meeting did not plan everyone's future direction, the second meeting focused on the possibility of cooperation. Because we have a place for cooperation, and other reasons, we will try to work together in the future. We would like to apply to work together to complete a project for the following reasons:

1. We have sufficient conditions to cooperate: one of our group members lives alone in a large townhouse. Due to the impact of the epidemic, her roommate chose to leave school and stay in China. In the next three months, her roommate has no plans to return to Australia, so her home will be a safe place for us three to work together. The other two members of our group have their own cars, and they can pass safely to ensure they will not be infected on the way. In addition, we have adequate equipment for self-protection, such as facial masks and disinfectants, etc. We will do our best to ensure each other's health.
2. Our idea involves multiple interaction methods, and the entire design is complicated. If we made it into an individual approach, we would have to cut back on some features and change some of the initial interaction methods, which is not what we want. We consider that separation is not conducive to cooperation and learning, which will limit the knowledge that everyone can learn in the design process. We want to maximize the initial design of our team.
3. At present, the Arduino provided by the school does not meet our design. We still need to purchase any other equipment, tools and props, such as test tubes, recording equipment, players, etc. If we can cooperate, we will avoid going out multiple times for purchasing equipment and can save the cost of purchase. Because such equipment are not common things in life, buying three sets is a waste.

Inspiration

This week our group mainly designed our product, which was initially named "music lab" by us. However, we later made it clear that it is a machine that can collect and use sounds from life to create new mixed sounds. After discussion, we think that music is a more professional voice. And the sound produced in daily life is not music, so, we changed its name to "sound lab". It is called a lab because our target users are non-professional sound-lovers. It is difficult to predict the final result in the process of their creation. In addition, we design the equipment used in the shape of laboratory test tubes, flask, droppers, etc., so that users can feel like doing experiments.

Our group was not satisfied with the ideas provided by the previous students, so we reviewed some materials and found some inspiration from them. Combining the theme of "producing sound" with existing ideas, we redesigned our products.

We planned to buy some test tubes, beakers and other props to shoot body storming, but due to the epidemic, the course was changed from offline to online. Two members of our group proposed to withdraw from the course. Therefore, we changed the body storming to paper prototyping because of insufficient staff.

We divided the speech in the entire 10 points into the following aspects: background introduction, concept explanation, inspiration source, persona explanation, storyboard, future work, and paper prototype to show how to use this product.

How to use

I mainly shot and produced a paper prototype and detailed on how to use it.

First of all, the tools we need are a trash can that can delete sound, some test tubes that can save sound, a flask that can mix sounds, and a dropper that can record sounds. For example, we are interested in water sounds, birds sounds, and the wind bells sound. We can record water sounds with droppers, and collect water sounds with a test tube. Then, we use the same method to collect and save bird sounds and wind bells sounds. The glowing part of the dropper represents the length of time the sound was recorded, and it changes with the length of the recording. Different sounds have now been saved in the test tubes. The height of the color in the test tube represents the length of the audio. If we forget the sound material in the test tube, we can shake the test tube to hear the saved sound. Next, we can use the sound in the test tube to create a Mixed sound. The method of creation is to select the test tubes of the sound material we want and pour the sounds from different test tubes into a flask to mix. Shake the flask, multiple sound materials will be mixed and played. Pour the sound from the flask into the trash can and the sound will be deleted.

Target audience

1. Music lovers and producers.
2. Those who are interested in daily sound.
3. Those who are sensitive to sound.

Background

People who have been living in a fast-paced, fast-paced city for a long time often have a lot of stress and will be exposed to a lot of sounds every day. There are sounds that make people feel relaxed, such as the sound of running water, the sound of leaves, the sound of car engines, the sound of kitchens. Different sounds represent different life scenes, and there are always scenes that make people feel relaxed or yearning. Although we cannot enter such a scene at any time, we can record the sound of these life scenes.

Personas

In addition, we also designed two personas.

Design feasibility

We discussed the feasibility of this design. At present, we think that the main needs are some small recording equipment and players. We will install them in test tubes, flasks. Our main interaction method is shaking. We will use SHAKE action as a way to trigger the mix. Therefore, we may need to use some sensors.

UQ Innovate

I went to the workspace this week and the staff showed us how to cut wood. First of all, we need to bring goggles, and when using the tool for cutting wood, open the air vent. Every machine needs a key to turn it on. In the process of cutting wood, if we need to move the woodblock, we can not directly touch the wood being cut with our hands, we can use another woodblock to push the woodblock being cut. In addition, he showed us how to polish blackened iron. After that, the staff led us to the paint-only room, but he just reminded us to turn on the fan when painting and did not teach us how to use the paint tools. I feel a bit sorry. At the end of the class, he showed us how to use a laser cutting machine, etc. This seemed very troublesome. I didn't learn or even know what the drawing tool he used. Fortunately, he told us that he would help us when we use it.

My name is...., I am..., I am unique because...

I find the hardest part to write is explaining why I am unique. I thought about this part for a long time, but eventually, I didn't find the answer, I just wrote that there is only one me in the world. In the beginning, we were going to write 50 words. To be honest, I think 50 words is not enough to introduce myself. Finally, we need to delete to only 3 words. Many of my classmates only left their names. But the three words I have left are "I AM UNIQUE". In this small writing exercise, I think the focus is not on who I am or what I am, but on believing in myself, believing in yourself, and believing in the value of your existence significance.

World Cafe

After discussing a number of topics that I randomly participated in, I divided these topics into two categories, one related to the creation and the other related to emotions. The content of the creation may be music, pictures, etc., and their expressions are usually lights, images, and sounds. Emotions can also be said to focus on mental health, including expressing one's emotions, regulating one's emotions, and better communication between people.

Because my idea is about music, I want to continue to participate in projects about music. After watching other students' ideas on music, I think the interactive methods to further improve these ideas are: 1. Combine music with sports; 2. Combine music with lights; 3. Combine shadow with music. These ideas can also be divided into two directions, one is to help people learn music, and the other is to provide more possibilities for creating new music.

This week I mainly listened to the ideas of my classmates. Most of them are interesting, but there are some that I don't understand.

My thoughts are about music. I want to focus on a few posters that are similar to my ideas.I think my own idea is about music, but I see teachers in the table classify it as emotional. The punching bag is really good for venting emotions, but it is also good fitness equipment. In addition, the fountain is a large installation. In future designs, I will consider replacing the fountain with the small water column.

THE RHYTHM OF EXERCISE

His idea is to use a pressure sensor, which is similar to my idea. In addition, we both chose to combine music with sports. His target users are people interested in sports or fitness enthusiasts. But I think this idea is more suitable for those who think sports are boring. In his Inspiration, he mentioned, "Every digital signal or waveform could be transcript into sound waves". I think it is possible to visualize these sound waves and display them with lights or images. In this way, the whole idea will be more attractive.

Naomi – Mixed Reality music creator

I don't think the interaction of this design is obvious. Put a recording device on the glasses, and then press the switch on the glasses to record. This design is more like a glasses-shaped recorder. The interaction method is a traditional button, and this button is mounted on the glasses. I want to improve this interaction, for example, using a finger to make a gesture in front of the glasses to trigger the recording switch. Regarding the use of MR technology, I learned some knowledge about AR, VR, MR last year. I don't think the technology of MR is mature at this moment, and MR technology can be difficult to do. If use glasses, I think AR can be used instead of MR. In addition to glasses, recording equipment can also use other media, such as gourds, test tubes, dolls and so on.

Melo Catcher – A music box that can DIY your own melody

The traditional music box is also controlled by the controller. I recommend changing the interaction method of the controller. We can use fitness equipment, such as spinning bikes or treadmills instead of controllers. In addition, each controller can represent a scale of do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, respectively. In this way, players can ensemble a tune together, enhancing the fun.

The display screen can show a game, combining the game with music, such as Super Mario or Whac-A-Mole（https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whac-A-Mole

）. Use Mario to jump out of the music score, or each gopher can represent a tone, and hit the gopher with a sound-controlled hammer.

Punching Bag Fountain

Tianrui Zhang s4492742

What is Punching Bag Fountain?

Punching Bag Fountain is a large interactive music fountain that can be operated by multiple people. It consists of punching bags, fountains, and audio equipment. Its principle: The punching bags are connected to the fountains. When the punching bags are under pressure, the pressure value will affect the water pressure of the fountain. Different water pressures will affect the height of the water column emitted by the fountain. Below the fountain are floor tiles, each of which represents a different sound. When the water jets hit the ground at different speeds and strengths，water drops make different sounds at different locations. The strength of the water drops will affect volume.

How to use it?

Put some punching bags next to the fountain. Each punching bag is connected to a fountain outlet. People can hit these punching bags at the same time. With hitting punching bags, different fountain outlets will spray water columns of different heights. When the water drops on the ground, it will make sounds and form music.

Who I am designing for?

1. People who want to create fun music show with friends.
2. People who want to do exercise, they will find more fun in Punching Bag Fountain.
3. People who want to watch or design the fountain show.
4. People under pressure.

The sparkling point:

1. Fun music：Anyone can use punching bags to create music freely.
2. Cooperation：People can cooperate to play a piece of music. Users can experience the joy of cooperation.
3. Exercise: Punching sandbags is a form of exercise. Combining this type of exercise with music creation and controlling fountains makes boring exercise fun and can attract people who are not interested in this sport to try it.
4. Fountain show: multiple people control the fountain together, they can design a fountain show.
5. Easy to use: Everyone can directly operate this facility without any training, everyone can quickly learn to use this installation.

Inspiration:

1. A YouTube video about a music fountain show. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7hCeb_0T4g)

1. A YouTube video about Desktop Punching Bag helps people relieve pressure.

About me

I am an international student and I am a graduate student from China. This semester is my last semester at the University of Queensland. As a result of the epidemic, I am currently in Thailand. I will attend the first two weeks of the course remotely.

About Physical Computing

I want to learn how to work together, how to work in groups, and how to interact more. And, I'm curious about what skills we need to use in this course. I worry that I lack good ideas in the design process. I have encountered this problem in previous digital prototype courses and social mobile courses.

Previously, I learned two courses with Lorna, one was digital prototyping and the other was social mobile. So I am familiar with Lorna's teaching methods.

About the challenge

1. Would you add anything to the challenge?

Cultural background, living habits, subconscious, etc.

2. Why do YOU ​​consider this a challenge for the future?

Regarding the Human-environment interactions section, I think that the use of smell and smell is difficult to explore in the future, this interaction method has higher requirements for the use environment. If you use taste in this way, you need to consider hygiene issues, because the disease is imported from the mouth, and you must ensure that users taste a clean, non-toxic taste. Using smell in this way requires that no other flavors be mixed into the air.

3. Based on your discussions, generate a short description that captures the key elements/considerations of the challenge. Add an example to help illustrate the description.

I think this part of Human-environment interactions is mainly about future interaction methods that will change. With a large screen and keyboard, the use of the mouse will be less and less. People will begin to interact with other things in life, and the way they interact will change dramatically.

4. Examples may be historical (ie. As an impetus for change or example of change).

The use of AR, VR, and Google Glass is to get rid of keyboard and mouse operations. In addition, there are installations in some public places that use light and shadow interaction methods.