World Cafe

The theme that impressed me a lot in the world cafe activity was changing through discomfort. It's like using things that make us feel uncomfortable to be the motivation to make some change. During the process of ideation the team members brainstormed what discomfort means to everyone and what we want to change though this. The thing people want to change might be a bad habit like smoking or eating junk food. The thing make people feel uncomfortable might be making some noise or adding some weight on your body. Then we could come up with some interesting ideas applying this topic like a running phone that runs away if you sit for too long with the purpose of promoting people to do more exercise. Or a bracelet stops you when you are going to purchase something you don't really need. It’s fun to think in this way to design some interesting and meaningful stuffs for everyday life.

Team Formation

At first we brainstormed any possibilities for the topic of body as controller. The team members considered about what body part we can use as the controller, including hands, feet, arms, legs, eyes, voice, even the whole body. The team somehow prefer to get rid of making a device with too much wires which may effect the experience of interaction. We aim at making the sensor away from the body as far as possible, so it can achieve body as controller for real. The ideal condition is using camera and Kinect device to capture different motions of players. But we do worry about the technical implementation of this plan. We can also use Arduino kits to detect the physical input as the core of the concept is people's behaviours of interaction.

After coming up with few potential concepts we used concept maps to measure which concept meets the project brief the most. The conceptual idea of our team is a game that arms the player with some super power in the natural environment. When it comes to some natural disasters, the players can easily deal with them by simple motions like clapping hands or waving arms. After which the player will be told what it cost in reality. The meaning of the game is to develop the reverence of the nature.

Weekly Reflection

For this week's presentations, I think everyone has shown their understanding of designing for playful and open ended interactions in everyday life. Most of the ideas did good in supporting human values. Although I couldn't get to know every point in tens of presentations, they let me to have a glance at the possibilities of physical computing in many fields. The idea that impressed me the most was Forest Story, an interactive game with the meaning of protecting the habitats of wildlife. I think Kinect technology can be used of its implementation.

After listening to the ideas presented this week, I think I would consider more about novel approach to interact with technology for my own project inspiration. It seems there are different applications worth trying about this topic. The first thing to do is adding different interaction modes of my concept to make it more playful.

Soldering 101

visualization of health

My concept is a portable device which visualizes health status to develop people's awareness of their health condition.

The device has ball-shaped outer shell, the digital plant inside the ball represents people's health. When people interact with it, the digital plant will show different appearance of growing. As health is abstract and may be neglected in daily life, it helps people to know their body state in an intuitive way.

Mainly, the Interaction mode is Taking the ball with you and carry out daily activities. The more energy you gained, the better the plane grows. The plant will show how your activities turn into nutrients. It's like your energy has been stored in the ball, you can see directly from the digital plant that the energy makes positive effects on your health. If you have a fairly sedentary life, the plant will grow slowly. On the contrary, if you get enough exercise, the plant will be lush and green.

The other Interaction model is when you put your hands on the ball, the sensor will detect your body temperature. If the temperature is lower than the normal level, you will see the digital plant wither away. As your body is not in a good condition. There will also be a voice reminder like "you have been in the air-conditioned room for too long, stand up and stretch your legs." Similarly, if it shows that the body temperature is a little bit higher than the normal level, the leaves of the plant will weaken and become yellow. And the voice will remind that maybe you need to have a rest.

Resources

https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/134967320053098109/?lp=true

http://www.flasharcade.com/arcade-games/holiday-snow-globe-game.html

About me

Hello everyone, I am in my second last semester of Master of Interaction Design program. I have learned the nature of design and some basic programming skills in my previous year. I hope that I can develop further understanding of physical computing and enjoy the design process.

About the course

For this course, I am interested in developing new skills which I haven't experienced before like laser cutting and woodworking. I am looking forward to using the tools to propose and present playful, creative and engaging interactive technology project for everyday life that go beyond traditional forms of interaction. I have visited the interaction design exhibit last year and met many engaging works there. I’ll try my best working as a team to finish the project like them at the end of the semester.