The Final Presentation

The final presentation...how to summarise the final presentation... I wasn't happy with how it went. I thought we came across as unprepared and that we didn't know our own concept, when infact it was the complete opposite, we knew it really well. It was just getting the idea across we seemed to struggle with.

I did like however how both of our models came out, i was impressed with our 3D printed model it looked very good but i wish we had have actually made an arm strap instead of using masking tape, but it did serve its purpose. The working model wasn't perfect but it did work well. It looked like a giant rough version of our final design which was no easy task with the spinning ring (well done Amy!), the model conveyed well how it would work. The colours the LED displayed didn't match up to the colours we had specified but it still looked good. I was impressed with how we got the light sensor to read the spinning ring by using black and white sections.

But overall i wasn't happy with how we presented, i think we could have done it so much better. But it's all a learning curve and i'll know better for next time.

Presentation Boards

These are our Presentation Boards...

Other Scenario's

The previous posts scenario is the one that the group has decided to use for the boards. These one's below are just other examples of how our device could be used.



Its William’s first day at school. His parents have bought him an arm band that can communicate with them back at home. He is sitting in his first ever class and is feeling very lonely so he starts to stroke his arm band.


William’s mum is sitting on the couch at their house holding her pendant close to her, she’s trying to hold back the feelings of sadness of her little boy growing up when her pendant starts flashing in a blue. She immediately places her finger on the flashing light.

William’s arm band lights up with a yellow light. This makes him feel better because he knows his mother has responded and is thinking of him.

William is now sitting in class looking up at the clock waiting for it to strike one o’clock so he can go out for lunch, he’s tapping his arm band repeatedly because he’s so excited.

William’s mum is now up in the kitchen making herself lunch when her pendant goes off again this time flashing a yellow light. She smiles this time as she places her finger over the light to send the signal back.

William’s arm band flashes a yellow light showing his mother has acknowledged his excitement.

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Jane runs up to her friends front door and knocks on it excitedly, her friends mum opens the door and lets her and her mother in, her friend Ana is waiting for Jane in the lounge room.

After a while Jane's mother says good bye to Jane and leaves. Ana and Jane go on playing and having fun.

Ana's mother tells the girls that its time to go to bed. They go into Ana's room where there is a spare bed set up next to Ana's bed. Ana's mother says goodnight and turns off the light. Ana falls asleep nearly instantly leaving Jane who is wide awake. She starts to feel really uncomfortable and lonely. She looks at the device on her wrist and starts to stroke the top of it.

Jane's mum is sitting on the couch watching TV when her pendant lights up blue. She then places her finger over the light to turn it off and to respond to her daughter.

Jane's pendant lights up yellow and she smiles. A little later on Jane is still not asleep so she starts to spin the ring on the device on her wrist.

Jane's mum is still watching TV when her pendant lights up again this time in the colour white. She decides to ignore it hoping that Jane will get the idea to stop getting distracted and go to sleep.

Eventually Jane gets the idea that her mother doesn't want to respond so she stops spinning the ring and rolls over and falls asleep.

The next day Jane is ready to go home she places her finger on top of her device. Her mother is sitting outside reading when her pendant starts to flash different colours. She knows thats this means Jane is reaedy to be picked up. She then places her finger over the lighted area and heads over to the car. Jane's device then lights up with different colours, she knows that this means her mother is on her way.

After 15minutes Jane's mum turns up and takes her home.

Final Scenario

This is my final scenario along with storyboards.

Scenario 1
Shannon has finished her soccer practce early today and has no way of telling her mum she's finished. Her parents think that she's too young to own a mobile phone at 8 years old. Shannon is starting to get very scared and she starts to cry.
Shannon's mum finally arrives at the soccer field, half an hour late since she finished, to fnd her daughter in tears.

Scenario 2
Shannon has finished her soccer practice early today. She looks down to the bracelet she has on her wrist and places her finger on the top part.
Shannon's mum Julie is sitting having a sup of coffee at home when her pendant starts to flash different colours, she knows that this means Shannon needs to be picked up. She places her finger over the light and it stops flashing.
Shannon's bracelet lights up and she knows that her mother is coming to pick her up. Five minutes later her mother pulls up and Shannon jumps in the car. This time avoiding tears.

Mind Map - Parent/Carer

And here is the second mind map which is all about the parents product.

Mind Map - Child

This is the mind map for the child. It is more complex because there was a lot more to take into account with all the different functions.

Persona Design's and A Day In The Life

From doing up the day in the life of Shannon here we need to make our device something that is going to be strong and robust. It will also have to look fashionable so its not embarrassing for the user to wear.



Looking at a day in the life of Julie, her device needs to be something that she can keep on herself at all times or somewhere nearby. It will have to be small enough as to not be a bother but also not too small otherwise she will loose it. Julie also wants her daughters device to only be able to contact  herself, she doesn't like the idea of Shannon being  on the internet or anything like that without her supervision.



Moodboards

These are mood boards for both of the user groups.



Looking at the mood board for the parents or carer's a few key issues were raised. The parent/carer acts as a role model for the child, they want to raise them the best way that they can. They like to be fun and they like to spend time with their child. But they can get lonely and miss them when they're starting school. They know that it was inevitable but it still doesn't hold back the emotions. Being able to communicate with their child will not only be good for the child but the parent will feel better too.



Looking at the mood board for children aged 6 -8 i found a few key things that we will have to take into account when designing our device. Firstly it will have to be strong and robust because kids at this age like to run around and be really active. They are just starting out at school, so our device will have to be something that doesn't distract them or other students from doing their work. They can also get very attached to things, we want the kids to get attached to our device and take it everywhere with them. I thought that at this age they don't like to be away from their parents so to be able to communicate with them would be a very big thing.



Scenario Examples and Changes

This week we changed the aged group of the child slightly. Changing it from 6 - 12 years to 6 - 8years old.

We also changed the idea of the A to B movement to send the signal saying "come get me" to more of a button function.

Concept Design

We met with the tutors and discussed our concept with them. These were the boards about my scenario that I presented.

The feedback we got wasn't what we wanted to hear at all. We were well behind where we were supposed to be. All of us hadn't done enough work in our sections, we weren't approved...

After the initial presentation we then sat down and went over our idea and decided to change it. We were told that our device would be too difficult for a child of that age to use, that there was too many functions. So then and there we chopped out a few of them to make it more simplistic.We ended up with only four different functions. They were; Stroke, Tap, Spin and the A to B movement. Each of them is expressed below.

Parent to Child Communication

The next thing i looked at was how the parent/carer could respond to the child and make them feel better if needed through the strategic use of colours.

To counter a sad feeling, green and orange lights are used because it will make the child feel better through the transition from a natural colour to a bright and cheerful one.

To try to counter when the child is angry both blue and green lights will be used because they both hae soothing effects.

We thought for if the child has fallen asleep the device could vibrate to wake them up.

Concept Functions

These are the functions we have decided to use for our concept. This is what the child will do and then what the parent will receive.

From this i did a bit of research into how emotions can be conveyed through an action. This is what the child will do to send the message to their parent/carer. I was able to come up with these actions:
Sad - Stroke
Happy - Shake
Angry - Scrape
Bored - Spin
Excited - Excessively Tap

Lonely - Stroke
Sleepy - Leaning On It


This is what the parent will receive. I had a look at how a colour could represent an emotion and found these:
Sad and Lonely - Blue
Happy - Yellow
Angry - Red
Bored - White
Excited - Orange
Sleepy - Green

We experimented with the device making sounds, but because of our scenario we thought that if the child had this in class and it started making noises that would be a massive disruption for the teacher and the class. So we scrapped that idea.

Basic Scenario

This is a really quick basic scenario that i have done up for our project. We also changed the age group to 6 - 10 years old from 6 - 12 years. This was because we thought 12year olds were too old to keep in contact with their parents in this sense. Also a 6 year difference we thought was too much.

WE HAVE OUR CONCEPT!!

We finally chose a scenario and concept to continue with.

It is a device that allows young children to communicate with their parents or carers when they aren't together.

The Begining

Our next few idea's were hospitality related. We tried to incorporate Amy's inital idea of the water jug and how the flower stands up when it was full and if it was empty the flower was down.

We then thought about restaunant reviews and if we used facebook to show if people liked that restaurant or not.

Another idea was for waiters/waitresses to know when a table needed to be serviced by using Amy's concept.

Again we didn't continue with either of these idea's because we couldn't see them working well  enough.

Group Project Start

To start off our group project i did a vey quick brainstorming session and came up with two different user groups and ideas for them.

The first one was looking at children with intellectual problems that are "runners" (kids that run away alot because they don't know better). The idea was to use a small GPS tracker and attach it their clothes so their parents would always know where they were.

The second one was looking at something that can measure the speed of a ball or if you were able to land a gymnastic trick. It will then update that result to facebook or twitter.

We didn't continue with either of these ideas because Amy and Lisa didn't like them.

Scenario 1

In our first scenario lesson we were taught a new method finding a solution to a problem. This was the "Bad Idea's Method". It involved coming up with really bad ideas of how to solve the problem and then changing them into good idea's.

We were given a simple design brief that was "Design a device for elderly people to remind them take their medicine. (They need to take different medicines during the day)". The first thing we did was write down all the stupid ideas we could think, some of these were: The power to their house would be cut, their denchers would chatter violently, their walking stick would stick or slip on the floor. We decided to go with the chattering denchers.

We then identified the good things about this idea. We thought the best thing was that it would definitely remind them to take their medication. Then we identified all the bad things and transformed them into good things, for instance the violent vibration was replaced with an extremely small vibration cause the mouth is very sensitive.

Final Concept

This post is just to reiterate everything about my concept.

The Lightning Plate is the base of my concept.

The effect is created when the object is switched on, a gas is released which reacts with the beads inside, this causes the lightning effect. When someone touches the glass a weak source of electricity has been added and this causes the small lightning arc's. This can be recreated by having a hidden board inside the glass panel  that can release a small electric zap in a certain area. This will cause little bolts of lightning to erupt from that spot. 

 

The Lightning plates will come in a set of 2 or more. When you first buy the lightning plate the first step is to connect it to the internet, it connects through a wireless network. Then via the website you can connect to friends devices, this makes you able to communicate with your friends through the lightning plate.

The plate will be divided up into eight sections each conveying a different message. When one person touches their finger to one of the sections all the other lightning plates that you have selected as friends will zap at that section, conveying the message that the first person has chosen.

The second feature of my concept is its ability to react to music (as seen in the youtube clip in a previous post). You can plug the plate straight into your speakers to play the music from. This works in the same way as when you touch the plate and it sends the selected message to all other friends, in this feature you are able to send music to friends. It will then play through their speakers and their lightning plate will react. This is to convey what mood you are in through what kind of song you're listening to.

Concept Boards

These were the boards that I used to aid in my presentation.

Behaviour

The Action, Reaction and Interaction were explored in this graph.

Object

This is the graph i've done up for the Object section of my design.

Scenario

The user group my product is targeted at is kids specifically teens  (13-20).

Jimmy has been getting in trouble from his parents because he is over using his mobile pone cap every month texting and calling his best friend Dean.

Now with the lightning plate Jimmy's mobile phone bill has gone down. Insead of texting all the time he can now ask Dean simple generic questions like "Are you free?" or "Want to do something?" Dean can then in turn respond with a yes or no.

Here is the graph we did in class about a scenario done up with my design.

The Lightning Plate in use

This is a link to a video on youtube of the lightning plate in use. It shows what happens when you touch it and what happens when you plug it into speakers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6bazgP_LGk

I also want to use the sound effect in my concept. The way i want it to work is one person plays a song on their computer and turn their lightning plate on, and then they can play the song through other peoples lightning plates.

This is another way to convey what mood you're in by showig a friend what song you're listening to.

Lightning Plate Concept

This is the concept i have developed from the lightning plate.

The basics of it is; they will come in a set of between 2 and 4. The way they communicate with each other is through the internet. They have to be hooked up through a wireless network and you can select people you want to communicate with when you set it up.

The circle will be divided up into eight sections each conveying a different message. When one person touches their finger to one of the sections all the other lightning plates will zap at that section, conveying the message that the first person has chosen. How this works was explained in the previous blog entry.

So to break it down even further into the input and output services. The input is where the first user chooses which section he wants to use and then touches it with their finger. The output is when all the other lightning plates zap at that same spot the first user selected, conveying whatever message they chose.

Lightning Plate

I found another object that shows a similar effect as the lightning ball. Instead of it being a ball shape it is a flat plate.

As shown below it uses a similar effect as the lightning ball, the lightning arc's to your finger but this one also arc's away from your finger in little bolts.

With it being flat it is much easier to exploit than the lightning ball and make the effect happen by a means other than a finger.

The effect is created when the object is switched on, a gas is released which reacts with the beads inside, this causes the lightning effect. When somone touches the glass a weak source of electricity has been added and this causes the smaller lightning arc's. This can be recreated by having a hidden board inside the glass panel that can release a small electric zap in a certain area. This will cause little bolts of lightning to errupt from that spot.

The Lightning Ball Experementation

I realised after talking to Yasu that i didnt need to scrap the idea completely. If i could find another material that made the lightning orb act in the same way i could make it work.

I used a variety of materials on the orb to see if any of them worked the same way as a finger does. Plastic and Rubber both did not work. But a paper clip and a coated wire did (see pics below).

After a few more tries i came to the conclusion that anything that can have or does have an electrical curent running through it makes the stronger arc appear in the orb. This was apparent when i left the paper clip ontop of the ball, the arc became a lot weaker, but when my finger touched the paper clip it became strong again. It was my natural current running through my finger into the paper clip that made it appear again.

The box of the Lightning Ball says; "An electric current is produced within any conductive object near the orb, as the glass blocks the electromagnetic field."

So for my idea to work i have to use a conductive object on the orb to give the desired effect.

The Lightning Ball

My first idea for this assignment was to use a lightning plasma ball.

 

How i thought of using it was to have two orbs and over the orbs were different sections, each telling you a different emotion/meaning. The way they were used was on one of the orbs the user would press their finger to a section and the second orb would zap up to that section too.

 This would show the owner of the second lightning plasma orb what emotion/meaning the first owner wanted to convey.

This idea has to be scrapped because i couldn't find a way to transmit the message from one orb to the other.

Electronic Research 2

The next electronic product i took apart was a little car like thing that changes its direction every time a sound is made.

There is a sensor attached to the front of the machine that respondes to loud noises.

The circuit board is a LOT more complex than the previous one on the finger lights. On this one you can see all the wires, capacitors and resistors.

There is a small motor located undr the top left red ball (look at picture above) its attached to the wheels underneath. This is how it runs.

This is a much more complex bit of electronics but it is still possible to use.

Having a product that could react to sound would provide a very good output solution if the input was a loud noise.

Electronic Research

For my research into electronics i found a simple little kids toy that you strap to your arm and then to your fingers, and when you press the button the lights at the edge of the fingers light up.

The most interesting thing i found about this was that the button used to activate the lights was held in place by sticky tape (as shown below).

A simple on and off flashing of a light can be used as an input and an output. Just like with morse code.

Newspaper Articles on Interactive Design

These are two newspaper articles i found about new products that have both an input and output media. I thought these were two very different examples of interaction, it showed me that there is a wide the range of things i could think into.

Week 2

Week 2 was a more in-depth exploration of how to use materials or objects to convey messages. We were let loose into the labs to play with the materials we had bought in.

I decided to focus on Play-Doh. This was because i liked how it was so deformable, it was able to be moulded into any shape.

These are some pictures and movies i took.

I also looked at a Rubix Cube, specifally at how it turned and the different colours.