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.

Object Ideas

This was just a couple of ideas i had of different objects to use for my project. I drew them on the bus so they're not of the best calibre...