PROJECT PROPOSAL
ProPosal 1
PROJECT TITLE:
Space, Life, and Humans
PROJECT STATEMENT OF PURPOSE:
In the research stage, I have studied many interactive space projects. Though they have unique ideas, exhibiting completely different design logic, they all share a similarity in using the space to reach certain purposes rather than showing some unique features of the space itself. Based on this observation, I come up with this design, which I named “Space, Life, and Humans”. In this one, I would like to show humans, also referring to users, interact with space. And with or without human participation, the life cycle will always stay there, other elements contributing to the birth of lives will always be there. But with human participation, some features of that space will change accordingly. These are the design ideas I want to show in this project. Then I will briefly explain how I am going to build this project.
I will need several small electric fans both on the top and at the bottom of the device. And then I will place some material very soft in the middle, maybe something like satin, and when the fan runs at a different power rate, the satin will have a beautiful shape with a sense of motion. Also, the continuous shape of it represents the continuity of life. The idea is that when someone passing by, he will bring wind, and based on strong it is, it will affect the lights and other elements in this project. Another potential interaction is that I can place a camera in front of this box and when someone is waving hands and it’s detected by the camera, the shape of this soft material will change as well. I plan to use 5 kinds of color, including blue, purple, green, yellow, and red, respectively representing water, lightning, plants, the ground, and the sun. Another interaction part is that the user will put on the headset. I will use processing to create some sound elements and the digital space of the whole device. The user’s volume of speaking will also become a variable to control the elements in this space. Using processing to create that virtual world is also a way to make users have a feeling that they are interacting with space rather than the device itself. All my choices made above are all depended on this core idea. The challenge I seek to overcome is the modeling of the virtual version of that space. Because we haven’t learned how to create 3-D things in the processing, I suppose it would cost me lots of time to figure it out. Besides, how to use the fans to control the shape of that satin is also challenging. To make it beautiful, I suppose that I would try hundreds of times to find suitable material.
Proposal 2
PROJECT TITLE:
Gentle Flower
PROJECT STATEMENT OF PURPOSE:
Recently, I have always heard about the news reporting that the relationship between people is getting colder and colder. Also, I have discovered our school is holding an event called “Matchy Matchy”, aiming to help you find more friends by bringing everybody together. This is my inspiration. As a result, I come up with an idea that I could design some questions on the processing, asking for users to input these answers. Based on these answers, I can use different colors to spray on the color, generating a beautiful flower and give it to them. This represents that no matter how cold the world is, we can still find someone who will bring us warmth. And as far as I am concerned, a flower is the best way to represent warmth. Next, I am going to explain the imaginary building process and the difficulties that I may encounter.
In my mind, I plan to use the paint spraying box with watercolor inside of it. There are three kinds of colors on every corner of it so that I can change the flower’s color based on users’ answers. According to the answer, I can write a program generating and analyzing what emotion the user is in right now. In response, I will give him an answer based on the flower language. For example, if we detect that the user is in a loving emotion, we will paint the white paper flower with a red color representing love, and then wearing it with a carefully chosen perfume. In this way, we connect our visual ability with the smell, giving the user a more friendly process. Meanwhile, I suppose that because of the use of water paint, there will be tons of colors on the two sides of the wall. That represents that if every one of us can treat others in this way, our society can also be warmer. I think that picture must be colorful and warm. The difficulty I am struggling with is how I am going to deal with the watercolor. I imaging that using the motor to control which one is supposed to spray is quite difficult. One more difficulty is to build the question and the answering system. Since the color of that flower completely depends on the system, this one is of great importance.
Proposal 3
PROJECT TITLE:
Escape
PROJECT STATEMENT OF PURPOSE:
I get the inspiration from the Ghostpie Studio, which is a recently very popular horror game. While the most horrible part of that game is the figure of the main character. What I want to try to build is only using sound and text and other feelings rather than simply applying a horrible figure. For me, this can give the users a more obsessive experience in enjoying pure horror. The nervousness when you hear the closing footstep and screaming all makes this game more user-engaging.
I want to add more elements into this game, like the electrode slide and the shaking effect of the joystick. Because there are no pictures, users can merely know where they are, but not realize what is in front of them. If the ghost is too close to them, they will get an electric shock and the joystick will shock as well. This all makes the horror game more user-engaging. Also, they are required to choosing within a few seconds, this will make the whole process more compact, bringing them more excitement. I think for this proposal, the most difficult thing is to come up with the idea of how to make sure where they are without the help of the picture and the whole design of the plot. Also, the voices like footsteps need to be carefully recorded so that they will be well displayed in the project.