Archives for November 2023

For this week’s challenge update, the group met up, and started discussing ways to combine the info that previous group gave us, regarding visual impairment. So we came up with the idea of creating tags that would communicate through bluetooth into an app. The app would then give information to the user, and help them navigate.

We also started our slide deck, and split work.

Im in in charge of the images in context, as well as working on the presentation, explaining how the product works. 

For this week’s update, I have come up with a device that focuses on arthritis, specifically grip problems. The device will consist of a glove, with a mechanism on the palm, and rubber bands into each finger. The mechanism will sense that the user wants to grip something, it will create pull and tension, thus closing the hand with less effort from the user. Below are sketches, pictures, and videos of the process. Also I did a short ppt in order to showcase my idea. 

Sketch:

 

Materials:

Idea of mechanism:

Process:

Result:

Read the article on ambient computing interfaces and explore the Google little signals website. Think about how the work you are doing on your project and how it may be inspired by the interactions that are used in the little signals experiments. Identify which of the little signals are your favorite and why? Can you see any other ways you might use that particular little signals interface?

My idea for this week consists of a glove that can help people with arthritis affecting the hands, mobolity, and specifically grip force.

While coming up with the idea, I realized how the little signals experiments main goal was to notify the user in subtle ways, in order to create a better living environment. This got me thinking, around its idea, and how the product I came up with is somewhat similar, in the way that it should activate when the user wants it to, and in a subtle way. 

My favorite devices are wind, and rhythm. Wind is very interesting to me, because having so simple and natural such as wind seems very intuitive to me. Also it is would be relaxing to see nearby leaves within the environment move around. The other one is rhythm, because I am a very auditive person, and the idea of a device that could notify me about something by blending in ambient sound seems very elegant to me.

I might see them for smart home control. They could be connected to a ecosystem, and link different kinds of notifications into different areas. Let say that you have a food delivery, when you get a notification that it has arrived, you could the lights in your kitchen turn on, by the tap device, and the A/C in whichever room temperature you are in to change accordingly. This would expand the usability scope, while also keeping notifications to a minimum. 

My concept will expand on last group’s one. I will create a glove that assists in picking up objects. While testing out the groups empathy device, I realized it was a hassle to pick up obejcts, specially if they are small. For this condition, my idea is to create a glove with sticky properties on the fingertips. Below are the materials, instructions, and a sketch.  

 

Materials: 

1. Thick gloves or mittens
2. Hot glue sticks
3. Velcro straps or rubber bands (to limit finger movement) 3 Small objects with different shapes and sizes (e.g., coins, buttons, small toys)
4. Timer or stopwatch
5. Writing tasks or simple craft activities

 

Instructions: 

• Ask participants to wear thick gloves or mittens to simulate reduced sensitivity and control.
• Use rubber bands to restrict finger joint movement, limiting dexterity further.
• Provide participants with small objects and ask them to complete tasks such as picking up coins, buttoning a shirt, or assembling a small puzzle.
• Set a timer for each task to create a sense of urgency and frustration.

 

For this week’s update, the team got together, and decided we wanted to expand upon the topic of visual impairment, and what feelings people living with this impairment have to deal with. So we came up with a box that would have a “balcony” within it. The main purpose of this is for the user to try to grab a bottle cap inside it. However there are a few “dangerous” objects that would produce an unpleasant feeling on the hand,  and the location of the cap is unknown making the user anxious and scared just in case they hurt themselves. This is what we believe a person living with a vision impairment would feel like. Below are pictures for better understanding, as well as the timelapse. 

Timelapse:

Balcony:

Top cover:

Top view:

Front View:

 

Read the article and look at Keiichi Matsuda’s work. Write your blog post about your opinion on the future of how we interact with the world. What positives and negatives can you identify? Consider the subject matter of challenge 2 around disability and age in your response.

Both the article, and Keiichi Matsuda’s work were very interesting for me. On one hand the article provided me with some insights about our behaviours around smartphones by using the analogy of the evolution of lighting, and how the oil lamp became stagnant. If we rethink it, smartphones have allowed an unprecented amount of connectiveness around the world, however people often find themselves isolated behind their screens, which Keiichi Matsuda draws upon in his work. This is why it is important to always be aware of how we use our devices. Some positive and negative aspects can be found below. 

Positives: 

• AR would allow information to overlay with the real world, which would enhance, efficiency of tasks we are working on. 
• Better accesibility for people with disabilities, ex: it could help an individual with visual impairment to navigate more indepently the world around them. 
• Empower aging population, by displaying important information to them such as health info, and connecting them to people close to them. 

 

Negative:

• Sensory overload, as evidenced in the video. There is a point in which too much things being displayed, and this would make task performance less eficient, the same thing could be said for modern smartphones. A limit must be drawn into what is useful, and what is distracting. 
• Potential privacy concerns, If these technologies gather information about us to better understand us, wouldnt it make it vulnerable that it could be used in the wrong ways, such as it is evidenced in the video?