I’m in group 5 named “Team Group”, which includes Rin, Lesley, Riley, Ragnor and me. Primarily, I think we were a really good team. Also, I’m also proud of all of us as we had good cooperation with members and did a good job.
Based on the fiction, our group had a discussion together and then we decided to invent a sensory device which is similar to the VR technology but higher than that. We used cardboards to make the model of the device without using electronic technology, programming and any other high technology. In the end, we performed smoothly with the functions of our device.
Inspired by the first fiction—— The Veldt. In the fiction, the main character is the nursery, a crystal wall which is dimensional, super-reactionary and super sensitive color film and mental tape film behind glass screens. So, depending on the environment and fiction, I advised the members that we could invent a removable device for treatments that are similar to the nursery. This device can provide the user with two different modes: For one, the device can detect your thoughts to show the user a scene or the user can just ask the device to show the scene that he/ she wants to see. This mode is my idea, and then Rin came up with another creative mode: The device can estimate the user’s emotions and feelings and present the scene automatically. Like, the device feels that the user is anxious right now, it will provide a comfort menu to let the user calm down. However, this device is much higher than just offering the visual service, as it also can give users senses of touching, smelling and hearing.
So, depending on the conception, we started to design the appearance of the device. I thought that it could be composed with two parts: one is the device on the head, which includes the virtual, smell, hearing and the function of detecting; Another one is in the shape of gloves so that it can let the user feel about touching. So, on account of this idea, we continued to work. As Lesley was really good at designing and really creative, we had a sketch design about the first part quickly. And Riley also had done the design of gloves, which was inspired by Ironman. Here are the drawings and some pictures of the working process.
After finishing making the device, we started to think about the performance. According to the idea of Ragnor and Rin, we decide to play a scene in our daily life: The student(Lesley) is agitated by the homework and turns to the doctor(Ragnor) in the wellness center for help. Then the doctor provides him with the device and gives him treatments. Finally, the student feels much better and has a positive attitude to his study. During the performance, we used props and lines to show what the students were seeing, listening, touching and smelling to make sure that the audience could have a better understanding of our invention. Here is the record of the performance. By the way, Lesley is really a good actor.
In my mind, I think our device is creative and innovative. But, it also has its shortages. First, I think we need to have a deeper discussion about the usage and instructions of the device. Second, this is also a problem if users get addicted to the treatment and can not face it in real life. These are the problems that still need us to think about and solve.
As for the performance of other groups, I think they were all really creative and had done good performances to introduce their inventions. And I want to talk about the last robot(sorry to forget their group name), which is based on the last novel. The robot first scanned and detected the situation about the user and listened to their orders, then followed the orders to help users. This idea fits with the background of the fiction and is useful and innovative. And members just had a good performance to show us their device. However, the cost of the robot is huge and there should be a lot of robots to serve users, which will be inconvenient and costly. So, I think it might be better for them to think about the size and cost of the robot, like they can make the robot smaller and easier to take and use.