Partner: Anna Shi
- CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE:
In our group research project, we define what interaction is and research the interactive projects online. The previous project I found online is the street art/public art in the streets of Detroit which make citizens engage with the city itself. I love street art but it is not interactive to some extent. In my opinion, interaction must involve two actors in a cyclic process with thinking, processing, and responding. Besides, I think interaction must have inputs and outputs, and interaction has to be able to process complex information instead of a simple one, which ultimately differs interaction from an instant reaction. Like Eye Writer, it is a highly interactive project and process complex information. When Anna and I started to think about this project, I initially came up with the idea of a doll which teaches children to learn our organs. Then we developed this idea to a role play game as a doctor since we all love to be doctors when we were small. We found that most doctor kits on the market are very simple and not interactive at all. So we want to improve this condition by adding feedback from the original toys to let the children experience the role of a doctor more real and also fun for adults to play with. The reason why we choose an alien is that we think an alien is more interesting, and it is beyond our common knowledge to find his heartbeat.
- CONCEPTION AND DESIGN:
We think we should have something soft and cute for the users to interact, which was hard to be made by digital fabrication. So we decided to buy a doll and stethoscope on Taobao, and the stethoscope plays a significant role in the doctor game. Another reason we chose to perform on an alien doll instead of a human-looking doll is that we could not find an appropriate doll like a normal human that we expected. Moreover, we considered what kinds of feedback that our users could experience. We think light and sound are the most obvious and interactive ones to attract people’s attention. And Anna came up with the idea of two cute blushes with red shining light inside of them.
The video below we were just testing the blushes!
- FABRICATION AND PRODUCTION:
At first, we have some difficulties to use the new sensor — pressure sensor, but soon this problem was solved with the help of Nick. Since my project’s prototype is an alien, we should combine it with an actual doll and we did not spend a long time designing the digital fabrication part. We decided to create two translucent shells by 3D printing and put red LED lights into them in order to build two cute alien’s blushes. We thought it would be a very smooth process since they were small and we did not have to spend a long time to print them. Nevertheless, we failed four times and spent two days to print them. First, we built semiellipse shells. However, the 3D printer seemed to unable to print a thick shell that I expected. I changed the original files and adjusted the thickness for two times, the shells were not what I wanted. After three times of failures, we decided to change the shape of them. I changed them from two semiellipse shells to two semi-hollow cylinders, I might not use the right word to describe them. Here is the picture to better understand.
For the pressure sensors, we borrowed four or five types of sensors and eventually decided on using the biggest one. since our HearbE.T. is not small, if we put a smaller sensor into his body, the user will never find the heartbeat. For the sensor and LED part, it went very well, though we did spend some time to put them inside the body of our alien and make sure the circuits are tightly connected. Another obstacle we met is about the sound and music. We wanted to play the sound of the heartbeat, however, it was pretty hard for us to find the right device to play the sound. We mainly brought three kinds of things, including MP3 shield, buzzer/speaker, and MP3 player. The shield is kind of broken and we had to connect the wires by soldering, it was very unrealistic if we continue to use the shield. So we changed it to the speaker, we made the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, but we still wanted to play another kind of music, especially the sound of the heartbeat, which can help us the most to explain our project. With the help of Eric, the MP3 player finally works!! And the code is not very difficult, so we were able to learn quickly how to use it and finish the sound part. Here is our code.
After the user experience test, we found four improvements among all the feedback we had. First, the sensor. Some users had no idea to press it or press harder to trigger the light and sound; however, some users directly press it and find the heartbeat so easily. We thought about changing the sensor to magnetic sensor, however, it was too small which could not fit into our original plan. To adjust the situation, we low down the value from 600 to 300. So as long as the user presses a little bit, the sound and light could immediately be triggered. Second, we use the stethoscope, however, the sound of the heartbeat did not come from the stethoscope itself. We use the speaker to play the sound, and it did not reach our users’ expectation for it. So we changed it into a headphone and combined it with a part of the stethoscope. And I think it is the most successful change we made after the user experience test. Third, the heartbeat users heard sometimes is slow and sometimes is fast, which causes some confusions to the users. So we changed the code from mp3.pause(); to mp3.stop();. So every time the sound heartbeat play from the beginning rather than the middle. Fourth, create a new narrative of the project. We used the stickers to help the users to target where the hearts are. And we also created a poster and a document to better explain our story. Here are our poster and document.
Here is our user test video before our revision. The user has to press very hard to find the heartbeat. And the sound plays from the speakers outside.
Here is the final presentation for our project! Right now, you are unable to hear the sound outside, since the sound comes from the stethoscope. And we adjusted the value, so you don’t have to push very hard to get the feedback. We also add the red stickers part to help the users locate the hearts and find the shape (Thanks Anna for your wonderful performance! )
- CONCLUSIONS:
Our goal is to create an interactive doctor game by examing the alien’s body and you can hear his heartbeat. It is a game designed for children and also fun for adults to play with. So all the equipment we use is not professional. We want to let the children experience the role of a doctor by interacting with this cute and friendly alien. In the beginning, users definitely have confusions to find the heartbeat since it is an alien. By interacting, they eventually can hear the sound of heartbeat from the specially designed stethoscope with headphone. And our users and audiences definitely interact with our project. One thing we will certainly improve if we have more time is the reward/outcome of finding the heartbeat. I think we focus too much on the experience of finding the heartbeat, such as changing speakers to a headphone. But until the presentation, we realize we didn’t focus on the reward part. Personally, I think if we can extend the project, the reward part is something we must improve by letting the heart light through the skin or playing music to indicate the users that they have successfully found the heart.
I am a social science student, so I strongly sense the differences between these two majors. Producing a paper is a smooth process for me as long as I have an outline, the rest of it is about the time to finish it. But for interaction lab, the process of producing a project is much harder than I imagined. Lots of failures and mistakes, and I did feel frustrated in the middle and somehow after a couple of days, things would work out. Patience and passion are definitely needed to complete a project!
- Reference:
https://vault.fbi.gov/UFO/UFO%20Part%202%20of%2016/view
https://vimeo.com/9939042
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qvv3qp/massive-murals-detroit-library-street-collective
https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/09/best-doctor-kit-toys-toddlers-older-kids.html