Interaction in my opinion would be the ways in which humans communicate with certain electronic objects and the ways in which these objects react to our communication, creating a two way effect. In the article Art of Interactive Design, the author likens interactivity to a conversation which was why I chose to use the word ‘communicate’ in my definition. In a conversation between two people, one participant has to listen, think and then speak or respond depending on what the other participant has just said. With interactive projects that have been built using Arduino etc., the input such as electricity becomes the “listening process” and the output such as the LED lighting up or sound coming from the buzzer becomes the “speaking” process linking back to the whole idea of interactivity being a conversation.
When researching on interaction, two projects I found really interesting were the Interactive Mario Mushroom Block Project and Augmented Reality in Education Project (all found on hackster.io). In the first project, the creator got his inspiration from the blocks in Mario whereby you would hit a block and a mushroom would pop out. He created a 3D version of this using Arduino 101, servo motors and a block tin. The individual would interact with the block by hitting it on the bottom, the block would then sense that it has been hit and open up, shooting a mushroom out. Here, interaction was quite limited in my opinion as there was only one input and one output. It was only detecting if the block had been hit or not and then popping out the mushroom without really creating a conversation.
The second project I looked at seemed to fit in better with my view of interaction as there were more inputs and outputs creating more of a back and forth conversation. The purpose of this project was to use augmented reality to bring life to objects in a museum for educational purposes. Children would therefore be able to interact with the objects in the museum and bring them to life by browsing a printed ‘book’ in front of a screen. Children would be able to refer to this book and choose how huge they wanted the object to be or what details they wanted projected in front of them. This would then project the objects in a 3D form for the children to interact with. I found this to be more interactive as there were multiple inputs in the book and multiple outputs as well.
For our group project, we came up with the idea of the ‘Doglar’ which is an innovative dog collar that helps the dog’s owner communicate better with their dog. The dog collar which would be worn around the dog’s neck would be made of adjustable material and would be able to detect when the dog is dehydrated or hungry. It would then automatically signal the nearby food/water dispenser to provide food or water for the dog. It would also be able to detect the temperature of the dog or if the dog is feeling ill and diagnose the dog. The owner is then better able to understand their dog as they can now see what the dog may be going through with the help of the collar. The collar could also be used to train the dog by providing treats through the dispenser every time the dog does something right such as if it urinates in the correct place and send a vibration every time the dog does something bad. This proposed definition fits in with my definition of interaction as it shows that there are multiple inputs within the collar and outputs as well through the dispenser. The collar becomes the “listening process” as described earlier on and the dispenser can be similarly likened to the “speaking process” indirectly allowing for communication between the dog and its owner.
References:
- The Art of Interactive Design