Megan See
Interaction Lab
Group Project Individual Reflection
09/2019
My personal definition of interaction is the exchange of information from one thing to another that triggers a response. Often times there is a user, and they have a piece of information that is taken into consideration, and then that gives the output, or “response.”
The first project I looked at is an interactive map that shows how climate change will affect your town in 60 years. The article about the map describes that “when you select a city on the map, it links to a region that currently has a similar climate to what is expected for a chosen city in 60 years.” According to this article, the interactivity of the map is that it responds with a specific answer based on the user’s input with already existing knowledge and statistics of the environment and others comparatively. This project is more closely related to my definition than the next example because the user does have input or information that they give to the computer, and then the response is specific to what information the user entered.
The second project I looked at is interactive plants that can “show emotion.” This project was made several years ago now but I still found it to be relevant based on what we are doing in class. Triggered by motion sensors, plants will move and twitch in the presence of people. It’s as simple as that. The person or user moves, and this triggers the plant to move as well. I think that this example is more loosely related because although it does follow it, with a user, exchange, and output or response, this one has the same response every time and no matter the user. The first project could change for whoever was using it.
My group made “Smart Floors” as our project. The idea, as written on our poster, is to bring “interactivity into home security.” It was designed to keep people and pets in our out of the house or a specific room. When something steps on the smart floor, which looks like a floor mat almost, it will trigger something like a virtual reality that is specific to everyone that uses it. For example, if a robber was trying to get into a home but stepped onto the mat, everything around them would appear to be scary and almost a punishment for them, and at the same time keeping them in the same place while the authorities are on their way. Another example is a baby. Say a baby was not supposed to leave a certain room, but a parent looks away for a moment and they try to crawl away. When they step onto the map, their virtual reality would be something more happy and entertaining to keep them from actually being able to escape without making them feel threatened. In both examples, the smart floor recognizes that it is the specific user (the robber and the baby) and responds by creating something for them, specific to them.
The smart floor is more on the level on the interactive map because the output of different for each user, but also similar to the interactive plant because it can do more than just have something appear on a computer screen, and it is something that a person can really experience.
Bibliography
Ferreira, Becky. “Here’s an Interactive Map That Shows How Climate Change Will Affect Your Town in 60 Years.” Vice, 12 Feb. 2019, https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/zma389/heres-an-interactive-map-that-shows-how-climate-change-will-affect-your-town-in-60-years.
Holmes, Kevin. “Interactive Plants That Convey Emotions.” Vice, 3 Apr. 2012, https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/aej83k/interactive-plants-that-convey-emotions.