Category: Inmi

PROJECT TITLE: Reconsidering human-nature Relationship

PROJECT STATEMENT OF PURPOSE *

Our project aims at making people rethink about human-nature relationship. We gained the inspiration first from the art gallery on the 1st floor called the 72-relations with a golden rog. We would like to make an interactive project that allows people to rethink the way they can interact with nature. A website called Way To Go narrows our idea. As shown in the website, we decide to project the users on the screen and encourage them to explore their way of interaction with nature. Feedback will be given as users interact with the nature in the screen to make them realize their impact on the nature.

PROJECT PLAN *

We will make our project like a screen-based VR. Users will be encouraged to interact with multiple sensors outside the screen but the effect will be shown visually on the screen.  In terms of the actions, we will finish our shooting by Nov.23 and edit it on Nov.24. On Nov.25-27, we will be working on the code in Arduino and processing. We need to first figure out which sensors we need for users to “interact with nature.” Then we will be working on projecting the users as well as the animation. On Nov.28-30 we will try to modify the code on our own based on the guidelines from the fellows, professors or learning assistants. By Dec.2, we will roughly get the whole project done and try to run it. For the rest of the week, we will be focusing on digital fabrication and modifying our code based on some feedback like user testing.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE *

Besides the “way to go” website, several other research also inspired me in preparation for the final project. For example, the interactive IKEA LED table projects user’s physical interaction to a larger screen and therefore enhances the user experience. Or the interactive playground project where the users are encouraged to give input (throw) continuously. It’s also immersive. The idea of immersion is important in our screen-based VR where the user’s input and output will be amplified on the screen. Together with the feedback the user receives from their input, they’ll be encouraged to give more inputs, which aligns with our definition of interaction that interaction should be in a “continuous” one.  We will base our project on the “way to go” website, but intends to allow more interaction than simply “looking” nature and walking around in it.

Our project is intended for anyone because human-nature relationship concerns the whole human body. We particularly want people who don’t care about nature and consider nature as disposable resources to rethink what nature is and our relationship to it. After successful completion, we want the project prompts people to rethink about our relationship to nature and realize the impact we’ve made on nature. Subsequent projects will meaningfully build upon that concept and further encourages humans to reflect on their perception of nature. 

Reference

1. http://a-way-to-go.com/
2. Interactive IKEA LED table https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptxulCpz6po
3. Interactive playground. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bCCyGcdNB0

Project Title:

Motion Painting

Project Statement of Purpose:

The enlightenment of our project is an interactive piece that uses motion detectors to catch people’s hand movements and draw corresponding images on the screen. By interacting with the piece, people can draw whatever they want using their movements such as pushing their arms and waving their hands, instead of just painting with a pen. Looking closely, how people move their hands is like they’re using magic to paint on the screen. This is also very interesting and creative. Our project is going to make some improvements on the basis of our enlightenment, which is mentioned above. Similarly, we also want to show people that sometimes you don’t necessarily need a pen or pencil to create a beautiful painting. There may be an inherent concept in many people’s mind that if you want to draw something, you have to use a pen or pencil or some pigments which would use up your physical strength really quickly. We want to break this concept by creating an interactive art piece that allows people to draw only with their motions. Since art can be in any forms you can think of, we want to let people create their own art interactively and creatively. So we would like to use motion sensors or distance sensors to detect people’s body movements and generate different forms and colors of images on the canvas according to different movements people make. We also intend to inspire people to think outside of the box and create new forms of art with their imagination.

Project Plan:

In order to make our Motion Painting, we would use Arduino to build the circuit for the sensors and use Processing to display people’s art piece on “motion painting”. We would also fabricate the appearance of sensors using 3D printer or Laser-cut. For Arduino, our initial thought is to use a motion sensor to detect people’s movements. To avoid getting confused, we would set a detectable range so that the sensor can only detect people’s hand and arm movements instead of the whole body movements. We also thought about using a couple of distance sensors to build this detector, but due to previous experience, the sensitivity of distance sensors may not satisfy our goal. So the sensor remains to be discussed and tested. In terms of Processing, we want to assign different values from Arduino with different figures shown on the screen. For instance, if people push their hands, Processing would generate different shapes of stars on the canvas; if they wave their hands, Processing would present different sizes of circles. The color of each figure is also changeable based on the speed of people’s movements. If they move faster, the color would be redder; if slower, it would be bluer. Our intended audience is people who are interested in interactive art pieces and willing to create interactive and creative work by themselves. We draw from our previous experience of visiting art exhibitions and learn that people prefer interactive art pieces when they go to an art exhibition and these kinds of art pieces are easily to engage and understand. So what we want to create is also an interactive art piece that is easily to engage and understand.

Our project timeline is basically as follows:

• Nov. 22: Start coding for Arduino, setting up the circuit and testing the sensor.
• Nov. 26: Start coding for Processing and combine it with Arduino.
• Dec. 3: Finish the code for Arduino and Processing and test the circuit.
• Dec. 4: Fabricate the controller (using 3D printer or Laser-cut).
• Dec. 6: Finish the project.
• Dec. 9: Finishing touches.

Context and Significance:

My preparatory research and the experience of midterm project both show that interactive art pieces should focus more on users’ experience. So this has become one of the goals we want to fulfill in our project. On the one hand, experience means communications between the art piece and the users, including different kinds of input and output.In the article called “Introduction to Physical Computing”, Igoe and O’sullivan show us how the computer sees us as a sad creature: “we might look like a hand with one finger, one eye, and two ears” (19). In order to change this, we need to add more ways of input when we communicate with the computer. They also mention that “we need to take a better look at ourselves to see our full range of expression” (Igoe and O’sullivan, 19). What we are capable of when communicating with computers is not limited to clicking the mouse or the keyboard. We should explore more kinds of experience in order to be more interactive with the art piece. On the other hand, experience also includes the simplicity of understanding the project. So for this project, we also focus on how to make people be aware of how to interact with our project and understand it as soon as they see it. Another goal we want to accomplish is to create a continuous communication between the art piece and the users.This aligns with my definition of interaction as well. My definition for interaction is “a continuous conversation between two or more corresponding elements”. It’s important for us to build a constant communication between the project and the users.

Since we are re-creating the art piece that inspires us, what our take from the art piece is the way of communication between the art piece and the users. However, we also make some improvements to it. Instead of generating random figures, we want to create different figures based on different motions people make. The audience of our project can be anyone. But it is especially intended for people who would like to create different forms of art and people who are interested in interactive art. Our project can work as a tool and also an enlightenment for them to create their own art piece. We want to put our project in an art exhibition so that it can inspire more people to create novel and creative art in whatever forms they can think of. Then the subsequent projects can be even more creative tool for people to create art. There is no limitation when creating an art piece. What limited us is only our imagination. People should give full play to their imagination in order to create new forms of art.

Reference:

Physical Computing – Introduction by O’sullivan and Igoe

 PROJECT STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

  The project aims to stress the importance of collaboration between countries which can bring benefits to all human beings. My partner and I are inspired by the brutal consequence caused by wars and fights between countries for resources and money and we want to make a game to aware people that the only way we humans can develop is to cooperate in peace. Violence will lead to nowhere but destroy.

  This is a game which involves two people. We are going to create a landscape(made by cupboard)which is divided into three areas with a road that goes through it. The three areas will each represent primitive society, feudal society, and modern society. Along the road, there will be dozens of LED lights to show the players’ position(my partner is considering to use cars with trail tracking sensors on it to go along the road as a substitute for LEDs because of the difficulty it causes to hook up all LEDs in one board, but it is still under discussion). Both of the players will start from primitive society and they are acting the leader of their own society. In the beginning, each of them will have the same blood stripe and the same amount of resources(shown in Processing). If they want to develop their society, they need more resources and there are two ways to gain resources. Two players take turns to throw dice on Processing to decide how many steps they are going to take. The LED lights will blink to show their position. After they take steps, they will obtain weapons and random amounts of resources to feed their society. After the player gets the weapon, he can choose to use it or not. There will be a blood bar in the processing screen and a button to control the fill of the bar to let the player decide how much blood he want the other player to drop. Also, with the power of the weapon increase, the range of the bar will increase to represent more damage than a weapon can cause. If the player chooses to use the weapon the blood stripe of the other player will decline and he will gain half of the other player’s resources(the resources bar is still under discussion). If he chooses not to use the weapon. both players can obtain a certain amount of resources. As the game going on, when each player enters a new society, the background of their character shown in Processing will change relatively(still under discussion). The weapon players get will be more and more powerful which represents how does the development of the technology increase the collapsing force of the weapon such as the atomic bomb. And when one of the players gets the atomic and chooses to use it, both of the two societies will be destroyed and nobody wins. Also, there will be videos show the scene of the boom blow up to warn people of the dangers of the weapon.  But if the player chooses not to use it, bot of them will win the game and get rewards(candies).

PROJECT PLAN

  We plan to first finish the programming in processing before December 1st (figuring the dice and find video and pictures and let them talk to processing)and finish the build of the whole landscape and the connection of the Arduino and let them talk to each other before December 5th.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE

  According to my previous research, I have analyzed these project:

Ethical Things – The mundane, the insignificant and the ‘smart’ (things) 

https://www.creativeapplications.net/objects/ethical-things-the-mundane-the-insignificant-and-the-smart-things/

the Blanket Project by Nicholas Stedman from

 ART + Science NOW, Stephen Wilson (Kinetics chapter)

Smile TV – It works only when you smile 

https://www.creativeapplications.net/maxmsp/smile-tv-works-only-when-you-smile/

Click Canvas

https://www.creativeapplications.net/member-submissions/click-canvas/

These complete my definition of interaction: a cyclic process that requires at least two objects (both animate and inanimate are accepted) individually has its input-analyze-output. Also, the whole process needs to be meaningful and forms a loop that allows the user to continually interact with it. Our final project–the epic of us, target everyone in the earth to let them be aware of the severe consequence caused by the fights between countries for resources and profits. It is fun since it is a game, it can give a response to the player’s action and allow the player to take another action. Also, interaction appears between two players since they have to interact with each other to win,

   

Project Title: Our Planet

PROJECT STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

The insight of this project comes after the discussion with Vivien Hao about our research and our focuses on the definition of “interaction.” Vivien researches a project named bomb that addresses energy safety issues. It aims at revealing the truth of reality and arouse the public’s awareness. Therefore, we believe “impact” is very important for a project of interaction to be meaningful and significant. Then, we together visited the website of the United Nations and researched “Sustainable Development Goals” to find some insight for us to address a social issue. We notice that the description of “GOAL 13: CLIMATE ACTION” says that “Climate change is a global challenge that affects everyone, everywhere” (United Nations). However, apparently, not everyone is familiar and aware of the happening climate change. Therefore, we want to build something interactive that addresses this issue. Since it has to be an interactive project, according to my previous research about the less successful project in PSA and successful project in teamLab Borderless Shanghai where everything is creative and collaborate, I believe that an open communication environment that engages the audience to have continuous participation is necessary. We soon recalled a smartphone app “Forest.” In this app, when staying away from your phone for a certain amount of time, the user will grow up a virtual tree on the phone. We, therefore, think that the image of tree growth is straightforward and friendly to the audience to show its indication of the environment. By paying effort to plant the tree and save the planet, use is getting constant feedback and engagement to reinforce their behaviors. It may even have a further impact on their real daily lives. Besides, we also visited the NASA website (https://climate.nasa.gov/) to look for some climate change facts as a reference to make sure it is scientifically reasonable. In all, this project addresses the general public’s awareness of the urgent climate change problem around the globe. It intends to encourage uses to minimize the carbon emission and pay effort to make a greener planet.

PROJECT PLAN

       The project will have a projection screen on the middle, four positions with shovels, and masks. When the user puts on the mask, once breathe, it consumes oxygen and produces carbon dioxide. When planting the tree, vice versa, and the tree grows larger. The planet will boom if it lacks oxygen and filled with carbon dioxide. The sketch of it is as follows.

Since our audience is the general public, they could be anyone. Therefore, we will have user testing among ourselves and our friends throughout the process of project development to empathize with them. We have some specific plans as follows.

1. We need to be sure about the detail of the design by prototyping and test it with the users. The user test should be in every step. The details include: whether or not to include a mask in our project, what types of sensors we decide to use, what material we will use, how will the user interface look like; sound, start and end, layout, and position. We will test with the comfortability and the cleanness of the mask. We will finish the discussion for all the details and have a blueprint by Sunday, Nov. 24.
2. We need to build the circuit and the program that are both scientific and humanized. This will be practical work. We may encounter many problems. We will refer to online references and asking for help. Once when we finish the user interface, we will have someone to test playing with it to make sure it makes sense to the audience about the expression of our initial design. Finish before Dec. 1.
3. We need to get the materials and build up the basic functional prototype. This is practical work, as well. We only need to make sure it can support our project to work. It can be done by Dec. 1, as well.
4. We need to test with the accuracy of counting the movement of the shovel and breathe. Also bug fixing work. This process needs constant revising and test among ourselves and our users. We will list out all the bugs the project has and fix them one by one until it works exactly what it is supposed to be. It should be done by Dec. 6.
5. Beatifying the project and adding something to improve user experience and accessibility. This step we will need to decorate everything, make the wires invisible, test the projection. After we think it works, we will invite many groups of people to interact with it. By hearing their feedback, we can make some little changes to make it more user-friendly and accessible for as many people as possible. It should be done by Dec. 8.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE

I researched the project of teamLab. It connects every human and non-human factor together. Therefore, I believe it builds a reciprocal communication and relationship between human and human, human and environment, environment and environment. Moreover, it inspires and impacts the user continually so that communication is everlasting and inclusive to them. The keyword – communication – in my reshaped definition of “interaction” hints me to design something that is encouraging and inspiring to the audience. I hope to build an immersive user interface to engage their communication while getting constant feedback. The movement of the shovel and the changing scene on the screen fulfills this requirement. Users will start to try shovel harder to reach the goal in the authentic settings that are relative to them. I also researched an assistive technology Marco Cart. As I described before, this project is functioning as a tool that addresses the real need and has an impact on society. Also, cooperating with Vivien’s research and understanding about “interaction,” we think a significant impact is also a considerable surplus to the significance of an interactive project. Combing “communication” and “social impact” together, this project uniquely brings a significant social issue into the reciprocal personal conversation with the general public in an interactive way. Even though the form of our project may look similar to some commercial smartphone apps like “Forest” and “AntForest” in Alipay, the theory, logic, frame, design, outcome, purpose, and significance are different. We address more on impact and communication while they might be designed to trick consumers for more economic profits. Our project may have further implications on a personal level. It may bring more people’s attention to the issue of climate change. In this way, some social movement projects and activities about environment protection may be more meaningful and more influential to the general public. By cooperation together, every single person has the power to devote a remarkable effort to make our planet greener and to make our livings more sustainable.

Project Title

Aircraft War

Project Statement of Purpose

Basically, we want to make an entertaining game for the final project. This game would be an aircraft game, in which the primary mechanics is that the player can control an aircraft to attack the enemy aircraft. This is a video that we found when we did the research and it is about a normal aircraft game. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLAIqHptY_g

However, since there are already some aircraft games like this existing, we are trying to add some improvement to this kind of game to make it more meaningful and interesting. The game would have two modes. One mode is the infinite mode, in which the player needs to control the aircraft and tries to stay alive as long as possible. And the score depends on how many enemy aircraft he crashes and how long he could stay alive. In this sense, this mode mainly focuses on the entertaining role of the game. The user can play this mode to just relax to pass the boring time. The other mode is a story mode. In this mode, the basic way of interaction is the same as the infinite mode. But different from the infinite mode, the player not only can have fun by attacking the enemies but also can enjoy the story that we provide. Thus, as for the story mode, it can reveal some important meanings that we want to tell the users. In other words, the game itself is like a media for us to tell a meaningful story to the users. Moreover, the difficulty of the story mode is actually decreasing instead of being harder and harder, which could give the user a sense of success because he can be stronger after passing a level. All in all, this game can not only provide the user with an entertaining role but also tell the user a meaningful way so that they can enjoy the game itself as well as the story. And the users can play this game to pass the boring time, and if they play the story mode, they can also relax by experiencing a meaningful and interesting story. 

Project Plan

For the first step, I think we can come up with a story that can be told vividly by this game. A suitable story is really important for our project because if the story is nor suitable for the game, the players cannot fully engage in the atmosphere that we want to create. Besides, a good story can not only resonate with the player but also can attract the user to continuously play the game. After creating the story, the next step is to consider how to express the story by this game. For example, what kind of background music we can use to reinforce the emotion of the story? How to show the story visually to the user? Using video, or images, or playing the game with the sound of telling the story? We need to hold up these questions and ask ourselves when we make the game. Since we just learned how to interact with videos and images by Processing, it brought me many ideas about expressing the story that I can apply to our project. The third step is to think about how the users can interact with the game. In other words, it’s to think about the structure of the game. I think we would do this step through two aspects. One is to consider the user experience. According to Igoe and O’sullivan’s text, there is a figure about how the computer sees humans. This figure only contains three parts, which are a finger, two ears, and one eye. This figure implies how people usually interact with computers. In my opinion, if we can only use fingers to interact with a project, it would be too limited and boring. Thus, the user experience is really significant for a successful interactive project. And this is also what we need to consider for our final project. According to our thoughts now, we want to simulate the experience of driving a plane as a part of user experience. The other aspect is the game itself. As there are already a lot of similar aircraft games existing, if we just copy one without any innovation, our project would be meaningless. Hence, we need to make some changes to make this game more interesting and meaningful. For example, the story mode is one of the innovations we have on this project. The fourth step is to try to make the game by Processing and complete the user experience by Arduino. After having a prototype of the game, we can have some user tests and gain some feedback to make our game better. And this is probably our last step. 

Context and Significance

As I mentioned above, the user experience should not be limited by finger, eyes, and ears. My preparatory research also inspires me a lot. 

https://circuitdigest.com/microcontroller-projects/virtual-reality-using-arduino

This project requires the user to wear a glove made by Arduino. And the user can interact with the Processing via the glove and the output totally depends on the movement of his hand and arm. It breaks the limitation of fingers. Thus, I also came up with some ideas that users can use their feet and a joystick to control the plane. I think it can give them a sense that they are actually sitting in an aircraft and control it. Also, the way of simulating the real driving experience can attract the user to continuously play this game and can make people engage in the plot of the story. Therefore, it aligns with my definition of interaction that interaction is a cyclic process. If we can successfully make it, it would be a special aircraft game. By the way, we are actually recreating an existing game. The interactive parts of the common aircraft games are mostly using the keyboard or a mouse to control the aircraft. So the way of interaction is our first innovation. Moreover, the story mode is another innovation. In this way, the users can enjoy the feeling of killing enemies as well as the experience of listening to an interesting story. And the users can also play the infinite mode to try to get a high score and compete with other players.