Category: Interaction Lab

At the very beginning, as my intention mentioned in my research for the final project, the experience conducted by my final project should be related to sociology or philosophy but which specific part to display was still undecided until I had a conversation with one of my friends. Due to her and her bestie’s separation, she exclaimed that people filling this society and the world are just river streams, which may have intersections and confluences but finally goes on their disparate ways. Inspired by her words, I started to design a frame for a dynamic art piece which mainly discloses the fact that in our daily lives, we’re gonna meet an enormous number of people, and they may gonna join your life track for a little while or a long time and you may strengthen yourself or lose something precious; but no matter what kind of interpersonal communication, they all leave us a treasurable experience, which I consider worthy exhibiting. The audience group, as far as I’m concerned, would be everyone who has ordinary social contact, which would rethink and rediscover their interpersonal lives in a brand new way after using my project.

To be further, one of my most significant goals is to make this project’s aims understood easily by my users and as I concluded from the experience of my midterm project, this point seems trivial but crucial. Therefore, the form of how the concept of “people” is carried would play an important role in achieving this goal. At first, I was thinking directly according to my friend’s words, which implies using river streams to denote people and confluences means interpersonal contact. But soon I realize that if you try to display the figure of river stream on Processing, it’s a little bit awkward for the fact that you can’t find a proper image and make it move like rivers’ flowing. Then I focused my thoughts on using particle, just like I said in the proposal; comparing to river streams, it seems much easier to construct particles and their trails than rivers. Then I had a conversation with Prof. Godoy, which enlightened me that even if I use particles as a symbol of people, the meaning that I try to convey would still be obscure and indirect. Moreover, the interaction factors outside the screen need to be improved as well. Then I asked that friend again for suggestions on how to make my project’s purpose clearer. The key advice I got is to build a stronger connection between things’ vehicle and essence.

Then the idea of using significant parts of the human body, which are related to socialization, occurred to me. Using elements like hands, eyes, footprints or even a stick man would remarkably increase the possibility of users’ being able to recognize them. Instead of showing the intersection of rivers or fusion of particles, simple actions having social meanings like hand-shaking, footsteps overlapping and eyes’ contact could denote people’s gathering and separating. Therefore, the basic plan for my project is clear. First I need to have a more determined decision of the symbol used. Then using OOP in Processing, I will build the image and make it move. After that, the algorithm controlling the symbols of random people generation would be written. Then, after the basic frame is done, I would introduce the interaction elements. Finally, I’m planning a simple user test among my friends to see whether I expressed my idea clearly.

According to my definition of interaction before, an interactive system should keep receiving input and sending outputs resulting from users’ input; besides, there should be strong connection between the input and output. Only in that way will a user realize the contained relations between their action and things project shows and furthermore, conveying the creator’s idea directly and clearly to him/her. That’s the approach I consider as a valid and efficient way to build an experience with the user. And I’m going to realize this goal by clarifying my work carefully and running user tests afterward.

Project Proposal: A sniff of culture

This project came to my mind because of a previous experience in a kids museum, in this museum the exhibition consisted in tubes that had different smells. The kids where supposed to relate the smell and the thing that emitted that smell. 

Adding to this, the idea of cultural identity and how to express different cultures in an exposition, helped mold a new idea. The concept of using smell to relate to a culture sounded fascinating, yet not complete. For that reason the project will also incorporate sound, and a video to express the feelings, memories and culture that one particular smell signifies to someone. 

I have though on presenting a video of someone originally from the country the plate comes from, and for him to explain through a video the significance of the smell. This will connect people with cultures and people outside of our comfort zones. It will help people interact with different cultures and traditions, through their senses.

For the project I have planned on using a sensor of distance, to identify when a person is sniffing the certain smell tube of a specific country. When the arduino identifies it, then send a signal to the processing to play the video of the person of that country. And furthermore, play some background music related to their culture.

A. PROJECT TITLE: “Keep The Balance！”

B. PROJECT STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

At first we were trying to design a computer game like the bouncing ball which only involves a keyboard experience. We were worried that our project does not have a high purpose, but after talking to Professor Marcela, we realized that our project is not lacking in meaning, but a new experience. Marcela showed us the example of decoding the bomb, which involves collaboration between two players. The example of running around the room for sensors also reminds us that we can extend the experience from merely on the keyboard to a real space. Based on this research and discussion, we decided to revise our original plan. This time we want to create a new experience in the game we design. It came to us that we can create a game based on the movement of our entire body, using the balance board below.

The purpose of this design is to take our movement on the board as the input of interaction, and due to the constant movement the game will be very interactive.The balance board is originally for gym, but in our game the players can not only try his/her sense of balance but also collaborate to have fun and thrive with uncertainty. This game is targeted at pairs of good friends we are well-coordinated in achieving a common goal in the game.

C. PROJECT PLAN

The first step is to get 2 balance boards shown above. We can either digital fabricate them or buy them directly. After talking to Andy who advised us to buy those boards directly and make modifications on them, we decided to buy 2 boards from the Internet.

While the boards are being delivered, we will start working on the processing code. We will need a screen for the game, as the players’ bodies move and stretch, the corresponding figures on the screen would also move. We want to create a scenario in which we the two players need to first play individually and then collaborate to achieve victory. We are still thinking about what code we exactly need to create a smooth game experience. Ideally we will finish this step at the end of Thanksgiving holiday.

After working on Processing we will turn to Arduino and sensors on the balance board. We may need to dig holes in the board to place the sensors, and we might decorate the board a little bit and add some digital fabrication component to it. Finally we will communicate Arduino and Processing and work on the code and put everything together. We will try to finish the project at the end of next week.

D. CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE

In the preparatory stage, I decided that my definition of interaction would involve an input and a changing output. Ideally the output will be unpredictable and a new input is needed so that the project will be more interactive instead of merely reactive. Also the project needs to expand the human experience – from fingertips to the entire body. I consider these elements central to our project and I think my current proposal fits such criteria.

The unique part in our project is the adaptation of the balance board. In order not to fall, humans have to try to keep the balance on the board, a metaphor for our constantly shaking life as well. With the uncertainty we need to move or stretch our body carefully to achieve our goals, and sometimes we have to ask help and collaborate with our friends to achieve a common goal. I think this game can be physically challenging and fun. We can also adapt the game scenario as we want later. Also there seems no already existing game like this. It can be a great tool to bring laughter and strengthen friendship.