Definition of Interaction:
The first thing that comes to my mind when speaking of interactivity is interaction between two or more people. However in this world where technology is involved in every aspect of human life, we forced to also examine the interaction aspect of the relationship between humans and computers. After reading Igoe and O’sullivan’s “Introduction to Physical Computing” and Crawford’s “The Art of Interactive Design,” I would define interactivity as a process of input, processing, and output or listening, thinking, and speaking between either human and human or human and computer. Personally, I consider feedback as the most important aspect in and interaction. Without any feedback, the interaction cycle is not complete nor can it even be considered interactivity.
Projects that don’t align:
The Hanging Garden uses moisture sensors and Arduino to create an array of LED lights that light up when the plant needs moisture. I feel like this project doesn’t align with my definition because the user has to wait for output from the garden. It’s not an interaction, rather, the garden just lights up whenever the plants needs water.
https://www.creativeapplications.net/android/the-hanging-garden-arduino/
Projects that do align:
Alias, a smart home assistant, can receive feedback and can react to users. However, unlike other smart home assistant tech such as Amazon’s Alexa, Alias allows the users more customization. Alias can be programmed to send any speech commands that the user desires.
https://www.creativeapplications.net/objects/alias-a-teachable-parasite-for-your-smart-assistant/
Group Project:
Our project, the Dream Catcher, is a notebook that can record the users’ dreams. It allows the user to read and see the dreams they had because people tend to forget the moment they wake up. Additionally, the user can choose to expand a specific dream into a narrative. The option to create a narrative is the feedback that completes this cycle of interactivity.