“Back to Summer Nostalgia” – Tina Yuting Song – Rudi
CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
In my group project, my group built a helmet using cardboard and the helmet is used to help absorb the sadness from human body and show the level of sadness from curve. I think that the process of building the helmet made me know more about the cardboard material and that helped me to build the midterm project which is more complicated comparing to the group project. Also, I researched for several interaction projects while I was preparing for the group project and that helped me have a better understanding of interaction and the usage of sound, light, movement, etc. when it comes to making a interactive creation. Also, it was really surprising that me and my partner did the research of exactly the same projects without communicating with each other, and we have exactly the same preference when it comes to the way of interaction in projects. We both think that projects such as Rain Room by rAndom International aligns with our definition of interaction while projects such as Clock Clock by Human Since 1982 does not align with our definition of interaction. That helps build our understanding and concept of interaction and that’s why we want movement and triggering of memory in our midterm project. I also did research for my midterm project, I researched for several swing projects because both my partner and I were interested in making a project with a swing in it which works as a switch for sound or light when people interact with the swing. We found that there already exists many swing projects but most of them are made of huge swings that allows people to sit on it to interact with it, while what we wanted to do was small, toy size swing which people can put it on the shelve and play with it using their hands. Also, we came up with the idea of ice-cream truck when building the swing because we want to do a whole set of things that triggers people’s childhood memories. Our project targets people who are no longer kids but still keeps the innocence inside their hearts or those who are tired of adult life and want to go back to the happy childhood. The lighting up of the ice-cream lights while people are pushing the swing means lighting up the childhood memory which brings people back to their childhoods. It’s also a relaxing way to play with the swing and use the ice-cream truck light as a night light.
CONCEPTION AND DESIGN:
Me and my partner build a swing which can trigger the ice-cream shape lights on the ice-cream truck. We wish this project can bring people back to their childhood when they play on the swing happily so we want people to interact with the swing using their hands. At first, our design was to put different types of stuffed animals by the swing and let people pick the animal that they think can represent themselves or childhood friends, then they put the stuffed animals on the swing and push the swing. In our opinion, it can either be people playing with their childhood selves or bring them back to childhood when they play with other kids in the playground. However, in the interaction lab recitation class, our swing was half-finished, but Margaret already tested it and told us that she finds it more entertaining and engaging when she puts her hands in the swing and just push it back and forth, so we decided to let more friends test it. After we finish building the swing, we put stuffed animals near it and let our friends test it without telling them how to interact with it. Surprisingly, most of our friends didn’t even try to pick a stuffed animal and put it in the swing, instead, they either put their hands on the armchair part of the swing and swing it or just started swinging. So we decided to get rid of the idea of putting stuffed animals on the chair, instead, we decorated the chair with pipe cleaners which are soft and have pretty color, which can give the testers a better feeling when they put their hands on the chair of the swing. We also used the same pipe cleaner to decorate the ice-cream truck and make it match with the swing so that the whole project has a theme of colorfulness, sweetness and happiness. Plus, we use small furballs, which have the same color of the pipe cleaners to decorate the swing and the ice-cream truck to make it look cuter and more playful. Me and Vicky had many ideas for this midterm project, such as dancing pad, music box, tec. But we always keep the idea that we should use something that interacts with people to trigger another movement of something we build out of cardboard. All the other ideas we came up with was either not interactive or interesting or too difficult for us to make it. Actually, we only had the idea of the swing on the day when we test our project on recitation class, but when we were trying to explain what we want to express when we are making the project and our projects value, we naturally came up with the idea of a whole childhood setting, and ice-cream truck just came in handy as a representative of the things that bring us simple happiness in our childhood. And finally, we made the decision of what we want to build in the project.
FABRICATION AND PRODUCTION:
Me and Vicky first decided that we would use the tilt sensor as a switch. Thinking of that when we were learning how to use the tilt sensor to build a wearable workout sensor, we need to move our arms up and down, I suddenly came up with the idea that we could put the tilt sensor on the swing, which had a similar movement comparing to an arm. Then we held the wires and made it the way a swing works. By using the code of the wearable workout sensor, we tested the sensor to make sure it works when it is put on a swing. After that, we used cardboard to make a swing and put the sensor on the swing to test it again. Luckily, it worked! Me and Vicky was really happy about it and started to bring the project to the next step. We had a lot of ideas but the problem was that we were constantly jumping between these ideas and even thinking about more new ideas, and the consequence of this is that we didn’t finish the project before the recitation class. Therefore, we only brought the swing to the class. Rudi tested our project and said that it sounds like an interesting idea, but there was definitely a long way to go because it did not look good and he didn’t get the meaning of the swing. Margaret tested it and told us that she finds it more entertaining and engaging when she puts her hands in the swing and just push it back and forth. Some other classmates also gave us many suggestions and feedbacks, their questions about the purpose of the project and the problem of how to use the swing also triggers more thoughts from me and Vicky. We finished building the swing after the recitation class and put stuffed animals near it and let our friends test it without telling them how to interact with it. Surprisingly, most of our friends didn’t even try to pick a stuffed animal and put it in the swing, instead, they either put their hands on the armchair part of the swing and swing it or just started swinging. In that case, we decided to get rid of the idea of putting stuffed animals on the chair, instead, we decorated the chair with pipe cleaners which are soft and have pretty color, which can give the testers a better feeling when they put their hands on the chair of the swing. Vicky came up with the idea of using ice-cream truck music to bring people back to the childhood when they were testing the project. After the recitation class, we said: “Why don’t we just build an ice-cream truck? It can either be a music box or has spinning wheels or has lights on, and then we can connect it with the tilt sensor on the swing to make it a whole set.” So I drew some sketches of the ice-cream truck and built it myself. Meanwhile, Vicky did a prefect decoration of the swing which later became a eye-catching part of our project. After that, we decided to use the same materials, which were pipe cleaner and little furballs to decorate the ice-cream. Then I used clay to make a huge ice-cream and put it on the top of the truck so that people can easily tell what we made. When I was making the ice-cream, I covered a led light with some white color clay for fun, and then when we were testing the light, I found that the light of the led can came through the clay and it actually looks really cute because it was no longer that shiny and it had different brightness when the there were different thickness of the clay. So i came up with the idea of making ice-cream lights and put them on the ice-cream truck. When people push the swing, it lights up the ice-creams, which means lighting up their childhood and brings them back to their childhood. Here is the code that connects the tilt sensor to the lights.
//Read the value of a tilt sensor
int tiltsensor = 2;
void setup()
{
pinMode(tiltsensor, INPUT);
//initialize communication at 9600 bits per second
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop()
{
//print the value on the serial monitor
//Go to Tools->Serial Monitor to see the values
Serial.println(digitalRead(tiltsensor));
delay(100);
}
* This was adapted from a the tutorial found here:
https://arduinointro.com/projects/tilt-sensor-with-arduino-easy-tutorial
CONCLUSIONS:
The goal of my project is to trigger people’s memory of their childhood and bring them back to their childhood, so as to relax themselves and give the feeling of happiness and innocence. My project aligns with my definition of interaction because people do something to the swing and then the ice-cream truck reacts to it. I think that with my definition of interaction, there should be different reaction when it comes to different people using different ways to push or move the swing. Ultimately, my audience push the swing with their hands but sometimes they push it too strong that the reaction of the ice-cream truck does not come in time. So we shall also find a better and more sensitive sensor to make the project better. Moreover, we want to build a whole set of childhood playground and toys, which will all be covered with light color and soft, fluffy decorations, and each of the toys will have different interaction with people. I hope in the future we can improve the project and make it more interesting and interactive. Nowadays, we are living in a world that functions faster and faster, people are always busy with their work and job, and seems that they never slow down. But I believe most of us have had those moments that we just want to daydream about everything, especially our childhood, our favorite food, warm and soft beds, good weather and everything that represents happiness and relaxation. The project is something people can play and interact with when they are daydreaming and when they miss childhood time, it is a Paradise Lost where everyone can take a rest in it and forget all the frustration and tiredness.
