Notes on the Device, Instrument or Tool project, and links to your group's external documentation of the project, go here.
Here is a link to the project brief. This covers all three major projects.
I have a few ideas kicking around in my head and was wondering about the requirement that someone be able to "easily" pick it up and use it. Should the use and function be evident simply by the design or form, or is a tool that comes with some kind of learning curve OK if you demonstrate that it is easy to start learning?
Maybe an example is necessary. When I bought my first Palm devise I wouldn't have been able to write and enter information without looking at the Grafiti language, although once I invested some time it became quite easy.
David
the palm is an interesting example for the resaons you mention. It affords a good deal of expression as input, and delivers an immediate output. A learning curve is fine, because I don't believe anything is intuitive. But a good device has affordances that are easily remembered once learned.
tigoe
HeyAll! I'm not sure how this idea can run but I think it is not only really cool to pursue, but I think it has a tremendous potentiality. I am interested in creating a portable LED projector. This device could start as a manual slide projector, or even the classic ViewMaster. I have been thinking about this for awhile as the current generation, or rather the latest generation of portables have everything BUT a small projector. I think there is something there. So if anyone else thinks so, lets make a team and a Tool.
keep in mind I'm looking for significant physical interaction with this tool or instrument, something that allows the end user a measure of expression. How does a projector do that?
tigoe
My group is considering the activity of watching a movie and controlling it using a remote. Our initial ideas involved sensors that cause the size of the projected movie, or the volume, to increase based on the amount of people sitting in front of it. Or sensors in your beer that pause the movie when you finish your beer so you can go get another beer. But as it is, we seem to be just replacing the remote with a more subtle system that responds directly to the unconscious signals the user sends. How can we make this more of a unique experience where the users find new, unexpected, indirect, maybe thought-provoking results from their actions? And also, how logical or relevant does the translation between the user's physical expression and the medium have to be?
Fiona
Actually, there's some interesting observations here. Had you said "We want to make a better remote", I'd be inclined to say, "Think more about a device which affords more action from the user." But from your description, it's clear that there are a number of actions that you observed a person doing, even during a passive activitiy. What you're getting at, particularly with the beer-pause idea, is that the difference between presence and attention. For example, you can reasonably assume that butts on the couch means the viewer is present, but what physical cues tell you that they're paying attention? If the viewer takes small actions like getting up to get a beer, flipping the pages of a magazine, then you might assume they're not watching television. If they start talking, maybe you want to turn the TV down.
All of these activities are not really conscious actions. If my consciousness is focused on watching the TV, then the only activities I'll take that require my conscious attention relate to changing the TV, or leaving. I might still be watching when I get up to watch a beer, not paying attention to my actions because I know the path to the fridge. I might play with the cat, or some other mindless activity, because i can do them without paying attention. These kinds of actions are much more difficult to respond to than conscious actions, because you have to make guesses about the person's intent. When they pick up the remote, you don't have to guess what they're up to. If you want to go about a project that interprets all the unconscious activities you do while watching TV, start by catalogging them all (you've got several already), then assigning them some meaning. It's a harder project, but could be interesting if you've got an interest in what we do when not paying attention. Happy to talk about it some more in office hours as well.
tigoe
Cory and I are looking at improving the process of picking songs and making a playlist (specifically for a party but it applies past that). Since mp3s and digital audio have mostly replaced more tangible media like CDs, cassettes, and LPs, there's less of a tendency to pick music cooperatively during a party or social situation. Now one person retreats to the computer, hunches over it, and clicks and drags files from folder to folder. We miss the experience of standing around with friends, looking through someone else's music collection and arguing about which song or album to play next. We also miss the experience of ripping a particularly bad CD out of the player and punching the disc skip button.
Cory did a writeup with more details and a possible plan for improvement: http://itp.nyu.edu/~cf831/pcomp/archives/2005/10/device_instrume.html
Here's mine:
http://www.itp.nyu.edu/~ze216/fall05/physcompditproject.html
Zach
Anne, Vincent, Preston, and Nick's project
After the presentation we met as a group to decide the best course of action for our continuing development. Through feedback and discussions we established our direction. Our future work on this project will hinge upon basic user interface decisions, which by and large remain undecided.
Chris, Tikva, Jeff, and Matt's project
Summer, Ed, Andrew and Jet's project - Updated 11/27/05
Mike, Alice, Min and Todd's project breath patterns
Notes from an email to the class:
The focus here is on input from the user or participant, on giving her a tool that allows her a significant range of expression. In other words, think of the person you're designing for as participant more than user. She should be actively engaged, not just watching your device do its thing. Ideally your device acts as an amplifier or transducer, taking in her physical expression and translating it into something else. Ideally the tool fades into the background once learned, so that the expression is what comes through.
Think of a well-made musical instrument. You shouldn't leave the concert saying, "man, what a great job that saxophone did."
Or a really great chopping knife. Do you really want to leave the restaurant thinking, "that sure was a great knife he used on the vegetables."
In both cases, you remember the changes in the medium (the music or the food) not the tool.
assuming you mean the final version of our prototypes to be pretty much a functional (within the boundaries of our classroom) model, how much do you want us to focus on creating a medium-ly functional first version, an incomplete second version of the prototype or more of the description/hypothesis/ideas that accompany it? (am i saying this clearly? probably not, as i am getting less clear in my head about the first part of the presentation (the 2nd part seems rather straightforward).
if our project were say an elevator, would you like to see a model out of cardboard (which we may just manually slide up and down to roughly illustrate how it would operate), a motor for sliding along a shaft without yet including the car (illustrating the actual mechanics/electronics involved), or a list of changes to peoples' interaction with buildings over stairs (illustrating mainly the concept). or possibly any of the three, so long as you could see where the group is headed?)
I think it might be best to speak specifically about your project rather than hypothetically. The elevator's maybe a bit too big of a project for three weeks. I think it's important to have something working as early as possible that you can test with people, because it's the best way to challenge your own assumptions about what's clear in your interface and whats not. In the example given, I don't see how you'd be able to get people to try the interface. It might be better in that case to build the elevator panel, and link it to a controlled animation of what the effects would be. That way they'd get a sense of the functionality of the interface.
tigoe
SoloTest project - David Bamford, ilteris kaplan
I am including the two illustrator files that from which I generated the laser cuts for our game board. The file: "game_brd_Clear_plexi.ai" is the top part of the board and the LED's fit perfectly in the holes with the bottom "flange" of the LED not able to come through. Download a stuffit file here: http://www.bamford.net/pComp/resources/LEDS_templ.sitx
Josh and Toshi's project Shelf Lights
A word to the wise; IR proximity sensors with a fair bit of range can be finicky; we've had some good times trying to tame our's vis a vis the outer- and very-near range. Averaging sets of results can be helpful.
Also, we've found that they give you *CRAZY* results when you run them opposite large glass panels like windows of the walls in the firmware lab. Yes, IR is reflective - who woulda thought?!
The "Monkeyball" Project - Andy, Justin, Kate & Oren
The "Hookah" Project - Christian, Gilad & Elliot
The "Musical Glove" Project - Adam & Rob
The "iChair" Project - Chunxi, Dianne & Max