Interaction over distance…process

So after many thoughts and trials , I decided to use twitter… again to create the communication system! In my first project , the tweet antenna , I figured out how to use this system, but only when it comes to sending the tweet. That task was overall simple to do. However , I discovered that creating this system to receive a tweet isn’t as simple. So I am using two computers , 2 arduinos to create the system . From one computer I am making the switch work to send the tweet to person X.  And from the other computer , the person X receives a smell. The fan will be activated when processing reads the mention@ and the hashtag# from a specific username on twitter. I don’t know if it makes sense but I am still coding to figure it out! But I am getting to it!

Also I am building the circuit for the fan. I used an ac adaptor, a diode and a transistor because my fan supports 12 V which is too high for the arduino.

I am also designing the box and thinking of how each element will be placed.

Here is where I am…

A couple of pics.

 ..

 

Interaction Over Distance First Iteration

Arduino + 2 lonely chickens = Feeling Presence with light and sound

 

Distance Interaction Project – ‘vidshare’ wireframes

I have moved from concept and sketching to building out wireframes for the site, which I am calling vidshare. These are very down and dirty wireframes, and I hope to be able to refine some components, but the core concept is illustrated. There are many more pages I would like to wireframe, but for now I think these will be enough to work off of to begin building the site.

This is the homepage once a user is logged in and signed up. I would in the future wireframe a sign up page (form) and maybe a splash page to show what the site does and how to do it.

homepage

This is the page for making a video to send to a friend. I was thinking of two approaches to this, one would be to pick your friend(s) whom you would be sending the video to, then record the video; the other approach is to record the video then choose who you are sending it to. In this case, I think I would want the user to select who they are sending it to from a list of friends (which I haven’t made a wireframe for yet), then record the message.

sending message

This is the page for viewing a new video message from your friend, in this example I used Chris Pirillo (a tech blogger). The user then has the option to reply to the message with a new message.

new message

For the actual site, I am going to build this last wireframe and show how you would view a video message from a friend and then reply. As a technical note, I have observed that many other video recording platforms use Adobe Flash for the video recorder. I am going to look into other possible options for an alternate, but given the fact that both Google + and Facebook are using Flash, it is unlikely there is better one. Now on to the building.

Communication Over a Distance – Midweek Progress

I’ve been building the maze for the last couple of days, and since I’m still trying to get in more work done to refine it, this update will be brief, but here are the photos of my progress and work so far. I’m going to post some more recently updated screenshots of the maze later on in the afternoon on my blog. I’ve also uploaded a website for the maze, but it’s not complete. It’s in it’s rough stages, so right now, it’s simply a non-working prototype. I have to include somewhere on the site the actual maze widget so check back at the link above for further updates.

I plan on keeping the more up to date info on my blog. I’ll post a link through here in a couple days.

Communication Over A Distance, Part 2

After some consideration I have decided to redesign my pen as a Ouija style apparatus.

I have also started testing the trackball-feedback circuit. Videos below.

 

 

Distance Interaction Project – New Concept

For the distance interaction project, I have decided to move away from my original concept of making impromptu plans with your friends because after some research, I found the space is very crowed and I discovered an app that does more or less exactly what I was planning on building. I am now going to be concentrating this project on creating a video messaging web application.

The concept is to create a platform that allows users to create a 30 second video message to send to their friends and family where they choose who the message is sent to while placing restrictions on the length of the message. A limit on the length of the message (like Twitter) will constrain the users and produce a more meaningful and easier to consume message. Ideally the application will connect people who live at a distance and find it difficult to interact in real time due to time zones and schedules.

The video message can become a much richer communication experience in comparison to email, text or voicemail, without the sometimes awkward moments that happen during live video chats. Taking into consideration that other platforms offer a similar service like Facebook or Youtube, I find that people rarely use video to send a personal message to someone. One of the goals is to differentiate other video capable platforms from this one allowing users more control over who sees them and can easily incorporate their existing networks of friends and families.

Below are a couple of sketches to illustrate how the site will be laid out.

home page

messages from friends

recording message

I would also like to create a “how to” page on the site showing the simple steps for sending a message. Here is the order I was thinking of using:

1. Want to send a message?

2. Choose Friend.

3. Record Message.

4. Send to friend. Option to add title or short text (limit of 140 characters) with video.

Next I plan on making a few wire-frames and then begin building at the least a basic platform where a message can be recorded and (with some sort of miracle) be sent. Given the time constraints and my decision to move to a different project, I may encounter some technical obstacles in reaching my ultimate goal.

Communication Over A Distance, Part 1

The concept is to create a secret message network which requires the receiver of the message to write out the unknown message which was sent to them. This is enabled through the design of an intelligent pen which indicates the user what direction to move. More will be posted on this project as it progresses. Here is my initial design sketch to be laser cut and tested soon. Parts include a Teensy microprocessor, Blackberry trackball, and mini LEDs.

 

Interaction over distance | research | sketches

So for this project , I decided to continue with the idea of smell. But my goal is to built it this time!

I made another sketch to explain what I initially wanted to do. And I also explain in more details the technologies I am going to use.

This is how my project would work : Take one for you and give one to your partner. You would exchange scents that are important , memorable to you(Like for example , your perfume ).  So when you would want to send a scent to your partner you would press the button on the box.

Here are two ways it could happen:

1-So here is the cool thing: It would be set to send a tweet to the person you mention @ . It would also create a hashtag #(e.g.:# smell) Then when the other box read the hashtag , it would activate the smell. The smell is activated using a mini system blower. That would turn on and off. So this process could work anywhere!

Here is the sketch I made.

2-After a lot of thinking , I decided that it would be cool if the user receives a note.(e.g: thinking of you) and the smell. Like in the old days. When we use to perfume the letters that we would send by mail.

So why not recreate a new way to send an email?

I talked about this in the last class, It would be cool to pull to send an email. I was inspired by all these words, sentences that we use online like : drop me a line, pull to refresh etc..

So one person would pull to send the message ( it would be a default message ). When the other person receives message via email , the smell would be activated as a notification.

So the trick is just to connect processing and email and create a serial communication using a pressure sensor ( (for the pull action).

Here is another sketch

Social interaction | research | concept | presentation…and how it evolved…

 

I started off this project by wanting to do a sort of public intervention and/or social intervention. I was really intrigued by the state of the toilets at parsons . So I started asking all the students what they thought was the problem in the toilets. And their answer was that most of the times they were gross because people wouldn’t flush the toilet. Indeed , that was a huge issue , not only at parsons but in all public toilets in the world! People just don’t flush . So in my project I wanted to figure a way to incite people to flush. Plus I thought that working with the interaction of “flushing” was interesting. Somehow , integrate the handle in the toilets.

I also thought wanted to integrate smell . I researched about this smelly robot called olly molly(http://ollyfactory.com/). And just loved what they do. I thought that it can fit perfectly in my idea. Because smell is a very important factor in the toilets. Bad smell and good smell.

I didn’t really peruse this idea because I thought it was too hostile or just too extreme but brainstorming about all these possibilities inspired me so much to peruse the rest of the project.

So basically my concept was the following: Connecting big cities in the world into being cleaner and more sanitary, it’s a way of making people aware of the culture of other cities as well as commonalities and at the same time a game or competition between them.

So Every time a user flushes the toilet a good smell is sent to someone else using the toilet in another city the other person receives a notification on a screen and a smell is produced.

So then I thought why make it international when you can just connect two people in the same city and even in the same toilet. One flushes and the other person in the other toilet receives the smell and a message.

Here is the presentation I made: social interaction

This first idea made me think of something else that was more subtle. What if I create this box that can send a smell to your loved one in order for them to remember you or think of you or even telling them that you are thinking of them. What if you were in a long distance relationship and you can send the smell of your perfume to your partner?

So at this stage , I researched a lot on perfumes, memories and smell . And I found all these articles that explain so well the relationship between the three.

There was a workshop done at Parsons a couple of years ago on smell and design. It really explains this idea very well (http://transdesign.parsons.edu/?p=295)

Also I found this place in Brooklyn called CB I HATE PERFUME, where you can create a customized perfume . And each fragrance of perfume is related to an event in your life or a memory of something or someone. http://www.cbihateperfume.com/

So here is an initial sketch I made for this concept:

The idea was to create a box divided in two triangle where you can place a paper ( that would be sprayed with perfume) . You would give the box with your smell to your partner and your partner would do the same. Then you would press on a button to send your smell. This hole process would happen via twitter.

Distance Interaction Project – Research/Precedents

In the process of developing my idea of utilizing an app in order to make impromptu plans with your friends, I decided that I should do some research and discover what else exists in this space prior to creating mock-ups and user testing. To recap, I wanted to create an application for planning casual events that is not a check-in (or announcing your current whereabouts via Twitter for example) and is not an official formal event (this is what we have calendars for). The interaction occurs on the platform so that users can appropriately plan times and places to casually get together in the near future.

One of the first precedents I found was with Facebook, who have been exploring the space of casual event planning for some time. Facebook would be a useful place for planning spur of the moment gatherings considering the high frequency of user activity. They have been planning to incorporate this concept into their apps. Here is a screen shot of a mockup I found posted on the blog Inside Facebook:

Facebook's "Make Plans" application

Based upon this finding, it is safe to say that many people are looking into utilizing the space for making plans. In addition to Facebook, I also found numerous 3rd party platforms getting in on the action.

Hurricane Party is an app that was released at SXSW 2011 and helps the user find, share and create spontaneous parties anywhere in their general location. It seemed to go over well at the event with a number of positive reviews, however in searching for information in regards to where the app is currently, I had little luck. Here are a couple of screen shots of the app on my phone:

Home Screen (option to Find or Start a Party)

'Start a Party' interface

Conceptually, I think this iteration of planning casual events was to a degree successful. However, what the app didn’t do was incorporate Foursquare as part of their structure, but they rather relied on users to gain friends from Facebook or their contacts. The reason why I believe it is important to utilize Foursquare in the context of this application is because users of Foursquare are already comfortable in social networking their location, the only difference is, they would be broadcasting their future location rather than present.

The same team who made Hurricane Party has done just that with a new app called Forecast that tells your friends where you’ll be later and utilizes Foursquare’s API in their design. The app encourages people to be more social offline; a social forecast for wherever you are going to be (not just parties as in the first version). The app is incredibly easy to use, intuitive and provides your ‘forecast venues’ based on Foursquare check-ins. The user can send a Forecast to anyone in their address book, or they can add friends to whom they care connected to on Foursquare. Here are some screen shots:

Forecast home screen

list of venues pulled from Foursquare check-ins

decide when you will be at the venue

invite friends and post to other social networks

At this point in the project I am wondering if I should continue moving forward with this concept; considering the fact that another designer created a working version, which in my opinion does not need much changing and functions in the way I would imagine it, or should I pursue a new idea for a completely different project? I will have to make a decision soon, as time is running out.