Julie Bakker | Blog

In your personal opinion, what would be the coolest / most interesting use case for artificial intelligence in the near future?

One of interesting trends during the pandemic was the usage of online tools for education. Young people who had to stay at home had to study using systems such as Microsoft Teams, Edomodo and many more ( UNESCO provides a whole list of different distance learning solutions ). My 11 year old sister for instance had to use Edmodo every day, to chat with her teachers, have homework tasks organised and for my mother to keep a track of her progress. For my sister it was of course not ideal as she would rather spend her time with friends in a classroom than in front of a desktop, my mother on the other hand was really intrigued because she could easily contact the teachers and check if my sister is on track with her education. However, according to many news sites, during the pandemic many children despite having access to such platforms had more mental problems, and to make matters worse children from lower income families in some cases didn’t have access to education at all.

All in all I see a big potential for using AI for education, we cannot say it was the best way to study but it did make education more accessible and customisable for many. The customisation part for me is the most interesting, take for instance children with ADHD who get easily bored but can also superfocus on things that interest them. Using AI to create a educational system where all children achieve their learning goals but using different means would be a great thing. Children with ADHD for instance can have learning material made in a form of videos, interactive games and excercises. Still learning the same things but using different mediums. This for me would be perfect equity in education and I hope many educational platforms that relay on AI will incorporate it.

In addition to recruitment discrimination mentioned in the article, search online for another example in which AI biases can cause problems. Explain the cause and effect of the bias in the case you found.

AI biases are created by people who make the system. They can learn by themselves and gather a lot of data to analyse but foundationally they still use the instructions given to them by humans, who are inherently biased. As said in the article by Brookings “Systemic racism and discrimination are already embedded in our educational systems”. For instance using AI teachers can predict the grades and progress of their students, for minorities this is bad news since they are already underrepresented and biased against in offline world. This makes them less likely to get into very good univerisities and puts a lot of pressure on them to “prove” that they are just as the majority. One way to ractify it is for developers to use ethics frameworks while creating a new tool. This way they can address biases that might arise once the tool is on the market. Based on comprehensive studies by Lee and Kizilcec (2020) algorithms that are modified for such bias do improve several indicators of fairness..

Sources Used:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2020/09/21/the-4-top-artificial-intelligence-trends-for-2021/?sh=2819fcb71c2a

https://deepsense.ai/ai-trends-2019/

https://roboticsandautomationnews.com/2020/07/06/ai-in-education-what-the-future-holds/33811/

https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse/solutions

https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/05/17/pandemics-dire-global-impact-education

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55863841

https://edarxiv.org/pbmvz/download?format=pdf

What if we had to shift paradigm and design within “energy budgets” – a given maximum of energy consumption for the services we design?

In my view the so called ‘energy budgets’ are already happening. In her speech Mel Hogan talks about a hurricane that ravaged Heuston in 2017. Thousands of people were left without energy and few miles down the road servers for big corporations were using energy as on any other day. Personally, I see how the sustainability card had been played by corporations since the inception of the term sometime in early 2000s. It is a hip word, one that makes customers feel like the company they buy from is doing more than just sell their products. The reality however is different, customers pay for these products, they pay for corporations to store/maintain 93% of unused data (Hogan,2020) and they pay for all those ‘innovative ideas’ that never actually took off.

This brings me to the conversation about how in the future will we design services with such a ‘energy budget’. Service design process “is the activity of planning and arranging people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service in order to improve its quality, and the interaction between the service provider and its users” (Wikipedia,2021).

Since the corporations seem to gain more rights into public infrastructure and use soon scarce resources to achieve their corporate goals, where do the ordinary users fit it? In the book “ Homo Deus”, Harari explains how through the last century our society changes from Humanists- people who belive the human experience is the most valuable to Dataism- the information is the most valuable. As mentioned before, there are already examples when this becomes the case. Where servers storing information will receive resources needed to sustain itself rather than humans with their not as valuable experiences.

Since service processes take into account the planning and arranging people to improve interaction between the corporation and the user, who will be the person deciding what is more valuable and what an improvement actually means? I believe this person to be a UX designer in the future. Our job as UX’ers is to understand our users, business needs and find a way for them both to live happily with their needs fulfilled. It is already not so easy to balance both and I believe in the future UX’ers will have even harder job.

Imagine, there is no energy in your building for a whole week, you can’t make a warm tea nor take a shower- but don’t worry all your past Tweets and photos are safely stored on servers that have energy. Will you as a user be happy with this arrangement and see it as a good interaction between you and The Corporation? Personally, I would be enraged because I believe I’m more valuable than some information. The corporation on the other hand finds your information to be more valuable than you as a person. What should UX designer to do then? Focus on your needs as a user in a human centric way or since The Corporation pays your bills you should care about their needs more?

As a future UX’er one will need to dive deeper into subjects that are currently not covered in a general UX course. Subjects such as philosophy, sociology and sustainable development will need to be thought to at least some extent. UX designer will need to learn about ethics and morality of designing, the consequences of their designs on a society in a context of business, climate and especially ethics. Our natural resources are scarce and UX designers will need to take that into account too, it won’t be a job just for engineers and farmers anymore. As a UX designer I never stopped to consider corelation between finite resources, providing useful products and happy customers. Once I start looking from this perspective, I see that my job will become much more challenging but also exciting. No more pixel pusher but a digital reform maker.

So my question to you is this: Do you think as a UX designers we should take these finite resources into account when designing and why?

Sources used:

Homo Deus- Book by Yuval Noah Harari

https://youtu.be/mMnBTSaRcEk - Mel Hogan talk

Once upon a time there was a full time stay at home mom called- Janice. Janice lived in Amsterdam with her partner and worked remotely as a product designer. She recently had a baby and tried to juggle both her career and motherhood. Mia, her 3 months old baby was a nice joufyl child but often struggled with colic and sleepless nights. Janice and her partner suffered from lack of sleep and often forgot to get groceries or even take a shower- what a joy to be a parent !

They recently won Lotto and decided to invest the money in their home and make it smart. Their decision to do so is that they want to make their life easier and get some help with their day to day life by means of technology.

They found a company that specializes in smart homes and smart technology. This company is based in US but has contractors all over the world, they are also the biggest in the world and offer a lot of choice.

Janice and her partner full of excitement meet with one of the smart home designers at the office and talk over all the things they would like to have in their house. As a designer Janice cares that the technology is not too intrusive, she heard many stories about how fridges got hacked and governments listen to its citizens. Her partner though could not care less, he says “ we have nothing to hide, so why should we worry”. After a long discussion they decide to go with it and make a list of things they would like to have. They really liked the idea of central command, where all of the smart features around the house have centralised spot. They also liked that as they walk through the house the lights follow them as to save energy. For Mia they found a wall displays that depending on her heart beat the walls display different visuals with music, so she can get a good night of sleep. Janice and her partner also enjoyed this idea as they can feel like having dinner in Paris and breakfast in Barcelona.

Few months into living in their dream smart house they received news that the company is going bankrupt and the government will take it over. Janice again started to worry about their personal data that the company was storing, her partner again said “ nothing to worry, its not like we have anything to hide from the government”.

Few years have passed, Mia turned 5 and Janice was feeling better than ever about her smart home. She was getting her night of sleep, hot coffee right after shower and listened to the sounds of Thames river while having breakfast. Everything was perfect…until the knock on the door. Janice opened it and saw two government agents who informed her that her partner had been charged with internet fraud. Apparently for the last three years her partner was busy with “pump and dump” schemes and the government had a lot of information to back this up.

Janice couldn’t believe it !

During the court proceedings it was revealed that since their smart home data was stored on government servers the agents were able to use it to find out his movements, how the whole scheme operated and even when he lied (remember the heartbeat detection feature?). He got 10 years in jail.

The only things Janice said before they took her partner away to prison was “ I told you so!”.

I love Dyson products, they are smart, useful and designed well. I loved our first Dyson hoover ( yes I loved a product) because for the first time I could see how much our dogs were shedding. This little change in the design made hoovering so much more satisfying not to mention more sustainable.

Cleaning out the Dyson vacuum

Right before the pandemic hit I went to a cinema in Pathe Arnhem, it’s a new cinema -everything build new, modern and very smart. After the movie and a lot of soft drinks we needed to use their toilets and as a well thought adult washing hands was no brainer- or so I thought.

I can really appreciate a new innovative product and as previously mentioned Dyson stands for me as a very innovative brand that creates useful products that are easy to use. Well let me tell you about washing my hands experience. Usually when one washes their hand you squirt a bit of soap out of a dispenser, the dispenser usually use a button or a sensor. Then one proceeds to use a tap and again it can either use a button or a sensor for this, afterwards in the same fashion one can dry their hands.

Pathe x Dyson

In this newly built Pathe the toilets are fitted with a handle soap box ( one needs to physically push it to use it ) and the new “ breaking the mold for hand dryers” – Dyson Airblade Tap which is all based on sensors. Already I can see two different worlds, the old fashion press me and something happens vs new gesture initiated sensor. I was quite exited ( yes about a tap) because it did look interesting however my first thought was- how am I to use it? There were no signifiers telling me what I should do , on a contrary the design was sleek and minimalistic. Once I tried to place my soapy hands under this invention – the dryer turned on and the soap went all over me and a person beside me! How can this be ? I just placed my hands under the tap like a usually would but something unexpected happened, something that was not supposed to happen.

Best example of how airblade worked for me:

How Airblade is supposed to work

Apperently the new 2 in 1 Dyson tap lets the user place their hands under the tap and using a sensors it turns on either the water facet or the dryer depending on your hands placement. This is a very natural gesture to me, I’m used to placing my hands under the tap with or without pressing a button but what I don’t expect is that I need to place my hands in a certain way else this “out of the box” idea becomes a pretty bad experience.

After some research I found I was not the only one who experienced it, there are videos of people using this product in different spaces, sinks and with two or one hands. Some turned out to be very smooth experiences but some are just bad. My opinion on this product is similar to that of Don Norman in his article about Gestural Interactions. There were no menus, no buttons no visible signifiers telling me what I’m supposed to do. It’s not about remembering nor exploring how to use it- since my need as a user is to wash my hands quickly and go. As Don Nomarn explained: “The requisite feedback is lacking. Moreover, a pure gestural system makes it difficult to discover the set of possibilities and the precise dynamics of execution. “ Thus, I don’t believe this product feels very natural to use, it is very innovative, however it still needs some work on how to prevent errors, give timely feedback and clearly explain through it’s design how it should be operated.

My question:

Is being innovative outweighs a need for natural interaction?

Sources used:

https://newatlas.com/dyson-airblade-line/26100/ https://medium.com/@elizabeth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw_N71HFxlk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cny80_Zkg5M

https://www.instagram.com/p/CRgf_7kDhkY/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

1.Brainstorming

Me and Jullya started this project with a brainstorm session, both of us are not great at programming but we are really good at coming up with concepts and experiences. We understood that the most important part of this assignment was to tinker and explore but since this way of work was very foreign to us and in my case very stressful. We decided to come up with ideas and see how feasible it will be to make in 10 days. We first came up with our own Pinterest boards with inspiration, we then discuss the ideas that we both liked the most and cross referenced the ideas. Based on the inspiration boards we took elements that were most interesting and relevant to this topic. We then build upon these ideas to come up with interesting playful interactions.

Link to our Miro: https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_lPW4Q58=/

On our Miro you can find some of our notes on what we worked on during lab weeks.

Our Inspiration Board

Our Ideas

Our first meeting

Afterwards, we started to look at how we are going to make them within 10 days, we decided to use Arduino because we both wanted to learn more about it. We also decided to do the installation at Jullyas place because she had the most space, we went shopping to gather supplies we might need to build our idea.

2.Tinkering

We decided to go for a mix between kaleidoscope and heads in a cloud. We first had an idea that we will use a projector to present the kaleidoscope and use mirrors, glass and other materials to reflect them and use Arduino to move them around. This idea didn’t work, we didn’t know how to set it up completely and we only had a small projector and a big box to set it up in.We then thought about making something with heaven, we though to put some stars and clouds that can be interactive using Arduino.

Below are some the elements and technologies we played with.

1. Projector

a. We wanted to use projector to either play pre-recorded visuals from YouTube or make our own in Processing. Jullya tried to make visuals in Processing during in real life meeting but it didn’t work out. We then decided to use pre-recorded visuals. We had a small projector and it took us a lot of figuring out how to use it (distance, angle, surface). We looked at projection mapping because we were thinking about having the visuals projected on all sides inside of the box. This also didn’t work out well. Thus we painted the box white inside (we tried black and plexi glass but it also didn’t look great ), we looked at different positions and distances of the projector in relation to the box.

2. Adding music- tune or processing

I wanted to add music to our installation, to do this we wanted to use Arduino distance sensor and a small speaker we had in our box. The distance sensor would work as a trigger for the music to start. Once a user is in close proximity the music will start playing.

I first learned about how the music is made in Arduino using this little speaker. I wanted to use a specific song from movie Amelie made by Yann Tiersen. I found some libraries that already have tunes made, and looked for tune generators but with no luck. I also found out that the tune() function on Arduino will not allow for depth in music it only makes one sound at a time.

My second idea was to use Processing for music, the music will be playing and stopping depending on how close a user is to the installation. After playing with Processing and Arduino I was not able to make it work. The music worked on its own and so did the distance sensor (using serial monitor I was able to check that it works), however I was not able to connect them both together. In the end I decided to use a “Take me on” tune in Arduino, we made it so , that it plays when someone is in close proximity to the box and the speaker was located inside of the box.

3. Led matrix

a. The matrix was going to be used along with the distance sensor and the speaker to invite the user to go inside the installation. First, I learned how to make my own graphic using the matrix. I made it so that once the user is in close proximity the music will play and the matrix will display “HI” word on it, otherwise the matrix shows little stars. This gave me an idea to connect two matrixes to each other and display the same message. Once I did that and it worked, I assembled it on the box but found out that the words were inverted so I needed to redo the code. We also had issues with it not working at all once on the box, but we were able to fix that.

Visualising how to write "Hi" in binary

4. Using no breadboard and soldering

Because of using a box, we realised that all of our arduinos had to be stuck somehow on the box itself, using breadboard will make it even more delicate. For this reason, we tried to use all of our elements without breadboards and connect them in groups to as little Arduinos as possible.

In the end, we had one Arduino without breadboard that used distance sensor, led matrix and the speaker.

The second Arduino had two servos, we wanted the user to be able to interact with them so we thought about making buttons that would be soldered rather than using a breadboard. The servos were connected to a cloud with glass beads that would turn depending on the buttons pressed.However, we didn’t have enough expertise and time to do this. Instead, we used a small breadboard and made the buttons on one side and all the cables were stuck on the outside of the box.

The third was used for another servo that would be connected to potentiometer that would also allow users to interact with the servo. This too, we were able to make without a breadboard and stuck the potentiometer on the inside of the box while all the cables were on the outside of the box.

Our distance sensor, speaker and two matrixes without breadboard

Connecting them on the box

5. Making a puppet using a sensor

The third Arduino was used to create a puppet. I first had to come up with how to make a puppet out of cardboard and make it movable. We played a lot on how to position the servo in relation to the puppet so that it would move the right way.

1st Prototype

Final Prototype

John Travolta inside the box

Using two servos for clouds

Product

In the end, we came up with a Paradise Disco, a 1970’s inspired installation. We created a box in which a user can come put their heads in and interact with it. First, the user is invited by coming close to a fluffy looking box by a distance sensor which plays a melody of “Take me on” and matrix lights say “Hi”. User then can put his head in the box and explore different things.

We used a projector to light up the ceiling of the box with a kaleidoscope video and used previously bought mirror cardboard pieces to reflect it on other walls. We made a little John Travolta that by using a potentiometer a user can move its hand up and down. On the other side of the box, we placed buttons that when pressed make the clouds above turn different ways.

User Journey Map :

Paradise Disco from the outside

Demo of our Product

Presentation

Presentation of our concept happened online, therefore we decided the best way to showcase our product was by creating a demo video. This way we could help our audience to get a better idea of how it works and get them to empathise with this concept. Making a showcase video also gave us a possibility to make it into a funny story on how this concept could be used, with music and aesthetics we wanted to show.

During our presentation we quickly explained how this concept came to be, showed our demo and we received some good feedback. We tried to incorporate typical UXD humour and the CMD audience really liked it.

Fun fact, Jullya kept this box at her place and her roommates enjoyed sitting there in the evening and interact with it.

Relevance

Process

I liked working on this project with Jullya, we live close by to each other, so it was easy to meet up every day and just like me Jullya likes being creative. We were able to split tasks and each one of us worked on a part of this project. When we had an issue, we talked and researched it together and tried to fix them. Jullya was able to provide us with a space needed for this project and I provided us with craft tools such as paints, filling. We both came up with elements for this project and worked on them separately, for instance I was working on the distance sensor elements and Jullya focused more on using servos. We build the installation together; I came up with an idea on how to showcase this concept and Jullya recorded the video. What I realised during this two weeks was that working on separate tasks was easier as I knew it inside out, but was also able to get help from Jullya when needed.

Personal reflection

Overall, I am very happy with our experience. I am not good at programming and computer things, so everything we have done during this course was difficult for me to understand. However, at the end of the lab week when we had issues with our installations, I was able to understand how everything is connected and how it works. For instance, we used one Arduino that will do three things: sense a distance, based on that play music and change Matrix display. While it worked perfect before attaching it to the box, we had a lot of trouble setting it right when it was attached to the box. Because I learned how things need to be connected and what code triggers what, it didn’t take us long to fix it.

During Computer Vision lectures we were learning about using Processing, p5js and using it for Computer Vision.

p5js

p5js is a new program we have learned about. p5.js is a JavaScript library for creative coding, with a focus on making coding accessible and inclusive for artists, designers, educators, beginners,

Exercise 5C

Add (random) colour to the sketch you made in the getting started exercise.

During Computer Vision lectures we were learning about using Processing, p5js and using it for Computer Vision.

Processing

First assignment was about refreshing our memory about Processing. Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program interactive images and animations. Below are my exercises.

Exercise 2F:

Write a program that draws three (or more) ellipses:

at various locations,

with various colors

various widths and heights

with and without borders (of various colors)

Exercise 2L:

Write a program that draws:

- at least four different shapes (not circles),

- in various colors,

- at various locations.

Exercise 2O:

Write a program that draws at least two different shapes, with various colors and make them interactive.

For our guest lecture we had an opportunity to listen to the founder of Next Empire- Vincent Lindeboom. Next Empire is an experiment driven studio based in Amsterdam.

During the lecture Vincent showcased some of their projects, one of them was a commission they did for the Efteling, Dutch theme park and Coca Cola. It's called Zoetrope and it was situated at Station Oost in the Efteling.

Link: https://nextempire.net/experiences/zoetrope

Intended goal of the installation The goal of the installation was to showcase Coca Cola in Efteling with the Efteling aesthetics. According to Next Empire this was a challenge, both companies have a very strong brand identities but are very different in their aesthetics. Coca Cola is known for simple, modern and bold visuals, Efteling on the other hand is a fairy land, with a lot of decorative and elaborate elements its very strict with its identity.

What the installation is and does The installation is a Zootrope- a physical manifestation of animation. Using 3d printer the elements are printed in different animation frames and placed on a rotating platform ,then using a strobe light to create an effect of motion. The issue that they found was to make this installation work in a sunlight, for this reason they used a glass mirror that allows for one side to be seen while the other side is invisible.

How it works, which technology, sensors, actuators are used. The installation was first designed on a computer, using the style of Efteling , there the elements were animated in different frames. The elements then are 3d printed in colour, The elements then are placed on a rotating platform. The platform is placed inside of a house with built in glass and mirror, once the house is turned on the "animation" starts.

Why this project is interesting in the light of the field of HCI Despite the idea of Zootrope which is about tricking the idea to see things moving where in actuality they are static, this installation made the use of many technologies such as designing the models digitally and then 3d printing them. This piece does not allow for much interaction between computers and humans but it is very entertaining. I find that sometimes the effect matters more than the interaction. Seeing something that has its roots in 19th century and updated to entertain 21st century population is a fantastic.

Homeostasis

In this lecture we were learning how to apply Homeostasis model to devices. Below I will explain what kind of needs does a bike have, and how its needs are influenced by internal and external stimuli.

This is Lotte. Lotte is a Dutch bike and lives in Amsterdam. She is brand new and has been on the road for less than a month.

Her primary needs are :

1. Getting her human from one place to another

2. Keeping safe from cars and tourists

3. Explore new places

Her primary function is to move and transport her human.

External stimuli that influences Lotte internal state:

1. Accelerating Lotte is made to go fast, her human can press the pedals to make her go faster- thats her need , to get her human from a to z as fast as possible. This makes her feel invincible and free! She feels like a F1 car on two wheels. The faster she goes, the more beautiful places she can explore and since her lifespan is short she wants to make the most of it.

2. Breaking Living in Amsterdam however means that Lotte cant reach her full potential. There are tourists, cars and other bikes on every corner. She wants to stay safe and not have an accident, because of that she needs to break often at the right moment in time. If she fails to do so, her and her human cant get to the desired place or worse they both will end up under a tram !

3. Being stolen Lotte is very pretty but that means she also gets a lot of unwanted attention from thieves. Luckily she has a lock and a double chain to keep her safe. However, Lotte understands that her role in this world is to get people to places, and she wants to see them too ! She gets that this is part of her life.

Research

Online I was able to find other interesting artificial creatures that interact with humans. Below are my favourite ideas:

Jibo

Link: https://jibo.com/ Made by: Jibo in Boston,MA by professor at MIT

Description: Jibo is a first social robot for home. It's like Alexa but much more ! Jibo is an assistant and can give messages to family members. It can take photos by following users movements. It can even tell stories.

What I think about this product: I think during pandemic this product would come in handy for many people who had to be home on their own with little to no interaction with others. I like that unlike Alexa, Jibo can tell stories , take photos, move around and is an AI. I find it very impressive that Jibo can move in different ways very smoothly and mimics human behavior. It feels more like a family member than just a family assistant.

Miko

Link: https://store.miko.ai/ Made by: Sneh Vaswani, India

Description: Miko is an advanced consumer robotics innovation lab passionate about bringing the best of technology to young learners everywhere. Miko is a friend, educator and an entertainer.

New Playful Interaction Concept

SHARE THE LOVE

Share the love is a concept that shows THUAS community that we are here to make friends and it’s a place full of love for the community. The installation is made of a large heart which has a camera at top of it and mirror for taking a photo and two side smaller hearts which are tv displays. The installation could be placed in the main building by the stairs , theres the most foot traffic.

The idea is that the camera can recognise when people stand close to each other, hug, kiss or hold hands and then automatically takes a photo. The photo then is displayed as a polaroid on the two smaller hearts for everyone to see. The user has no control over the photo taking, this way they can just be themselves and not try to pose for the perfect photo.

The installation is made of a large frame in a shape of a heart, fitted with a mirror in the same shape. The camera and lighting is installed above. The two smaller hearts frames are fitted with tv/lcd displays to showcase the photos.

The input comes from people being in a close proximity to the camera and being very close to each other. It could work in a way that current passport or other facial recognition software’s work at the moment. Once the photo is taken it is automatised to fit in a square frame of a polaroid and pushed to a preview environment on the side of the main mirror.

Inspiration:

https://www.domusweb.it/en/sustainable-cities/gallery/2021/06/02/vilnius-and-lublin-are-now-connected-by-a-portal.html

Research

Company: Team Lab Description: This is an art installation consisting of a walkway and a large open space that appears to go on for infinity. URL: https://www.teamlab.art/w/flowerandpeople-tokyo/

The purpose of the interface: In my opinion the purpose of this art work is to show how precious every moment is and how it changes over time and its never the same How the installation works technically : Visitors' movements, whether they're walking or standing still, cause flowers to spring up or wither away. The art work is not pre-recorded but created by a program that runs continuously and renders the work in real life. Users interact with the flowers on the display and they continually change.

I could not find a lot of technical information about this installation, but from looking at the video and work, it looks like user touches the screens in the room and based on that the computer changes the visual display of the flowers.

The play is unstructured and only changes based on users input. It doesn’t have a start or end. It can be played by one or more persons, it’s also not competitive. The point is more on exploring different flower possibilities.

Reflection

What did you think of this topic?

I really liked this topic, before I didn't understand the difference between play and fun, and that something can be playful but not fun to do. Looking at how people interact with technology these days play is very important and there are many opportunities for UX designers to add playful elements to their experiences.

How do you see applications and the future of this?

Personally I would love to see how Play can be used in learning difficult or dull subjects. For instance, I don't like and understand much about physics but I can imagine using play to teach people how gravity or electric currents work. I can also imagine using playfulness for children to keep them focused on tasks, for instance its already used in helping children brush their teeth.

Did the subject meet your expectations?

During our HCI classes we learned about how to use Arduino to do different things. Below you can see the things I have learned to make with explanations.

Exercise 9: Sound

Using a speaker I made a siren sound where the frequency goes high and then gets lower.

Exercise 11: Distance

Using a proximity sensor I made a LED light turns on as one comes close to the sensor.

Exercise 12: Arduino and Processing

Using Arduino and Processing software and a portometer , one can use the knob on the portometer to control the visuals in the Processing environment. Turning clockwise the black circle gets smaller, turning the knob anti clockwise the circle gets bigger.

Exercise 13: Buttons

Using a button I made the LED turn off while the button is pressed.

Exercise 14: Servomotor

Using servomotor I made the legs of it move in different directions, degrees and amount of time.

During our HCI classes we learned about how to use Arduino to do different things. Below you can see the things I have learned to make with explanations.

Exercise 3: Blink multiple LEDs

LED lights will alternate in blinking.

Exercise 4: Fade LED – Analog Output

One LED slowly fades in and the other fades out at the same time.

Exercise 6: Controlling a LED with a potmeter

One LED fades in while the other fades out and vice versa.

Exercise 7: LED Matrix

Using Arduino and LED matrix to alternate between happy and sad face.

Exercise 8: Control the LED with light

Using sensor that measures amount of light I set up two LED lights that get lighter as one comes closer to the sensor the LED light shines brighter.

For this weeks lecture about wearables, we learned about how to use tech to enhance our daily experiences. We were tasked to come up with our own wearable that will allow users to call others without using their phone.

Since I like minimal designs that are part of my style, I would imagine having a jewelry that acts as a personal style element, but at the same time have a function of calling. My idea is to have an earring with a built in speaker and one button to pick up/decline a call.

It can have a Bluetooth to connect to the phone and have a small usb-c access behind the earring to charge it. Since we are all already used to using wireless headphones it can work in the same intuitive way, for instance when someone calls, the user can press twice to pick up the call and once to decline or turn it off. Pressing twice to pick up will minimise the human error of declining a call by accident. To turn the earring on and off the user can hold the button for 5sec.

Because it’s a tech-fashion accessory I can imagine having it in different shapes and colours that suit the user. Maybe even have a possibility of switching the outer layer with another design. It could be for instance made of silicone or durable plastic or even gold on the outside. Below are some photos of my ideas:

Second part of our assignment was to research other wearable ideas below are some of ideas I liked and one explained more in detail.

https://www.wareable.com/fashion/wearable-tech-nyfw-2017-7776

https://abscreenwear.shop/products/a1-b1-1-postmasters-e2-2-n04

https://designbuzz.com/led-display-turns-the-second-skin-wristwatch-into-a-fashion-accessory/

https://9gag.com/gag/13427

Litho created a device that provides users for spatial interaction using a small ring like device. It has a minimalistic design, costs $199 and shipped hundreds of devices within first months of its release. The article below was very insightful into how they prototyped this device and their design process prior to the product launch. Another interesting thing I have learned through this article was about spatial computing which is "human interaction with a machine in which the machine retains and manipulates referents to real objects and spaces. Litho uses special computing to let users use AR features on their phone, and interact with other smart devices such as lights. I really like this device because it looks sleek, small and does not obstruct users day to day activities.

https://designawards.core77.com/consumer-technology/97065/LITHO-creating-a-viable-input-device-for-spatial-computing

A-Frame:

A frame is a browser based software that one can use to make AR and VR environment. Here are some of the basics I have learned. Link to see all the work : https://parkermjulie.github.io/hci/

1. Shape Making

https://parkermjulie.github.io/hci/02Shape/

I played around with different types of shapes , colours and positions of the shapes on the plane.

2. Making Animations

https://parkermjulie.github.io/hci/04Animation/ These two cinder blocks move in different directions at different speeds.

3. Interaction Headset https://parkermjulie.github.io/hci/06InteractionHeadset/

I played around with the fuse, where you move your cursor (the yellow circle) you can see that the right block is growing. Every time one moves away from it and back at it, the block grows even bigger.

Unreal:

We learned the basics of how to use Unreal engine. It is used for animation, game making and interactions. Here is a small sample of what I have learned to make using a tutorial provided in class. I first had to make a banana with a mesh of banana. I made a small turntable that the banana rotates around and I made it to rotate.

Chosen topics:

1. Healthcare

What I want to achieve:

AR app that allows children to see how their body looks on anatomical level. They can see how blood flows in their body, how their skeleton looks like, how food is being digested in their body.

How it works:

Child uses the app on their phone and points at their friend and using different filters they can see an animation of selected filter. They can also make a record of it so they can show it to each other.

Illustration:

2.Public transport

What I want to achieve:

AR app that allows travellers to get from and to the right subway line without getting lost in the underground.

How it works:

AR app uses their camera and overlays with the map and shows arrows in which directions in the tunnels they need to go to get to the right subway.

Illustration:

3. Climate change

What I want to achieve:

AR app that allows users to see how their environment has changed based on the changes in climate change.

How it works:

Using their camera they can see what their current landscape looks like now (in 2021) and can go back in time to see how the same environment probably looked like in 1800.

Illustration:

Interesting concept of VR: Virtual Museum Tour

Made by Doug Snider

I liked this project because due to to Covid I cant go to the museums and this looks like a very good alternative. I also like it because there are a lot of people who also would like to visit museums but they might not have means to do so. Using VR and AR to make art accessible to everyone is really important to me and I feel that by using the latest technology it can be achievable. This project also reminds me of the work been done in Rijksmuseum where portrait themselves came to live using AR and deepfakes.

Interesting concept of AR: Using AR to learn about human anatomy

Made by Anatomy Next