November 24, 2007
Reading for November 27th, are now posted. Enjoy!
October 2, 2007
To upload your thoughtless acts, create a new assignment page like any other lab. You'll see "Thoughtless Acts" listed as one of the assignment options.
May 24, 2008
This site has been archived and is no longer editable. Stay tuned for the next version, coming in the fall!
The Can That Doesn't Just Spray
Description
The idea is to take quite a normal activity and map it to a completely different digital effect. In this case we're going to take a paint spray can and map its physical use actions to movements of a digital ball.
Case Example
I pick up a red spray can next to a computer screen. I pop the top and a slow moving or stationary red ball appears. When I shake the can the ball speeds up and bounces wildly on the screen. As I slow down the shaking, the ball slows down and eventually stops. If I press the bottle spray top, a spraying sound is heard and the ball gradually changes colors, going through the entire spectrum as the spray top is held down. If I rotate/sway the can around its middle, the ball gets bigger or smaller.
We were going to originally make a "ball that doesn't just bounce", ie a ball with sensors in it that would modify the sound environment. Why did we change direction? Post labs 4-5 the only new interaction we would be designing is the music modification. None of us are musicians or even close and so wouldn't be able to focus on this part of the project.
What about the 'interaction loop'? After much thought we decided that though we obviously would like to design a system with one, we could not think of anything that wasn't just a replication of something tangible in digital form (ie tic-tac-toe monitored by computer via video vision). We decided that practice with such a system would be good practice for building the final class project. Though simple, it will allow us to work with all of our existing sensors in creative technical ways.
Components
Sketches
can-screen-correlation
cans-balls
Comments
Comments from TUI Teaching Team
Thanks for taking into account our feedback from your prior proposal. However, some of the issues still remain. The idea of making a spray can in tangible form is a really cute idea. However, we'd like you to take a serious look at the kinds of interactions the spray can affords – what do you want to do to this can when you pick it up? You outline some of the actions already. The question that remains is what can we do with those actions that are meaningful in some way. Can you make it into a game? Can you make it into a tool? Can you make it collaborative? The artifacts you have chosen are fine, however, there's too much emphasis here on "going digital" and what we'd really like to see is "why digital?", "why tangible?" As a final note, the project does not need to be implemented and, if you wish, mockups are more than welcome. What's important here is the thought that's put into the interaction design.