Shimmering Light Research and Prototype

Research:

Speed of Light

Speed of Light is a series of installations that invoke in the viewer a sense of the astonishment involved in fibre optic communication. A series of light work flows through the labyrinthine of the four-storey industrial space. The installations emphasized the experience of using fibre-optic communication, re-imagining it as an immersive environment.

http://design-london.blogspot.com/2010/03/virgin-media-speed-of-light.html

Nemore

Nemore is a garden consists of 36 bendable graphite poles. Each pole has a behavior and reacts to its neighbouring poles and to the visitor who is seen as the "alien neighbour". The sound from each pole builds up a chord, fluctuating in resonance with the movement of the poles. The project questions how the visitors and observers would perceive the state of being of these artificial objects based on their behaviors.

http://www.creativeapplications.net/vvvv/nemore-vvvv/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+creativeapplicationsnet+(CreativeApplications.Net)

Prototype
Over the weekend, we made a prototype of our Shimmering Light. Through rapid prototyping, we tried using different materials. From thin plastic, to thick plastic, plastic bottles, and containers, we found that acrylic had the best shimmering results we were looking for.

We would expect this in our installation. We want to use proximity sensors to detect how close people are to each of the shimmering lights. If users are within range of a shimmering light, the light will vibrate to create a shimmering effect. We are still finding out ways on how to incorporate the vibrator to have the effect we want. We also made a rapid prototype of a mood changing light, which we may incorporate. The light will change colors depending on the user.

Shimmering Light

After lecture on Friday, we decided that we wanted to make a 'Shimmering Light' installation. We are inspired on how the natural sunlight shines through the refraction lines of the ocean water, and onto the seabed.

Research shows that by seeing and hearing the ocean waves, it can calm people down, as well as lower their blood pressure.

Thumb War

We played around with the temperature sensor and realized it was too hard to work with. It needs constant temperatures in order to show values. We decided to scratch that idea. We decided to work with gloves, and incorporate fun with it. We are now doing Thumb Wars, the childhood game. Everybody knows how to play Thumb Wars. With ours, we want to have an LED light up when the winner holds the opponents thumb down. Each glove will have it's separate color LED, allowing both users to see the winner. Also, when users are starting the game, there will be a ready light.

Soft Circuits

In the previous lab, we learned about soft circuits. We need to create a wearable product for next week. We are thinking of making a gas mask and using temperature sensors. As users breathe through the gas mask, the hot air they breathe out will trigger the temperature sensor to light up the LED. We will be applying what we learned in lab to the next assignment.

Project Demonstration

Since my last update, we have made many improvements. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6xSX_dw5tc&feature=player_embedded

The link above is an example of how users will interact with our project. We did many user testings and found that when the germs attach onto people, their first reaction is to try to brush it off as they get an uneasy feeling. The more they get used to it, users will start to play with it. Our main target audience would most likely for kids and educational purposes to raise awareness that even though you cannot see germs with the naked eye, they still exist. 

With Nuisance, we had to go through the labs taught in class, as well as Cycling 74 websites for Max Msp help. We played around with blob tracking using centroids and collision detection. We were thinking of incorporating color change and maybe sound, but with the given time we had, we were not capable of doing so.

We had several research precedents, one of which was the insect project shown in class:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHoV7tr0ZVE&feature=player_embedded

We looked at the inter-subjectivity between the objects and how users understand and interpret their relationship, as well as what aspects engages the two.

We also looked at the FIAT Interactive Installation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyZSpKfIEh8&feature=player_embedded

With this project, we looked into how people communicate with objects on the screen, the gestures they use, and how they would react with it. 

Nuisance Presentation
Nuisance Max Patch

Germs

So we finally confirmed our topic. Instead of post-it notes, we will be using germs. We want to do something more educational and raise awareness. As flu season is coming, we want to let people know that germs are everywhere. It cannot be seen with the naked eye, but it is so powerful that it can spread across the country and harm our bodies. Because we cannot see it with our naked eye, users will be able to see surrounding 'germs' on the screen, and realize how many and how it can be harmful to them.

Postits

We scratched our previous idea. Again. However, we have a new and innovative idea we hope that would much better. Our base concept is to have the user move across the screen, with post-it's attaching to the user. The post-it's represent everyday life. As our society has become so fast paced, people have more and more tasks to complete everyday. Post-its are mainly used to take down notes and tasks of what people have to do. With this idea, we want to use it as a metaphor and how we are embodied by many daily tasks.