Project ideas
Some thoughts about my final project for the Fab Academy. It is fun brainstorming about project ideas. Many ideas so far, not one definite 'winner' as of yet.
When I think about the final project, I think it should be something I enjoy building. I enjoy things that make people curious, are playful, make people smile, touch people's hearts. Not sure where that leads right now. It will probably be something in art, design sooner than a tool or something 'useful'. But that might change..;-)
Update: while brainstorming, I had the need to be able to weigh ideas against each other. 'Just pick one' does not work for me in this case.
Here are some of my favorite ideas so far:
Tink tonk apparatus
A steampunk-inspired artefact that produces sounds by dialing knobs, gesturing, speaking into it, pushing buttons. Purely to enjoy the act of creating without purpose for whoever uses the Tink Tonk machine.
A haiku bot
This could be a little creature living on your desk or on your window sill that cites and creates haikus from various inputs, at random and at awkward moments. There might be more than one of these haiku bots that are connected through the web and exchange (fragments of) haiku between them.
Digital pinhole machine
The machine freely generates slow shutter digital pinhole snapshots.
Welcome home creatures
A family of small objects that welcome you home with a harmony (well...) of light, sounds and gestures. Adding or removing them from the group affects the harmony. Just like flowers and paintings contribute to the mood in your home, so do these creatures.
Healed heart keychain
A pair of keychains in the form of two hearts that each record the day of a couple and reproduce a combined visual experience of their day when these keychains are reunited at home.
A living viewbox
Bringing the old idea of the shoebox with a scene inside to the digital, interactive and connected smart age. It might not be in a box.:-)
The nonsense totempole
A modular totempole that takes your input and outputs visual and audio 'wisdom' from it. The idea is to make it a modular system and by changing, adding sections in between, this affects the output that the totempole produces.
Letter writing ritual
A poetic ritual that brings the lost art of letter writing, sending, receiving, reading and responding to the 21st century. I'm thinking about a collections of interactions people need to perform in order to create this experience. No simple mouseclicks, but poetic, meaningful gestures.
Smart bird house
Quantifying and observing bird nesting behaviour through a smart bird house. Data is sent to cloud for comparison. A citizen science project.
QS triggers
A wearable that takes biometric triggers (heartbeat, breathing, other...) to record an impression of the location where the wearer is at that moment. Gain insight in places and moments that bring joy, flow, stress, etc. A home device is used to re-create the moods, e.g. on your desk while working.
Hidden messages
Hide messages at GPS spots and find messages your friends left for you.
Sound triggers
A collection of wearable sensors that trigger music making devices when people move.
World explorer kit
A carry-on kit to collect samples of the world. Things you see, smells, small details, whatever.
Smart plant grower
A modular smart plant grower. Modules added to the grower affect what happens to plants.
Web fighters
Modular action figures. Fight your friends over the web.
Brainstormonster
An annoying device that sits on your desk and gives you input for ideas whenever you (don't) need it.