Project
Week 14
Week 6
So I put down my thoughts and ideas and have a shortlist of sorts.
Tactile Interface
A physical interface that one can interact with using highly tactile elements. The output/reaction may be onscreen or a physical manifestation.
A lot of work has already been done in this area, but I believe there is scope for more.
I could base my work on some of these and explore how to build electronics projects. I could also change direction a little and explore squeezables and deformable interfaces instead of the usual sliders and knobs.
Star Trek Discovery's gel based piloting interface
Image Source : TrekMovie.com
To Do
Further research necessary
- what already exists, as well as
- sensors and electrnocs for soft and deformable material sensing
Ideation
- the nature of the interface; material, manner of interaction, etc
- the nature of the feedback
- generic
- application specific
- a game
- music, etc
Update:
- Strain gauges ?
- Force sensors ?
- Load cells ?
What output control ? - move mouse/cursor/pointer - gameplay ? - generative art controller / abstract
Speculative Design Artefact
A Speculative Design based Artefact can be worked out at multiple levels of research : 1. Run the entire gamut of research, predict and postulate, and propose a product within the given scenario 2. Pick a scenario directly and propose a product within it 3. Pick a Sci-fi story or movie, and replicate an artefact from it
I would really like to pursue this but on first sight, it looks like a lot of research before I can begin building and that may be less than optimal in the current scenario.
Alt Calculator
An instance of the Tactile Interface option above. The idea is to have a physical object + interface where one can drop "rocks" or some such handy object, select an operation (how?) and the machine delivers the answer to you (how ?) by shifting, moving or dropping a similar set of rocks. I am sure things like this have been done before, but there may be multiple ways to interpret this.
Alt Clock
Another instance of both, a tactile interface, but a largely passive one, as well as a speculative object. A clock that changes your experience of time, or atleast of telling the time.
Update: A clock that tells the time (how) but is always off within a certain limit, but you never know by how much and in which direction.
Update 2 : A clock that takes the daylight hours and remaps them to be half the day, i.e 12 hours, regardless of actual time. Can be true to midday or true to sunrise-sunset, if those are different.
Cat Monitor
A system of tracking cats in the house. I have several cats and a semi-open flat on the 1st floor (1 storey above the ground). I'd like to keep track of where the cats are sleeping or hiding since they tend to run out, jump off the ledge or chase outside cats should they climb in, and I'd just liek to keep track of them and make sure teh are in teh house.
The system consists of 2 units - a passive RFID or such tag on the cat collar, and a network of "cellphone towers" around the house and balcony. The collar tag needs to be as minimal as possible, hence just a passive rfid tag or similar. The network of "towers" register the presence of the rfid tag and confirm it is located within a certain radius. Confirmations from multiple sources let you triangulate a more exact location.
This will allow me to
- know that any/all cats are within the designated area
- locate any particular cat
- check if any particular cat is missing
- pick up her last known "location" or atleast zone to check and track her
- do all this remotely to monitor them when at work or on holiday
A minimum function should be to simply mark presence (take attendance, do a headcount, etc) and trigger an alarm if absent (geofence lite).
A reaching function would be to have such a high granularity so as to track motion as well, and collect data to heatmap their favourite resting places or track down on who sprayed the doorframe.
Update :
Frame-by-frame interactive
A stack of acrylic slices with engraved markings, lit selectively from underneath to show parts. This whole thing is also interactive, not just passive. After VAT69 display project as well as Glowlytes
Volumetric display ? Interactive Data Viz ?
Interactive City map and location highlight
Gunjan's Mumbai Map + pre-set locations ?
Routes and distances ?
For or Of the Mumbai Metro ?