Major Studio 1 – Fall 2013 – Page 6 – Parsons MFA-Design & Technology

Oct 21

Final Project _Vague Idea

By Joyce Xu in Student Work

My final project idea inspiration are coming from my Feedback loop project.

In my feedback loop project, I designed a shoes sensor to tracking people’s working hour in front of my computer and locate the users in order to encourage them to work in a healthy way. And I think in my final project I would like to expand this idea. In my final project I want to embed a light sensor and little speaker into the clothes or shoes, then this sensor could calculate our working hour, sense the screen luminance and remind us to adjust it. I will try to achieve this goal by some Arduino sensor. Using Arduino sensor to detect the light surround us, if we stay in the indoor for 2 hours it will play music to remind users to go outside.

And my second idea is coming from my running project, this idea is also about add a motion sensor in people’s shoe’s or clothes, it will sense the posture of runners, And if the runner’s running posture is not correct, it will play music to remind the runner to adjust their posture. I did this project because there are lot of people didn’t know how to run properly, so that they have some muscle ache after running.

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Oct 21

Final Project: Chain Link Fence art

By Alex Tosti in Student Work

For my final project I want to create site specific street art using chain link fences. Using a variety of string/yarn type of materials I think the idea of weaving landscapes or imagery through a chain link fence is a medium that can be explored much further.

The first step in the process is to create a strategic program (most likely in open frameworks) that creates a coordinate system that I can use to map out sketches previous to creating them. That way I can map out how much material I would need, and experiment with where to place each element.

I hope to create 3 different installments somewhere in Manhattan &/or Brooklyn. There will be a connected theme between the pieces, that is yet to be determined. But at this point the main goal is to explore a new medium that transforms an existing space with temporary materials.

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Oct 21

Nature As Interface — FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL

By Xiaofeng Lin in Uncategorized

Nature As Interface

For my final project I decided to work on more challenging and unconventional interface design/installation — I want to use water or air as a natural interface and controller, using Arduino sensors such as liquid level sensor, pressure sensor and wind sensor as input intriguers in order to talk to openFramework and generate visuals and control permitters in a game or live scene. This format will create a pair of paralleled worlds that at some point sync and intertwine with/affect each other at the same time.

INSPIRATION

1. Unnatural modification and interference to natural elements as unnatural intriguers of “natural” forms

I try to demonstrate the indirect relationships between human, nature, and the screen, with an emphasis on interactivity and curiosity. Also, a composition of the idea of “chance” is being transferred from sound pieces of John Cage.
“Gestural interaction is the new excitement in the halls of industry. Advances in the size, power, and cost of microprocessors, memory, cameras, and other sensing devices now make it possible to control by wipes and flicks, hand gestures, and body movements. A new world of interaction is here: The rulebooks and guidelines are being rewritten, or at least, such is the claim. And the new interactions even have a new marketing name: natural, as in ‘Natural User Interface’.”

2. Natural User Interface Are Not Natural

Gestural interaction is often critiqued as being robotic, static, or unnatural, I feel uncomfortable to use Leap Motion or Kinect as direct tools for generating visuals. Most gestures are neither natural nor easy to learn or remember. Very few of them are innate or readily pre-disposed to rapid and easy learning. I believe that the interaction is always the essential part of the design itself. Given that, I choose natural elements such as water and air as interface, which may seem fairly difficult to handle as they are extremely fluid and smooth. However, it also offers endless opportunities and measurable permitters as useful data. On the other hand, natural elements provide strong aesthetics to the work as either interaction design or art installation that attracts and influences. Finally, the gestures that are going to be use is extremely flexible and innate.

Natural (and What Not ) Inspirations:

Works of Inspirations (credit – TAKASHI AOKI):

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Oct 21

Final Project Ideas

By Perry Zhang in Uncategorized

For my final project, I would like to continue to research, study and revise the design for my feedback loop assignment: The Walking Cup.

First of all, people being overweight has been a very serious problem in this country for a long time. This phenomenon is related to the unhealthy eating habits of the population. Over-consumption of high-calorie beverages is one of the most important factors that contribute to unhealthy weight gain. The Walking Cup can raise a consumer’s awareness of high calorie drinks and in the long run, it will encourage people to be cognizant about their eating habits.

For my final project, I want to make a technical based design that is an enhanced design of my original concept; it is a digital cup with a vertical mark on its outer surface that shows a distance and number of calories the beverage contains on the of front side cup. The distance can be shown as a distance between two landmarks in your city. For example, if you drink a whole cup of soda, you need walk 2.4 miles, from Times Square to Washington Square. I want to put three marks on the cup, that represent the three of the most common drinks which are soda, coffee and juice. I hope after researching further, I can revise this design and make it is more practical; also technically, I will try to make physical computing to make a prototype that reflects all the functions and my design concepts.

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Oct 21

Proposed Final Project

By Birce Ozkan in Uncategorized

For my final project, i decided to work more on my feedback loop project. For my feedback loop project, i researched about back pain. I found out that back pain is one of the most common medical problems, affecting 8 out of 10 people at some point during their lives. Also, Sitting at a computer for long periods of time can take a toll on body. By not sitting with correct posture, it is easy to end up with back pain, neck pain, knee pain and a tingling of the hands and fingers. So, i decided to create a sensor chair. With this chair, people can start to change their sitting positions and have a new habit of right sitting posture.

Also, It is important to keep bones and joints in straight alignment so that muscles are used effectively. Especially, when sitting in front of a computer for long periods of time, right posture helps in keeping the spine stress free and prevents muscular pain and backache. Also, too much sitting seems to increase the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer. The right time period for sitting in front of a computer is around 1 hour. If you can sit in a right position for 1 hour, can have message as a positive feedback. But, if you can not sit in a right position. an alert pops up on your screen to warn you about changing your position in a right sitting posture. Also, according the researches, that the right time period for sitting is around 1 hour, people need to stand up every 1 hour. So, if people learn to sit in a correct way around 1 hour, sensor chair starts to heat up, people need to stand up and walk around until it cools down. In this way, people can have a more healthy body.

For the prototype, i will try to put sensors on the chair for heating up and cooling down the temperature to make them stand up with using arduino. Also, for the final, i will plan to add popup alerts to warn people for changing their position in a right way.

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Oct 18

Final Project proposal

By Cindy Zhu in Student Work

For my final project, I want to research the role of visualization in science learning and create visual aids for some foundation topics in chemistry. The benefits of visual aids give students a mental model to understand the complex conceptual topics found in science subjects. There are lots of studies that attempt to measure the appropriate modes of applying visualization without overwhelming students with another level of complexity. I will be working with Prof. Bhawani Venkataraman at Eugene Lang College to develop interactive animations to use in her undergraduate chemistry classes. These animations will focus on very basic chemical properties, but applied in a context that beginning students can understand and relate to. In order to measure the success of this teaching tool I will also develop comprehension questions to test students learning before, during, and after seeing the visualizations.

The topic I will focus on is how soap breaks up grease and the role of water during this interaction. To do so I will illustrate the molecular interactions between soap molecules, oil, and water. These principals can then be applied to show how the surfectant Corexit was used during the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil. Corexit acts like a soap, and the hopes were to break up the oil slicks to small molecules before it reached the shore.

This project will probably be applied in Javascript so that students can interact with different parts while answering study questions. I believe the scope of this project will extend into next semester so my goals for the final will be to have a clear representation and animation of the molecular model before moving onto larger context.

Oct 16

Final Project Description

By Niamh Parsley in Student Work

For my final project I would like to expand upon my feedback loop assignment from earlier in the semester. My feedback loop assignment, iSlouch, was a look and feel prototype that demonstrated the interface of a posture detection program. The idea is that when the user slouches while using their computer, the interface on their computer screen will be covered by an image of the shape of a curved spine. In the original prototype, I achieved this effect using the camera of my laptop and face detection in processing. Whenever the user’s head dipped below a certain Y-axis value, the curved spine interface was triggered. For my final I would love to develop this prototype into a desktop application. My goal is to make this application as simple as possible but I would like to perhaps include a few additional features. Possible additions to the application could be: accurate depictions of the curve of the user’s spine as opposed to the arbitrary curved spine picture, a weekly summary of the user’s slouching, individualized stretches and exercises for each user dependent upon their particular slouching history, alerts that are triggered by the combination of time passed while using the computer and how many breaks of good posture have occurred.

I will incorporate research from medical sources to support the credibility of my project. For the initial prototype I only had time to test one input method (camera face detection), but for the final I plan on testing a few different methods using the Arduino and also using the camera on the laptop. I will be testing on multiple participants to find the method that receives the most positive responses.

Oct 16

Instruction sets for strangers==> Tony, Tim and Sophie

By Shufei Ma in Student Work

Our topic is called: How are you feeling now? The goal is to lead people walk through another exit way from subway station; and we made three foam boards for people to attach their “emotions”. The three boards are in three colors: black, green and white; each of they represents tired, calm and happy respectively. And we also made three kinds of emotions for people to choose.