Sep 22

Maker Faire

1. Identify 3 “interfaces” you saw at Maker Faire that were interesting and describe what they did.

i. “Sir Walter Cooler” by Microsoft. This project is a water cooler that displays different colors to demonstrate                  whether it is “feeling” happy or sad. In order to make the water cooler happy, he must be used by those in                  his environment. He becomes sad when he is not used for a long period of time. When this happens, his                    color turns red and he begins to flirt with passersby by whistling at them.

ii. “Farm Hack”. This project enables users to wash items, specifically vegetables, by operating a stationary                     bicycle that moves a round barrel that contains the vegetables. The barrel has slots in it where water                           passes through to wash the vegetables. This encourages people to wash produce adequately because it is               fun.

iii. “Nerdy Derby”. This project seemed particularly popular amongst the child attendees of Maker Faire. The                   makers of this project built a race track and set up a workshop so that visitors could build their own cars to                 race on the track.

2. How did they encourage user interaction and what made them successful? If they were a failure, please explain why?

i. “Sir Walter Cooler” encouraged user interaction by illuminating in different colors and calling out to                              passersby. The only critique I have of the design is that the part of the device that becomes illuminated                        makes it a little hard to see the shift in color. In my opinion the color should be more vibrant to catch the                      attention of those around it.

ii. “Farm Hack” encouraged user interaction by using an object that is very familiar to most (the bicycle) and                    connected it as the power source to another object. One’s curiosity may prompt them to start pedaling on                    the bicycle to see what it does.

iii. “Nerdy Derby” encouraged user interaction with the size of the track and the DIY workshop. These were                    very attractive and attention-getting aspects. Another way it encouraged interaction was the friendly                            competitive nature of the project, giving the users the hope of winning.

3. What inspired you at the Faire? Why? Explain at least two reasons why…

I was most inspired by “Sir Walter Cooler” (described above).  The thing I liked the most about this project is the goal of encouraging positive behavior. They do this in two ways: encouraging people to drink more water, and also bringing coworkers together and encouraging more interesting water-cooler chat. I also was inspired by this project because it was something that we see everyday and with just a few simple changes, it can make a huge difference.

4. What types of things did you learn there that you think might influence your own work?

I learned that shocking and abnormal designs attract the attention of many, and what you do following that immediate shock can decide the success of your project. I also learned that kids are immediately drawn to products that can be touched and played with (not surprising) and that designing durable products to withstand the wear and tear from the use of a child is important.

 

20130922_142329 20130922_134425 20130922_142319 20130922_133520

Sep 22

Mashups

My digital-digital mashup is the YouTube Party Editor. It consists of a YouTube video that you can add dancing characters to. The example shows the popular video “Charlie bit my Finger” and below you will find dancing characters that you can add to the video. This enables users to create their own mashup. In a further iteration users will be able to select a YouTube video from a drop-down menu or simply by entering the url into a text box and when their video starts to play then can add characters. I got motivation for this project from gifdanceparty.com.

You can see my project here. <——————–

My digital-physical mashup is the Obesity Map Controller. I mapped data about obesity rates in the United States (which you can see here). Using this information I have created a prototype of a device that allows you to choose a state on the map and once you have done so, when you reach for an eating utensil, the utensil will react based on the state that you chose. For example, if you choose Colorado (the least obese state in America) your utensil will move toward you. If you choose Mississippi (the most obese state in America) your utensil will move away from you.

You can see my project here. <———————-

Sep 22

Digital mashup ==> “Doggle”

My digital & digital mashup is called Doggle, it’s an application which help you to find out the nearest dog park/ dog daycare center/ dog clinic/ dog store and groomer on the map. Another function is that you will actually know your dog’s friends by using a sensor which embed in your dog’s neck chain. This is how the sensor works: If your dog likes another dog, and plays with him/her more than 5 minutes, then the sensor will receives another dog’s information and adds him/her in your Doggle ‘s friends list automatically(Let’s assume another dog has this sensor too 😀 .) On the  Doggle, you can edit your dog’s profile as well as yours, I believe this will help you know your dog better.

The reason I made this application is that I really love dogs!!( I actually have one named Dubby.) And I find a lot of dogs in New York, which makes me so happy! So I was wondering if I can make an application which will helps dog lovers to know their pets better, besides, it would be inconvenient if they open up Google map every time just to find out the best dog park. Doggle can record your (or your dog’s) favorite dog park / dog daycare center/ dog clinic/ dog store and groomer, so next time you want to take your dog to that place, all you need to do is to login Doggle.

And about the friends sensor, it has a problem. Staying together more than 5 minutes dosen’t  always mean the two dogs are friends, it can also mean they are fighting……so how to deal with this problem? Maybe the sensor will senses the unique smell from the dogs’ body, you know if the two are happy, they will release some unique smell? I don’t know =, =.

doggle+

clinic-mappark-mapprofilefriendsfriends sensor

Sep 22

Digital-Digital Mashup: Interracial Relationships In US

My inspirations of this project is from my own life, I have been in a interracial relationship for two years, I found although there are more interracial couples in US than before, people still know a very little about interracial couples around their life.

My digital-digital mashup is a data representation video about interracial marriage in the US

In this video, I made a short over view of the history of legalized interracial relationship in United States and used graphics and charts to convey the statistics data by location, gender and race. Which district has more percentage of interracial marriage, where has largest number of interracial couple, which race is more likely to chose interracial marriage and other comparisons to let people know more about interracial relationships.

My video link:

Here is some interesting data fro my video:

 

1.The more wealthy the states is, the more more interracial couples it has. The top ten states have highest number of interracial couples and have more than 60% of national GDP.

  1. The differences of race preference who choose their partner in interracial marriage between male and female can vary dramatically.  47% of white husbands who are in interracial marriage have an asian wife. But for white wife, only 20% chose an asian husband.
  2. Nearly 90% of asian wife who are in interracial marriage chose white husband, which makes the highest race preference in different genders and races.
  3. Asian has highest percentage of interracial couples, which almost one in three Asian couples are interracial.

 

Screen Shot 2013-09-21 at 8.40.01 PM Screen Shot 2013-09-21 at 8.38.40 PM Screen Shot 2013-09-21 at 8.38.15 PM Screen Shot 2013-09-21 at 8.37.52 PM

 

 

Sep 19

Ditigal-Digital Mashup: McArabia

Due to bountiful (but unrenewable) reserves of petroleum and natural gas, many Middle Eastern countries are experiencing newfound economic power and individual wealth.  Many of these countries are also entering the ranks of world’s most overweight and obese.  Not coincidentally, fast food chain restaurants are rushing to open new franchises to support the emerging culture of ‘demand and immediately receive.’

For my digital-digital mashup, I aggregated data from the World Bank regarding 2013 GDP in the Persian Gulf region, along with stats from the World Health Organization regarding overweightness/obesity in terms of BMI index.

These are my sources:

WHO BMI index

GDP per capita in US$

Next, I used McDonald’s own restaurant locater to map restaurant locations in each country.

 

A few interesting things I found:

1. Kuwait is the 2nd most overweight nation in the world, second only to the United States. There are 69 McDonalds in the country, which is smaller than New Jersey.

2. Yemen is the poorest country in the region, where almost 70% of adults are considered malnourished.  There are no McDonalds in Yemen.

3. The island nation of Bahrain is connected via bridge over the Persian Gulf to Saudi Arabia.  There is a McDonalds location in the middle of the bridge. Overall, the country that is 3x the size of Washington DC has 16 total restaurants.

4. Qatar, the world’s richest and second fattest GCC country, has 25 McDonalds in an area smaller than Connecticut.

 

Here is my map of McArabia.

Sep 18

This is my login page of the “digital&digital”

doggle+

 

The dog version of Google.

Sep 18

Some original idea sketch of Mashup

My mashup idea this time are inspired by my daily running habits, running is actually a repetitive activity and compared to some competitive games like basketball , it is easy for runner to get board , if runner could change their running route sometimes, that will make most of runners enjoy running.
So this mashup was created in my mind to help runner to select the best running route in the city. After using this mashup we could grade the running route , then the mashup will create a up-to-date ranking of running route. And the mashup also combined some social network data that they can communicate with other runner on internet.

mashup 2

mashup 1

Sep 17

7in7: Day 7

For my last project, I wanted to create an altered idea of a drum, again using Ikea parts. My idea behind this project was to be able to create a consistent rhythm with the tools tapping each other. So I decided to use a motor hooked up to an arduino that spins when pressing a switch. Then, have Ikea tools attached to the top of the motor (similar to a propeller).  I built a casing to hold the motor, and a box for the propeller tools to spin against. As the motor spins the tools tap against the box, created a beat, or more of a constant rhythm similar to a metronome.

 

The problem I ran into, is that I was unable to figure out how to program the motor to spin at a slow enough speed. So the beat is currently too fast.

 

IMG_6421 IMG_6422 IMG_6429

 

 

Sep 17

7in7: Day 6

For my 6th project I wanted to build off of any earlier project from the week. Previously I had created in a sketch in processing that allowed the user to play sounds of ikea tools by clicking on an image of the tool. To build off of that concept, I wanted to build an interface that a user could use to play the sound instead of clicking with the mouse. So I used an arduino and built a system with four switches.  Each switch is connected to a specific recorded sound of an Ikea tool. So when the button is push the sound plays.  I wanted to have 7 switches to have 7 sounds, but I do not have enough switched for all 7.

IMG_6432IMG_6434

Sep 16

Idea sketch for Mashup !

Photo Sep 16, 12 13 00 PM Photo Sep 16, 12 13 05 PM