For this week I decided to apply the knowledge acquired during the past classes in order to create a candy dispenser machine that would provide the candies when the user makes a gesture with the hand, like if they were asking for the candies to come out.
The main idea behind the concept was to create a machine that would recognize basic human expressions to activate the servo motor and for that I used the gesture of curling the fingers.
Read MoreFor these week’s assignment I decided to continue working with the concept of the sloth that feel in love while holding hands, the last week I wanted the eyes to be white when there was no contact and then turn red when the switch was on, however since I didn’t know how to program the Arduino I didn’t do it. For this week I already have the required knowledge to (at least) try to program the LED lights in a more coherent way according to my concept.
Read MoreFor this week we formed new teams and received a new assignment specifically for Video production. Me and my team met during the week and started a quick brainstorming session to define the subject of our video. We had already discussed that we wanted to create something with meaning and not to create just something funny or fake marketing therefore we focussed our ideas thinking about a final result that would have a positive effect in out audience.
Read MoreFor this assignment I choose “City Bike”, a piece of interactive technology used in public by multiple people. The systems consists on two different platforms: 1) physical kiosk in each bike station, 2) mobile app. For the assignment purposes I will focus on the kiosk and the interaction of the users with the bike stations. I did my research on the Washington Pi & Broadway station, which I figured is not a very touristic location, most of the users already know how to use the system and they normally already have the code in their phones when they approach the station. I assumed that the interaction with the kiosk would be fast and easy however it might be challenging for tourists who are not used to these kind of interfaces, specially non english speakers.
Read MoreFor this assignment we were encouraged to work in teams (I worked with KC Conchinha) in order to make progress faster and be able to identify mistakes faster. The experience of working as a team was very different than the past assignments. I was writing the code while KC was giving me instructions and vice versa. We started by creating a slider from scratch.
Read MoreThe group assignment for week three consisted in creating a sound walk located in the 721 Broadway Tisch building. Me and my group got together the day after we were assigned the project and even thought we didn’t quite know our concept in that moment we decided to start the process by getting to know all of the floors in the building, neither of us had ever been to other floor rather than ITP (4th floor).
Read MoreFor the second week the assignment was to make a creative switch. Since we learned in class how to create one with a pushbutton the idea of the homework was to come up with creative ways to “cut” the power supply and reconnect it in an interesting way by exploring different conductors.
Read MoreFor my second week assignment I had to follow some instructions:
One element controlled by the mouse.
One element that changes over time, independently of the mouse.
One element that is different every time you run the sketch.
I decided to create a new concept and not to continue my self portrait since that would reduce my options. I focused on the concept of a night full o stars that appear in random places each time the sketch is opened. I used the background as a tool to make the randomized stars disappear over time by assigning it an alpha value of 20, therefore each time that 5 backgrounds accumulate on top of each other the previously drawn star would disappear from the screen and since I placed it (and the stars) within the draw function, the sketch is generating them on loop.
Read MoreThe following is a reflexion on two readings: “The Art of Interactive Design” by Chris Crawford (Chapter 1 and 2) and Bret Victor’s, “A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design”.
I believe the authors dedicated a fair amount of time on defining what Interactivity is, and what it is not, however I would like to expand more on my personal opinion about what interactivity is (or at least should be for my personal interpretation).
In my opinion the differentiation that is being done by Chris Crawford regarding Interaction Designers and User Interface Designers is too focussed on age and capabilities, but he doesn’t talk about the fact that a User Interface Designer can also be a, Interaction Designer (and viceversa), I’m not saying this should be the rule, but it definitely is a very recurrent mix of capabilities.
It might come from the fact that the profession has changed so much over the years and probably it was different when the book was released, however I believe that the mixture between Mathematics and Engineering with Arts and Design could definitely be achieved by one professional.
In general I believe the concept of Physical Computation should go beyond just understanding who communicates with who, and expand more to the analogy of how the interactivity could augment the senses of a human being. It goes beyond trying to understand if a rug is interactive ir not. The power of technology should be used as a tool to provide humans with more developed senses and enable them to achieve their goals, overcoming their disabilities (mental and physical) with the help of Physical Computing.
Last but not least, I want to take a moment to talk about an issue that I am deeply concerned about. As a women being involved in Engineering and Tech environments I have faced sexism in a lot of different expressions, verbal, phycological and physical. Since we are in an era of women empowerment I have started to realize the material that we read and the videos that we watch as part of a class or our professional education should encourage us as women to overcome our mental barriers and also the industrie stereotypes.
I found the introductory video to be very sexist, I am aware that my Latin American descent might be influencing me to interprete the material in a different way, however I believe a blog that allow us as students to express our reactions is a great tool for us to also raise our voices regarding important issues in the society.
Male characters in the video
Male character winking this eye to a girl
Female character explicitly saying no.
Female character hitting a wall
Male character making fun of a female character
Male character blowing a kiss
Female character clearly rejecting the male's offenses.
This might me my own “Rant” however I strongly believe that it is important to empower women in our industrie and the materials that we use during our lessons are a great point to start that women empowerment.
This Blog Post is a reaction to the John Luther Adams’s Sound Walk that guides the audience from The Met Fifth Avenue to The Met Breuer and viceversa. I prepared myself to be able to walk at the same pace as the audio was indicating, which meant that I had to memorize the streets that I had to follow in order to avoid be checking for directions at the middle of it.
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