Future Craft/Love Sounds

It all started out with an accelerometer that I built a while ago. I wanted to do something with it. I thought of exercise. I thought of how people (myself included) are continuously looking for external things, such as Personal Trainers, classes, applications, and now robots, to motivate ourselves to move, since our modern society is designed to help us avoid physical activity. How far are we willing to go? Will current systems develop in a similar way?

So I thought, why not design a (sarcastic/critical) system that addresses this cultural aspect? A system that, unlike existing applications and robots (see image 1) has the ability be more like (sad) real life coaches - angry, moody, pushy, inpatient (see image 2). If that is what you want and need. Different levels of anger depending on how unmotivated you are at the moment.

Videos:

Autom: A Robotic Weight Loss Coach
Angry NFL coaches

So, basically, I propose:

• A smart and realistic (read: emotional, moody, etc.) exercise companion.
• Lets the user choose one of several stereotypical characters of different anger level: the disappointed coach, the angry black woman, the understanding teacher, the sadistic sergeant.
• Hopefully questions our relationship to moving/exercising, as well as stereotypes and controversial features of both real and machine-based coaching/characters.

The system will consist of:

• Accelerometer that can sense whether you are sitting, walking or running (hardware already done).
• Application that keeps track of how long and often you are active each day and gives you more or less angry/moody audio instructions based on your behavior (and other factors) and choice.

Resources:

• Python to write analysis program and coaching algorithm
• Speakers
• Subjects for user study
• Video camera for filming

Deliverables:

• Working prototype
• Video of ethnographic study

We might have talked about aerogel in class, but if we did I completely missed it. Anyway, the material seems very cool. Cool hunting writes:

The porous substance is composed of dehydrogenated silicon dioxide filled with gas. Described as “frozen smoke” or the “ultimate sponge,” it’s the most lightweight and least dense solid on earth.

A colleague of mine talked about designing a gender issue focused organizational setup where men grow breast if they exceed the number of women. This made me consider creating a similar setup where people (men) would grow breasts if they say something disparaging about women.

So far, the only thing I have found online regarding inflatable breast projects is Doria Fan’s inflatable breast dress.

Jegan, Justin, Alexander, and I (Paulina) are working on a system that incorporates both bad and good aspects of computer-supported communication in face-to-face communication. Some of the bad aspects that we are trying to implement are delays, unnatural or non-existing eye-contact, and mono-modality. Reduced gender and race bias is a good feature that we have chosen to empathize.

The most central component of the system is a helmet that isolates the user/wearer from all natural inputs and outputs. Both incoming and outgoing speech is distorted to avoid gender bias. The user will not be able to see anything, but his or her eyes will be displayed on a screen. Thus, the “fuzzy” helmet will strictly limit and form the user’s perception of his environment.

Jegan’s eyes…or somebody else’s:

A diagram of the system setup:

The “Weymouthian” helmet that we found on Craig’s wonderful list for $25:

Pictures of the isolated helmet:

One eye:

And two:

Jegan and Justin working hard:

Videos:

This is a direct response to the chapter Waste Equals Food in McDonough’s book Cradle To Cradle. McDonough’s concept of “waste equals food” basically means that it is possible to design industrial systems and processes so that the products manufactured are completely recyclable and that all the by-products of the production process are usable in the creation of other products. Ideally, in such a system, garbage and pollution would not exist.

Wired writes:

Herein lies the Big McDonough Idea: “The materials go back to soils safely, or they go back to industry. That’s it. That’s the new paradigm.”

I find these things really important to talk about. The problems with combining different kinds of materials, i.e., disposable/non-disposable, in one product is indeed a pressing issue. Still, somehow McDonough makes it all sound so easy - “too good to be true”, so to speak. As somebody pointed out in class: if the concept of full recycling is so easy and advantageous, why haven’t more companies and manufacturers actually implemented it yet? I guess the answer is, it takes time to (as Swedes say) “teach an old dog to sit“.

As an human-computer interface designer, I quickly learned that usability is considered a “luxury”. It is something companies invest in when they have the time and money to do so. Well, either that, or when they are really desperate. Maybe it’s the same with recycling and green thinking? Why change a seemingly well-functioning process unless somebody or something forces you to change it?

Weak incentives, maybe that’s what it is all about.