Index of Research Paper
1. Introduction
2. Motivation / background
3. Intersense
4. Fruits as everyday objects
5. Research
5.1. Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby.
5.1.1. Placebo project.
5.2. Michael Anastassiades.
5.2.1. Weeds, Aliens and Other "Stories" Psychological garden furniture for urban dweller.
5.2.2. Message cup.
5.2.3. Anti-social Light / Social light
5.3. Noam Toran.
5.3.1. Accessories for lonely Men
6. Methodology.
7. Conclusion.
8. Future directions.
8.1. Production schedule.
8.2. Further accomplishment.
9. Bibliography.
9.1. Resources.
9.2. Work cited.
9.3. Glossary.
1.Introduction.
I have been intrigued by the phenomenon of synaesthesia. It means a "joining of sensations" in Greek. In my exploration
of this idea, I chose to create a new term "Intersense" the fusion of sight, sound, touch and smell. My project is a series
of interactive physical-computing fruits that allows the user to experience "Intersense."
These fruits, the apple, the banana, the lemon, and the persimmon, each represent for me, one of the four senses. An apple
makes a sound when people eat it. A lemon has a strong smell. A persimmon's texture is soft, so people can squeeze it.
These fruits, using the idea of Intersense, will produce non-traditional sensory reactions when encountered by a user. This
will challenge people's perceptions and make them reconsider their views of everyday objects. My target audience will be adults
between 25 and 35 years old, who work everyday with the regular routine, and are not too exposed to technology. Also I want to
explore why we need different everyday life objects and how we use them. These fruits show my solution how to approach and
interact with a completely new object. It is concerned with representation and contexts of presentation for ideas about
everyday life in the form of conceptual objects. Hopefully these fruits, these new objects I have created, will enter
the daily activities and lives of people, even to the point of creating an emotional attachment between the user and the object.
2.Motivation / background.
One of my main motivations for embarking on this thesis project is my godfather. He is a Buddhist monk who has been the spiritual,
religious guidance for my family for two decades. He is an extraordinary person because even though he has assumed a path of
silence, he is able to communicate his thoughts effectively through another medium: writing. I have been deeply influenced by his
way of communication. I would like to illustrate an incident. One night, I followed him on a path in the deep mountains. Even
though I couldn't see anything, he kept going forward in his normal footstep. Suddenly, I was alone in the absolute darkness and
I stopped walking. He came back to me when I started to panic. He looked at me warmly, tapped my shoulder, and kept going again
but with slower footsteps. The next morning, he wrote to me saying that when a baby is born, he has a natural way to sense the
world. But when a baby becomes an adult, he makes his own artificial way to sense the world and cannot see the real world.
Another motivation is coming from Toshio Iwai' words: "The world that we humans see and hear is very different from that of dogs
and bats which are able to sense ultrasound. If our eyes or ears were able to perceive ultrasound or electric waves, it would
open up another world. (1)" I will challenge adults' artificial way to sense and make them use all their sensory capacities to see
the real world. I will accomplish this through the use of technology rather than meditation, which is the choice I make as a
person in the material world.
3.Intersense.
For me, Synaesthesia was a good example to show how people can sense the world in a different way. Unfortunately, Only the ten
people in one million who are synesthetes are born into a world where one sensation (such as sound) conjures up one or more others
(such as taste or color) (2), and there are not enough quantitative data to prove scientifically. But because of the fascination
about the "mixing senses" and people's own perception to sense the world, I made the word "Intersense." It means the fusion of
sight, sound, touch and smell.
4.Fruits as everyday objects.
My original idea was to choose a multifunction "Intersense" object that did everything. And I realize that dividing each of them
and give them a deeper function. One object can confuse the senses. For my several object, I choose fruits. I choose the apple
for sound. I choose the banana for sight. The shape of banana fits well with the shape of LCD. I choose the lemon for smell;
Lemon has the strongest smell than the other fruits. I choose the persimmon for touch, Persimmon's contents is soft, so the user
can squeeze. If I find the way to make something with taste technically, I will make a pear. Pear is the only fruit that has a
completely different form between orient and western. And it tastes quite different - very juicy and dry. I try to choose the
fruit that has not complicate shape (e.g. grape), and do not have a same texture (e.g. like lemon and orange). And try to have
almost same size to when I unify it.
I want to people to have fun technology and my objects. Imagine a single coffee pot in a gallery. The user approaches and touches
it. It emits a smell. He thinks that the coffee is inside so look inside, but there is nothing inside. He shakes the pot and he
hears the water sound. And he shakes the coffee stronger and he put the cup up and down and he feels the pot become warmer. He is
amazed and tried several different movements to see the different results. I want to explore the emotions caused by objects. The
user can experiment with the object, find their own usage and place for the object and be attached emotionally. I want the user to
adopt, in one part of their life, their object and put in their home for a long time. I intent to establish a psychological dimension
between object and user. Using a language with emphasis on idea rather than appearance, he personalizes and brings to life everyday
utilitarian objects, giving them an identity and vitality they might otherwise not possess. My objects can be looked at as messengers
of social interaction which explore codes of domestic behavior. seeks to provoke dialogue, participation and interaction out of what
would normally be a series of static, inanimate, utilitarian objects. Objects of use are also and always tools of communication. They
convey our voices.
5.Research.
I will analyze four artists: Anthony Dunne, Fiona Raby, Michael Anastrassiades and Noam Toran.
Anthony Dunne, an industrial designer and Fiona Raby, an architect have been collaborating on projects for five years. Dunne and
Raby lead the Critical Design Unit in the CRD Research Studio at the Royal College of Art in London. They explore ways of relocating
the electronic product beyond a culture of relentless innovation for its own sake, based simply on what is technologically possible
and semiologically consumable, to a broader context of critical thinking on its aesthetic role in everyday life. (3)
Their partnership aims to develop effective tools for disseminating conceptual design proposals that engage people's imaginations in
the debate about the future of electronic products. They explore new psychological and behavioral possibilities for everyday objects
and environments through a fusion of materials and electronic cultures. Their work centers on the future possibilities and potential
of design. (3)
Here, they present a possibility of what technology can do if you don't redefine its conceptual place in your life:
"'Interactive user-friendliness' ... is just a metaphor for the subtle enslavement of human
being to 'intelligent' machines; a programmed symbiosis of man and computer in which assistance
and the much trumpeted "dialogue between man and the machine" scarcely conceal the premises:
...the total, unavowed disqualification of the human in favor of the definitive instrumental
conditioning of the individual.' Also, we were interested in designing electronic objects in ways
that allow the user to mis-use the system we connect the objects to - social, technological or
cultural - to open up new aesthetic possibilities. We did not want to try and predict mis-uses
but rather to refer to the world of misuse and ab-use as an alternative to the official images
of how people live with technology shown in adverts and mass-media"(4)
5.1.1. Placebo Project.
Dunne and Fiona Raby made "Placebo Project" in 2000. This project is an experiment in taking conceptual design beyond the
gallery and into everyday life, a common aim with my project. One part of it was for people concerned about radiation from
electrical products: a light lights up when it is placed too close to a TV's field. There are eight-prototype pieces of
furniture, which explore the psychological comfort associated with an awareness of this radiation. All of the objects are
designed to alert the owner to various forms of electromagnetic radiation, and shield the occupants from its effects. Although
most of the devices do not provide physical protection they almost certainly do offer psychological protection. Particularly
there are three objects are very interesting. The object "Parasite light" only works when it is placed near on electronic
product. Its shape allows the lamp to be integrated into a stack of books to achieve the right height. It uses an electric
field sensor to relate the intensity of its function to the strength of the fields' sensesthe more radiations its near, the
brighter it is. Users learned about radiation in their home and experimented to find out where it was brightest and where they
most wanted it. It was never just a lamp for them. They didn't care about the technical problem inside, but they were very
interested about its interaction with other electromagnetic objects. And they said they would buy it if it were not too expensive.
Another Dunne and Raby object, "Compass table," reminds the user that electronics objects behave beyond visible limits. This table
houses your (radiation spewing) cellular phone and glows green when it rings. The 25 compasses set into its surface twitch and
spin when objects like mobile phones or laptop computers are placed on it. The twitching needles can be interpreted as being
either sinister or charming, depending on the viewer's state of mind. Dian and Arabella are the adopters of "Compass Table."
They believe that there is a place for objects like "Compass Table" in people's lives and everyday levels. And after experimenting
inside their house, they even tried to put it outside.
The object "GPS table" has a global positioning sensor inside it. It can only display its position in the world when it has a
clear view of the satellites, the rest of the time it is lost and indicates this fact. Dick, Lorna & lizzie are the adaptors of
"GPS Table." It resides in their garden. Its utility is limited because it only works outside.
The object "Phone table" is an attempt to domesticate the mobile telephone, whose synthetic and urgent ring can be difficult to
bear. On returning home, the phone is placed inside the table with its ringer switched off. Whenever the phone is called, the
top of the table glows gently. The table suggests how electronic objects can use a more gentle language to capture our attention
or meditate human contact. When it does glow, it is much easier to resist than a ringing phone. The phone table can be positioned
behind the TV if a call is expected, or out of sight if you would prefer not to be disturbed. The user "Tracey" put this table
where she spends her most time. This "Phone table" changes the way Tracy reacts to stimuli. She is used to being alerted by her
phone's ring, but now she uses a different sense to see if someone is calling her. And she like the fact that the object was
disguising the function of the phone, making it more aesthetic and more soothing. She considered "Phone table" as a piece of
furniture integrating it into her daily home life. In this Placebo Project, every user found their own usage, their own place
to put and saw the different definitions about the objects. I want to have my objects function in a similar wayplacing themselves
and their utility in the service of daily home life. Additionally, they will also change the way people normally react to different
objects in their everyday lives.
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5.2. Michael Anastassiades.
He is an industrial designer whose experimental work challenges our perception of furniture and electronic products. He interested in
the behavior of things and the psychological relationship between a user and an object. His fascinating work focuses on engagement and
emotion to propose new possibilities in design. His household furniture and utensils create a new experience for the user. Using a
minimal language with emphasis on idea rather than appearance, he personalizes and brings to life everyday utilitarian objects, giving
them an identity and vitality they might otherwise not possess. Experiencing his objects can involve experiencing movement, talking,
and fun. I also want to incorporate a psychology into my project creating through the challenging and manipulation of sensation, an
emotional experience and, over time, an attachment..
5.2.1. Weeds, Aliens and other "Stories" Psychological garden furniture for urban dweller.
It is a collaborative project of Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby and Anastassiades. This project achieves an environmental
complexity and a relationship with 'the garden' that is somewhat inconceivable outside an English context people often talk to
their gardens. In general and prior to this project Anastassiades designed chairs to make lovers and /or neighbors talk to each
other, little houses in parks not to feed the birds but to record the voices of nature and convey them indoors. Here, he worked
on the quintessentially English conversation between people and plants. He proposed and made tools that were supposed to actually
communicate to plants (like the idea that plants grow better when exposed to some forms of music), although it was never determined
if the plants heard them or not. The objects from the project deal with a unique everyday life in England. Can I create a series
of designed objects that can adapt to and satisfy particular emotional needs?
"Weeds, Aliens and other Stories" is about objects, about their role in our life, and about the relations they stimulate. In
this gallery exhibition garden furniture was shown that actually influenced userıs behavior. The reason they chose the garden
theme is Dunne and Raby don't have a garden and Anastassiades has a terrace with no plants at all. They could create something
new without the influence of the old upon them. But they had to start somewhere, so they chose a book called Garden to Kitchen,
which was published in the thirties. The first part of their projects was all about helping the garden, nurturing it, and then
it was all about eating it-the language was very brutal about using the garden. It emphasized that the garden is a strange place.
The designer's furniture is not just functional or pretty, but injects important new ideas into the conservative English garden.
On an intellectual level users find different meanings for each object, but on a different level they just want to have them
in their living room. The designers create object that work on both levels. I aspire to have my objects find a similar niche.
The must-haves of the collection are the rustling branch and the horn, and plenty of visitors to the exhibition have been asking
where they can get hold of similar pieces. The "Rustling Branch" is an alternative to the vase, where sounds replace appearances.
It also requires regular maintenance. It's a fresh branch attached to a device, which makes it rustle every 30 to 40 seconds,
to bring the sound of the trees in the wind into the house. Made from trees with trees as its subject, Rustling Branch possesses
the same kind of irrefutable logic as Openheim's cup. It is a tree for indoors, its trunk a shelf, its sap or juice a motor and
leaves that are perpetually renewable. As important to me as the power of the idea that produced it is the fact that, like its
companion objects, it is well made and beautiful. Rustling Branch consists of the bough of a tree ( any tree you chose ) extending
from a hole in a small oak box attached to the underside of a 1m-long oak shelf which is hung on the wall with invisible fixings.
Every 40 seconds the small, silent motor in the box vibrates the bough and the leaves shake. The first time I laid eyes on thins
piece, the branch shivered as I started to turn away and I wasnıt sure what I'd seen. I turned back and (oh joy) the branch
shivered again.
'The "Cricket box" is a portable wooden drawer with a digital recorder and player - collects the sounds of the garden, like an
entomologist's specimen box or a traditional Chinese cricket cage, reintroducing them as a lulluby for a sleepy baby, for instance,
or chamber music for a midnight meal.'(5)
The ³Cucumber Table² is a device for containing, growing, straightening and displaying cucumbers. The choice of oak relates to
the Englishness of the project, encompassing as it does gardening, cucumber sandwiches, crickets and all that. It can grow
cucumbers in the backyard and later you can make a cucumber sandwich on it in the kitchen. In fact, "Weeds, Aliens and Other
Stories" embraces contradictions: absolutely necessary objects for some, unusable for others; we will use the furniture even when
it is not cricket season, or when in winter there will not be any plants to speak to. We will accept them even when they grow
old; we will be happy to sacrifice a cucumber we grew with such care to make a sandwich; and we will not cry when, after its cycle,
our chair will lose its leaves and die. Finally, we will even accept something that seems absolutely distant from the glossy the
end of the period industrial objects that surround us: decay, an essential element of life.
'Weeds, Aliens and Other Stories is about objects, about their role in our life and about relations they stimulate. 'There are
no gadgets among them. But after seeing the collection you cannot imagine surviving without a Garden Horn to speak to your plants
or a Cricket Box to bring the sound the sound of distant crickets into your home. Compared to the many visions of the future
that we have seen, the objects from Weeds are really dealing with lifethe life of the objects themselves, the life that they
collect, and the life that we can imagine around them. "But most of all, we will finally prefer these products to glossy, fin
de siecle industrial objects because they also embrace decay, 'an essential element of life'. Weeds, Aliens and Other Stories
prompts us to look outward in an open-ended reflection upon, in this case, the natural world and our place in it. Are these
objects 'art' then? Anastassiades, Dunne and Raby insist they are design. For one thing, unlike art reproductions, each copy of
one of their originals has inherent value as a reinforcement of the idea it represents. On the other hand, you can argue that
with these objects, as with art, it is the fact of their existence that counts, rather than the result of their use. In the end,
of course, it is their hybrid nature that makes them so appealing.'"(6)
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5.2.2. Message cup
"message cup" is a portable, mobile voice recording and playback device used for the exchange of messages within the domestic
environment Individuals have their own cup in which other people of the house leave them their messages. The cups that speak
when the user turn them over. The cups that you talk into to leave a message for someone else who lives in the house. His wooden
beakers contain a recording and playback device for the exchange of messages within the domestic environment. A talking Cup looks
like a simple wooden beaker with a brightly laminated inside, but thanks to a hidden microchip is able to take a short message
when you speak into it. Leave it face down on a table, and the next person to come into the room can pick it up and hear your
voice. Loving Cup: Whether it's whispered sweet nothings or tenderly spoken smut, this cup runneth over. It's an expressive,
almost human object. A domestic droid that needs to be handled with care, like a small animal, and brought up to the lips. This
highly personal activity should always take place behind closed doors. Whisper a message, secret or confession, turn over the
wooden goblet and place it back down. The message will be there, recorded by a minuscule machine, to be replayed only when the
cup is once again turned over. Although it may hark back to those little cardboard cylinders that used to produce a delicate 'moo'
or 'baah', perhaps intended to awaken within us some love for the animal kingdom, a sexier, more adult based usage should be
encouraged. Communicate those affectionate thoughts, sweet nothings or tenderly spoken smut; blare out uncensored curses, ultimate
challenges or even that last testament. However, choose with extreme care where the goblet is placed so only the right person
retrieves it. One shudders to think of it terrorizing the cleaning woman (or cleaning man for the most PC of us). Then again,
it could simply be left for an eternity, holding dormant words that nobody would dream of hearing. (7)
"Message Cups are not inanimate functional containers but interactive mechanisms which transcend their everyday purpose, act as
vessels of communication which unleash possibilities of exchange, and begin to reflect social conditions such as the breakdown of
communication in the domestic environment. Rather, this object can be looked at as messengers of social interaction that explore
codes of domestic behavior."(7) Again, this inspired me to use an everyday object for a new design purpose.
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5.2.3. Anti-social light / Social light.
In anti-social light/social light, he has created objects that respond directly to people's behavior-not just to their commands
to print, send, or delete. A pair of his lamps takes this very personally, acting as differently as two opposite types of people.
The Social Light lights up only when there is talk going on nearby. The Anti-Social Light turns on only when there is silence,
functioning like a reading lamp. This ceiling light will glow only when there is complete silence No conversation can occur around
it Noise will cause the light source to dim down and eventually switch off. It's about boundaries, It is very much to do with
respect for what the object needs and what it demands, or it won't respond the way people want it to. In an abstract way, it is
almost like a companion that behaves a certain way in the house.
Though his pieces are finely made and often strictly beautiful, Anastassiades is not creating objects so much as experiences. 'The
objects are really dealing with life,' says Marco Susani, former director of Milan's Domus Academy Research Center, 'the life of
the objects themselves, the life that they collect, and the life that we can easily imagine around them.' Though Anastassiades's
lamps are not yet in production, Susani deems them and other responsive objects "absolutely necessary. Once we discover the new,
deeper dimension they can bring into the domestic environment, we'll miss them-we'll wait for them to be available." (8)
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5.3. Noam Toran.
Noam Toran comes from the Royal College of Art in London, where they obtained a MA in Product Design. He thinks also that an interaction
designer is not only designing an object or service with a certain function, but also, the way people will behave in relationship with
it. He believes it is important for interaction designer to find ways to explore the design of not only the product, but its place in
our world of values and social behavior. Subliminal Furniture imagines an extreme world where subliminal persuasion invades the home
and the designer invite people to speculate on the way such technologies might change people's behavior. His works provokes people to
question the way people's relationship with technology shapes the way people act. He has been developed a range of furniture
incorporating the message. He designs for products which will help people interact with technology in and around homes of the future.
5.3.1. Accessories for Lonely Men.
It consists of a collection of eight products designed to provide some of the incidental pleasures of shared existence for those
who live alone. The idea for theses products arose when the designer began to wonder whether we missed an individual or the
generic traces they leave. During the night, the Sheet Stealer winds the bedclothes up into a tube attached to the side of the
bed. Once woken by the cold, the sleeper can pull the sheet out again and reclaim it for himself. In another piece, a cut-out
female silhouette is placed in front of a light to throw a shadow. The lamp even has a small drawer to store the silhouette in.
Other objects are devised with more intimate moments in mind: once placed on the user's body, the steel finger of the Chest Hair
Curler starts to rotate gently, playing with his chest hair, while Shared Cigarette comes into its own after a solitary sex act.
This device has two holes, one for cigarette, and the other for exhaling smoke. The rapid-fire Plate Thrower, on the other hand,
is to be used in moments of high passion. The collection also includes a pair of cold feet like objects to place at the bottom
end of the bed, an alarm clock that wakes you up by flicking a strand of hair across your face, and a device that expels breath-
like bursts of warm air, to be placed on the pillow.
These objects are clearly not intended for production, but are designed to provide mental pleasure and stimulate reflection. They
are products for the mind. Their generic form raises issues about the use of form in conceptual design. If they are too realistic
that is, if they look as if they really should be used objects like these can quickly become ridiculous. Their abstract form
signals that they are intends to be used in the imagination.(11)
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6. Methodology.
Already, I have created numerous sketches of what my final project will look like: idea flow charts, diagrams, project flow charts, idea
schematics, etc.. In my physical computing class, I have tested some different ways to interact with the device using various sensors
there remains more testing yet to be done. Recently, I moved from the idea of having one device to having several ones in the form of
four fruits. I plan to have four inputs and four outputs in these four fruits. Each fruit will have one input and one output. I will
finish my prototype in the following order. First, the Apple. I will use the accelerometer sensor (gesture) as an input and the speech
narrator as an output. Second, the Banana. I will use the temperature sensor (touch) as an input and the LCD as an output sensor. Third,
the Lemon. I will use a pressure sensor as the input and a Glade Plug-Ins (Smell) as the output. Fourth, the Persimmon. I will use a
touch sensor as the input and a pager motor as the output. I have already tested two input sensors (accelerometer and temperature) and
two output sensors (narrator speech processor, and LCD).
The Apple has an accelerometer sensor (part # adxl202), which can be attached inside the apple and activated by gestural movement. Depending
on how the user moves the apple, the sensor can read this gesture by an X, Y angle and make a different frequency. It also has a narrator
speech processor (SPO 256) for speaking output. With this voice synthesis chip (SPO 256), I can create words by concatenating "allophones,"
or phonemes. Phonemes are sounds that, when joined in specific combinations, form specific words. I experimented by having an object
"talk" in response to the sensors. The sound is again output sent through a small speaker. This chip spoke simple phrases like, "I feel
sick," "Move gently," or "it swings!" Interestingly, some sounds came out better than the others. For example, when I wanted to say "puke,"
It came out "pier~rk." It was not possible to understand it. Therefore some phrases had to be changed to produce clear sounds. To illustrate:
a first user approaches the apple and moves it - 45 degree in Y angle, the apple says, "I feel great!" A second user approaches the apple
and moves it 5 degree in Y angle. And the apple says, "How do you do?" The third user approaches the apple and moves it 30 degree Y angle,
and the apple says, "See you next time." After experiencing several different user input behaviors, the apple can learn the phrase and
adapt the user's behavior. Even if the other user does the same movement like previous user, the apple can pull out different phrase as an
output. This apple can say around 800 phrases.
The first prototype I will complete will be the apple. I will employ a " neural network" and "fuzzy logic (9)" which allow, over time, the
apple to learn each person and how they play. "Fuzzy logic is a linguistic variable, that is, a variable whose values are words rather
than numbers. For example, if age is treated as a linguistic variable, its values might be young, old, middle aged, very young, not very
old, and so on, with each value interpreted as a label of a fuzzy set. This concept of a linguistic variable serves as a basis for
computing with words (10)" For example, when the first user approach the apple and move it left twice and right twice, the apple will say
"hello." The second user will approach the apple and move it left three times and move it right three time. And apple will say, "How are
you?" After several experiences, the computer (Apple) will learn the phrase and adapt the behavior of the user so after even if another
user does the same movement, the computer can pull out different phrase as an output.
After finishing the apple, I will finish the other fruits in this order: banana, lemon, and persimmon. The Banana will have a temperature
sensor (LM34) as the input. And also it will have a LCD for visual output. Because of the size of LCD, I am limited to a maximum of 16
letters including the spaces between letters. Results broadcast on the LCD will vary according to the temperature input. For a final
product, I will use an LCD with more than 16 characters. My next steps will include new research and testing for the Lemon, which will
have a pressure sensor and the Glad Plug-in output. When someone squeezes the lemon, this pressure sensor will used as a switch on/off
and different smells. I found out that any scented oil would work with something called "Glade Plug-Ins Scented Oils". I bought one,
took it apart and found out that it heats a small, glass vial filled with oil. You can empty the glass vial and replace one sc ented oil
with any other scented oil, so the output of smells only depends on the number of available smells in New York City. The Persimmon will
have a touch sensor and a vibrating pager motor. Using conductive foam, based on how hard the user squeezes it, the Persimmon will vibrate
differently. This is the last fruit that I intend to make and it still requires a lot of research. I'm investigating a fifth fruit for
taste. Because of my technological limit insufficient research, I didn't decide yet to make it or not.
With this first prototype, the apple, I can develop a comprehensive budget. Then, I will develop a sample audience based on an evaluation
of my target audience. My sample audience will be twelve people, who are between 25 and 35 years old, who work everyday with the regular
routine, and are not overly exposed to technology. They will test the device in some everyday domestic situations: 1. A cappuccino break,
2. Reading the paper, 3. Doing laundry, 4.Baking cookies for a loved one, 5 Taking a bath, 6. Brushing one's teeth, 7. Going to the
bathroom, 8. Vacuuming, 9. Typing a letter on the computer, 10. Changing the TV channel automatically, and 11. Smoking.(11) And I
will prepare several specific questions such as: 1. How do you describe this object? 2. Has it made you think about the object in a
different way? 3.What do you think is this object's use? 4. Did you show the object to other people? What were their reactions?
5. What's the most unexpected interaction you experienced? 6.Did you give a technological explanation at all? 7. When and where did
you mostly use this object? 8.What kind of people do you think might like an object like this? 9. If I were going to make another one of
these objects, what changes would you make? How would you redesign it? (11). After gathering this data, I will be ready to build my final
product.
I plan to test three people per fruit. My first user testing will start January 26. Each user will test it around one week. It will
finish on March.10.I already contact six people to test it and they were agreed it. Every three weeks after I start to user testing, I will
reanalyze the relationship of user and objects and update the prototype. It seems reasonable to me that twelve people to do the user
testing is enough, although I am not surewith limited time I anticipate this is the full extent of people I can analyze.
I foresee these problems: money, limited programming knowledge, and limited product design skill. I am currently learning different
programming languages such as Pic programming, and I am building the sensors. Additionally, before I can finish the final product I must
learn more product designs skills such as modeling. I went to see 3D modeling class. It can be one interesting solution. I will audit
this class next semester. Still, I anticipate that I will need more knowledge about product design.
Last, I want to this project be 'tested out' on the public in a gallery, and if there is an interesting reaction and some company is
interested to produce it, it could be massproduced.
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7.Conclusion
I aim to explore how we live with and use products. I want to stimulate their curiosity and make them think about everyday life more
consciously, although my final piece will be very playful and not conceptually difficult. I want objects that respond to their environment
and create new experiences in a funny way. They can experiment with the object, find their own usage and place and be attached emotionally.
Finally I want them to adapt these objects to one part of their home lives for a long time and find a small but meaningful place for these
fruits. Using a language with emphasis on ideas rather than appearances (because my objects challenge people's preconceived notions about
appearances), they will personalize them and this may bring life to everyday utilitarian objects, giving them an identity and vitality they
might otherwise not possess. In this way, I have created my own version of an "emotional object."
8. Future directions
After my final presentation, I got the feed back such as:
1) Confuse about ultimate goal? Is your prototype a commercial product? Design experiment? Art work?
2) Who will use it and for what purpose?
3) How do you intent to categorize or do pattern recognition? (Look other objects like "oracle" or fortuneteller, they are popular objects.)
4) Is your goal to start thinking about the relation or sense?
5) Your project seems more for a younger audience, like a toy?
6) The aesthetic is lost in the voice, sensuality, how can they be? How is the project going to look?
7) Keyword "personality" your piece do not have a personality.
8) Simple things like an object saying "ouch" always, you can apply to a lot of circumstances
9) Define where are you going? Why are you doing this?
10) Why do you want to humanize an object? The personality come from the apple?
11) Why not to try another level, more than the human language, one that moves from being something attached to us, he gave the example of
a pet.
12) Today we are annoying of products talking to us, feel aggravated?
I need to reconsider these fully, as there has not been enough time to do that yet, and I will revise based on these observations.
And I need to do the research more about the connection between memory and senses such as "memory of sensory data attached of emotion."
And I have to contact more to the companies that specialize for smell and taste. So I can have technical information of the smell and taste
output. What kinds of smell can I have instead of plug- in smell and how many can I use it and what is the possibility of the distance?
How can I make the taste as output? What is the technical difficulty and what kinds of taste output I can use? In January, First I will finish apple and banana, so the end of the January, with selected user, I will be able to start the user testing with my questions for the survey. And analyze previous user and find more possible and suitable user. In February, I will finish the lemon and pair and I will update the prototype of apple and banana in based on the user's feedback. I am not sure what kind of design can fit the purpose of my project. This project must look like real apple or nicely designed or look enough to recognize it or can be noticeable but quite abstract form. Also I'm not sure about the size of fruits. I want to hand- held portable size. But I do not know whether it would be real size or it would be resized in relation with the other fruits in balance. This decision will be made after my research and user-testing results. For that, I will do more research about the product design. And the middle of the February, I can start the user testing for lemon and pair. In the beginning of March, I will finish all prototypes (if I don't one more prototype for taste), and start to built my final design product. If I have some time left, I want to build same series with more interaction each other. Because my first series are focused one man interaction (user object), for second series, I would like to focus more interaction (user object, object object) For example, When two objects meet, like two apple can talk each other and two banana can change their scripts each other. Also my first series object can interact with only one user and mainly tested in home bases, but my second series will interact between objects and mainly used for outside use. Therefore user can bring outside and meet the other, who has a same fruit, and interact each other.
9.bliography
9.1 Material resource (Physical computing)
www.microchip.com (100 different version pic chip)
www.basicmicro.com (Mbasic Manuel)
www.parallaxinc.com
www.flexprint.com (Flex sensor)
www.future-electronics.com
www.allelectronics.com
www.imagesco.com (Expensive but effective)
www.rfidjournal.com
www.phanderson.com( motor information)
www.robotic.co.uk
www.digikey.com
www.jeichicago.com
www.jdr.com
9.2 Work cited
(1) Toshio Iwai, "sound-lens (Photon)," PS1, NY, 2001
(2) Richard E. Cytowic, 'The Man Who Tasted shapes,' published by The MITPress// Herbert Simon, 'The science of the artificial,'
published by The MITPress
(3) Anthony Dunne, 'Hertizian tales,' Published by RCA CRD research publications
(4) Anthony Dunne & William Gaver with gen Hooker, Shona Kitchen & Brendan Walker, 'The Presence project,' Published by RCA CRD research.
(5) William L. Hamilton, 'The New York TimesThursday 28 December 2000,' 'The International Herald Tribune_Paris_Tuesday 9 January 2001,'
'Kathimerini_Athens_Sunday 14 January 2001.'
(6) Doris Lockhart Saatchi, 'Weeds Aliens and Other Stories', published by Salvo
(7) www.dialm.demon.co.uk
(8) Jill Herbers, 'Metropolis Architecture Design_December 2001'
(9) John Iovine, 'PIC microcontroller project book,' Published by McGraw - Hill
(10) Peter Coveney and Roger Highfield, 'Frontiers of complexity,' published by Ballantine Books
(11) Design Noir Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby, 'The secret life of electronic objects,' Published by August / Birkhauser Glossary
- Fuzzy logic: a superset of conventional (Boolean) logic that has been extended to handle the concept of partial truth values between
"completely true" and "completely false." Dr. Lotfi Zadeh of UC/Berkeley introduced it in the 1960's as a means to model the uncertainty
of natural language. - Artificial Neural Network (ANN): an information-processing paradigm inspired by the way the densely interconnected,
parallel structure of the mammalian brain processes information. Artificial neural networks are collections of mathematical models that
emulate some of the observed properties of biological nervous systems and draw on the analogies of adaptive biological learning.