Final Project- Design discussion

So, discussion in our group has been really interesting.  When we presented no one really seemed to understand what we ultimately wanted to make, which was completely understandable as we didn't really give anything that specific in our presentation.  However, we do have a very defined objective.  We started our thought process by defining how we wanted to work together, what we each wanted to achieve, what our group values were for this project, and what we were each interested in contributing and learning from this final task.

I've never worked in a group where we so thoroughly discussed our position, our objectives, our purpose, our "How? Why? Who? What?" questions. But I have to say I really appreciate this expression of purpose. As we work this way, by re-checking that we are indeed keeping in harmony with the personal variables we expressed, we ensure that we're moving in a direction that allows each of us to individually be excited about the project. 

Now I'll come back to the actual idea. We each presented what we were interested in, talking about different types of solar panels, emulating radical energy production research, and creating a purely hedonistic experience with the aid of technology.

When we hit on the hedonism idea, everyone got really excited, talking about ways we could create something that makes you happy.  The direction the discussion was taking, I was genuinely worried that the happy factor was the only factor. Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with making people happy.  I was worried that, seeing as this course satisfies my senior design requirement and as such I want it to be something worth talking to companies and graduate schools about. I felt a great deal of trepidation about moving rapidly in the direction of something that reads your feelings and responds, which, while very interesting, still made me feel like I was going to make a furby.

However, as we talked more, and narrowed down our specifcations for function, I felt less uncomfortable with our idea. We gravitated toward something that provides a positive emotional experience with technology oriented toward human service and, while not providing energy to the grid, self sustained through the sun's energy.

What we ultimately funneled our ideas down to were these three things:
A physically interactive surface
       -Marc envisioned a bus stop wall that envelops the individual waiting for the bus to provide warmth and protection from the weather.  Remaining stationary when the weather is nice, or there are no patrons waiting for the bus, and moving the shield people when there is wind or rain.
       -Lindsey talked a great deal about the hugging trees a presentor at the Future of Design conference spoke about, drawing as her idea a wall of "fingers" that would move toward people as they moved around the wall, reaching out, touching, or holding.

A single module capable of aggregating with other modules to interact and create a social experience
       -a unit that would move around an area, someone's yard or a park, collecting energy from sunlight, and interacting with people as it moves around

A wall composed of many small modules that interacts with the user- a combination of the wall and single module ideas
       -I pictured many small units creating a surface that individually are capable of minimal interaction with the user and each other, but as a surface of units have a high level of interaction and function.   I suppose I could use the example of a puzzle piece, each one has a small amount of information it can provide and limited interaction with the pieces around it, but when they are all assembled you have an entire image and a completely different function.

I suppose that's enough discussion for now, I'll post more of our work when I remember to bring my camera with me to the computer lab, I haven't had a laptop for the past two weeks due to a shorted motherboard.  It's easy to surmise that my computer access is limited to when I'm on campus and not in class or in meetings for Smartsurfaces and homework.

 Here are some neat things I saw online while looking for images for our presentation.

Touch Shield for Arduino

This this is really the most lovely thing I think I've ever seen. Liquidware Shop is where I found it and I think that looking through this site will be really useful in getting ideas as to what components we can be looking for for prototyping as well as final design component purchasing

I think this touch screen is something we could really utilize in our Modular Emotionally Responsive

One of my biggest focuses for this final project is being able to utilize solar cells/photovoltaic technologies in new ways by losing the traditional solar panel structure. 
Printed Solar Cells

 Printed Solar Cell Video- This is kind of hilarious, it vaguely describes how the cells are made and work