PComp_01_What’s_Interaction?

By jhclaura in Blog, PComp_Physical Computing 0 Comment

In the first week of PComp reading, 1) Crawford’s “The Art of Interactive Design” ch01, ch02, 2) Bret Victor’s “A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design”, I’m gonna post about the question assigned from Tom, some random thoughts through the reading,  and some inspiring words. Let’s begin!

Answers to the questions(duh)

After this class’ discussion and exercise, and reading Chris Crawford’s definition and Bret Victor’s rant, how would you define physical interaction? What makes for good physical interaction? Are there works from others that you would say are good examples of digital technology that are not interactive?

  • Unlike general interactions(such as conversations etc.), the physical interaction involves materials, such as devices, chemicals, and living things. It’s a back and forth dialogue, and in the end it leaves impacts on the participants.
  • Good physical interaction won’t make its participants wander off. Participants interact with their most intuitive parts, and the experience won’t be diluted through the whole process by meaningless designs of the physical interaction.
  • The non-interactive digital technologies I can think of so far are 3D movies, tv, videogames, …, since the result of them are all set up and cannot be changed despite the different input contributed by different users.

 

Random thoughts–

  • In the first class of PComp, I found that professor Tom emphasizes “feedback” a lot, much more than others, during the class and within the words of the syllabus. And when I read through the first few sentences of “The Art of Interactive Design”, I suddenly realized that’s because feedback makes good interaction, and that’s the key to PComp. In PComp, we learn how to transform one element into another element with electronics as media, and at the same time, we are media too! We transform others’ thoughts into our thoughts, and we let other know ours. Along the loop of communication, amazing ideas bump out, just like what good interactive technology does.
  • Satisfying, joy, determine the level of interaction. → Good interactive device make users hard to stop using it.
  • I found myself match perfectly and miserably with the awful/disappointing listener/thinker/speaker described in “The Art of Interactive Design”! OMG I feel so sorry… That’s not my intention! Dear friends please keep talking to me, and I’ll learn the experience and improve just like what those hi-tech hard/softwares do.
  • Seeing “…Dancing alone to the music is not interaction; it is participation.” makes me wonder how cool will it be if dancers can interact with music, which means music will be affected by dancers’ moves as well! But questions are: besides the basic movement recognition, how to detect dancers’ emotions and how music responds? It’d be really interesting!
  • If movies can be interactive, it might turn out to be boring? Because audiences love unexpected stories. And not everyone can be a witty screenwriter.
  • My example of interactivity: Living. Characters: Human, Environment. Process: Human’s behavior build environment; environment affects human. It’s a loop.
  • Regarding the video “Vision Of The Future”, if people in the future rely heavily on the control panel which handles everything nicely for you, wouldn’t it deteriorate human’s intelligence/capability as well? But I still love one of its device, the transparent refrigerator. It’s fancy yet at the same time meaningful/eco-friendly, and it’s a small design to easily avoid cold air leaking.

 

Inspiring lines–

*Interaction: a cyclic process in which two actors alternately listen, think, and speak.
*Once words have been written down, they are scattered everywhere.
*Interactivity designer regards the thinking content of software as its function, and the user interface regards as its form.
*Interactivity design people are younger, less technical, and stronger in the arts/humanities.
*I’m not saying that we should eschew graphics, sound, or video; I’m saying that we shouldn’t make these factors the selling points of our work.
*A tool converts what we can do into what we want to do
*Pictures Under Glass sacrifice all the tactile richness of working with our hands, offering instead a hokey visual facade.
*With an entire body at your command, do you seriously think the Future Of Interaction should be a single finger?

PComp_01_FantasyDevice

By jhclaura in Blog, PComp_Physical Computing 0 Comment
Food_Replicator_As_Whole

Food_Replicator_As_Whole

Magic Ball w/ "Go" button.

Magic Ball w/ “Go” button.

In the first class of Introducing Physical Computation of Tom Igoe, for our first assignment– “fantasy devices”, Aaron and I came out of the idea of a food replicator!

HOW

  • At first, let’s skip the process of food come out from nowhere!
  • It’s a fabricate kit. With 12 expandable sticks as frames, and 8 magic balls as joints, users can put the food replicator easily into a sack, and assemble it freely into the size they want.
  • After setting up, users can use smartphone to order food products from the on-line catalog. Choose items, put in the cart, and pay the bill.
  • Once finishing the on-line order, users push the “GO” button to execute the processing. Food will suspend until users touch/grab it.
  • Beside “output” food, users can “input” too! By putting food(granny’s jam etc.) inside of the food replicator, items can be easily uploaded and preserved to the on-line catalog(but watch up the expiration date!).

DETAILS

  • 8 balls are responsible for all of the technology.
  • The control interface is simple with a “Go” button on the surface of the ball. Users push the button both to get and upload food.
  • Although only one item can be uploaded a time, multiple items can be replicated since, quote Aaron “…, the replicator will optimize the cube space to materialize as many of the items from the “cart” as is possible.”

DIFFICULTIES

  • How to define “food”? Since we don’t want to make this involve with controversial stuff like money, drugs, etc., we limit the output to be just food. Although we can find the definition of food on wiki–

“Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ingested by anorganism and assimilated by the organism’s cells in an effort to produce energy, maintain life, or stimulate growth.”  

  • … still, it’s hard to execute.

 

Last holiday before school starts.

By jhclaura in Blog, Fall 2013 0 Comment

After being in crowd awkwardly several times, trying to mingle, shouting into people’s ears to introduce yourself, and strolling/lost in the city beneath the sun without an umbrella, things are finally going to settle down.

Love NYC from the deepest secret place of my heart. Its chaos, its randomness, and its spontaneity. With the principle I stick to, I anticipate to be bumped and clashed and spun to transform myself into something total me but at the same time completely not me.

The new landlord seems quite nice. After two weeks of Peter Cooper Village, I’ll be out of my comfort zone again, start from Sep. 1st. Sweet…