Press Release

Visual diffusion works by manipulating a visualization app which changes light intensity levels from an iPhone depending on patterns created by the user. Once the phone is placed on the platform it works with a series of LDR’s which captures the light from the phone to create a visual display to aid enjoyment when listening/creating music. Through the use of existing technology we were able to create a program to allow us to do this.

The program within the product takes the patterns created by the user in and projects it through a diffused surface, allowing for more than just a sound to appreciate. This device can be incorporated into speaker and dj systems for an overall simpler experience.

The aim of this is to encourage creativity and to demonstrate individual’s own creativity.

A further aim of this product is targeted at young children, in the hope that they take a deeper interest into music and technology.

With new and more sophisticated technology being developed to be a part of every day life it is important to prepare younger children with a level of understanding.  With this product we feel that it is a step in the right direction into doing this.

Tag Line

Visual diffusion takes light outputs from an ipod application. Diffusing a pattern on its screen which varies depending on the inputed pattern the user creates.

Finish

Through the last few weeks there has been strenuous work on the development of the product. Thankfully i can say that it is finished, as can be seen in the images below.

We will be releasing a press release for the product shortly.

Any queries just comment.

Product Images

Update

There has been major difficulties with getting the correct light variables on our project. It seems to vary depending which studio we work in.
Any suggestions on how to get round this ???

cheers

light enhancement mechanism

As our final product is designed to be a light enhancing tool, we are enhancing really simple light inputs from an iphone app called 'melodica'

It's a very simple, playful, and quite fun app, that consists of the user inputing a pattern on the screen, as shown in the image.

Melodica ipod app

The app then repeats the pattern back to you over and over again. The beauty of the app is its simplicity and adaptability, as you can adapt your pattern or just start over.

The ipod will then be sat on an LDR panel. The light enhancement varies depending on which LDRs pick up light outputs as there will be lots of LDRs on the panel.

It's all work in progress, and we are just trying to develop our programming skills using a PICAXE 18m2 chip.

Feel free to give feedback and comment on the project so far.

Manufacture of Body

To create the curved shape of the body front, i am deliberating on making a wooden frame to mould a plastic strip over.

Is this necessary? Or would i be wasting time on the development project that could be spent else where?

light enhancement

With this project it was decided to create a light enhancing device. Going away from the idea of making up a light up table it was decided to make an abstract shape and of which to represent our concept. Through using a variety of techniques including sand blasting and vacuum forming we developed a shape which me and grant felt would be interesting. sadly after a combined review the overall out come was not as first hoped, but the techniques used would be valuable in making our next idea.

Chosen Idea

After discussing the options for ideas to design, we decided to develop the light table, but instead of making it a table we decided to make it into a cube.

With this idea we intend to make it have a variety of different functions, for example:

when a phone is placed down on the top surface and they receive a text a ripple of light comes up from the base of the cube to the central top surface for the cube where the phone is face down.

Another function we would like to develop is a system where the cube registers the colours/sounds being produced from the phone and produces pulses from the centre in a number of different styles.

If you have any questions or suggestions on the design please let us know.

Cheers.

20 ideas

With our 200 ideas complete we have narrowed them down to our favourite 20.

With our 20 ideas we chose our favourite 5 ideas without our partner knowing, then compared them. We then had 3 ideas we both chose. They were the Light up table, Speak over the speaker, and the Record chair.

Light Table - Pulses colour across its surface, which is affected by light across the whole light spectrum, including light from many electronic devices.

Record chair - Inspired by record players/LP's ,  sliding a chair on the floor  usually makes a horrible screaching noise. Here the legs act as the pin on the record player, and the floor acts as an LP, so move the chair around to create a unique sound/tune.

Speak over the Speaker - Just as the name suggests, if you are wanting to have a conversation, just talk and it senses when you are talking and lowers the volume so that you don't need to shout. It can detect singing so that you don't end up singing in silence!

200 Idea's

Between Adam and I, we came up with 200 ideas, which were all based on a musical/light interactive insight. 

We came up with what we thought was a fantastic idea. The Memory storage lighting table; as objects are placed on the surface, them removed, this reveals an array of colours/patterns where the object had made contact.

Much to our disappointment, when browsing through some designers we came across Bill Gaver and his 'History tablecloth' which has the same principle to our memory table concept. Seeing this we decided against developing the idea as they were too alike.

The memory bag

This is a short video to describe one of our ideas, bearing in mind we have not actually made it.

200 Ideas in 4 weeks

This is one of our current ideas relating to interaction design. 

The Memory bag

The idea of this bag is to prevent you forgetting to take items with you to your university or work etc. There will be a simple program which you input into the bags internal memory of what you take with you on a weekly basis. It remembers this and the weights of the items. If there is an irregular weight then the bag will alert you. By knowing the weight of each item you should have, it will tell you what you have forgotten. 

This has room for development, in terms of using instead of weights to memorise weights.

More Designs to come...

Feedback would be appreciated

opening blog

This is our first blog and we thought it would be best to begin on what it is we are trying to achieve in our latest project...

Our aims are to :

• explore interaction design through design practice
• experience the design of embedded interactions
• design embedded interactions for people
• to provide practical experience of design evaluating through practice, process and theory
• to encourage others to understand interaction design

Having such a broad spectrum for design one of our methods for designing, in this case, would be to hack into other existing items and finding weaknesses or gaps in their design and finding room for improvement. such as our previous project with radios, where we took the initial idea and redesigned it to make it more accessible for the user.

We will continue to update our blog as our project progresses.