Mobile Phone Symbiosis: Sony Xperia UV Exposure Monitor: Self Assessment

I feel that this project was one of my most successful to date as, in our group, we created an innovative and useful concept that could one day become an everyday healthcare item.We discovered a gap in the market and made use of existing similar products as inspiration to create a much more advanced and usable next generation device.

I believe that the way I carried out my role in the project to be much more professional than in previous work as I carefully planned out each step that we had to take in order to develop our idea to the best of our ability. I took responsibility for combining our individual efforts and organizing them into a logical order for our final presentation. This included learning how to use photoshop in order to edit and colour sketches to create an aesthetically pleasing and easy to follow layout, for the best possible design communication. By doing so, I have developed my skills of using computers to enhance my design work and have learned valuable techniques that I will be able to implement in the future.

Again a Facebook group and chat was used in order to communicate to each member of the group from a distance as well as sending each other work for discussion and review. This was important as it ensured that every member was on the same page in regard to the direction of development and allowed us to keep track of what work had been done and what steps were to be taken next. After I created the final presentation, I was able to use this to send the work to Leon who then used it as a basis for the group blog. This allowed us to keep the style of our work consistent, something that is particularly important when marketing a product through the use of corporate branding.

The project could have been improved by creating a better prototype that would communicate our design intent more successfully. This however would have taken much longer and having only two weeks for the whole project, was not something that would have been possible this time around.

Mobile Phone Symbiosis: Sony Xperia UV Exposure Monitor

The aim of this project was to design a symbiotic "add-on" product for a smartphone in groups of four. The other members of my team were Aiden Dawson, Leon Pullin and Lawrence Halls.

We began by researching the term "symbiosis" and learned that it is a "close and often long-term interaction between two or more different biological species." Further reading revealed that there are in fact three main types common in nature; Parasitism, Commensalism and Mutualism.
A parasitic relationship is where one organism benefits to the detriment of the other. Commensalism is where only one benefits but the other remains unharmed. Finally, Mutualism is where both organisms benefit from the situation. From a designers perspective, a mutual relationship would be ideal for two products that are to work together and so later on during the design process, we focused on how this could be implemented.

We then each created a mindmap in order to help generate the possible directions we could take the project in. As the theme decided by our lecturer was to be Health and Fitness, some of the ideas we explored were a blood sugar monitor for sufferers of diabetes, a pregnancy/ fertility checker and a UV exposure monitor. After looking into existing products, it became apparent that there were not many aimed at helping people keep their skin safe from harmful UV rays, especially in an interactive and electronic form. Because of this, this was the direction we chose for development.

I then created a brief to help focus our thoughts which was to design and create a prototype mobile phone add-on that will help the user to stay safe whilst being exposed to the hot summer sun. The physical product should work in conjunction with a downloadable application in order to provide a useful and easy to use service.

Following the guidelines of the brief, I began to generate some concepts. As shown in the following sketches, I originally intended for the UV monitor to be attached to a phone case by a extendable wire. During use, the monitor would then be placed out in the sun, whilst the phone could remain in the users pocket. This would help prevent the device from being stolen or lost and would allow the user to use the phone as normal during use. A conversation with my lecturer then gave me the idea of adding a secondary mode where the monitor was not required to be removed and could remain mounted on the phone case for a "quick check" of the UV index. I then named the two modes "Active Mode" and "Quick-check Mode".

After developing the concept, I created some sketches of what the final product would look like. I used Adobe Photoshop to colour and shade them in order to give them a more professional appearance. These images were then used in a poster I created in order to advertise the product.

Digital Ecosystem: Self Assessment

As a whole, I feel that this project was very successful as we came up with a useful product that was not only original but also solved some common issues that arise on a typical student night out. At present there are no existing alternatives that make use of all the features that we developed and so there is a clear gap in the market. I think that sufficient funding and further development and testing would allow us to create and market an item that would be highly profitable.

As a group, we worked well as we shared out the different roles of a design team and then delivered work on time at every meeting. Using Facebook group chat, we were able to discuss ideas and keep track of each aspect of the project when we weren’t actually with each other. This also helped us to send work to each other and to Leon, who had the task of uploading our content to the shared blog.

The aspects of the project that I believe I performed well in are the concept generation and development and design communication. My use of clear annotated sketches as well as my storyboard and explanation would allow a client to easily understand the features of the product as well as its need and use in the given scenario. I was particularly impressed by how well I managed to direct and film the video as well as how smoothly it went, after assuming it would take a long time and would require several takes and video editing. By explaining my stage directions to the group, I not only made sure that they knew exactly what to do in each scene, but I also developed my team leading skills as I was required to take responsibility of the group and the completion of the video.

I could improve on the professionalism of my work by ensuring that the layout is neat and tidy and is easy to understand without an in depth explanation. This can be achieved by planning ahead and documenting every stage of the project in a logical order. This will be particularly useful during the presentation of my work. I could also improve on my presentation skills such as speaking aloud to a large group of people, making sure that the audience is engaged by not reading off of a screen. It is also important that I don’t repeat any information that I or any other group member has already stated.



Digital Eco System: Clubuddy

The aim of this project was to design a product that would make use of ambient intelligence/ ubiquitous computing to provide a gateway between a user and the digital world in order to aid them in a part of their everyday life. Working in a group of four, with fellow students David Mclaughlin, Leon Pullin and Andrew Taylor, I started by researching some common activities where the user experience could be improved.

Mind Map

 I created a mind map to help generate ideas of scenarios that a user could be in and how a product could be implemented to help solve any problems that could arise. After having a group discussion, drawing from our own student experience so far, we decided to choose a nightclub/ bar scenario to design our product for. Discussion revealed many problems that can occur during a typical student night out in a busy town or particular elements that we found annoying.

Persona

After having a rough idea of the problems we were aiming to solve, we created a persona to allow us to relate to the user and feel empathy in order to focus our thoughts.

Adam Smith is 19 year old student, currently in his 2^nd year of studying Business Management. He is often left with plenty of free time due to his course not requiring many study hours and so he and his flatmates attend sports socials and music events on average 4 times a week. Despite having a strict budget, he finds himself struggling to adhere to it due to the sometimes large amounts of money he spends on a night out. To help with this, he has a job at Urban Outfitters.

During his first year, Adam ran into trouble with a mugger on his way home from a nightclub. After having his phone stolen, he has become very conscious of his safety during and on the way home from a night out. Because of this, he has been looking for a product that could help keep him safer on a night out as well as making it easier to stick to his budget.

Brief

Using the persona as a starting point, we then created a brief. Our brief was to design a product that would help a young adult to enjoy a night out as much as possible whilst keeping safe and not spending too much money. The product should have an active role during all times of the activity whilst remaining unobtrusive.

Concept Generation and Development

I then came up with some initial ideas and used annotated sketches to explain my concepts. I decided that a wristband would be a good method of implementation as it would be easy for a user to wear and would not intrude on their experience whilst they are not interacting with the device.

Another group discussion allowed us to expand on our initial ideas and we decided that a combination of features we came up with independently would best suit our scenario. Combining my wristband concept with David’s key fob idea resulted in a hybrid that could become either depending on the situation. During the day when the user didn’t require the device, it could be clipped onto a key ring and left in a bag or pocket. When the user then went out on a night, the device could be unclipped and wrapped around the wrist.

Here are some more sketches that I did to develop the idea. I focused on the way that the strap could be manufactured/ assembled as well as the aesthetics of the product.

Storyboard

In order to cover all aspects of the user’s nightclub experience and ensure we solved them all effectively, I made rough notes on the series of events that may take place on a typical night out whilst using our product. This helped me to consider every point during the night where the product could benefit the user.

Using the notes as a guide, I then created a storyboard that would demonstrate how the product would be used during the user’s experience in order to communicate the features of the device and design intent.

1.    Adam unclips the device from his key ring which has been in his bag all day and attaches it to his wrist prior to leaving the house for a night out with his friend.

2.    He waits in the queue to a nightclub.

3.    The doorman asks for personal identification to check that Adam is over 18. Adam holds out his wristband, which contains his personal details, and the doorman scans it.

4.    After confirming he is of the legal age, the doorman takes a wireless payment from the wristband for entry to the club.

5.    Adam walks over to the bar and scans his wristband on a touch screen interface to allow him to choose and purchase drinks. Again, contactless payment is implemented to speed up the process of ordering drinks. The barman then prepares the drinks once the payment has been made.

6.    Adam and his friend then collect their drinks from the bar.

7.    After a trip to the toilet, Adam can’t find his friend anywhere in the dark nightclub.

8.    Adam then uses the “Find Friends” feature on his wristband. The wristband then begins to vibrate more and more, the closer he gets to his friend.

9.    Adam then spots his friend and turns off the “Find Friends” feature.

10.  Adam sees that he has a Facebook notification on the screen of his wristband. He then attempts to access it on his phone only to find his battery is empty. Borrowing his friends phone, the wristband automatically and temporarily logs him into Facebook to allow him to access his notification in seconds.

11. At the end of the night, Adam selects the “Call Taxi” feature on the wristband. Using GPS and his personal details, the wristband calls a taxi without Adam having to say a word.

12. The taxi then turns up outside the nightclub to pick Adam and his friend up and take them home.

Following the storyboard, I wrote stage directions in order to direct and film a video that would show a live action representation of the events of Adams night.

In the video, Adam is played by Leon, the doorman by David, the barman by Andrew and Adam’s friend by Lawrence. Making use of an empty classroom, we used simple props such as tables, plastic cups and an iPad to convey the nightclub scenario.



Plastic Fantastic: Introduction

The aim of this project is to design and develop a plastic toy that is educational, engaging and innovative. Whilst the word “toy” usually creates ideas of children playing, adults can also benefit from their use, especially if they are designed to educate. The target market is therefore left open for me to decide.

 After reading the design brief that I was given, I began researching plastics and the way their properties can benefit products and the ways they are manufactured. I also looked at existing educational toys and created a mood board, made up of images of them, in order to gain inspiration. After arranging the various images, I soon recognised some reoccurring styles that were common across the market. These products usually came in the form of a construction toy, a competitive game, a puzzle or something with moving parts that allowed a process to occur during use. The ones aimed at children made use of bright colours and fairly simple yet interesting looking shapes.

I then created a mind map to organise my ideas regarding the theme and style of the product I was to design, using my mood board as a guideline. This allowed me to think about each aspect of the themes and then evaluate them, deciding which would be good ideas. I made another mind map to organise all my research regarding plastics and their benefits.

As toys are most commonly aimed at children, the market is saturated and thinking of a fresh, innovative idea that would be educational and engaging at the same time was incredibly difficult. After a quick Google search of any ideas I had, I soon realised that there were many similar products already out there. It became apparent that if I was to develop an idea similar to an existing product, I would have to work out its weaknesses and improve on the idea effectively or take the idea in a new direction. The market for educational toys aimed at adults is much sparser and so I decided that this is the route I would take as I would have a much better chance of creating something that hadn’t been done before. It would therefore be easier to create a concept that was educational, engaging and innovative.

Using my own experience as inspiration, I thought about things I would like to gain a better understanding of and skills I would like to develop. As an amateur music producer and keyboard player, I immediately thought of music theory. Learning an instrument and the theory behind the music can appear overwhelming and complicated to someone with no past experience of the subject, especially if they decide to take up the hobby later in life. For this reason, many individuals may be put off from starting, despite often wishing they could play along to their favourite songs. For this reason, I have decided to develop a toy that will help adults to independently learn how to play a musical instrument as well as understanding music theory.

Mechanical Dice Roller

For this project, I worked in a group of four to design and make a simple mechanical device. We came up with a product that will roll the two dice, shown in the photos when the handle us turned. The handle is linked to a rack and pinion system that lowers the floor that the dice are sat on down. We removed three teeth from the pinion to allow the floor to pop back up after compressing a spring, when the handle is turned to a certain point. It is this popping action that flips the dice into the air. The acrylic housing on the top of the device prevents the dice from flying off and getting lost. The body of the device was made from hardboard as it could be easily and quickly cut on a guillotine. It provided a sturdy frame to mount the moving parts when glued together.

Smart Phone Concept: Futuristic Idea

This is the first idea I had regarding the phones features. Exploring how the problem of having to pick up and unlock a phone in order to see notifications could be solved, I came up with the idea of a holographic screen. This would project images above the screen, so that they wouor hover in the air, allowing the user to see them without moving. I thought that this would be too advanced for 5 years from now and so I developed the idea into the projector. This would be much more feasible as technology allowing projections has been out for many years and so it would just be a case of miniatirising it and changing the application.

Smart Phone Concept: Self Assessment

In my opinion, the visual side of the project was the most successful as the use of clear, annotated diagrams helped to convey my ideas and explain each of the functions I chose for the phone. I created a range of ideas and then justified the reasons for each with easily understandable paragraphs. Using colour in the sketches and diagrams helped to portray the intent of my designs as it clearly separated the individual parts. I could improve this however, by typing up the annotations, rather than writing them, as this would make them more ledgible. A working model could also have helped to show off the features of the smart phone. I could have done more research into the technology of today in order to gain a better insight into how this may develop in the future, perhaps giving me ideas of how it could be used.

Smart Phone Concept: Ideas and Development

I then created a brainstorm of my initial ideas regarding the possible functions of the smart phone. This was based on solutions to the problems I discovered as well as existing technology.

I created sketches to bring the ideas to life and help me to focus on how I could implement and develop them.

I chose the wrist mounted "watch" phone idea to develop as I believed it had the most potential to be a useful product but then incorporated the other features into it in order to make it more advanced than the current generation of smart phones.

The phone is roughly 5cm by 4cm, which is significantly smaller than current models. This allows the option for it to be attached to a wrist strap in order for it to be work like a watch. This gives the user easy access as they no longer have to take the phone out of their pocket, also freeing up pockets for other items. The phone is held onto the strap by a system of locking pins which can only be unlocked by the user. This is achieved via a fingerprint recognition system which identifies the owner of the phone. This adds to the security of the device as it makes theft more difficult.

The screen projection feature is my solution to the need to pick up and unlock a phone to see notifications. Instead, the use of voice command allows the contents of the screen to be projected onto a nearby wall in mere seconds. This makes it much less effort to check text messages and emails. A benefit of this is the option to change the size of the projection. A large image will allow videos to be watched comfortably without requiring a phone with a large screen. Once the image size is set, in real time the angle of the projection will be adjusted so that the image remains the same size, even if the distance between the device and the wall changes. Likewise if the angle of the device from the wall changes, the projection will adjust so that the image remains parallel with the correct aspect ratio. The projector is located on the top side of the device so that the function still works when the phone is worn on the wrist.

Access to memory cards will be performed wirelessly, meaning that they do not need to be inserted into the device, or be anywhere closer than 10m from it. This means that they can be left in bags or pockets and so do not get lost as easily. Access to the data will be authorised by the fingerprint recognition system, meaning that someone whos fingerprints do not match the ones assigned to the memory card will not be granted access. The use of cloud network storage systems will allow the device to work seamlessly with a home PC, meaning that file access and transfer can occur from anywhere with an internet connection.

The device will be able to work with home appliances such as cookers, washing machines, fridges and heating sytems in order to manage their operation away from home. For example, if the user wanted to turn the heating on before they got home in order to warm the house up, they could set the time and duration for the boiler to come on and the levels of the thermostats. Energy usage and efficiency would also be presented to the user as well as advice on how to save energy by turning off unused devices. A barcode scanning system implemented in the fridge would record the contents, allowing the user to see what food they had so that they could make a shopping list without physically checking the fridge. Suggestions for meals based on the fridge contents would be created and sent to the user if wanted.

Retina scanning would make quick and easy transactions of money for online shopping. Used in conjunction with the fingerprint recognition system, users could purchase goods online without requiring a debit or credit card. Because each individual has a unique retina and fingerprint then fraud would be near impossible and so the system would be much more secure than the current one. This system would take much less time than inputting card numbers and so the user would feel happier about online shopping, especially on their phone.

Smart Phone Concept for Five Years Time

The aim of this project was to design a concept smart phone for use in five years time (2018), taking into account the relevant development of technology and how it could be applied in the form of functions.

I first began by researching common problems that users currently experience in order to understand what aspects of smart phones could be improved or changed, in favour of better usability and functionality. This storyboard highlights the problems I discovered.

1. The annoyance of having to pick up and unlock a phone in order to see a notification such as a text message or email. As this usually happens frequently, this repetitive task can become annoying, leading to the user not bothering to check the notifications until later on.

2. The difficulty of inputting form data due to the text boxes being too small, for example when purchasing items on the internet. Instead, users will often just wait until they get home to use a PC with a larger screen. It is also difficult to read and input card details when on the move or on public transport. This problem means that many people are put off online shopping whilst away from home.

3. Other people can unlock a user’s phone if it is left somewhere and so access personal content without permission. Password protection of course prevents this, but the act of having to type a password or swipe a pattern can be annoying to a user.

4. The majority of smart phones today are not water proof and so if a user goes swimming, they will have to leave it elsewhere. Not only does this mean they can’t access their phone if they want/need to, but the fact it is not with them increases the chance of it getting stolen.

5. Often when users are away from home, they will realize that they need to turn on a home appliance such as the cooker or the heating at a certain time in order to be ready for when they come home. Unless they can contact someone else who is at home then there is nothing they can do about it.

Annoying Fan: Self Assessment

The aim of this project was to design and create what’s known as an “Interaction Folly”, which is a fundamentally useless object that provides an interaction with a user or the environment in an illogical or counter intuitive way. As they lack a real function, they are often created for entertainment as a practical joke product. This was carried out in teams of two, with fellow student; Andrew Taylor being my partner.

Initially, the concepts we generated were indeed follies, as they didn’t have a useful function, but they lacked the interaction aspect that was key to the project. One of these was a shelf that would tilt under the weight of any object placed on it, meaning that it would immediately fall off. While it was both useless and illogical, an object falling straight off wasn’t really a true interaction and was more of a dysfunctional product. Instead, we then developed the idea of a safe that would only allow the door to be locked if there was no object inside it. Of course, this meant that valuables would be no more secure inside it than they would outside. The interaction was based around an electronic sensor, such as a strain gauge, inside that would detect the weight of an object placed on its floor. Then, through the use of a solenoid or servo motor, it would move the position of the lock so that a key can’t be inserted to lock it.

After realising the potential of an electronic interaction system, we then researched thermistors and how a folly could interact with a change in temperature of the environment. A thermistor is a type of resistor where the resistance is changed greatly with a change in temperature. As a fan is usually designed to counteract a high temperature by blowing air on something to cool it, it was an obvious starting point to develop the folly from by reversing the logic so that it worked in a counter intuitive way. The “Annoying Fan”, as I named it, was designed to blow air when the temperature is already low, making the user feel even colder and then stop blowing air when the temperature increased to a set point or more so that the user would become too hot. I created a cartoon style storyboard to explain how the fan was designed to work, showing the effect that the environment’s temperature had on the fan and how this then affected the user. Rather than showing it as a series of frames, I made it into a simple flow chart which was more effective at conveying the bipolar nature of the fan.

We then built a circuit that made use of a thermistor, a transistor and a relay to control the switching on and off of the fan. The mechanism of which, is explained in the annotated circuit diagram that I posted previously. A problem we had with getting it to work as predicted was that the current flowing into the base was insufficient to saturate the transistor and so it wasn’t working as a switch to energise the relay. This meant that the fan remained running even if the temperature exceeded the set value. This problem was caused by the resistance of the circuit being too low, even when the thermistor had reached its maximum and the variable resistor was set all the way to the top. I solved this by adding another resistor to the circuit which caused the voltage to reach 0.7V at the base when the temperature exceeded the set value.

I then tested the circuit using a soldering iron to heat the thermistor above the set point. Connecting two voltmeters, one to the base and one to the collector (which is also the relay coil) connections of the transistor, I monitored the voltage of each. At room temperature, the base voltage was 0.5V and the collector voltage was 7.19V. As shown in the video, the increase in resistance in the thermistor caused the base voltage and base current to increase. This increase in base current caused the transistor to start to conduct between collector and emitter, and the voltage on the collector started to fall towards the emitter voltage, i.e. 0V. As the base current increased further, the transistor became saturated and at this point, the base-emitter voltage did not increase above 0.714V. The collector voltage is almost the same as the emitter (0.13V in the video). 9V from the battery minus the 4V across the resistor meant that there was then 5V across the relay coil, causing it to switch off. This is heard as a clicking sound in the video. The fan then stopped blowing.

When the heat source was removed, the resistance of the thermistor decreased, causing the reverse process to occur.

Overall, I would say that the practical side to this project was very successful as we created and tested a working prototype of our concept which worked exactly in the way we had designed it to. The video clearly demonstrates the way in which the interaction occurs. It could be improved, however, by using a bigger fan, which would make the blowing action more obvious as well as manufacturing a professional looking housing to make the prototype more like a real, finished product. The video could be improved by filming a staged scenario of someone using the fan, rather than just a laboratory test.

While the concepts we generated were imaginative yet practical, I think that further exploration and development would have helped to make a better product that would have been easier to create and would have been more effective visually. A wider range of ideas to choose from as well as undertaking more research into electrical components, other than thermistors, could have meant that the folly was more technologically advanced and so was more entertaining and impressive for the user/ audience.

Annoying Fan: Basic Storyboard

Annoying Fan: Working Demonstration

Annoying Fan: Circuit

Annoying Fan: Circuit Diagram

Clockworks: Self Assessment

Ideas and Originality

After researching various different mechanical toys/ automata, it became apparent that the simplest and therefore most common mechanism used to automate them was a basic cam system. The simplicity of them meant that the toys could come to life in interesting and entertaining ways whilst still being easy to manufacture and assemble. For this reason I chose to incorporate them into my initial idea of a wriggling snake. After creating sketches, I soon realized that a more realistic representation of a snake’s movement would be to have the snake’s body move horizontally rather than vertically. Because the cams relied on gravity to operate, they limited what I could actually make without designing a mechanism which would be far too complex to manufacture.

Instead I developed a mechanism that made use of a series of rack and pinions which would move the snakes “segments” side to side in alternating opposite directions. This was a much simpler approach than attempting to design a system that would work with the cams. A limitation of this was that the handle would have to be turned from side to side rather than in a continuous cycle. This would have made the toy more awkward and less enjoyable to use. I then designed an additional mechanism which would allow continuous rotation of the handle whilst still causing the snake to move from side to side.

I started off with the idea of just creating a toy snake that would operate alone but soon decided that the concept would be much more visually striking if it was designed to instead be a modular system that would work in conjunction with other toys. This idea came about when I realized that the scenery surrounding the snake could have more depth by placing more above and behind. I then thought that other toy creatures could be placed near the snake to create a nature scene. The idea developed to become a system of customizable modules that could be linked together, not only in a aesthetic aspect, but also mechanically so that all the animals would move at the same time.

Form and Aesthetics

Whilst I wanted to give the impression of a fairly realistic and easily recognizable snake, I also wanted to give a stylized appearance that would add a contemporary edge to the toy, creating appeal. To achieve this, I played on the segmented, mechanical body aspect by leaving it looking modular with clear gaps in between each part. This gave it an almost robotic appearance. Rather than trying to recreate a realistic snake pattern, I added simple and bold contrasting stripes which gave the toy a feel of childlike naivety, something which may help it appeal to kids.

Materials and Fabrication

To create my prototype of the toy, I used corrugated cardboard that I had left over from an Ikea box. This material was easy to cut and form to quickly create the rigid structure I required for the mechanism housing. Its flexibility meant that I could curve it to create the snakes segments and also allow it to move whilst being firmly held together. Wooden dowel was an appropriate material choice for the struts joining the mechanism to the snake as they were stiff and strong and so would provide a solid connection. The decorative aspects of the model were done using coloured markers. This gave it the bold colours it required.

Critisism

Whilst I think that my concept was original and interesting, I think that the model I made and therefore the video could have demonstrated more of the key features that set it apart from other mechanical toys. This could have been done by actually making a working mechanism rather than moving it by hand and also showing how other modules connect to it. An improvement would have been making a more professional video showing all aspects of the model and how it works and so I should work on my filming and video editing skills.

Automaton: Video Demonstration

Here is a video demonstrating how the mechanism enables the snake to move.

Automaton Continued

Here are more photos of my prototype snake automaton.

Automaton