vrKid - Digital Media Bremen vrKid is a virtual reality headset designed especially for babies and toddlers up to 3 years old. The headset has the shape of a hippo and its helmet design secures safe use for children and will protect them when they move around in their physical surroundings while using the device. “It’s closely related to what we do in my company.” “If you buy this you’re the kind of parent who would rather sit and watch TV than spend time with your child.” The helmet has a slide-in part for the smartphone in the front. The size of the helmet is adjustable with a turning wheel in the back, taking into account the growing head sizes of babies and toddlers. “But do you really think the children can tell the difference between what they see and the real world?” “I just love hippos. All quotes are reactions to vrKid from the push.conference 2016 in Munich.
IoT Art: Networked Art | Postscapes You pull out your phone and open a map. A blue dot appears, pinpointing your location. Here you are, the dot says. It’s reassuring, accurate, reliable…mostly. But every now and then, the unity of self and dot falters. GPS, the global positioning system, is a bedrock technology of the Internet of Things, one of the earliest ways of representing real-time data about connected devices and objects. But in the parable of the dancing dot, the limitations of GPS are laid bare. Satellite Lamps, a project of design researchers Einar Sneve Martinussen, Jørn Knutsen, and Timo Arnall at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design in Norway (also the group behind the ImmaterialsWiFi and RFID exploration in 2009), illuminates the changeable nature of GPS signals. In time-lapse videos, some lamps shine bright while others flash fitfully between off and dim. As designers, the trio behind Satellite Lamps want to encourage new ways of thinking about a technology that remains largely invisible.
On Speculative Design | Benjamin H. Bratton Benjamin Bratton on Speculative Design, an alternative to mainstream Design that complicates the speculative models that underscore our global economy. He suggests design solutions based on longer and shorter timescales than regular product lifecycles, and geared toward “users” who may or may not be human. This text is based on a transcription of Bratton’s remarks at the launch of the Speculative Design undergraduate major at the University of California, San Diego, February 10, 2016. åyr, Portrait #4, 2016 –> orb 11b Speculative Design (SD) understands itself as progressive alternative perspective to mainstream Design culture (and as an alternative to other alternatives as well).1 It knows that “Design” is not some magic way of thinking (involving stick-up notes, sharpies and colored beanbags) that just makes things better by “building trust,” “understanding the customer” or “getting a seat at the table” or similar. Futurism, Scale Matter, Materialism åyr, Portrait #5, 2016 –> orb 13b 1.
Prototyping: Learn Eight Common Methods and Best Practices There can never be an exhaustive list of prototyping methods, since there is quite literally an endless number of ways you can build prototypes. What we can do, however, is provide a useful list of the eight most common prototyping methods, together with best practice tips that help you maximise your prototyping and testing sessions. By arming yourself with these eight common methods, you can begin your iterative process of building prototypes in order to empathise with your users, to decide on and refine your ideas and to test your solutions. Before we begin looking at the common prototyping methods, let us first briefly examine the prototyping and testing process. People – including those whom you are testing and the observers Objects – static and interactive, including the prototype and other objects the people and/or prototype interact/s with Location – places and environments Interactions – digital or physical, between people, objects and the location Sketches and Diagrams
Simulation/ Modeling | Think Design Modeling is defined as creating physical, mathematical, or logical representations of a process, product or service where the implementation of the representations is termed as Simulation. Modeling and Simulation allow designers to test design considerations or specifications with the potential users before the formal process, product or service is launched. The terms modeling and simulation are extensively used in the technological context; however, models in the physical or real world are called prototypes and role-play, informance or role-reversals are different forms of non-virtual simulations. Similarly, virtual models are used to test digital products and services to understand user experience during a simulation. Additionally, the virtual models help shorten the design and test cycle. A small part or whole virtual product solution or service offering can be modeled to test the design specifications. Advantages of Simulation/Modeling 01 Number of users 03 Applications
Hapticat Prototype | Steve Yohanan We finally limited the actuation to a small set that we could quickly implement and would work well in concert with one another. Our goal was that, as for a cat, several of these actuations employed together at varied settings would provide an expressive means of affect display. The prototype itself was composed of five major features: a body, two ear-like appendages, a breathing mechanism, a purring mechanism, and a warming element — Figure 2 displays details of the prototype internals. The Hapticat had a total of four degrees of freedom, which are provided by the ears, the breathing mechanism, the purring mechanism, and the warming element. The prototype’s actuation and the implementation of its major features are described in the following sections. Prototype Actuation The prototype was controlled through Wizard of Oz techniques. Body The form factor of the body was intended to be organic yet relatively non-zoomorphic. Ears
A New Relationship to Money - Chris Woebken A New Relationship to Money, 2007 Physical money is disappearing and we are moving towards a cashless society where hard cash only exists to avoid taxes or to buy illegal services and goods. A suitcase of money even had a magic cinematic effect making people do or believe in almost anything. Very human interactions, gestures and rituals got totally lost or neglected through the introduction of e-money. I will miss playfully flipping coins or wishing for luck throwing them in a spring. In third world countries ATM cash-machines are rarely available and people usually do not have bank-accounts. As an experiment I melted the Oystercard in Acetone and stripped it down to the essence., the bare coil wire with the RFID chip. Inspired by those observation I designed devices for different spending behaviors, imagining new parasitical services sitting on top of bank accounts that create feedback mechanisms and a new relationship to our bank-account as an extension of ourselves.
Delft Institute of Positive Design | The meaningfulness of saving money It is often said that money does not seem to be a direct source of happiness. However, it has been shown as a resource that enables people to engage in meaningful activities, making a salient contribution to happiness. Different authors state that 40% of happiness relies on activities, while only 10% is about circumstances (location, weather or amount of money). Saving is the activity of accumulating and storing money over time with an intention to spend it in the future. Given these propositions, it is interesting to consider the well-being effects of saving, since it can connect one’s present state to a meaningful future state. Current solutions in saving do not actively explore the happiness of individuals, nor do they actively foster meaningful engagement. The Meaningfulness of Saving Money was a two-part project conducted within the Delft Institute of Positive Design, supervised by Prof.dr.ir Pieter Desmet and Mafalda Casais, MSc. Feeding your piggy bank with intentions