Hey there, thanks for dropping by! This blog is about my graduation project. You can also find my experiences of my exchange study under the tag 'Sweden'. Grab the RSS feed to stay updated!
w0000t! My final presentation went quite well, I got some very positive feedback from the supervisors. It was a tough and hectic project and I had to continuously find my way to a final prototype, that I called EmboRemo (Embodied Remote). Overall I’m quite happy how everything went, and in the end it was exactly what I wanted to do for graduation project. Translating a conceptual theory in practice was one of my main goals, and I did that with research, prototyping and user testing. Anyways, below you can find my keynote. Some videos that are missing from the keynote, you can find below…below.
Here a short recap of my user tests with the more advanced prototypes. These prototypes are variations of the cylinder form, that I described in my previous post.
Here is my complete concept video. Length is 3 1/2 minutes. This promo video shows the basic functions of EmboRemo and how it works in practice. I must thank Ruud Burger for his acting skills and Iris Veenendaal for the voiceover.
Mid-september we presented our work on an exhibition, called Eject. I made two posters to explain my project in short.
the gestures used with EmboRemo and the use of weight inside of the remote
The process of developing EmboRemo
That day we got our diploma’s in paper form, concluding our study officially. Felt really weird to be done with school, and still does. Now its Oktober already and in the meantime I moved out of Hilversum and took some (deserved) time off. At the moment I’m fixing my portfolio site, updating my curriculum vitae and learning for my drivers license (yes, I still didn’t get it, but who needs it anyways, ehum). I’m also looking for jobs, but I want to take my time.
I will try to update my blog soon with my personal happenings and future plans.
It’s been a month already since I updated my blog. Times goes by fast. Still, a lot has happened till then.
User test final video
Just after my last blog post I edited the user test observations. I categorized and structured all the footage. Below you can see then final video. Note though, the video is 20 minutes long of people fiddling with weird shapes as a remote. Also, it’s in Dutch.
This footage was a great foundation for my object design. I based a lot of decisions on this material. Also, editing takes way to much time.
The remote, form, materials and features
At the mock exam the main comment was that have I to improve my artistic standard. On a practical level that meant designing the object more in advance. I really did my best to achieve this since then. So I have been sketching, drawing, touching, building, shaping and making aesthetic choices to get a coherent object.
Sketching wit the aid of materials and forms. Notice the ping-pong paddle for handle inspiration.
I started with defining the gestures and haptic feedback in the remote itself, because this is the most important part. I went through the video again and again; how the test persons hold the objects, how they interacted with it. I made a quick sketch how the object is hold in different ways. I focused myself on the cylinder shaped object, because this was the most interesting object by far in the user tests.
different holding positions that are used through the observation video.
Next to defining the gestures, I also went looking for materials, materials I could use as a base for the remote. I’ve went to a fabrication lab (better known as a FabLab) to find out my options how to build the remote. There they had a variation of materials I could use. There I got to know that I could use a form of rubber, to make the object squeezable. I have to make a mold out of plaster, where I could poor the rubber in. According to the worker there, this is to best way to do this.
material selection and experimentation
Back to the object and gestures. I picked gestures that are the most logical (and came back in the user test video) for different functions. Below you can see which actions are used for controlling the television set.
a different gesture for each function. Ab bit hard to see, but this is a good basis for the object interactions.
You can see in the sketches that the object design is really basic, here it’s still a neutral cylinder form. I did this because I want to design the form (and choose the materials) in the next step. I want to incite the user the particular gestures, almost that the object speaks for itself, by designing the form and the right material to support this. Think for example about a handle, soft area that you want to squeeze, a proper back and front and so forth. Although I have a great interest in this subject, I’m not an expert in this area. That’s why I asked some feedback from experts in this field. I’ve went to a friend of mine, who had a history in industrial design and he has more experience in object design than me. He and I made some sketches, some extremes how the device could look like.
Extreme object sketches, some cylinder-like alternatives to look at other possibilities.
During several iterations (by designing, making, evaluating and scrapping some results) the overall conclusion during this process is that I want to keep the shape as simple as possible. I want to avoid a Homer car, with a kinds of crazy shapes and features. By using simple curves I want to hold on to an aesthetic design. During some sketches with the industrial designer I came up with a form which i was satisfied with. I used the Anthropometric database of TU Delft to base some of the sizes on. I didn’t went to far with this, because it’s not my specialty. Below you can find my technical drawing.
My friend made the top one, i made the technical sketch of the final design, a bit hard to see.
Most important was that it fits in your hand nicely, and it had proper separation of functions. After this, I made a 3D shape for the printer at the FabLab.
final 3D model for the 3D printer…
…and the result. Here it is still drying.
This model I can use for making the mold. The final object is going to be of rubber, with a solid core (where I will put the haptic mechanics in). With a mold I can make multiple objects, so I could change some small features for each one. Making the prototypes will be done next week. I will get some help of an interaction design student, who has some more experience in making objects out of a mold (he did an exchange at the Fine Arts department). He will help me on Monday with the first one.
final user test
The goal is to be finished with the remote next week. After that, I hope to do an observation test soon, to evaluate my design and different features for one final time. Then I will change some small aspects of the remote to make a solid final prototype.
promotion video
My final product (next to a remote) is going to be a promotion video. in this video I explain the functions of the remote. This week I also set up a scenario of the movie. I have to translate this in a script, and then into a simple storyboard. I hope to start with filming before the end of the month. So I have to put some effort to make a good promotional video.
Usability Lab
Next to my project I took up a small side project. There is an usability lab on our floor meant for students. Unfortunately, the lab is in a bad shape. There is no proper equipment and the furniture & decoration is kind of crap. It is a bit of a shame, because nobody uses the lab because of this. So I decided to improve the test lab, so I can use it too for my final video too. I got a small budget from the one responsible to buy some stuff. Also, a guy of the IT department is taking care of the equipment, like camera’s, computers and capturing software. The walls have already been painted, I only have to put up some posters and decoration.
To conclude this post, there is still a lot to do for my project. It’s gonna be a loooong and though summer.
Last Tuesday our class had the first meeting with our tutor. Irene van Peer is now going to guide me to the end of my project. We all had to do a small presentation what our status was of each project. It was very interesting to see what everyone is doing. Unfortunately I was the last person who had to do the presentation and I had to rush a bit because we were out of time.
The main comment was that I have to figure out what area interests me the most. Embodied interaction within the living environment is a broad subject, of course. The goal I had set for myself was that I want to look at the possibilities of the embodied interaction and to pick a specific subject through prototyping and research. The plan was to do this the next few weeks. The problem with this is that I can get lost in the process, and don’t come up with a clear subject in the end. It is better to define myself as soon as possible.
During my presentation I gave some examples of projects that use physical interaction as input. With every video, I had some (mostly negative) comments about the interaction. Irene gave me the task to look at every video, and figure out which underlying subject drives me. So here it goes.
Canesta TV Gesture User Interface Demo
the video in short:
A television remote is an annoying necessarily to control your television, the video explains. Especially the on-screen interface is badly designed. Control through gestures is more intuitive. Simple movements with your hands makes you happy, jay! You can even use it while cooking! No need to put your dirty hands on the remote to change the channel.
My comments
Is moving your hands really better in this situation? Do you want to wave, swipe, push your hand when you are sitting on your lazy couch after you come home from work? It are simple physical movements for sure, but doesn’t it become tiring after an extensive period of time? I think buttons on a remote are better then doing physical movements, because it’s more responsive. Even if the remote is unintuitive. The problem lays in the design of the remote, not the interaction. Reminds me of an example of Nicolas Zurcher, whereby he looked at the buttons of the remote we really use:
Which parts of the remote do we actually use?
And how do you go through a large quantity of television stations with only gestures? How do you control other functions, like volume, source selection, the television guide and use of other complex things? How to achieve this without learning complex gestures or using another type of input?
Gestures are not the best way to interact with the system in this situation, I believe.
Embodied Playlist Access
The video in short The concept is about using personal objects to control your music. Every object stands for a different type of music playlist. The point is to get access through different selections of data by moving personal objects.
My comments: What interests me is quite simple; by using physical objects you get access to personalized data. It avoids fiddling with computers (i.e. keyboard and mice). It makes selecting you music preference personal and physical. The technical barrier (where tech savvy people are so used to) is gone. The question remains if personal objects are a good representation to get access to different types of music. I see some possibilities in other forms of data, however.
MusicShapes
The video from the youtube description: “The objective of this project was to produce a concept and a prototype of a physical computing system that would leverage the principles of embodied interaction. We developed a system that combined a webcam and a series of geometric shapes, which would play a sound or music clip depending on which of the faces is facing up. The sounds played by an object were influenced by the surrounding objects and their positions.”
My comments Not only the movements of the shapes are input, but also the distance between objects matter. The objects can ‘communicate’ with each other, manipulating the output by moving them. It is an very early prototype, but imagine the possibilities implementing this in everyday objects.
Scratch Mat
An very simple example in real life. What makes it awesome that it changes behavior. How many times do you wipe your feet when you enter a building? This mat makes wiping your feet a playful interaction. The output of the system is very simple, but still is effective in this situation.
Siftables
Irene gave this project as a suggestion to look at. Siftables are small interactive computers with a display, wireless communication and motion sensing. What is relevant for my project is that it uses real life gestures as input. For example, pouring paint from one siftable to another, and thus changing it’s color. I would murder someone to get some of these.
In my previous post I wrote down keywords and some inspirational things I like to do for my graduation project. Writing down things on paper really helps to get to the core of what you really want.
I noticed that I was interested in physical interaction with systems, using the human body itself as input.
For instance, the Nintendo Wii was revolutionary at the time. It uses a remote that detects gestures as input, instead of the button-bashing that was, and is, common on other gaming systems. Instead of learning what each button does on the controller (which has a long learning curve) the input on the Wii is natural. Everybody knows how to use her body. The developers of the Wii saw what other console developers didn’t see; It made gaming available for everyone, instead of appealing the relatively small hardcore gamer market. Nintendo’s point of view was so simple. The Wii turned out to be the most popular gaming system, beating the Xbox and Playstation in console sales by far. It’s ironic that the Wii technically and graphically lays far behind on the other consoles, what was the other consoles main selling point. Of course, the Wii is a lot cheaper then the other consoles, what is an important factor for the popularity as well. But I personally think it’s success lays in the simplicity of it’s controller, that is usable by practically everyone. It’s fun, simple and easy to learn.
It’s interesting to see that both Sony and Microsoft want to duplicate this type of input. Sony announced Playstation Move, while Microsoft came with Project Natal. For me, these are very interesting developments in this field. Especially Project Natal makes a giant leap, getting rid of the controller entirely. This system uses gestures and the human body itself as direct input. Of course, what Microsoft showed the world were promotional videos and proof of concept demos. It is still the question if it will work as advertised.
The above video shows what I mean. This video went sort of viral after the announcement of Project Natal. Kudo Tsunoda, the presenter, does a physical action, but the system screws up the translation from physical input to digital output. I know this is a demo, but I already see the frustration of gamers, and limitation of interaction in games. The motion capture technology is still in it’s early stage, but you have to understand that these kind of situations are unacceptable in interfaces. It’s like that your television remote only works half the time, or your steering wheel of your car doesn’t recognize your steering motion.
To a certain level, the Wii has the same problem. It’s physical interaction is kind of limited. For instance, the golf game requires you to do a swinging motion, of course imitating swinging with a golf club. First time users will imitate this gesture entirely, but after a while the gesture of the user will evolve to a simpler gesture, what the system recognizes as proper input. A small “tap” is enough for the system to understand.
Another point of critique is that the in-game interaction is limited. I remembered playing Metroid Prime, a first person shooter. At one point in the game I had to open a door. I had to twist the Wii Remote 90 degrees, imitating opening a lock. I had to try a few times to get it open. At first, I thought it was an innovative interaction, I had to do something I had never done before in a game. But what did I had to do? I had to open a lock by twisting my wrist. One of the simplest interactions in our daily life, but what was a game element in a console game. Isn’t this a bit silly? Is this an achievement for a gamer to be proud of?
The distance between reality and virtual, what the developers meant to abridge, is still a to much. Long time interaction with the system will constrain the immersion. The Wii becomes a gimmick, what is it’s main problem. Will the upcoming systems from Sony and Microsoft have the same problem? Or is this even a problem? Is just using you body as input for a system enough, regardless what the actions are?
You noticed that these kind of ‘new’ interactions only apply for gaming consoles. For my project, I don’t want to focus myself on gaming controller input. This is not something where my interest lies. Just everyday interaction with the environment interests me more. I want to apply the use of gestures in this area and I want to research the coming weeks what will be a good platform to apply this subject.
My point of this long, long story is that using the body, and thereby using an input everybody knows how to use, interaction with systems can be available for everyone. I want to use this point of view as a core for my graduation project.
