Project Finished: Bloom

So about the problems I mentioned in an earlier blog, they are solved!

Well...not quite.

The sensors are still hard to hide, though we did not make pouches for them this time so at the very least they are not noticeable until the participant strokes the wearer's back.

However, the flower was made using paper, and the servomotor opened and closed it successfully. We also managed to find another black shirt that looked more elegant to match the flower.

The Miura/Ori folding structure was very successful in making the flower open and close beautifully. The LED spores lit up as well. One idea we implemented was to cover them with translucent paper leaves, so it would make the garment look more organic and elegant.

Here are some photos of our finished garment, from flower closed to flower opening.

We also have a video of our final product that explains, ideation, prototyping, user testing, and other thoughts of our project. We call our garment bloom.


Bloom: A Nurturing Embrace from nueve on Vimeo.

User Testing Brainstorm

We brainstormed questions to ask users during user testing, because we decided that it wasn't enough to just test it ourselves.

Scenarios:
1 The wearer is your best friend and she just failed her exam after studying all night. She is very upset. How would you comfort her? Demonstrate.
2 The wearer is your best friend and you have not seen her for a year. How would you approach her? Demonstrate.
Interview Questions:
For participant:What do you think the flower is about?
How did the flower affect your experience of a hug/stroke/pat? (eg. Intrusive? Beautiful? Emotional Impact?)
How did the hug/stroke/pat feel, was it natural?
How do you think the flower connects to Carol’s emotional state?
Why did you choose to hug/stroke/pat?
If you did not know the wearer, would you still participate? Why or why not?
For spectator:How did seeing the spores make your experience different from seeing a normal hug?

We wanted to look for:

1. Who hugs, pats, or strokes the back?

2. How we could apply that information to improve our garment design in the future?

3. How do participants hug, pat, stroke? Do they touch the sensors right away? Do they watch the flower?

Side: Notes from Lecture

I will take a break from project blogging to say something interesting that was taught in lecture.

A new word we learned was Agents, which is something that is programmed to do things or assess situations on its own. An example that was given to us was a table that moved and interacted with people according to how the people interacted with it. If someone was violent to it, then the table would "get angry" and chase the person to the corner of the exhibition room. A woman started to dance with it, so the table followed the woman and danced along. The table was also able to pick who it wanted to be friends with; two other women entered the room and the table let one touch it while rejecting the friendship of the other woman.

We also discussed the ideologies of Don Ihde, who is a philosopher of science and technology who categorized human and technology relationships into three categories:

1. (I-Tech)-World: objects that we use without thinking about (embodied). It almost seems as if they are an extension of us. Examples include glasses or a cane.
2. I-(Tech-World): objects that we have to think about using (hermaneutic). Examples include clock or compass.
3. I-Tech-World: objects that exist on equal planes with us (alterity).


In relation to our project, our garment is supposed to fall into the category of embodied. We don't want our users to force the flower to open and the spores to light up. We hope the flower and spores could act as an agent to react to the natural acts of intimacy.

Flower brainstorm

It was very difficult to find what shape to make the flower into. We looked at deployable structures to decide how the flower was to be made.

Here are some links we looked at:
http://vimeo.com/2840704

http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/kade-x/article?mid=1609&prev=1615&next=1592&l=a&fid=8

http://www.dianaeng.com/blog/

From the third one, we used a structure from this image.

It looked very much like a flower, and we found it was not too difficult to fold. In fact we found a paper print that taught us how to fold it.

Once we did it, we realized the structure was very beautiful, then we commenced to add petals onto it. We prototyped for a day, experimenting with different paper structures and shapes. The most important thing was to keep our flower beautiful and elegant, because it is after all, a representation of intimacy.

Here are some of our prototypes.

My team and I voted on our favourite designs, we liked the second one. After that we went to buy paper.

Final Project What to Fix

Since we decided to continue our idea of the flower, we brainstormed what we needed to fix.

1. The shape of the flower was something we struggled with last time. We came up with a very clunky cloth structure that we tried to open and close with servomotors and fishing wires. It did not work out.

2. The code we had for the servomotor did not work out.

3. New shirt. The shirt we had before was not very good for hiding the servomotor, so we want to buy a new shirt. Also we wanted to have softer material for the shirt so it would be something users would want to stroke.

4. We originally had pockets for the sensors, but they bulge out a little, making awkward bumps on the wearer's back. This time we will try to hide the sensors so stroking the back will be a more natural experience.

Back to the Flower!

After much brainstorming and discussion, my team of five decided that for the final project, we were actually going to keep going with the flower from sketch 2; the flower that sits on the shoulder of a garment, that opens in response to intimate touch given to the wearer.

However, we are gong to expand the idea.
Here is a sketch my teammate completed:

Our project will now have a fabric flower that sits on the shoulder, but from the flower will grow a network of illuminated vines to represent spores. The lights spread gently down the garment and wraps the user with a dimly lit glow. With displays of intimacy towards the wearer (stroke on the back, hug, pat on the shoulder), the LEDs will light up. Brightness of the LEDs vary, just as openness of the flower varies according to the level of intimacy experienced.

So does the flower stay open and LEDs stay lit?

The answer is no. We that the open state of the flower and bright state of the LEDs depends on the level of intimacy as well. Here are the proposed scenarios:

Scenario
Two main participants: the wearer and the supporter (i.e. a close friend who is a “hugger,...,...”)
Onlookers (individuals within the immediate environment)

Scenario 1: Pat (least intimate)
In this scenario, the wearer’s friend gently pats the wearer on the shoulder as a friendly greeting, or a gesture of comfort. The flower opens up to its minimal state (maybe ⅓ of the whole way)
Flower open/lights on duration: 5 minutes

Scenario 2: Hug
This hug is a casual hug. It could be a greeting or a brief show of friendship and gratitude.
Flower open/lights on duration: 10 minutes

Scenario 3: Stroke
The third state would be a stroke, possibly when a friend comforts the wearer when the wearer is sad. Flower open/lights on duration: 15 minutes

Scenario 4: Bear Hug (most intimate)
In this case, the friend is intimate enough to give a full-body hug. The flower would open to its widest and the lights would brighten up to the fullest.
Flower open/lights on duration: 20 minutes

So as of now we are happy with the idea. However, there are still some problems to be looked into and questions to be asked. For example:

1. Would this shirt be worn in everyday life, or only to be used for display in a gallery setting?

2. Can the flower and LED effectively communicate the sense that the wearer feels loved?

3. How are we going to program to ensure sensors accurately detect varying strengths of touch?

4. Last time, we sewed pouches for the sensors and it created a awkward bumps on the back of the wearer. Is there a way to avoid the bumps this time?

Final Project begins!

This time I am in a team of five people.

The theme of our project is still embodiment, and we are brainstorming three ideas:

1. Hoodie circled with LEDs so the user may read in a dark place.

2. Sword-fighting game in which there are three sensors on each combatant's body, one on each sword, and one on the combatants' free hands. Should the sword touch the sensors on the body, the player who got "stabbed" would lose HP. However, should the player catch the sword with a free hand, then HP goes back up by 1. The speed and force with which the sword is thrust affects how much HP is lost.

3. A display installation/performance art piece where a dancer/performer wears gloves with accelerometers attached, and depending on the movement of accelerometers, a large suspended fabric would react in different ways. Wires would pull up/drop corners, or the middle of the fabric.

So far the team, myself included like our third idea the best, because it encompasses embodiment. The dancer's movements can affect the aesthetics of the art piece. Right now problems include, how to build the structure that holds the fabric. We'll see how this project goes!