Machine Safety Projects DPA 23 DPA 24

Posted on March 18, 2010 by Lucian

In cooperation with an industrial client we explore the field of machine safety in the field of industrial production.

Interaction of the operator and the machine safety equipment.  Machine safety, a necessary part in the production process helps to save lives and reduces injuries. But in many cases, the machine safety equipment reduces also the fast interaction of the operator and the machine. So many of the safety equipment is unwanted, not seen as necessary and fooled in the production process. Aim of the project is to find solutions, how this conflict can be reduced.The project will analyze a typical existing situation as basis for the conceptual design development. Supported by the client SCHMERSAL we will develop a visionary concept in the field of “safety in production machinery”

The ideal machine safety equipment would be invisible, without any restrictions to the operator and production process, only acting when necessary and free of costs. Real machine safety equipment features nothing of the ideal conditions. New concepts are needed.It’s about a new and different man machine interaction, automatic detection of human behaviour, optimized design of safety equipment and new technologies for safety equipment.

Touris Photo Tagging

Posted on March 17, 2010 by ID Realities

Brief Description

With the arrival of digital cameras, the number of pictures taken by tourists have increased dramatically. These pictures are no longer printer, but published in online photo communities, such as Flickr. This project explores a parasitic game that resides between the taking of the photos and the publishing on the web. Players tag the photos taken by other tourists by standing in the background. Once these photos appear online, the players scores points. The player is a harmless parasite in the avalanche of tourist photos.

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Everyday Audio

Posted on March 17, 2010 by ID Realities

Brief Description

In any given situation, there will be multiple auditory channels reaching the ear. However, we are able to focus our attention on one of them. The remaining auditory channels are typically monitored in the periphery of our attention. In other words, we do not have to pay specific attention to them, but if something unusual happens, our attention immediately shifts. For example, when driving a car, one will normally focus the attention on the road, the radio, or the conversation with passengers. However, when the engine suddenly makes an unusual noise, the attention immediately switches to this sound. In other words, the sound of the engine that is normally in the periphery of the attention shifts to the foreground. The same thing will happen when you hear someone say your name.

In this project, you will explore how you can leverage the above described auditory perception skills in interaction design. The goal of this project is to study how audio can be linked to everyday objects to provide peripheral information while interacting with these objects. For example; what if the refridgerator tells us what is in it whenever we open it, or the door-knob tells us if it is going to rain when we open the front door? In this project you will explore and create several of such auditory cues and study their potential use in a home context.

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Growing Systems

Posted on March 17, 2010 by ID Realities

Brief Description

Designing for systems is a new challenge for design. As systems are dynamic and open the design challenge is different than the challenge of designing (interactive) products. Amongst others, systems are not bound to one location in input and in output and they can grow in size and in functionality.

Imagine the case of a media system offering audio and video functionality and it has the potential of offering much more functionality (time-shifted TV, internet chatting, etc. etc.). Design a ëlocus of interactioní (a remote control) for this system that offers meaningful interaction but that has the ability to grow and to be as dynamic and open as the system it controls. Use the principles from the framework of rich interaction as the basis for this.

Objectives / Specifics

(project objectives; learning goals)
To understand what a growing system is, and to design a meaningful locus of interaction for it

Deliverables

A locus of interaction for a growing system, in this case a media center

Smart brushing

Posted on March 17, 2010 by ID Realities

Brief Description

It has proven to be difficult to teach people the proper teeth brushing routine. What is more, even if people know the proper routine, they often get sloppy over time. This can result in all kind of medical problems like tooth decay or even the untimely need for dentures. Obviously this is a problem. The design challenge therefore is to design a device that encourages a ‘proper’ teeth brushing routine. As we prefer seduction over enforcement the product should be more like a coach than like a dictator. Also it is essential that the elements of proper teeth brushing are explored and documented through literature research, observation and interview. This needs to be used as the basis for the design challenge of seducing people to take care of their teeth..

Objectives / Specifics

(project objectives; learning goals)
To understand the elements of proper teeth brushing and to stimulate them through seduction rather than enforcement.

Deliverables

A product, system or service that excourages a ‘proper’ teeth brushing routine

Consumption Monitor

Posted on March 17, 2010 by ID Realities

Brief Description

Design a device that can monitor the rate of consumption of toothpaste. The device should be versatile but it should not influence the rate of consumption itself. This project asks for a very pro-active approach. It is essential that the daily routine around the use of toothpaste is well undestood at the very beginning of the project. This could be accomplished by a series of observations and interviews at peopless homes. After the routine is understood and documented it should be taken as the starting point for design. Please consider the requirements below for this phase.

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A Product That Remembers…

Posted on March 17, 2010 by ID Realities

Brief Description

What would happen when a product in your home, remembers your daily patterns, remembers what you did, remembers where you were…

This can be scary (think of Big Brother), but this can also be very helpful and pleasant, such as when someone remembers your birthday. In this project we will focus on this positive angle. Imagine: you are looking for your keys and you cannot find them. Luckily you have this product that remembers how people move through the house and you can literally retrace your steps.

In this product you will come up with a concept of a product that remembers things/activities in the home environment and you will implement a working demonstrator.

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Contextual Information Exchange

Posted on March 17, 2010 by ID Realities

Brief Description

A design case done by Bram Knaapen

The non face-to-face communication of social and emotional experiences between people now happens through phone or other media like e-mail, IM (instant messaging), webcam (e.g. Skype) and other virtual communities such as Second Life. In the communication these experiences the context it has happened in pays an important role. Neither the technology nor our way of describing it enables us to communicate this context, in such a way that it can be “experienced” by the others, you can only imagine.

We first show a design case that tries to tackle this issue. The design concept proposes a system that is able to communicate the context of a remote (virtual) user so that the receiving (virtual) person is able to “feel” as if he/she is there without the translation steps. Often these steps are required when describing an experience. This concept enables a seamless transition between a real and virtual worlds leading to interesting scenarios.

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Beyond L$

Posted on March 17, 2010 by ID Realities

Brief Description

Virtual worlds such as Second life (Ondrejka, 2007) and World of Warcraft (Nardi & Harris, 2006) have entered our lives, our communication patterns, our culture, and our entertainment. “It’s not only the teenager active in, the average age of a gamer is 35 years by now, and it increases every year. This does not even include role-play in the professional context, also known as serious gaming, inevitable when learning practical skills. Virtual worlds are in use for entertainment, education, training, getting information, social interaction, work, virtual tourism, reliving the past and forms of art. They augment and interact with our real world and form an important part of people’s lives. Many virtual worlds already exist as games, training systems, social networks and virtual cities and world models.” (MPEG, 2008)

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Tangible Instant Messaging

Posted on March 17, 2010 by ID Realities

Brief description

Instant Messaging is a popular means of communication on the internet. Programs like MSN Messenger and ICQ are widely used to exchange text messages within a community of ‘buddies’.

The interaction with these programs is through a Graphical User Interface (GUI) augmented with simple sounds to indicate incoming messages. The two main areas of interaction are the dialog window, in which the exchange of messages takes place, and the status window. The status window informs the user about several things. It indicates the status of others, e.g., which of his buddies is online, who is sending a message, if buddies are available or busy, etc. The user can also set his own status through this window, e.g., away, occupied, busy, ‘be right back’. Through pull-down menus in this window you can also contact buddies and send them messages or emails.

As a reaction to the dominance of GUI’s in human computer interaction (HCI) alternative interaction styles are explored. One of these alternatives is tangible interaction which stresses the importance of the physicality of the interaction. In this approach the physical controls for (digital) input are integrated with the physical representation of (digital) output.

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Semantic Connections Demonstrator

Posted on January 19, 2010 by ID Realities

Interaction Tiles

For the EU project SOFIA (Smart Objects For Intelligent Applications), Bram van der Vlist and Gerrit Niezen created a demonstrator for one of the use cases: semantic connections. “The demonstrator consists of a set of devices; surround sound-set, mobile mp3 players, an ambient lighting system and interaction device(s). The interaction device is a tile-like interactive object that allows for both exploration of the Smart Space in terms of connections and manipulation of these connections and information/data streams. Coloured LED lighting and light dynamics visualize the connections and connection possibilities between the various devices. By means of putting devices close to one of the four sides of the tile, a user can check if there is a connection and if not if a connection is possible. By simply picking up the tile, and shaking it a user can make or break the connection between the devices present at the interaction tile.”

More at www.sofia.id.tue.nl

[youtube width=”480″ height=”290″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdZcjqfq8RQ[/youtube]

Action Audio

Posted on January 17, 2010 by ID Realities

Brief Description

In this project, you will explore how you can leverage the above described auditory perception skills in interaction design. The goal of this project is to design a system that subtly provides relevant information via short auditory cues in the home environment. These auditory cues can be connected to everyday objects. For example; what if the refridgerator tells us what is in it whenever we open it, or the door-knob tells us if it is going to rain when we open the front door?

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Blurring the Boundaries

Posted on January 17, 2010 by Jun

Brief Description

In envisioned smart environments, enabled by future ubiquitous technologies, electronic objects will be able to interconnect and interoperate. How will users make sense of the connections that are made and the information that is exchanged? This Internet of Things could have a life of its own, exchanging digital concepts and values between its members, having an understanding of each other and communicating in their own language. Will it be possible to represent this digital world in the physical reality we live in, providing handles to control and clues to understand, build conceptual models of what is happening in this hidden reality?

Exchanging values between different realities can be viewed in the widest sense. Not only in computer games and other virtual communities we can cross boundaries, also in daily life we are often interfacing with another reality, like the digital reality in many electronic products. As the products and our environments become smarter and more complex, these connections between physical and digital reality are becoming increasingly complex and problematic. Often, we cannot make sense of what is happening in the digital world anymore. As industrial designers it is our job to make sense of this hidden digital world.

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Adaptive Office

Posted on January 17, 2010 by ID Realities

Brief Description

In general, an Ambient Intelligence system enhances the physical space through technology, media and services. According to Aarts, is defined as a combination of context awareness, ubiquitous computing and natural interaction, in order to achieve a distributed system architecture integrates different typologies of basic devices, defined by their power consumption and functionality.

Within this scope, this project consists of designing an adaptive office that provides its user(s) with an enhanced working experience, by enabling different user-adaptation levels, based on needs and requirements. Considering the specific features of the typology of space selected (individual offices, group work spaces, meeting rooms, moveable offices, etc), the developed system should take in account current worker needs and trends in task accomplishment. This includes providing workers with adaptive options and possibilities that ultimately augment the level of efficiency via comfort, communication and access to services and information during the use of this space, e.g. temperature, sound, light, image, etc.

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Hello Realities.

Posted on January 17, 2009 by ID Realities

“Many realities exist. People continuously shift, among sometimes physical, sometimes virtual or even spiritual realities. Design manipulates the boundaries between the realties, creating experiences that are not experienced otherwise.” — Jun Hu

“Realities are in a steady flow and therefore a essential part of the design process.” — Gregor Görres

“The theme Realities for me is about the changing nature of our everyday world, and the way design participates in these changes. Design is about transforming everyday reality into a better one, based on a vision on progress, and incorporating technological possibilities in a skilled and elegant way.” — Philip Ross

“People see realities in completely different ways – each reality appears to be true! How can we design objects and systems in an intelligent way to adept to individual realities to enrich everyday life?” — Lucian Reindl

“Our theme ‘realities’ is about that what is, and that what could be. Design has the power of societal transformation. In ‘realities’ we aim to use this power to make positive change. ” — Joep Frens

Hollywood principles

Posted on February 18, 2008 by Jun

This presentation was given at the first ID Colloquium. For more details see IDZine.

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“The Industrial Design department has started a series of colloquia, aimed at ID staff and ID Master students. The idea is to exchange information about research efforts and inspire one another through quests and discussion. It is a tight formula. In only sixty minutes three presentations are given. One of the presenters was dr. Jun Hu, assistant professor with the Designed Intelligence capacity group.

Jun was asked to raise an issue that would provoke questions and discussion in the department. For that reason he did not elaborate on the software engineering research he is conducting but focused in his presentation on the various languages that are used within the ID department. He used the so-called ‘Hollywood principle’ as a starting point. His conclusion is that three different languages are spoken within ID: a verbal language (describing in words), a software engineering oriented language (presenting the events in a flow chart) and a mathematical language (presenting the events in a most strict and indisputable manner).

Each language has its own advantages and disadvantages. In order to communicate well within the department, the need for common ground is essential. We all need to be capable to communicate in the three languages sufficiently.”