Sky Staff Video

Isabel Whiteside
IMG_8182.MOV

Sky Hearing Staff 2.0

Isabel Whiteside and Lainey Kerr

Perspective changer

Alexander Athanasopoulos and t t

Translating the virtual world into reality, the Perspective Changer is a wearable that allows the user to change their perspective. Similar to a periscope, the device is constructed using multiple mirrors to direct the user's vision. The concept of driving the device was to create something to allow anyone to be able to experience the world through a third person perspective as well as behind them, and could become useful to someone with neck paralysis .

The Perspective Changer was created to allow anyone to be able to experience their surrounding in a new and interesting way. The Perspective Changer uses multiple mirrors to direct the user’s vision to the top of their head and behind them. It uses a small rotor to rotate the three mirrors, each of which are controlled with their own respective dials. The largest mirror, attached to a helmet, on top of the wearer’s head, is the primary mirror that generates the third person perspective. The viewing mirror is directly in front of the wearer’s eyes it is angled so that it reflects off the mirror above their head. A third mirror, situated behind their neck can provide a view behind them. When the top mirrors rotated to face the angle of the back viewing mirror, the user will be able to see behind them.

The Emotion Sleeve

Ilana Cooke and Teju Kim

Ilana:
The Emotion Sleeve: A means of communicating the severity of your emotions without having to use words, for people who either don’t want to speak or can’t express themselves.

The designers created a sleeve, like that of a shirt, with LEDs attached and a piece of conductive stretchable fabric around the cuff. Depending on how much force is put onto the fabric when the wearer makes a fist, the LEDs change color. There are three colors, purple, which is a base or cool temperature; yellow, which is slightly heated; and red, which indicates the most severe extreme emotions. When people are upset, and they are too angry to communicate how upset they are, the sleeve shows the wearer’s emotions and lets the other person their feelings, so they know how to react. The lights convey the feelings of the wearer which will then help them interact with the rest of the world. People may wonder if parents should dress their children in this type of clothing if it could keep the child from finding it necessary to communicate without help. The hope is this technology help autistic children to communicate better and that they use the sleeve intentionally as well as it portraying the emotions that are out of their control.

The sleeve is for people who are too tired or upset to express the severity of their emotions or people with autism or disorders that affect the ability to communicate. The technology to make the sleeve work consists of a microprocessor, 2 LED strips and a piece of fabric that can conduct electricity.

The sleeve helps express emotions in the most basic way, so they could be interpreted by anyone, making communication simpler. The user just wears the sleeve like they would wear a shirt and when they clench their fists, the sleeve portrays externalizes their emotions.

Teju:

The Emotion Sleeve: A sleeve-designed for people who have difficulty expressing their feelings, displays how intense the wearer's emotion is.  

The Emotion Sleeve communicates the intensity of emotions through colorful lights. The device is a cloth sleeve with two LED strips; that connect to a piece of conductive fabric attached to the cuff. The long sleeve reaches down to the palm. The cloth is pressure sensitive and when it is squeezed or stretched, the Arduino changes the color and intensity of the LED light based on how much strength is applied to the cloth. The user squeezes their hand harder or softer depending on the intensity of their emotions. The LEDs have three different colors: red, for a strong emotion; yellow for a less intense emotion; and purple, for a neutral or resting emotion.

The Emotion Sleeve is designed for people who can't verbally say how they are feeling, like autistic people. The sleeve helps the people around the wearer be sensitive and responsive to the wearer’s feelings so that they don’t act on misunderstandings. The device was created to communicate as simply as possible, by using emotion and color association. The concept was designed to be so simple that a very young child could understand the basics of what was happening.

The Colorful Conversater

Oliver Peterson

The Brief Part 2 - Full Brief

Andrew Todd Marcus

The Brief is due Friday Morning by 9:00AM.

Remember, all documents related to the brief are found HERE. These include a note from the writing coach and the Composition Reminder Sheet.

Now that you have created an document that outlines all of the information you want to relate in the Brief, it is time to weave that information together into a strong narrative that ties together the Why, How and What and Who of your project through clear, cogent writing. Tell the story of how your idea was born, developed, and manifested.

Create 1 post titled “The Brief” in the Writing tab with text that includes the following 2 items, numbered:

  1. A 1-2 sentence project description for your transcript. This will serve as the basis of the Project Description that appears in your transcript. This description should not include the name of the project and should be written in the third person. This was Question 1 in your Outline.
    examples:
    Night Light Blankie: A child's sensory blanket that provides comfort and privacy in the high stress environment of the hospital using weight, textures, and light. The blanket transforms into a mini light up fort over a child’s head.
    Cocoon: a shroud that explores human spirituality and the concept of life after death through the use of repetitive religious iconography. Composed of over 300 pieces of laser cut balsa wood lined with space tape, the icons are arranged using a mathematical strange attractor.
  1. A 1-2 paragraph brief for your project based on the description below. This will be based off the information you put together in your Outline and should focus on style. The NuVu writing coach will give you feedback and you will have the opportunity to revise this text before the final presentation. The primary purpose of The Brief is to explain, entice, and convince the reader that your project is amazing and important. Imagine your project on display in the Museum of Modern Art. The Brief is hanging on the wall next to your work. In 1-2 paragraphs, a viewer should understand what your project is, why it exists, and how you made it, and who it is for. More importantly, the viewer should be interested and care. You will draw them into your project through a compelling narrative.

    Things to think about:
    • Use the information in your Outline. Do not simply put all of the answers together -- you must weave it together into a clear story.
    • The what is a clear statement of the thesis or problem+solution. Your project description for your transcript (#1 above) can be adapted for this purpose.
    • The why explains how your project changes the world. It is the reason your project exists – what social issue is it engaging, who is your project helping, how does the project change the world, and what important social, intellectual, or technical questions does it raise? The scope of the why can vary widely.
    • The how briefly explains what technical prowess, innovative methods, or cool materials you used in your solution.
    • The who explains who will use your design, why they will use it, and in what context.
    • Think of the reader - it is good to imagine that a college admissions officer AND a potential employer in the field of your design should both be able to understand and be excited by the project based on your writing.

Write in the Third person in an explanatory fashion. Resist using I, WE, OUR, or YOU and focus on describing the work.

Here is an example from Penelope the Pain-O-Monster:

Pediatricians and other doctors find it challenging to collect accurate self reported information from children about their level of pain due to lack of communication skills, fear, anxiety, and discomfort. Traditional 1-10 pain scales do not fully address these issues, often leading to uncomfortable children and inaccurate symptom information. Penelope the Pain-O-Monster is a cute plush toy that uses integrated pressure sensors to allow children to express their source and level of pain through play.

A previous project, The EmoOwl, helped children with autism to express themselves by translating motion into color. Penelope the Pain-O-Monster grew out of the desire to expand children’s health menagerie with a different stuffed animal, one that makes the pain charts patients use to express their pain more interactive and easier for a child to use. Because research has shown that playing with stuffed animals can take children’s mind off pain, an additional “Fun” mode was added to distract from pain and anxiety. The handcrafted stuffed animal uses force sensors in different body parts that light up from blue to red depending on how hard they are pushed to show the child’s pain level. The hope is that, as one of many future healthcare friends, Penelope can help sick children feel safer while providing more useful information to care providers.

The Cocoon (Presentation Example)

Kate Reed and Andrew Todd Marcus
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Trippy Goggles

Sam Daitzman and Joshua Brancazio
1 / 7

Theory

Our standpoint is that present reality is not inherently binding. In order to escape the monotony and dullness of everyday life or draw unprejudiced conclusions about society, one has to find a way to step outside reality. The feeling of reality is much like an equation, where certain conditions yield certain outcomes. As one experiences the world, they become acclimated to the results that they see every day. People come to expect certain things:

  • Gravity causes things to fall down   
  • Feet go on the ground   
  • You see what is in front of you   
  • When you move your head left you will see more of what is to your left   
  • A sense of “thingness”  - the feeling of existence and control within a familiar reality

The Trippy Goggles change or wholly disrupt each of these. By seeing yourself on the ceiling or wall, you become a step outside of reality, as you contradict the rules that reality sets in place. This step outside a normalized feeling of connection between actions and results disrupts the normal experience of corporeal existence and leads to a number of interesting results.

Additionally, the goggles give the wearer a chance to take a step outside not only reality, but society. The experience of using the goggles is subjective, but it is not subject to the same terms as observation of a society from within. It is not subject to what the wearer would normally consider “normal.” This jump is necessary for an even-handed assessment of the merits of the society being observed.

While wearing the goggles, one must consciously process experiences and actions that would normally come instinctively. This can be as simple as walking up stairs, or it can be as complex as manipulating an object with your hands. This prevents anything from truly feeling “normal” or “everyday” and allows for a higher level of generalized thought while observing societal interactions.

This aspect of the goggles ties directly to psychogeographical theories about human movement. Instead of disrupting the normalized path of a human walking from point A to point B through the use of localized architectural or interaction-based interventions, the goggles use psychological and visual manipulation to change the experience of movement and existence.

The experience of viewing something through the goggles should be more captivating and thought-provoking than viewing the same area with the naked eye. It should be a profoundly introspective experience that simultaneously forces you to rethink the society surrounding you, even down to extremely simple interactions like walking past someone on the sidewalk.

By forcing the viewer to rethink their surroundings, the goggles enable them to observe present society not as a member, but as an outside, more objective observer. While the naked-eyed viewer may not give a second thought to someone avoiding eye contact or walking faster when they see someone else, the goggles force you to notice this and more. You need to notice all of it, because you’re forced to reprocess your surroundings.

Wearing the goggles also gives you a chance to escape the repetitiveness of everyday life, again allowing for a chance to rethink life as it is today. Some experiences with the goggles feel powerful or existential, while others are simply entertaining or amusing. These experiences also provide an opportunity for escape from daily routines and schedules. This allows the wearer to think about whether they truly want to be a part of these sort of organized, repetitive patterns of life.

As well as rigid patterns of time, the goggles make the wearer rethink rigid patterns of movement. As 

Thoreau says:

“Roads are made for horses and men of business. I do not travel in them much comparatively, because I am not in a hurry to get to any tavern, or grocery, or livery stable, or depot to which they lead” (Thorough, Walking Part 1, ¶19)

Most people in modern-day capitalistic society have a place of residence and at least one place of work. They go from their place of residence to place of work without pausing to stop and take in the scenery, and with as little interaction with others as possible. They never have a chance to make an educated decision about whether society in its present form is correct for them - indeed, they never get a chance to truly observe society except as a member of it.

Aesthetic

The goggles should feel like they could lift you off the ground and into the sky. They should fade away while on your face and feel like they aren’t quite there (for a greater sense of immersion and reorientation instead of disorientation or confusion).

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