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@Keir_Royale83

The Blog Suffers…

Hello there, you may of notice that the blog has been neglected over the past 2 months. This is because I have been working since leaving Uni, which hasn’t left me enough time to update this poor old blog.

Over the summer I hope to launch a website and continue working, so updates maybe few and far between.

Until I find something interesting to blog about.

adios

Experience Working

For 2 weeks in June I was on work experience at a interaction company called Random International. They are considered artist, but I think deep down they don’t like that title, I think they would rather be referred to as designers.

They produce awesome interactive pieces that mainly react to sound and movement. Hopefully I will be going back there for a bit over the summer.

Check them out at their website also they have video on vimeo

Welcome to The Machine

For the final project at uni we had to produce a machine that is started by human touch, then every action had to start another action. We had to have a physical element and a digital element as well.

The project was more about prototyping from the initial working models to the final object.

I decided to make my machine pretty big, it was a meter and half by a meter. It had 5 different actions, I would start the machine by ringing a mobile with a golf ball balance on the top of it. The ball would then run down some pipe to a box that was connected to a piece of wood that was holding up a hammer. When the ball goes into the box the string would pull the piece of away from the hammer and would cause a vibration on the shelf.

Another piece of wood falls from the shelf due to the vibrations with that a piece of acrylic, that is attached to the wood, falls from a pipe to release a ball that would run down the behind my laptop and start an animation that was of a ball falling into cups and would run off the other side of the screen that would release another ball that would fall onto an iPod to play a random song.

There would be a video of this process but due to unforeseen circumstances (and not having time to test the machine as a whole) but I do have images of the final machine. I decided to keep it the look of the machine very miminal with just a hint of colour from the 3 pieces of wood used. Also the boxes were made from acrylic to give a clean look.

Code Name: Public Toilets

We were given a brief of coming up with a design solution for a public toilet. Yes, PUBLIC TOILETS!!!!!!!!!!!! We were asked to research human behavior within a public toilet, how people use the space and facilities within a public toilet. We had to use video research, which I wasn’t most comfortable with, but we managed to get footage.

I took it upon myself to see what it would be like to use a Public toilet blindfolded. It was pretty horrible. I was touching everything and not knowing what you were touching and how dirty the space is can be quite disconcerting. I didn’t get to talk to any blind people, which was unfortunate, so I couldn’t get a view from a blind person on how they use a public toilet.

After doing that video I decided to design a navigation system for blind people to use in public toilets. I decided to design an app for an iphone. AN IPHONE FOR THE BLIND, I hear you cry. Well, I did a bit of research and found out that blind people own iphones and is recommended by the RNIB as suitable phone for the blind, due to the fact it has a speech functions as most Macs do.

The purpose of this application is guide the blind around a public toilet through photo recognition, using a camera on the iphone. The application will help the user to touch less surfaces in the public toilet, also it will locate and guide the user the available facilities. It will give the user warnings of hazards such as water or toilet tissues on the floor. The user will be warned by a bleeping sound so they can avoid the hazard or obstacles.

The features include:

Recognition of facilities in public toilet such as urinal, cubicle, hand dryer and paper towels

Guides you to nearest available facility

Warns the user of hazards and obstacles in public toilet

Tells the user how many people

A quick one while you was away…

At the start of the week we were giving a mini project to be completed by Thursday. The brief was to think about the Ravensbourne’s move to the new site next to the 02, we had to pick a concern of the new site and come up with a feasible idea and a “blue sky” idea.

One concern me and partners had was the lack of parking spaces, Ravensboure has no parking at the new site but it is more accessible by public transport (doesn’t mean your going to get there on time). Our feasible idea was to construct a floating car park on the River Thames.

Here is our proposal (some nice sketch up model from esteemed colleague Ben King)…

Our “blue sky” (said though gritted teeth) idea is to have a robot locker that will follow students around campus to help them carry their equipment, give them live updates on their schedules, travel, events that are happening in the university.

These updates will be tailored for the individual using the robot, these preferences will be loaded when the user scans their thumb to start operating the robot.

Below is a more detailed description on the final sheet (I think the architect came out in me, I have hang around their kind far too long)…

Project Lidl

Hello again, I have had feedback for my project for Lidl, the grade was B+ because of two minor (human) errors. The final presentation sheets that were done were not big enough and some of the information was not legible. The final model was not finished to a high enough standard, which was a bit frustrating but never mind you live and learn.

But overall the feedback was very positive. The project was described as “very strong for this stage in your studies”. So there is a silver lining for you!

So I am happy with the outcome but those few minor things can be sorted. We still have to hand in technical drawings and I think we have a chance to hand in a better model, so the grade might be bumped up, who knows?

More details of the product and the service can be found on the image below…