Past Projects

Physical Computing

Bodies, senses and embodied interaction
October – November, 2009

The purpose of this project was to explore new ways to interact with digital products and personal technologies by designing innovative interface solutions that went beyond the traditional ‘desktop’ metaphor. A central part was to explore senses and body language as ways to interact as a base for designing innovative concepts in physical computing. The students worked with Arduino as a platform for prototyping.

Mobile Computing

Exploring new interaction paradigms for media players
September - October, 2009

This design project was a cooperation with the company The Astonishing Tribe (or TAT for short). The task was to design new concepts for media players, considering new innovative interaction paradigms and the experiential qualities they bring.

recollect
by Quentin Duncan, Sergio M. Galán Nieto, Marcus Paeschke, Adeel Rashid

recollect is a media player that chronicles your life based on your media collection. It maps and plays your media based on important events, people and places. It allows the user to explore collected memories in an easy way, discover connections between media and friends, events and places, and thus to remember more.

  

Memrx
by Christian Hertlein, Silvia Venditti, Vaskar Dasgupta, Cemile Yalcin

MEMRX is an application within a media player that allows you to collect several forms of media to create a memory. It gives you the possibility of storing, browsing and sharing memories digitally in a metaphorical box. The metaphor here is that a real physical box of memories has been reproduced in a digital device. You can relate your memory in a more realistic and logical way. You can store memories in a digital device within the application, just like you would put them in a real box. You get a realistic feeling of putting for example a map, a picture, a ticket or a post card into the digital box.

Moodsic
by Prem Chandran, Ali Dehghanpour, Anne Wohlauf (exchange student), and Xun Yang

Moodsic is a mobile music player application that allows the user to generate a playlist from a database based on a mood and share it with another user. The user manipulates a sound sample dynamically and generates a playlist in real time. The sound sample gives the user a sense of the music type generated for the playlist. Moodsic makes music search faster and more intuitive, and generates playlists from a database for sharing with user preferentiality.

Paranasnap
by Jonas Breme (exchange student), Matthew Hennesey, and Mehdy Khayami

ParanaSnap is a physical collaborative approach to building user experience into photo collages with a lateral (non-linear) based program. It connects multiple smartphones and syncs their photo libraries. ParanaSnap provides the tools for adding pictures and texts to a digital photo album. After completing it publishes the album among all participants. It allows people to gather physically to revitalize a common experience and use the group synergy to create valuable memorias.

Individual Projects

May 2008

The last project in the first year is individual and students are free to set up a design project of their own choice to demonstrate their design ability. It can be based on ideas left behind in earlier projects or it can venture into new territories. It is also see an opportunity to explore areas considered for the second year thesis project.

The Critical Corset
by Vanessa Carpenter

As a person's heart rate rises, the corset will tighten, automatically ensuring the practice of standing up taller by tightening the stomach and enhancing the chest, and indicating to the wearer, before they are cognitively aware, that they are attracted to someone. Using a Polar Heart Rate monitor and receiver chip, the heart rate of the wearer was successfully interpreted using the Arduino board. If the wearer was relaxed and their heart rate rose above a certain level, they would feel the result as a tightening of the corset through the use of air being pumped into an inner lining in the corset. This would stay inflated, squeezing the user, until they became relaxed enough, and lowered their heart rate again, and would then deflate. For more information and videos, see: http://www.halfmachine.dk/posts/170

    

Solid Light
by Hamish Chilton (guest student from Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa)

Solid Light is a concept inspired among other things by Anthony McCall`s solid light sculptures where light is projected through dark rooms filled with haze. The light is projected using reel to reel projectors and patterns projected are simple static geometric linear shapes. The significance of these sculptures is that they form between the projector and the surface projected upon. The Solid Light allow the user to produce similar light sculptures in real-time by ”carving out” solid light shapes in mid-air.. The interactive pattern projection makes use of tracking technology similar to what is used in digital cameras for face recognition. A webcam captures the movement of a “hand held solid light pen” with an LED light. This movement is tracked and a pattern is then projected via a data projector back onto the spot of the LED light. Colours can be selected using the pen, including black for erasing, by sliding a button forewards and backwards with the thumb. Depressing the button will then project the desired brush stroke.

  

Place-Specific Computing

Place-specific designs for Inkonst – a local cultural centre
November 2007 – January 2008

In this project we cooperated with two research projects: “Malmö Living Lab for New Media” (MLLNM), a project exploring new approaches for designing new media, and REcult, a research project exploring place-specific computing through design-oriented research (see www.do-fi.se/REcult). One of the partners of the MLLNM project is Inkonst, a cultural centre that acts as an alternative arena for young experimental culture in central Malmö. Inkonst was the main arena for the design project.

The students set out to design place-specific computing for Inkonst, where there are several regular cultural activities and clubs engaging different communities in Malmö. The goal was to design interactive technology for Inkonst as a place for cultural activity, enhancing the experience of visitors by for example mediating interactions between visitors, or between visitors and the different spaces and facilities at Inkonst.

The Cube
by Amanda Hall, Björn Pettersson and Wayne Coughlan

This group worked with Doc Lounge – a documentary film club that screens documentary films, but also provides audiences with additional experiences that encourage thought and discussion. The Cube is an effective digital discussion device designed to interact with an audience and stimulate discussion among relatively exclusive individuals and small groups. The device is a semi-transparent cube with 25 cm sides, with questions relating to the current documentary film displayed on the sides. It is passed around in the audience to stimulate discussion. The questions on the cube induce suggestions and comments that are later picked up by the moderators of Doc Lounge in the discussion after the screening. The final version of the Cube uses an Arduino board, an accelerometer sensor, a tilt sensor, 6 ULNs and 30 LEDs. The LEDSs light up the current top face of the Cube when rotated. If left alone for 5 seconds it starts to blink, in its own cry for attention.

    

Living Floor
by Louise Ry Mathiasen and Henrik Svarrer Larsen

The Living Floor is a design for people to pass time, ponder and talk about; plus enrich the atmosphere of the place. Projected graphic creatures/patterns of light on the floor subtly relates to the existing behaviors; and discretely blend into the lounge area. The imagery evolves as non-linear patterns of movement. It responds to people sitting down, getting up as well as restlessness in the seats. The design has come about from a study of the place through intervention.

    

Toilets With Personality
by Daniel Brynolf, Vanessa Carpenter, Jonas Eriksson and Mads Høbye

In this project a series of interventions was staged that focused on social interactions between people in the Inkonst club environment, eventually focusing on toilet signage. Toilet signs were costructed out of large LED displays, and a series of experiments were set up. Using the LED signs, ladies and gents signs were switched using different mechanisms, with sensors counting number of entries, and also introducing a control allowing visitors to switch the signes themselves. All experiments were documented, and several interesting behaviours in reaction to the switching signs were observed.

Videos available:
Toilets with Personality
Ladies and mens room mix up
Ladies and mens room mix up v2
InKonst night
LED-matrix test
Switching washroom signs

Touch Me
by Romy Kniewel and Lilly Yeh (Fashion & Technology student)

This project explored the area of fashion and technology, with digital technology as extension of the body; both as a new concept of identity and more importantly as a way of getting attention and encourageing social interaction and communication. A series of wearables were designed that should serve as conversation-starters and facilitate person-to-person interaction at a nightclub in a playful way. The designs were based on Arduino mini boards and various touch sensors.

            

Mobile Computing

World Cup 2010
October 2007

The task was to design mobile technology to support the shared experience of the Soccer World Cup in South Africa 2010 as a multi-cultural event. The goal was to develop new opportunities for taking part in this event, creating a shared experience of a major soccer tournament, mediated by mobile digital technology, but retaining and supporting cultural multiplicity.

The SoundsCape
by Daniel Brynolf, Mads Höbye, Alam Khorsed, Romy Kniewel and Henrik Larsen

The SoundsCape is a metal replica of Table Mountain to be placed in the fan area in the city centre of Cape Town. It responds by sound and light to touches (hit/step/stroke) by the user, and in addition provides a subtle ‘hidden director’ of the user generated output so that the music from multiple players is ‘softly’ synchronized to the same rhythm. As an installation the SoundsCape fits in and adds to the architecture of Cape Town by placement, form and light. It makes enhanced drumming easily available and appealing for the ordinary fan, and thereby making the qualities of African drumming an integrated part of the fan fest in the streets.

Tribe2Tribe
by Wayne Coughlan, Amanda Hall, Toukir Hoshain and Louise Ry Mathiasen

Tribe2Tribe is a real life game that encourages face to face contact between the World Cup participants by introducing a bangle that tracks your handshakes with other people wearing bangles. The handshake information is transmitted through the wearers mobile phone, which shows the score and statistics, to a common high score list on a web server. A special 2010 handshake will be presented making soccer fans feel connected and creating a fun, spontaneous atmosphere. Tribe2tribe thus promotes friendly physical contact and meetings between all nations participating in the World Cup. It stimulates tribal conversations, despite possible cross cultural differences.

  

The Portal
by Björn Petersson, Vanessa Carpenter and Jonas Eriksson

The Portal is a tele-presence concept for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. It allows users all over the world, including residents of Cape Town, to partake in viewing and cheering for the players while being outside of the stadium via big displays situated next to the field, at the same level as the grass. Each screen is connected to another screen somewhere outside of the stadium via a video conference-solution. People out in the streets could approach one of these screens and see the match as well as at the same time be seen at the stadium. The system changes context based on time. When no game is played, screens around the world instead pair up with one another to allow people from different parts to communicate with each other. One vital aspect of this is the fact that Cape Town would have a larger density of screens than other places, and thus most communication would be between residents of (or visitors to) Cape Town, and the world. The Portal thus provides inclusive access to the Soccer World Cup, also for less priviliged citizens, e.g. in the townships of Cape Town, and in addition connects these sites to the rest of the world.

  

Mobile Computing

Sustainable Transportation
September 2007

The students designed mobile digital technology to support a resource ecology around sustainable transportation in the city. The design work focused on supporting the operational aspects of transportation, i.e. provide a workable system that improves sustainability through resource sharing, rather than motivation or regulation. Your design may contain an ecology of different artifacts that cooperate in providing the functionality.

The Soft Value Planner
by Amanda Hall, Henrik Larsen and Jonas Eriksson

SVP is an intuitive and adaptive traffic planner service for mobile phones. It requires a lange touch screen, camera and ability to track its position. The planner works dominant-competitively in strengthening sustainable transportation within the exiting patterns of transport by attaching qualities to it. The user can choose routes by tapping a map. While following a route, the user can view and create tags (i.e. photos and sounds recorded at the spot). The overall preferences are configured when connecting the phone to a computer. An essential setting is the community of friends – defined as 1st degree contacts or co-members of a circle (like in linkedin.com or facebook.com). The planner facilitates a shift from less to more sustainable means of transportation by promoting choices of ‘soft values’, which we define as combinations of sustainability and travel qualities. This is done by presenting ‘soft’ routes by default, by intuitive interface, by community building and making the routes relevant to the user by adaptation.

The RideFinder
by Toukir Hoshain, Romy Kniewel, Louise Ry Mathiasen and Björn Petersson

The RideFinder is a system that allows commuters and city travellers to find a ride with a car going in the direction they are heading. Travellers register their general requirements on a website. When a traveller needs a ride, RideFinder selects the most appropriate available ride, balancing personal requirements against system efficiency and minimizing ecological impact. The RideFinder system handles payment based on a fixed rate per kilometer to avoid negotiations. For security, the system logs all journeys. Also, implementation of an existing electronic identifying system (e-legitimation) as Bank-ID will enhance trust and confidence in the system.