The Sushi Express at Yew Tee point has a $1 per sushi plate offer. I decided to go down with my friends to eat some cheap sushi. Therefore, I thought it will be entertaining to do a live broadcast to allow people to watch me eat. It is quite an interesting experience. I will consider doing it more often. Just kidding.
The response for my Facebook Live Feed is pretty good considered the fact that I do not usually post such feeds. I received and felt so much love.
One of my friends even whatsapp me as he is surprised that I post Facebook Live Feed.
Oclean One is a smart electric toothbrush that helps its users to improve their oral health by providing a customized brushing experience. As everyone’s teeth are different, the device helps to implement brushing routine tailored to the oral care needs of each individual using the product. Customized brushing routines are generated by the AI on the brushing device through the data it collected through the users’ brushing habits. Other factors such as age, gender, tooth condition, and diet are also taken into consideration as well. At the same time, users can also customize the brushing plans provided by the device to further customize it to their personal needs. Factors such as duration and brushing intensity are some of the factors that can be adjusted. The function of providing feedback to its users is another feature that I find greatly enhance its usability. After each brush, it will provide a score to indicate how well the users brush their teeth and provide information on the areas they can improve on.
Product Visualisation
Pros and Cons of the Device
Pros
1. One of the major positive points about Oclean One is its ability to provide its costumers a customized experience in brushing their teeth. The devices allow the users to customized their brushing routine through their own brushing habits and take their personal data into consideration. This personalized experience allows the users to feel control over their product as their product are cater to their personal needs only. It allows the users to formal a personal bond with their product instead of the generic relationship they have with the one size fits all toothbrush. At the same time, having a customized experience prevents information overload for their users. The device will present relevant information the users need through the personalized process. Users will not need to sort through a massive amount of information but will have a reasonable time to consume the information that is tailored to their personal needs.
2. The ability to provide feedback is another factor that makes Oclean One a positive product. It makes the users feel that the product is “listening” to them. Their actions will cause an effect on the response provided by their devices. It allows a positive bond to be formed between the device and its users. The users will feel they are not merely using the product but interacting with one. Through this positivity, it will motive the users to use the product on a constant basis to enjoy the feedback from the device. It can motivate and improve the performance of the users to allow them to get better at brushing their teeth.
3. In the long run, it will allow the users of the product to have better oral health as they are able to learn from the personalized date provided. With these data, they are able to recognize the areas they can improve upon. For example, a user might have a certain area of the teeth that constantly not brushed in a proper manner. If such information is pass to him/her through the device, he/she will be aware of such issues and rectify the issue during the next time he/she is brushing his/her teeth. This constant cycle of learning about ones oral health state allows people to be equipped with the information to manage their teeth properly.
Cons
1. To me, one of the major drawbacks of the product is its price and the need for maintenance. The device cost about SGD84.50 (Information from Lazada.com). I am not sure if the price is worth for its ability to enhance the brushing experience of people. At the same time, the device will one day malfunctions as it is, after all, an electronic product. Therefore, the user will need to send it for repair or get it replaced for a new one. The amount of effort involved in rectifying the problem makes me skeptical about getting the product.
2. As the product involved technical aspects such as the usage of an application from a smartphone, the learning curve involved might exchange certain group of people such as people from the older generation who are less technologically savvy. A portion of the people might not have the patience to learn how to use the product in the correct manner that will benefit them. Brushing of teeth is a simple routine for all and the inclusion of technological might prove to be too much for some to manage. They might feel the effort involved is too much to be able to enjoy a better brushing experience.
3. With such a device in the market, it makes us question the necessity to include technology into daily objects that are already doing their job well. Are we including technology into daily objects for the sake of adding because we are able to or are we really adding technology so we can enhance their usability? To me, I feel the inclusion of technology into these daily objects is too much. It complicates the simple notion of brushing one’s teeth even though it provides seemingly relevant information about one’s oral health.
Suggestion for alternate use and/or modification
The product with modification can be used by vets to gain health knowledge of animals they are assessing during medical check-ups. Besides cleaning the pets’ teeth and examining the condition of their teeth, it can serve other important function that can benefit the pets’ health. Through the product, the vets can gain insights on the health condition of the specific pet. If the pet is suffering from any form of illness, the product will be able to alert the vets of such happenings. The vets can also monitor the food the pest are consuming and are able to provide recommendations to their owners to improve the diet of the pets.
The idea is inspired by the traditional game catching. The game will consists of two teams preferably equal number of people on both sides. Each side will be wearing slippers with LED lights of different colors to differentiate from the other team. (Red and Blue) The objective of the game is to turn the LED lights of the opposite team into the other color. (Red to blue or vice versa.) They can do it by attempting to position their LED light in front of the light sensors placed at the back of the slippers players are all wearing. The game ends when one side of the team had all their members’ LED light changed color.
Areas of changes/improvements in concept:
Since the start of the development process we had make the following changes /improvements to the prototype:
We had changed the medium from shoes to slippers to create a more comical image of our prototype since it is designed for a game.
Change in the sensors was also made as we realized the player catching another player has the tendency to “kill” himself/herself if he/she stomps his/her feet as it might trigger his/her own LED light. Therefore, light sensors are used instead of the players.
The format of the game is changed as well. Before this, the game consisted of catch, healer and the rest of the players. However, we realized the structure of the game is not workable. For example, what if the catcher catch another player and he/she turns into the catcher. Does that particular person start catching people? If so how does the healer “heal” him/her. The conflict in gameplay caused us to change the gameplay into two teams of players. The two teams will try to change the color of the LED light of the opposite team.
There will be a timing the led lights can be lighted up. It will be triggered preferably by a button the player can operate. It will have a cool down period. Therefore, the player needs to time when he/she wants to light his/her LED light when approaching a player from the opposite team. If time incorrectly, he/she will be at a vulnerable position to be “attacked” by a player(s) from the opposite team.
Process:
Testing out the blue and red LED lights.
Fixing the LED lights onto the slippers for testing.
Assembling the arduino set up on the slippers.
Major issues:
We faced the following problems while prototyping:
1. The LED lights were unstable. They were showing random colors and blinking in random manners.
2. The LED lights were not responsive when we interacted with it.
These are some of the issues we faced while building our prototype. After troubleshooting, we realized most of the problems were solved after we change some of the parts as they are aging and thus malfunctioning.
3. Due to time constraints and our lack of knowledge and practice in Arduino we could not get the light sensors to work. In the end, we created a button function for the set up to mimic the triggering of the LED lights when the light sensor is activated.
From the video, the LED lights are changing colors through the press of buttons to mimic the triggering of light sensors which will result in color change. However, we are having difficulty to make the LED lights response in a consistent manner.
The idea is inspired by the traditional game catching. The catcher will wear shoes with red LED lights. The healer will wear shoes with yellow LED lights. The rest of the players will wear shoes with orange LED lights. All the shoes will have sound sensors attached to them. The catcher upon getting close to a player will stomp his/her shoes. If the shoes of the catcher and his/her victim are close enough, the sound sensors will be triggered. The LED lights of the victim will change. The healer can change the players that are caught through stomping his/her shoes near the affected players to “save” him/her.
Further development
After discussion, we decided to use slippers instead of shoes. We feel the use of slippers produces a more comical effect as compared to shoes. It adds to the fun in our proposed game. At the same time, we also decided to use light sensors instead of sound sensors to trigger the change in color of the LED lights. We realized if sound sensors are used there is a possibility of the catcher “committing suicide” by stomping his/her slippers near his/her victim. The sound he/she produced with his/her slippers will also trigger his/her own slippers. Therefore, we decided to use light sensors instead.
We were tasked to generate ideas to explore the possibilities we can create with LED strip.
The following are the ideas we generated:
Idea 1:
The LED strip is used as markers on a table to indicate that a seat is taken by someone. The inspiration comes from people using tissue paper packs to indicate a seat is taken. We feel it will be interesting to use LED strips to indicate instead.
Idea 2:
This is a game concept with players playing tug of war with the heartbeat. There will be sensors recording the player’s heart rate through the pulse and it will be reflected on the LED strip. The higher heart rate, the more LED lights it will occupy to the opposite direction. Both sides will compete who has the higher heart rate. Once either side has his/her LED lights representing the heart rate reaching the other end, he/she is the winner. In order for the heart rate to increase, the pair can perform activities such as watching a horror movie or going for a jog.
Idea 3:
We got inspiration from the magic wands of Harry Potter. The LED strips will be on the magic wands of the players indicating their life points. A library of words will be loaded on the Arduino program and into the LED strip set up on the magic wands. The player can attack another player through shouting words in the working band loaded on the Arduino set up. The set up will consist of sound sensors to detect the sounds produced by the players. The lights on the LED strips will be activated by the sound produced by players. The more difficult a word is the more damage it will “inflict” on other players. A player “dies” once all his/her lights on the LED strip is lighted up.
Idea 4:
The idea consists of installations with flashlight equipped with sensors. Once the sensors detect people walking past them, the flashlight will be activated and produce flashes on the passing people. The idea is inspired by traffic camera catching speeding vehicles.
Idea 5:
The idea is inspired by the traditional game catching. The catcher will wear shoes with red LED lights. The healer will wear shoes with yellow LED lights. The rest of the players will wear shoes with orange LED lights. All the shoes will have sound sensors attached to them. The catcher upon getting close to a player will stomp his/her shoes. If the shoes of the catcher and his/her victim are close enough, the sound sensors will be triggered. The LED lights of the victim will change. The healer can change the players that are caught through stomping his/her shoes near the affected players to “save” him/her.
The open source system allows me to utilize and stay connected with an immense amount of collective information through the convenience of technology. Technology in forms such as social media, cloud data storage and virtual sharing spaces allows me not to be confined by physical space and the knowledge that I possessed. It shortens the distance between me and the information I do not know. All I need to do is to be online and I will be connected with information. Sites such as Reddit and GitHub create optimum open source community in information and resource sharing to help benefits the online community. It creates incentives in information sharing through creating an ideal environment for online individuals to engage in extensive communication which leads to greater possibilities. It exposes me to thought-provoking projects around the world and words of wisdom spoken by creative individuals. It makes me aware of what others are doing and how I can learn from them. These forms of online intellectual interaction spark collective information and knowledge among us for the good of mutual understanding and improvement. These constant exchange of ideas and information will create opportinities for potential collaborations to occur for me and interested parties that share the same vision and beliefs. Creativity becomes something not just coming from oneself but a collective effort from everyone.
The possibility of sharing information through open source system also allows “transparency, collaboration, collective processes, non-proprietary methods of production and distribution, and a commitment to the creative process as a social exchange: not necessarily for profit, but for the common good”(1). The ease of building up an extensive database of materials that can be shared and used by anyone that has access to the internet makes possible due to the technological convenience by open source mediums. With such a huge pool of resources available, it allows me to experiment with different materials available and consider different approaches for my creative projects with the information I find online. Materials comes in such abundance and forms that you expanding your thinking about creative works beyond traditional forms such as art canvas and paper. You start to question where is the boundary of creative works lie when the possibilities created by open source system seems limitless. The seemingly endless opportunities is intriguing.
This is the video documentation for our final project presentation. We were glad that it invoked responses from the people that were watching the interaction happening between the installation and its participant. Many people were taking videos and photos of the participant’s actions. This was the ideal scenario we wanted to achieve. The interaction between the installation and the participant and another form of interaction between the bystanders and the participants.
Memories of sound is an interactive sound installation that explores the relevance of sound in triggering human memories and experiences. We hope to understand and explore the connection that humans have with sound.
The users will be wearing colored bands on their hands which serve as the trigger points of the interaction. The movements of the colored bands will be detected by an external camera that is linked with the Max 7 patch. It will prompt changes in the audio output supplied to the users through the headphone. The change in the audio will allows the users to experience different sound context. We hope that this will trigger their personal interpretation of the sound available to them.
Firewatch is an indie adventure game developed by Campo Santo. You took on the role of Henry who decided to take on the job as a fire lookout in the woods to get away from the hectic city life after his wife passed away. His only contact with the rest of the world is Delilah, his supervisor. Strange things begin to happen during his work which forced him to investigate. Throughout the investigations, he will account various challenges, and you must make decisions based on his interpretation of the situation.
I feel that one of the reasons that draw me to Firewatch is its game environment. I love the art style of the gaming environment. The natural surroundings that you are in are well crafted and feel immersive. The realism in the surrounding light during a different time of the day is an impressive part of the game. The sounds of nature such as the sound of running water, birds chirping, wind howling and the rustling of leaves all add on to the realistic and inviting feel of the game. It makes you feel that you are in the wild interacting with nature. The attention to details and the effort put in creating the overall immersive gaming environment engage you. It makes you want to explore the places around you and discover new things. The game brings joy in seeing new places and gives many incentives for you to set into the unknown.
Henry’s relationship with Delilah is also another area of the game that interests me. I feel that the use of walkie-talkie as the primary form of communication between the two characters is refreshing. Through their conversation over the walkie-talkie, they slowly and patiently build up their trust and understanding with each other. The lack of face to face communication did not affect their relationship which I feel is very intriguing. The conversions between them are also personal and down to earth. It also allows you to build a personal understanding and connection with them. Over time, it makes you feel that they are people you know. The sentimental values created by the human conversations will trigger the emotional side of you.
Overall I feel Firewatch is a great first person adventure game. It prompts you to explore and discover new territories through creating meaningful interactions with the gaming world. The character development is fantastic. With merely the communication over the walkie-talkie, it allows you to feel engage in the connection between Henry and Delilah. It is a game worth playing and spending your time on.
