This time, we attached the circuit into our cardboard prototype.
We did write the codes, but they didn’t work the way we wanted to, so for the presentation, we just tested out the sensitivity of the photoresistors. At first I was a bit worried that the photoresistors wouldn’t be a very good sensor, but they turned out to be more sensitive than I expected.
Feedback received from the presentation:
Use backlight instead of LEDs on the gap so it won’t interfere with the photoresistors
Add ambience noise (e.g. whispers) to attract audience
Play around with the volume
So now, the things that we need to focus on are:
Think of the materials we need and the exact amount of each of those
Start making the story: think of how many recordings to make and the length for each one
Settle the code
Video of the class presentation:
After that, I went back and tried to fix the code. We need to make a circuit where when the light that falls on the photoresistors is on the minimum (darkest), the sound will start playing. Since we don’t have ethernet shield to read SD card (is that what we need?), for now the sounds are just from the buzzer. Here’s the working circuit.
However, I’m still not sure whether we need the sounds to overlap each other when both of them are triggered or not, but for now there will only be one sound played regardless of the number of sensors activated.
As for now, I think we’ll need to just try the different things first and make sure the electrical component works.
Our idea is to portray a gap in people’s understanding by portraying them using physical gaps on a door.
Our prototype was kind of a miniature of what the actual thing is going to be. Our whole idea is revolved around a story that would be revealed after “exploring” around the door, but we didn’t have a story yet. We put earphones behind the cardboard door and played some e-book as substitute.
For the set of actions we required the participant to do, we only told the participant to approach the door and just try to listen carefully. At first she looked unsure of what to do since the sound from the earphone was very soft, but then she could still catch the sound. She began exploring different spots on the door and I tried to match that by playing different recordings as she moved, but I couldn’t keep up and she didn’t get what the recordings were about either, so it just confused her. But she did think that she felt like eavesdropping (which is kind of our idea) due to the low volume, so that’s good. She also said that the concept is interesting, and if the gaps do play different recordings or sounds, she would be interested to test all of them to find out. She also added that at first she wasn’t sure of what to do because the door was a plain piece of cardboard with no handle or keyhole, but if there is a handle and keyhole, she would know naturally that the participants are expected to open the door.
Feedback we received:
The door may not have to be real-life size, it can just be something like a dollhouse
The concept of revealing a story is interesting; maybe we can make the door have several screens inside, so you can open it up like pages of a book to fit in the concept
We can make use of the gaps between door and door frame to put in speakers, but we can also put in a lot of keyholes instead so participants will have to continuously find keys to progress with the story. Moreover, it will be visually intriguing.
We can also make use of different heights of people; so maybe in one big door, there are smaller doors. The different gaps will play different people’s sounds, e.g. a small door will play a child’s sound and a big door will play an adult’s door. So we can make a story but through different perspectives.
One-person experience would be better. If the door is placed in an empty room, people will definitely be compelled to approach the door and find out more about it.
As for now, what we have to do based on the feedback is to focus on what we want to do first. Now we received a lot of feedback because we still have a lot of things we can play around with, and we still haven’t decided which idea to use exactly. After we decided on one idea, only then we can move forward with the project.
I do think this bodystorming helped a lot because the feedback we received are really valuable. They provide objective opinions and point out the strength and weaknesses we didn’t see in the beginning. At first I was really worried that people won’t be interested to find out about the door, but the participant told me she would be interested and even gave her idea on how to improve on that. Moreover, I can see other people’s works and learn from their troubleshooting as well.
