Name of Final Project: Watch where you are going
The topic of choice: (Provocative/Protest Object)
About :
The project is to raise awareness on how often many Pedestrians uses their phone while walking along the streets with no focus and unaware of the surrounding. Researcher claim that people do not multitask for example texting and walking at the same time.
It causes many impacts on safety to themselves and people around them. Their actions cause them being a hazard to everyone. Therefore, we are creating this provocative object for the user to try on and feel the shoes of these people. At the same time by letting them feel the guilt of their actions.
There will be vibration on the back of the hat and a LED light surrounding the top of the hat. The vibration motor is to make the participants uncomfortable at the same time act as a self-reminder. The LED light is to attract the attention of the surrounding to see the message on the hat. So that everyone will be aware of where they are going.
Research :
2008 & 2012 News
In 2008, there was an increase of injured victim seek medical attention at the emergency room from texting their phone while walking. More than 1000 people were injured every year.
A researcher from New York’s Stony Brook University has shown that in 2012, people that texted while walking were likely to have a sudden change of direction from the non-texter. They will have a higher chance of causing an accident.
A scientist would say that it is an “inattentional blindness” saying that the human brain could only be able to focus on one task at the time. Therefore, while texting on the phone will not be able to give you a full focus on both tasks.
Pedestrian are guilty of using the phone while walking but many still continue doing it. There are many cases of people straining their leg while walking. They either walked into the drain or pothole that causes the injury.
2015 news – a survey was done by students
Most of the people who answered the survey had at least one accident, caused by using their phone while walking
E.g. tripped, fell, honked by car, close-call mishaps, car accident, etc
84% acknowledged that it is dangerous to be distracted while walking, but 93% admitted that they still fiddle with their phones anyways – knows the dangers but still does it anyways
Why should we care?
– Distracted walking is most common among millennials aged 18 & 34
– Accidents among digitally distracted walkers
– Peripheral vision can drop to 10 per cent of normal peripheral vision when a person is texting or talking on the phone while walking
– The number of accidents caused by distracted walking is on the rise
Process ( Sketches & Test ):
Step 1: Do the coding and test it with a Led light and after that, we will replace the Led light with a vibrating motor.
Step 2: Test the tilt sensor
The tilt sensor is very unpredictable as sometimes it will be too sensitive or it does not work. After a while, I realised that I can feel the ball rolling up and down inside the tilt sensor and it determines the sensitiveness part.
Step 3: We have to solder the Tilt sensor. As it has many difficulties to connect it with the crocodile wire.
Buy the Led strip and solder it so that it can be plucked into the breadboard.
We did many tests after plucking in the Led strip and vibrating motor.
Step 4: Once, our code is confirmed, we will change the colour of the Led to green or red. Towards the traffic colour.
We will have to try on the testing of using the Fast LED to achieve the light that we want.
Serena Looking good with our second final colour. We thought of using blue but in the end, we went back to the traffic colour.
The wire is very messy and untidy.
It was our final Arrangement of the coding and the different parts.
Step 5: Tested out different sewing method to the words.
Step 6: We will buy a suitable hat and redesign it. The final hat will be a bucket hat as previously it was a normal cap. The bucket hat is much more stable than the cap.
This was an inner layer of the hat before it was covered with a black cloth.
Lastly, we will cover all the wire with black duct tape and fishing line so that when the participant wears it. It will not scare them away. The cleaning up of the wire is very important as it determines whether the participants will dare to wear it.
We will try to hide all the wires away and it will look like it is hung to the fanny pack.
Final:
Green LED colour
Red LED colour
Final Picture
In this picture, It shows the participant holding the phone and her head is tilted down. The LED will flash and vibration motor will vibrate.
In this picture, It shows the participant lifting her head up. Without looking at the phone.
How does the user experience the object:
We are trying to create a situation of how the main participant would be unaware of his / her surrounding and too engrossed using their mobile devices, and how the people around the surroundings would feel. Our group provocative object is a hat. This hat will be wear on top of the participant’s head. There will be instructions and questions on a phone chat for the participants to read and type while walking. The chat will give a sense of the participants texting other people. The rest of the people will act as the pedestrian walking on the street. The crowd marshal will be the one putting the hat on top of the participants. He/she being the crowd marshal will wear the vast to show a more realistic scene.
Setting:
Set up hazard and chairs like a scene of an outside road. Where there is construction going on.
Material used:
– Tilt Sensor
– Vibrating Coin Motor, LED Light Strip
– Breadboard
– Power Bank
– Thread & Needle
– Jumper wires
– Resistor
– Hat & Fanny pack
– Cloth (Black)
– Black and Red duct tape
– Needles
– Threads
– Orange & Red Embroidery threads
Code :
The coding was very challenging as previously, we wanted to add the photocell in to prevent the output to sound off. However, Due to the difficulties level and figuring out. Serena told us that we shall do a performing art and the Crowd Marshal will put on the hat for the participants.
Instructions :
Step 1: Pedestrians will separate into 2 groups
Step 2: Each group will be located to the left and right side of the pathway
Step3: The participant will have to step forward and receive the object on the head from the Crowd Marshal
Step4: The participants will be given a phone with instruction in it
_The pedestrian started walking from both side
Step 5: Participant has to walk from one end to the other, along the pathway
Step 6: Participant is supposed to type before reaching the end of the pathway. They can stop or type while walking.
Step 7: When the participant tilts the head down, LED light will flash and the vibration motor inside the hat will vibrate to give an uncomfortable feeling.
Step 8: Surrounding pedestrians will notice the participants and observe her.
Tester 1
Tester 2
Tester 3
Tester 1 & 2 have a similar view after testing the hat. It was not uncomfortable for them but comfortable instead. It was a rare sight as most of my previous tester during the process said it was uncomfortable especially it was placed behind the head. Tester 1 mention that she was distracted and did not know what is the purpose of the phone given to her. But tester 2 & 3 was able to concentrate while typing while walking as were told to.
Not only that, tester 3 felt very uncomfortable when the vibrating motor start vibrating. She purposely lifted her head up while and trying to concentrate typing on the phone.
Comments:
Improvement:
I felt that performing art can be better. It will be good that there will be a serious announcement being played over again and again during the performing art. Also, at the placement of the hazard tapes. It can be arranged in a zig Zac direction and some actors as a stationary obstacle at some point of the pathway. These will increase the level of difficulties and awareness of the surrounding. The experience will be much more challenging.
Lastly, I felt that it will be good if it was experiment and test on random people that do not know anything about the project.
Before the presentation, sherry and I tested out on some of the random people from a different class. They were quite shocked and some of them say that it was uncomfortable. I concluded that each individual has a different perspective on things. Hence, not everyone will feel as uncomfortable or comfortable.
Reflection:
For these past weeks, it had gone by pretty fast, as we super occupied with figuring out how to make our object better. Coding was very challenging to me and sherry. We had so many tests to finally get the final circuit to work.
Overall, It was quite an eye-opening experience and enjoyable as we learn many new things along the way. From this project, I can understand that performing art can enhance the object. I was very unfamiliar with performing art but with Serena guidance, I was able to learn many things from her. It will be a benefit for applying all these skills to my future project.
Reference :
https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/using-mobile-phones-while-walking-is-dangerous-but-people-continue-doing-so
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/using-your-phone-as-you-walk-may-get-you-in-an-accident
https://www.tnp.sg/news/singapore/taxi-hits-woman-using-phone-while-crossing-road
