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[[TableOfContents]] <<TableOfContents>>

Work done in week 11

working out a mapping session

I have been working on a mapping session. this session will work out all the concepts and compare the different attributes on different levels and see what we are aiming for.

Work done in week 10

Brainstorm techniques

technique: problem solving

- Define your problem (please note that the word "problem" is not necessarily negative - your problem could be "We need a new product for the Christmas season" or "How can we effectively use our departmental budget surplus for this year?"). Write out your problem concisely and make sure that everyone understands the problem and is in agreement with the way it is worded. There is no need to put a lot of restrictions on your problem at this time.

- Time limit: 25 minutes

- Everyone must shout out solutions to the problem while one person writes them out.

- Mapping session, selecting the requirements.

technique: provocation

Provocation is an important lateral thinking technique. Just like Random Input, it works by moving your thinking out of the established patterns that you use to solve problems.

As explained earlier, we think by recognizing patterns and reacting to them. These reactions come from our past experiences and logical extensions to those experiences. Often we do not think outside these patterns. While we may know the answer as part of a different type of problem, the structure of our brains makes it difficult for us to link this in.

Provocation is one of the tools we use to make links between these patterns.

We use it by making deliberately stupid statements (Provocations), in which something we take for granted about the situation is not true. Statements need to be stupid to shock our minds out of existing ways of thinking. Once we have made a provocative statement, we then suspend judgment and use that statement to generate ideas. Provocations give us original starting points for creative thinking.

As an example, we could make a statement that 'Houses should not have roofs'. Normally this would not be a good idea! However this leads one to think of houses with opening roofs, or houses with glass roofs. These would allow you to lie in bed and look up at the stars.

Once you have made the Provocation, you can use it in a number of different ways, by examining:

  • The consequences of the statement
  • What the benefits would be
  • What special circumstances would make it a sensible solution
  • The principles needed to support it and make it work
  • How it would work moment-to-moment
  • What would happen if a sequence of events was changed
  • Etc.

You can use this list as a checklist.

Research on Movie/Media

Since the development of the theater not much has changes. It still involves a big screen, multiple seats and a nice sound production. Current theaters are all using a huge screen with the latest technologies and omni-directional sound. Digital movies are making their entrance in the current theaters and overall quality is improving.

Other theater-like movie-based designs involve IMAX, simulation rides and 3D-movies. IMAX is just a very big theater with a bigger screen. The screen is built in such a way that it fills your entire viewing angle when looking at the middle of the screen. These movies are shot with special cameras and give you the feeling you are inside the movie. When these movies fly through caverns, swim through oceans, drop from a cliff; you feel part of that, and your brain partially thinks you are flying, swimming or falling. This emotional feeling is very strong, and it is only triggered by this big screen (and the added sound). Simulation rides offer the same emotional experience but enrich it by adding motion to the process. It is quite fun to see how simple motions can invoke the feeling of begin upside-down. 3D-movies exist for a long time now. But we are reaching dimensions. These days not only the movie characters come at you, also the conditions. New rides involve moving seats, crashing trees to the sides, falling water from above, small creatures running under your chair and many more interesting features.

The experience is quite nice, especially when you see the people’s reactions. The more they are linked to the real world, the better they experience the media. Although most 3D movies are not very realistic in effects and view, some new computer animations these days cannot be distinguished from the real, only by knowing that these things are not possible in our world. Most rides tickle and trick the brain, making you think that you are going very fast, but you are actually not. Those concepts are quite interesting, using these technologies to higher levels could completely change our virtual world. Think of holograms and holo-decks and The Matrix. Emotionally these experiences are very strong, and the possibilities are almost endless.

In the future the rides and movies will become more realistic and will interact more with the audience. The audience will become more aware of being inside the movie and will have their brains played with. We are all victims to these illusions, but at least it is fun.

Research on Games

These day’s games are reaching a level where they are going to tip. Normal games are as interactive as they always have been; the interaction exists only by the user giving input via mediums such as a mouse, keyboard or new add-ons such as steering wheels, joysticks, gamepads and guns. Extensions of these types of entertainment can be found in de arcades. Big machines where you actually step on a bike or sit in a car and ride the game, dance moves you have to perform at the speed of the dancer or music, a boxing simulation and many more. New innovations for the home environment have arrived; think of the EyeToy, where you are recorded by a camera which uses your movements as input for a game. The goal is to use your body movements to accomplish different goals such as hitting incoming balls with your arms as an imaginary bat. The latest in more interactive games in plot development, innovations holding powerful A.I. intelligence that reacts to the changes performed by the user. An example would be a reenactment of a historic battle, where the opponent changes its tactics to the tactic of the user. And what about The Sims, a very interesting game where you play a god-like figure that controls all the people in the house. These people responded with all kind of emotions, although preprogrammed, still interesting to care about others without actually suffering the consequences. We have seen the growth of the popular internet, people who play against other people. This challenge alludes less use for a central artificial intelligence as an opponent.

These day’s games are getting boring because most computers respond the same time, each time you play it. In the future there will be games that will never be the same, this way games stay interesting and a challenge to play. Smarter and smarter artificial intelligences are being developed and will eventual create opponents that could be used for all kind of challenges.

The experience is quite different when playing different games. You can get carried away and be actually mad when things go wrong, games are addictive and when not being able to finish certain parts a person could get agitated, and when you do: euphoric. With the coming of bigger screens and omni-directional sound the experience was enriched, you feel more a part of the game. The challenge is based on making most games as realistic as possible, in others words: make it be as much as our own world. The more the realism, the more you feel part of the experience.

In the future we will see more of the bigger versions which where, to certain limit, only available in arcades but will now become available for home-use. Think of entire rooms with walls as a screen, where you are actually inside the game. Think of games that not only limit its actions to a single screen and some speakers, but to more features that play with your senses. What about new mediapads that have more tools for better and advanced tactile experiences that brings new levels of entertainment into your life.

Game development is a very secret part of entertainment. Companies try to hide their innovations as long as possible because the competition is hard and the market is huge. Games have become a integral part of our lives; as entertainment, active and passive.

Research on Interaction

Interaction is all about communication. In this method of interaction between man and machine there are obviously two sides; the human side with all its emotions and experiences, and the computing side with all its hardware, circuits and many unexplored new “senses”. All aspects of Ambient Intelligence.

Let us first have a look at the human side. Our methods of communication are mostly linked to our senses (sight, touch, sound, taste and smell) and these are the aspects of a human body that obtain the most experience in entertainment. There is also the movement and coordination of our body that play a part in communication and experience. At the moment new media experiences are limited to the sensory stimulation of the eyes (via the visual aspect of a screen), the ears (via a sound system) and some touch (via the vibrations in a possible bass system or vibrating chair). The aim would be to enrich this experience and explore the stimulation of more senses to get a higher level of experience and entertainment, whether subtle or very obvious. Stated best, “Ambient Intelligence proposes a new world in which our interactions with products will become increasingly intuitive, using technologies that are sensitive to the way we communicate, the way we talk, feel, touch and use our body language. These technologies make new interactions possible by providing new sensorial points of contact between our environment and ourselves. In turn, these can allow us to increase our control and understanding of the material environment, and of our creative and productive interaction with it. We need to provide people with intelligent enablers that feed the senses and brain with entertainment and information. At the same time, we need to increase our freedom in many fields, enabling us to multitask, play, connect, care, explore, discover, manipulate, learn – to be whoever we want to be, to be human. Ambient Intelligence centers on meaningful experiences and is therefore devoted to generating experiences which are both physically and mentally in harmony, allowing a fluid, empowering interplay between mind, body and the surrounding natural or man-made environment.” - Emile Aarts & Stefano Marzano, The New Everyday, Views on Ambient Intelligence

The world around us is changing, but so are we. This ever changing world forces us to adapt to and learn from this environment at an astonishing speed. Why read a user manual when you can just press the button and see what happens? The latest generations are being fed by digital items and grow up with these innovations. There is no time to adjust to these new features, there is only time to accept and move on, and learn during this process. We have to face that when a product is finished and brought to the market it could already be outdated by others, losing its function to new features in this vast, changing digital world.

There are many things to consider when thinking of the hardware. A design should be adapted to the senses in order to enrich this experience. Some of the things a design should tackle:

- New skins The skin of a product is the contact point and thus the point where a rich tactile feeling must be obtained. A skin should be sensitive but also responsive, and what about things such as light and heat? Think about foldable displays and electronic ink.

- New materials New materials with new interesting properties could be quite useful, think of magnetic properties, memories features or materials that change shape, texture, hardness, size or any other aspect in order to change the environment and your emotional state.

- New horizons Interaction coming from the hardware itself, context awareness and other new technologies will enable objects to be more responsive to their situation, both physically and culturally. Objects will move into your world and back to their own.

- New responsiveness It will be important to have full interaction without any delay but also being able to adjust this link to your own liking. Systems that learn how to respond and adapt to the situation will be needed when using these self-sufficient systems.

- New perspectives We use new technologies to get new visions on things, think of infrared vision and enhanced hearing for the impaired. This can broaden our senses in new ways we never thought possible.

- New spaces When thinking of space try not to limit your thoughts to rooms and chambers but also think of the Internet, LAN, WLAN and other facilities. New spaces are being created everyday and introduced to us in a rapid pace.

- New presence What about being able to merge into a digital world? Projecting yourself into new locations – telepresence.

The challenge seems to be to bring the people’s sensorial experience and the technology closer together, to create this new way of interacting in a more natural end emotionally-based way. And do not forget about an all important item: choice, people need choice, interact or not, connect or disconnect. The more people feel part of the experience, the deeper the experience becomes. We have to rethink the nature of the human senses and the environment in relation to the new reality and create an environment that responds to the subjectivity of our moods, wishes and lifestyles.

Final Vision of DC222

It is all about experience. We wish to have a new experience simply because we do not want to copy something that already exists. The challenge is to create something new and interesting that will interest the people in experiencing this new media. The way we see it, this experience will be somewhat between a movie and a game. The movie has this emotional experience; you feel linked to the characters and slightly get into the story. Although a movie is quite passive in ways, there is still a small part of interaction due to the emotions you experience. The active side comes from games, they encompass a more active participation but limited to most people by the interactions methods, only using small tactile controls such as a mouse and keyboard. We will not use the terms ‘movie’ and ‘game’, but will only use the aspects of those parts in the development of our new experience. The goal is to design this experience that invokes emotion and the feeling that you are, at least a little, inside the story. This all coupled to a rich interaction that makes some influence to the story possible via a subtle and natural participation from the user. This involves using the senses of people to tackle these emotionally bound-experiences. Think of invoking emotions such as surprise and curiosity.

A supporting feature will be the effect the new media has on the environment of the user. So this is a two-way interaction experience. These days the experience is brought from “the outside”, the virtual world (single small screen and stereo sound) to inside the movie (from bigger screens and multi-directional sound to theaters and IMAX). We wish to seek new interesting methods for enriching this environmental change in order to expand the feeling of being inside the media and connecting the virtual world to the “real world”.

We want to focus on the people who use a home entertainment system with a widescreen TV and multi-directional sound. This is not bound by age, gender or social status. The people who use these systems are interested in its possibilities and will most likely like its features to their full extent. This means we will be bound to the possibilities of the living room of these people if we want it to integrate into their space for these kinds of entertainment possibilities. The motivation for this choice is that the emotional experience at home is not bound by any social constraints as in a movie theater. You are more likely to get emotionally attached to a story in your own home as you would in a large group of unfamiliar people, the experience is just different.

The final result should be something we are proud of and use as an example to others when we tell about the things we do at this faculty.

JunHu: JanvanderAsdonk (last edited 2008-10-03 20:18:37 by localhost)