Today's lecture (noticed that I start almost every blog with Today, just so you know..) was about Kirchhof's laws and Norton & Tevenin. It is becoming a bit harder to understand every single thing Geert mentions during the lecture.
After the lecture, THomas and I again started making the assignments. The KVL and KCL are okay, but need a lot of calculations. It is really easy to make mistakes during this process and I feel like this does not contribute too much. I do think that the KVL and KCL are useful to have learned, but the Norton and Thevenin is something of whihc I do not see the practical use yet. Maybe it will become more clear during the practical assignments of these chapters. We'll see!
In the afternoon I finished my part of the SDL report as far as I can atm. I also wrote a reflection about this, but it still needs a second look to adjust some things. (as I always do this).
Since the report is coming up, I have also made a start in designing this. I want to make it a real designer like report; making the important stuff to 'jump out of the report' by the way I designed the report and the chapters. No pictures so far, but I will post them when they are there.
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Busy busy monday!
28-11
Mondays are not nice, because they are always really busy!
Today started of with a coach meeting with Sam, with the first part being a project meeting in which everybody presented their design documents. Mine, luckily was good enough for the time being, but Bruno had a hard time. It is hard to see this happening to a project mate and I was really doubting if there is something which I needed to say or that I should just let things be.. This does remind me of how important communication is. Being able to tell what you want to tell in a clear overview is a skill which will become of a great importance during a designer's career.
It also reminded me of the unique position of the ID student at the TU/e. The process approach, learning from other students and learning by doing are different from other ID educations, but make this one so strong. One can learn so much from others. I have learned as much from other students and their work as I have learned from assignments and other activities.
The second part of the meeting, was individual. I send an e-mail to Sam on Thursday or Friday last week that I was struggling with what he mentioned as an interaction which was too easy. I did not quite understand what he meant en though that the power of this concept is in the 'simpleness'; if something would be added/changed the focus of the design would be on another interaction in stead of the pouring-interaction. When I talked to him, he luckily said that he did not think my concept was bad, but the story did not add up entirely yet. I need to mention that the product is meant as some sort of ritual, something which needs to be done to respect the action of creating light. He also taught my showcase has a good base now of which I am really glad!
At 12:15 I joined the Educie meeting again, in which we decided to have a brainstorm and settled some unsolved mysteries of the upcoming photoshop workshop.
In the afternoon, I helped Mariette with programming the Arduino. She had not yet seen the Arduino being hooked up to a sensor, so it was the easiest if somebody could help her for a minute. It was not to hard to write the program, but it needed some smoothing. Unfortunately, another meeting was waiting before I could finish this properly, so I left Mariette on her own with the coding.
The third meeting of the day was with Rik about the SDL report. It needs to be finished! So we looked at the last things which need to happen before it is done. Thankfully, it is not that much. It is mainly the final chapter and pasting the appendices from the right documents.
And in the end of the afternoon there was the academic development again. This time it took the lecturer sooo long to make his point that it was really really boring. I have not learned anything at all this time..
Mondays are not nice, because they are always really busy!
Today started of with a coach meeting with Sam, with the first part being a project meeting in which everybody presented their design documents. Mine, luckily was good enough for the time being, but Bruno had a hard time. It is hard to see this happening to a project mate and I was really doubting if there is something which I needed to say or that I should just let things be.. This does remind me of how important communication is. Being able to tell what you want to tell in a clear overview is a skill which will become of a great importance during a designer's career.
It also reminded me of the unique position of the ID student at the TU/e. The process approach, learning from other students and learning by doing are different from other ID educations, but make this one so strong. One can learn so much from others. I have learned as much from other students and their work as I have learned from assignments and other activities.
The second part of the meeting, was individual. I send an e-mail to Sam on Thursday or Friday last week that I was struggling with what he mentioned as an interaction which was too easy. I did not quite understand what he meant en though that the power of this concept is in the 'simpleness'; if something would be added/changed the focus of the design would be on another interaction in stead of the pouring-interaction. When I talked to him, he luckily said that he did not think my concept was bad, but the story did not add up entirely yet. I need to mention that the product is meant as some sort of ritual, something which needs to be done to respect the action of creating light. He also taught my showcase has a good base now of which I am really glad!
At 12:15 I joined the Educie meeting again, in which we decided to have a brainstorm and settled some unsolved mysteries of the upcoming photoshop workshop.
In the afternoon, I helped Mariette with programming the Arduino. She had not yet seen the Arduino being hooked up to a sensor, so it was the easiest if somebody could help her for a minute. It was not to hard to write the program, but it needed some smoothing. Unfortunately, another meeting was waiting before I could finish this properly, so I left Mariette on her own with the coding.
The third meeting of the day was with Rik about the SDL report. It needs to be finished! So we looked at the last things which need to happen before it is done. Thankfully, it is not that much. It is mainly the final chapter and pasting the appendices from the right documents.
And in the end of the afternoon there was the academic development again. This time it took the lecturer sooo long to make his point that it was really really boring. I have not learned anything at all this time..
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
The end of the week
24-11
Today I made the final details on the design document. I am quite pleased with the result, but there are some things which need some adjustment. After discussing it with the group and with Sam, I will probably know what needs to be changed.
I also started writing down a user test in which I will test my theory about the activation of the conscious mind about subconscious actions.
At the end of the day I worked some more on my showcase, making the present page and the default overview for assignments and other activities.
25-11
After making a start with the user test, this needs to be documented properly and some questions have to be thought, which is an activity I performed today.
Of course, something has to go wrong! In my case, its the technology. When I talked to Geert van den Bomen, to get a new sensor because the one I had gotten was broken, he said that it is not usable at all as a pressure sensor. All this time 'waisted' at the piezo sensors, that is not really fun! Luckily, Edwin had a very good idea. If I turn a mouse upside down and hook it up to Processing, than I can track the movement of the bowl with that mouse. A quick try made sure that this would work, with some adjustments of course. Next week, more technology and user testing!
25-11
After making a start with the user test, this needs to be documented properly and some questions have to be thought, which is an activity I performed today.
Of course, something has to go wrong! In my case, its the technology. When I talked to Geert van den Bomen, to get a new sensor because the one I had gotten was broken, he said that it is not usable at all as a pressure sensor. All this time 'waisted' at the piezo sensors, that is not really fun! Luckily, Edwin had a very good idea. If I turn a mouse upside down and hook it up to Processing, than I can track the movement of the bowl with that mouse. A quick try made sure that this would work, with some adjustments of course. Next week, more technology and user testing!
Sunday, 27 November 2011
DG220: Pressure rising
It was DG220 again, up until now it was not that much work, but I knew this could not go on forever. Today’s lecture was about capacitors, capacitance, inductors and inductance. These two are both used as filters and are pretty similar in calculations as resistance and resistors. After the lecture Thomas and I made the exercises again and received feedback on last the exercises of last week and the week before last week. We had done a pretty good job, we had the answers right, but we could explain some assignments a bit better than we had done. In the morning we made the first chapter of this week. It was pretty hard sometimes, especially the filter part.
In the afternoon I continued with my design document and showcase. The design document requires a lot of thinking; what is necessary to be said and what is not. This is why the document itself is not going very fast, it takes longer than I had expected.
Designing a design document
21-11
It was Jelmer’s birthday. I also picked up the design document, which is basically also a good start of the report, so I took the time to create some nice visuals for this as well. It became clear that I have still got some work to do about the theory of my concept. I made my own theory about the activation of the conscious mind. It is an easy theory, but nonetheless important. It says that when one performs an subconscious action consciously (turning on the light in this case) , this person will also think more about other unconscious actions (i.e. opening the door, taking a chair to sit on). There will probably be research about this subject, but I want to investigate this myself. Later on in the week I will develop a user test for this purpose.
The visual:
I’ve also been to my second academic development class, which still is interesting. As a preparation, we needed do read two articles. It kind of surprised me that the exact same things were being said in the lecture, it kind of felt as if I had read it for nothing. Of course, one remembers it better when he or she sees it two times. At this point, I have the feeling that it will be too hard to make the essay. It is about showing that a subject is or is not a pseudo-science. It is ‘merely’ looking at criteria and explaining why this science fits this criteria of science of why it does not.
Making continued
18-11
Further with making the handles, result below. More drawings were made to think of other handles. Of this I made a some decisions based on criteria. I wanted to keep the mystery of the object, as this creates a more magical and unique experience.
Weekend 19-11 and 20-11
Trial and error with the looks of my new showcase. Eventually I came up with a style, made as a home page. The other menu is something I need to think about more. Results:
Project: Details and making!
17-11
This Thursday there was a project meeting again in which we got the advice to make a design document before next Thursday. This includes the 'final concept', with details about the technology, aesthetics and functionality of the design. Actually, this is a pretty good idea of Sam, it puts a bit of pressure on me to get everything on paper.
The group theme was also something we had not yet decided upon, so this is something we also needed to think about asap.
After the meeting, I had planned to begin creating. I started with making a handle for the inside of the plastic bowl I had bought for the midterm exhibition.
I started out with looking at things people hold; bottles, doorhandles and stuff like this. After this, I made some small sketches of how the handles could look. When I was actually making it, I realizes that David Verweij participated in a project about aesthetic deign as a main process, previous semester. So I visited him and talk about the approach he had experienced. This existed of a lot of drawing, sketching and choosing a couple of them to actually make from those sketches and drawings. The planning for the upcoming days was now to sketch, make the design document and finish the handles I already started with.
Here some pictures of the start of the creation.
This Thursday there was a project meeting again in which we got the advice to make a design document before next Thursday. This includes the 'final concept', with details about the technology, aesthetics and functionality of the design. Actually, this is a pretty good idea of Sam, it puts a bit of pressure on me to get everything on paper.
The group theme was also something we had not yet decided upon, so this is something we also needed to think about asap.
After the meeting, I had planned to begin creating. I started with making a handle for the inside of the plastic bowl I had bought for the midterm exhibition.
I started out with looking at things people hold; bottles, doorhandles and stuff like this. After this, I made some small sketches of how the handles could look. When I was actually making it, I realizes that David Verweij participated in a project about aesthetic deign as a main process, previous semester. So I visited him and talk about the approach he had experienced. This existed of a lot of drawing, sketching and choosing a couple of them to actually make from those sketches and drawings. The planning for the upcoming days was now to sketch, make the design document and finish the handles I already started with.
Here some pictures of the start of the creation.
Monday, 21 November 2011
Wednesday, PCB factory; report
16-11
Today on the program, continuing the report of the clock project and visiting a PCB factory, to see how they are made in the industry.
In the morning Rik and I made new text and images for the report. We really need to finish this, because other deadlines are coming up and it will be withholding us from those activities.
In the afternoon we travelled to a printing company near Helmond called V-PS. There we talked to a technician, who was kind enough to give us a tour in the factory and tell us something about the manufacturing process. This nice to see once, it made me realize that we are busy creating products which are produced in bulk, for the industry. It reminded me of the documentary 'The genius of design' which I saw during the SDL-weeks. The episode I had in mind was about the history of mass production. Really inspiring series!
Unfortunately this tour lasted for the entire afternoon, which was pretty long. Upside, Rik will get a discount on the ordering of the PCB.
In the afternoon I helped Wendy making a program in Processing. She wanted a little program that would let the mouse scare of little balls (like herding a pack of sheep). It was a nice way to see if I still understood the program and its Syntax and a way to explain the basics to Wendy. Here is the result, the problem is that it works on the x and y coordinates, which creates a rectangular hit-plane. For a natural result it should be an circular hit-plane. Since I made this in about two hours, I was pretty happy with the result!
Sunday, 20 November 2011
Tuesday, DG220
Today started with Introducing electronics. A rather short meeting, as we were done in less than one hour. The subject of this lecture was about resistance and resistors. The voltage divider which Jelmer explained me the day before was also addressed. This was really convenient as I had just started working with it.
After this, I made the questions with Thomas again, most of them proved not to be that hard. As a preparation, we put the questions into Word when we were done to save time when we are going to make the report. We also sent the answers of last week to Geert for feedback.
In the afternoon I was talking to Edwin, one of the students with the same project (different client). When he asked what I was doing I told him that I wanted to work with4 pressure sensors. He immediately thought of the Wii Balance Board (which I have at home). Of course it is possible to hack this controller. I started doing research how to do this. In the evening I did have a set-up so that I could see the values of the sensor, but I have absolutely no idea on how to convert this into an output as it is just an interface. Also, everything was programmed in C#. I do not have the knowledge in programming at this time to be able to fiddle around with this, so I will not try to do this for this project. I still think programming is a lot of fun though, because it eases my mind. Below a video of the outcome of the research.
I also started to fiddle around with the looks of my upcoming showcase. After last coach meeting, I agreed on making a draft version of my showcase. I do not really have an idea what I am going to do, but I know I will find out when messing around with lines, fonts, etc... I will post some of the results soon.
After this, I made the questions with Thomas again, most of them proved not to be that hard. As a preparation, we put the questions into Word when we were done to save time when we are going to make the report. We also sent the answers of last week to Geert for feedback.
In the afternoon I was talking to Edwin, one of the students with the same project (different client). When he asked what I was doing I told him that I wanted to work with4 pressure sensors. He immediately thought of the Wii Balance Board (which I have at home). Of course it is possible to hack this controller. I started doing research how to do this. In the evening I did have a set-up so that I could see the values of the sensor, but I have absolutely no idea on how to convert this into an output as it is just an interface. Also, everything was programmed in C#. I do not have the knowledge in programming at this time to be able to fiddle around with this, so I will not try to do this for this project. I still think programming is a lot of fun though, because it eases my mind. Below a video of the outcome of the research.
I also started to fiddle around with the looks of my upcoming showcase. After last coach meeting, I agreed on making a draft version of my showcase. I do not really have an idea what I am going to do, but I know I will find out when messing around with lines, fonts, etc... I will post some of the results soon.
Monday, technoday!?
14-11
Projectmonday. Its hard to chose between aesthetics and the technology. One moment I want to work on the aesthetics and the other on the technology. I decided to work on the technology part of the project and get myself a pressure sensor at the e-lab. They gave me a piezoelectric film; made from a material which resistance changes when pressure is increased on the object.
After researching on the internet for circuits and not finding them, I asked Jelmer if he knew how to connect this, as I knew he has a better understanding of electronics then I have got at the moment. He told me to make use of a voltage divider; I used the set-up below. The 1M ohm resistor was chosen as every forum talking about the piezo used this.
Unfortunately it did not work. In hindsight it was a loose contact on the piezo. If only I had thought of using a multimeter first to read the resistance. This would have saved me a lot of time.
I also participated in another EduCie meeting, in which we kind of found out how we are going to plan the workshops and other activities we want to execute during this semester.
In the afternoon I got to experience how it feels like when having colleges; the first academic development session started. Other people (who have already experienced session of the academic development) that it would be really boring. Actually, it was kind of interesting! The goal of the academic development is to understand when something is science and when it is psuedo-science (or in between). It has this philosophic way of approaching the subject which I really like.
It was also time to finish my Dutch Design Week video. I made this as an inspirational video, without using the kind of interactive and intelligent systems created at Industrial Design. So here it is!
Projectmonday. Its hard to chose between aesthetics and the technology. One moment I want to work on the aesthetics and the other on the technology. I decided to work on the technology part of the project and get myself a pressure sensor at the e-lab. They gave me a piezoelectric film; made from a material which resistance changes when pressure is increased on the object.
After researching on the internet for circuits and not finding them, I asked Jelmer if he knew how to connect this, as I knew he has a better understanding of electronics then I have got at the moment. He told me to make use of a voltage divider; I used the set-up below. The 1M ohm resistor was chosen as every forum talking about the piezo used this.
Unfortunately it did not work. In hindsight it was a loose contact on the piezo. If only I had thought of using a multimeter first to read the resistance. This would have saved me a lot of time.
I also participated in another EduCie meeting, in which we kind of found out how we are going to plan the workshops and other activities we want to execute during this semester.
In the afternoon I got to experience how it feels like when having colleges; the first academic development session started. Other people (who have already experienced session of the academic development) that it would be really boring. Actually, it was kind of interesting! The goal of the academic development is to understand when something is science and when it is psuedo-science (or in between). It has this philosophic way of approaching the subject which I really like.
It was also time to finish my Dutch Design Week video. I made this as an inspirational video, without using the kind of interactive and intelligent systems created at Industrial Design. So here it is!
Monday, 14 November 2011
Last week Friday: a normal work day
It started, as usual on Friday with a project meeting. We presented our development and future plans to Sam and he gave some good feedback on making the process and projects work. Our team has a problem in combining the different ideas into 'one concept'. It needs to fit with each other, which is a problem, as the concepts are not developed together or around a theme. In the afternoon we sat together with the projectmates and discussed the different concepts to make sure everybody understand the concepts and the contexts in which they could be placed. We did not immediately see how to combine the concepts, but we made a good start and have material to think about. It looks like this:
I have also had a individual meeting with Sam. In this he also addressed that I have to make some decisions regarding my concept. He likes it if I let him know more what I am doing/going to do. In the planning, it said that I was going to work on my showcase, because of the busy project with Rik, it totally slipped my mind. This is my task for the next meeting with Sam. He wants me to be less boring in my new showcase, as he thinks I have the skills to do some interesting things graphically. We also discussed a book (pattern recognition) which Sam was reading and he thought would be something interesting for me. It is about a trend watcher and how he predicts the trend by living the present ones. It reminded me of 'Transcendent man' about Kurzweil, who predicts the future of technology by making models of the old and present future.
At the end of the day, I wanted to get on paper how far the development of my concept was. I wanted to see where it can be developed further and where it is already (almost) finished. So I wrote down everything I knew (not everything is readable, but this is the only picture I have at the moment.).
Jelmer told be that the aesthetics are also something to look into deeper. This was quite obvious from this overview as well, so I made some sketches of how it could look. (still in progress though). As the bowl needs to be able to be shifted and I want people to be able to do it with one hand. This should be made visible in the aesthetics of the concept; how to hold it and how to place your hands should be clear when a user looks at it for the first time. As inspiration, I started to fiddle around with positioning the bowl.
I have also had a individual meeting with Sam. In this he also addressed that I have to make some decisions regarding my concept. He likes it if I let him know more what I am doing/going to do. In the planning, it said that I was going to work on my showcase, because of the busy project with Rik, it totally slipped my mind. This is my task for the next meeting with Sam. He wants me to be less boring in my new showcase, as he thinks I have the skills to do some interesting things graphically. We also discussed a book (pattern recognition) which Sam was reading and he thought would be something interesting for me. It is about a trend watcher and how he predicts the trend by living the present ones. It reminded me of 'Transcendent man' about Kurzweil, who predicts the future of technology by making models of the old and present future.
At the end of the day, I wanted to get on paper how far the development of my concept was. I wanted to see where it can be developed further and where it is already (almost) finished. So I wrote down everything I knew (not everything is readable, but this is the only picture I have at the moment.).
Last week Thursday: Lustrumday
It was the lustrum day, the tenth anniversary of Industrial Design at the TU/e. I started, knowing that this day would not be the most productive. At twelve their was an presentation and photo of the department and free cake! At 18:00 there was the Bring your own Dinner-dinner, for which I still had to cook.
Even thought, I made another exploration. I wanted to look into other things people relate to conscious actions which can be associated with light. Therefore I made the exploration below. It showed me that it is really hard to think of a new interaction for my concept, without changing though behind it. I think that the shape of the concept is too unique in that sense to be 'replaced' by something else. I decided to keep the concept as it is and working it out more thoroughly; looking at the things which are missing and which can be left out.
Even thought, I made another exploration. I wanted to look into other things people relate to conscious actions which can be associated with light. Therefore I made the exploration below. It showed me that it is really hard to think of a new interaction for my concept, without changing though behind it. I think that the shape of the concept is too unique in that sense to be 'replaced' by something else. I decided to keep the concept as it is and working it out more thoroughly; looking at the things which are missing and which can be left out.
Sunday, 13 November 2011
Project continued! (Midterm Exhibition)
The SDL-weeks are over! Time to start where I stopped; the midterm. I will first discuss the last preparations of this before I start typing about this week.
My concept at this time was a bowl, which one could fill with water to enable the lighting in the room. This conscious action of switching the light on would be ideally causing people to think more about the (extraordinary) things which have become too normal. (i.e. switching on the light, getting water from the tap). In a coach meeting we discussed the possibilities to think of a very functional feature for the concept, not only being playful. When I started to think about this, I though of the possibility to be able to control the light with the same bowl. This is exactly what I included in the midterm.
The midterm provided me with a challenge, how was I supposed to control the lighting in the room? Of course, I did not do this, but I did figure out a way to dim the light in the bowl itself. This also gives the entire object a mysterious look. Considering the little time I had left I choose look for a solution which allowed me to control some LED's with a potentiometer. The Arduino Libraries already have a standard code for this, so all I had to do is connecting and soldering the different parts. Some pictures of my creation here:
I explored the possibilities to get a good mixture to diffuse the light properly. The mixtures I used are water with milk, water with Brinta (porridge) and plain water. As you can see in the pictures below, the milk and water provides the nicest mystery and diffuses the best. I also experimented with a see-through bowl and a sandblasted one. In combination with the see-through bowl. this gave a really nice picture.
The midterm itself is was okay, I did not get too much feedback which I could really use. I have the following list to look into. This is exactly where I started after the SDL weeks.
I first made a list in the program OneNote. Mariette mentioned this program, as Word was not doing what I wanted it to do. It gave me an easy way to paste text for conducting research and writing/drawing next to it (with a tablet).
The list of feedback I wrote down was:
- Working with the properties of water (i.e. the turbulence of water is connected to the turbulence in the room.
- Look at magnetic fluids
- Look at the amount of water which needs to be poured into the bowl. How much does it need to be?
I wanted to explore new options, so I started to look at the magnetic fluids. How does it work, how well can they be influenced, how toxic are they? This turned into a really nice exploration I think, I have written down the references, looked/read them, looked at the theory and looked at options which lay close to it. The latter are combining sound with water and looking at non-Newtonian fluids. These are a mixture of Maizena (cornstarch) and water. If they have been mixed in the right ratio they are liquid when left alone, but solid when pounded on with a particular force.
In the end, the OneNote document looked like you can see on the picture above, also with more details on the non-Newtonian fluids as well as the sound plus water underneath the ferrofluid (which can be seen there).
Last part SDL weeks
03-11
Let's start with the remainder of the SDL weeks. On Thursday we tried to find out how big the damage actually was. Rik did this by measuring the resistance of the tracks with a multi-meter. There were quite a few tracks which were not destroyed, which gave us hope. Considering the time we had left (this day and the Friday) we decided that we would only create the inner circle (which contained of 20 LED's) to give a proof of concept. Of course, this also did not go as fast as we had hoped. We got all the different components in and connections were made between the resistors and the LED's.
04-11
On Friday, Rik continued to work on connecting the components, as I started making the report. Rik's got more and more frustrated, as the soldering was nearly impossible (it did not attach properly and it is extremely small). At a given moments, it was obvious that the PCB was just not made properly enough to make it work.
That is when we decide to work on the report for the rest of the day. The option of ordering the PCB were still open and will probably happen as well. The report will be as short as possible, with visuals supporting the different phases of the process. There will be little text in there, which will be quite a challenge for me. A small preview:
Pictures of the bare PCB:
Let's start with the remainder of the SDL weeks. On Thursday we tried to find out how big the damage actually was. Rik did this by measuring the resistance of the tracks with a multi-meter. There were quite a few tracks which were not destroyed, which gave us hope. Considering the time we had left (this day and the Friday) we decided that we would only create the inner circle (which contained of 20 LED's) to give a proof of concept. Of course, this also did not go as fast as we had hoped. We got all the different components in and connections were made between the resistors and the LED's.
04-11
On Friday, Rik continued to work on connecting the components, as I started making the report. Rik's got more and more frustrated, as the soldering was nearly impossible (it did not attach properly and it is extremely small). At a given moments, it was obvious that the PCB was just not made properly enough to make it work.
That is when we decide to work on the report for the rest of the day. The option of ordering the PCB were still open and will probably happen as well. The report will be as short as possible, with visuals supporting the different phases of the process. There will be little text in there, which will be quite a challenge for me. A small preview:
Pictures of the bare PCB:
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