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HELLO ! This report is the documentation of our summer internship project at The Social Body Lab of OCAD University, Toronto, Canada (www.ocadu.ca). Were were design interns in the lab under the guidance of Professor Kate Hartman, who is an internationally renowned Wearable technology expert. The chosen area for the project is ‘Wearable design’ in context of Self talking, which is referred as ‘Automatic thoughts’ in Cognitive Psychology. The main focus of the internship was to learn the various approaches to wearable design; it is primarily an exploratory project. We took up two different approaches and made a series of prototypes to validate the idea. The intention of the internship was not to develop a final product but to develop various functional prototypes to demonstrate the possibilities in this new product space and in that process, understand the design for wearability. The concept of having an audio journal emerged from our personal experience of we talking to ourselves quite frequently and in most cases, such self-talk sessions have resulted in immense clarity. So the project began with the investigative question of “what if we could capture one’s self talk sessions and help them self reflect?”
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OCAD UNIVERSITY TORONTO, CANADA
About the lab...........................................................................................7 Project Team............................................................................................8 Acknowledgments.................................................................................9 Part : I Wearable Audio Journal: Meemo......................................11 The Idea: Function and Intent..........................................................12 Research : User Interviews and Precedent Study.......................13 Functional Prototypes.........................................................................14 Mobile Application...............................................................................20 Scope of the Product...........................................................................22 Part II: Conceptual Approach: Cueco.............................................25 Concept Ideas.........................................................................................26 Form Explorations.................................................................................27 Conceptual Prototypes........................................................................30 Conclusion...............................................................................................33
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Inside SOCIAL BODY LAB
About the Lab The Social Body Lab takes the human body as a starting point from which to consider how humans interface with and relate to the world around them. Beyond the basic functionality of incorporating technology into clothing, the Social Body Lab focuses on meaningful and provocative interactions, questioning the relationship between humans and technology through its diverse projects.
Website: http://research.ocadu.ca/socialbody/home
Lab’s Focus & Approach Critical engagement with technology – not just asking how but why Interdisciplinary practices – intersection of art, design, technology Meaningful Interactions – moving beyond the “cool” factor Distribution of knowledge – documentation, tutorials, DIY, open source Collaboration – both internal & external
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Project Mentors
OUR TEAM
ACKNOWLEDMENTS
Kate Hartman: Primary Guide & Mentor
Manikandan Hk
Dr.Paula Garderner
With an early stint in entrepreneru-
For concluding assessment and feedback session. Dr. Gardner, is an
ship, Mani graduted as an electronic
Associate Professor, Faculty of Liberal Studies at OCAD U.
Kate Hartman is an artist, technologist, and educator whose work spans the fields of physical computing, wearable electronics, and conceptual art. She is the co-creator of Botanicalls, a system that lets thirsty plants place phone calls for human help, and the Lilypad XBee, a sewable radio transceiver that enables your clothing to communicate. Her work has been exhibited internationally and featured by the New York Times, BBC, CBC, and NPR. Hartman recently moved to Toronto to join the Digital Futures Initiative at OCAD University where she is the Assistant Professor of Wearable & Mobile Technology Website: katehartman.com
engineer and worked as a UI designer and currently persuing Masters in
Diana Greenberg
New Media Design in National Insti-
For invaluable feedback over email and skype on the design process and
tute of Design(NID), India.
user testing. Diana is the Director of User Experience in Bridge Design,
Website: mani-hk.com
San Francisco and has 17 years of experience in User Experience Design.
Email: manihk@gmail.com
Erin Lewis: SeCONDARY GUIDE Erin Lewis is an emerging Canadian artist working in creative electronics, wearable technology, and sculpture/installation. She is a graduate of OCADU with a BFA in Integrated Media and Wearable Technology. Her work has been shown at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada; World Maker Faire (New York); Nuit Blanche (Toronto 2010), Ontario Science Centre, Discovery Channel Canada, Discovery.com, in the Toronto Star newspaper and on various physical computing magazines. Website: erinlewis.ca
Devyani Jain
Jackson McConnell, Aalok Jaiswal & Pawas Aakrsh For assisting us in 3D model generation
An emerging Visual Artist who works with hybrid medium, graduated in Fine Arts in 2012 and currently pursuing Masters in Apparel Design in National Institute of Design(NID)
Website: devyanijain.wordpress.com Email: devyanijain.18@gmail.com
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Yifat wearing Meemo on her sleeve
Part 1 - MEEMO THE WEARABLE AUDIO JOURNAL This part explains our product-oriented approach to design a wearable audio journal considering the real world constraints and user requirements. Intentionally we tried not to fall into the category of wearable electronic gadgets but to come up with clothing-like wearable devices, which are confortable and could be perceived as a extension of the body.
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The Idea
What if, if we could have all our personal verbal thoughts, maintained in a dairy, which is wearable and easily accessible?
Key Functionality 1. A means to record ones Self Talk Sessions 2. A means to listen and reflect on the recorded sessions 3. Manual recording
The idea is to create a device which will help in recording self-talk sessions and introspect
Key Intent
on our own thought process. When in doubt, when you want to make sense out of things,
A) Where Should be Worn?
when we want to gain clarity, we delve into introspection, penning our thoughts or talking
Something which could be worn most of the times throughout the day, irrespective of your
to ourselves. The verbal thoughts are tough to remember after sometime, also they are part
clothing, lifestyle and fashion preferences. Mostly to be located closer to the face, neckline
of one’s personal time, which he/she cannot/ do not want to share with anybody. Tapping
or the ears, considering the microphone-mouth proximity requirement.
these thoughts could help us in making better decisions and also lead us to become an B) How should it be?
which is wearable and easily accessible, could be interesting
It should be a device which does not make you conscious of its presence. A device which could blend with most type of clothing and fashion preferences. Ideally, it should be
Better Living
Key insights:
We conducted preliminary user research with a dozen youngsters of age 23 to 30 to
1. Most people talk to themselves, usually to gain clarity of their thoughts and to vent out
gain some first hand information on (a) whether they have the habit of talking to
what is their in their mind. A very important social connotation came to our notice that
themselves or not (b) If they do, what is the nature of such talks (c) In what context of
majority of people talk to themselves, and yet we never see anyone doing that.
space and emotional state of mind do such talks happen etc.
These talking sessions generally happen in private when no one can see you. 2. Traditionally it was believed that if you talk to yourself, you might be suffering/suffer in near future from ill mental illness. At the same time, some of the users we interviewed believed that talking to themselves is rather healthy and it helps them in making decisions, solving problems, calming down their anger etc. 3. The users expressed a desire to record these self talk sessions and that they sometimes try
increasingly self-aware person. All our personal verbal thoughts, if maintained in a dairy,
Knowing yourself --> Being Self-aware/Mindfullness --> Better decision making -->
Preliminary user study
and do that by noting down their thoughts, scribbling or using a voice recording function in their cell phone but all they were clueless on why they fail to use them on a regular basis.
something like an extension of the self and not just an accessory, 4. Also, we noted that majority of people who talk to themselves, refrain from doing so in the presence of others. Some remarked that it may scare them out. We are not used to seeing people talking to themselves and it could be said that it is still considered as a social-anomaly.
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Functional Prototypes
Electronics inside
We were looking at designing a wearable that not necessarily looks like an electronic
Miniaturization was an important challenge that we faced in the design process. Right from
gadget, thus we had the freedom to consider many free forms. Also since we were looking
the start we were keen on developing not just conceptual prototypes but fully functional
at making a functional prototype, the dimensions of the electronic circuit were a primary
prorotypes. Thus figuring out a balance between size and the features was a challenge from
constraint around which the forms were developed.
the perspective of constructing the electronics required. After the initial explorations, we made a circuit board by hacking into an off-the-shelf video recorder circuit and made a circuit board which can records CD quality sound onto an inbuilt SD memory card and also connects to a smartphone or a computer through a micro USB port. It was powered by a rechargable 9V lithium battery.
The forms that initially came to our minds were more fun and quirky, but as we went ahead in project the forms began to become more and more subtle. As per our key intent of keeping the device as inconspicuous as possible, we explored various forms in various materials to ensure that the wearable blends with the user’s outfit.
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Prototypes - The meemo family
1) meemo clip
2) Meemo-sticker
The material from an anti-skid kitchen mat was used to make this initial prototype. It safely
Inspired by the electronic tattoos, we conceptualized a skin sticker as one of the explorato-
encloses the electronic circuit and the perforations in the texture of the material provide
ry forms. A piece of skin friendly leather was used for this prototype although the suitable
opening for the microphone. The enclosure had a stainless steel clip-on to clip to your
material for this idea is dragon skin silicone. The silicone sticker will be affixed to the skin
collar or neckline.
by spirit-gum(skin-adhesive). We learnt about different adhesive types, which could be used to make either a multi-use sticker or adhesives, which can stay put for a couple of weeks.
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3) Meemo Dumbbell
Building on the Meemo-Dumbbell, we moved on to Silicone as the preferred material for In the previous prototype of the clip-on device, the metal clip was quite effective but at
The onboard recoding switch creates a small bump on the leather cover, providing the
the same time, it limits the type of clothing on which it could be used. So inspired by the
affordance of a switch. A small LED indicates the recording status.
magnetic name badges which is a two piece product, we made a magnetic clip-on in leath-
We used vegetable tanned leather. Leather is a highly durable and flexible material. It is
er in the shape of a dumbbell. One side of the dumbbell goes into inner side of the clothing
skin friendly and responds to temperature just like human skin. Hence it is quite suitable for
while the other which houses the micrphone circuit stays on the exterior of the clothing.
designing wearables in leather.
Powerful rare-earth magnet placed on both the sides of the dumbbell holds the wearable device in place. This device was quite light in weight and was easy to use. 18
the wearable. Experimenting with different densities of silicone, we chose Dragon Skin Silicone 30 for the fabrication. The mould was 3D modeled and then 3D printed using Makerbot in the Social Body Lab (See figure). The cast was then taken from the 3D printed mould. The cast encloses the microphone circuit, press button as the controller on one side and the battery pack on the other side. Both the sides of the dumb-bell shaped silicone cast enclose a rare earth magnet enabling the user to clip it on their clothing. Dragon Skin Silicone is the material used by makeup artists to generate realistic skin effects. It is a skin safe material.
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Mobile Application The second major aspect of the concept is to design a mobile applica-
The smartphone application syncs with Meemo (fig 1. Icon screen & Fig 2 & 3 Sync screen)
tion that helps in visualizing the prominent themes of the recorded
The application is to help the users visualize the recorded data in a meaningful way. To do that, the audio data
self-talk sessions. The mobile application is essentially an aid for self-
is transcribed into text just after syncing with Meemo.
reflection.
The application retains the original recorded track but presents the key highlights of the self talk sessions .
The user connects the Meemo to his smartphone via USB
Fig 4: Thought record is the home
Fig 5: Thought Trend screens dis-
Fig 6: Journal View
Fig7: What and Where : displays the
screen where the audio track is
plays the major thoughts of your
Chronological arrangement
audio files based on the context in
presented as it is along with text
self talks in the form of phrase
of all the audio files and its
which they were spoken. For ex-
tags on the track telling us the
clouds. The size of the phrases
transcription
ample, while at work, while driving,
content at that location of the
or words is proportional to the
track. This way seeking a temporal
number of times you have used it
audio medium becomes easy and
in your talks
while travelling etc.
comprehensible.
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Scope of the Product
Cognititve Behavoruial Therapy As part of our explorations, we explored the possibility of using Meemo as an aid in certain
Later these thought records are jointly analyzed by the therapist and the patient to observe
Table1.1, shows one of the most commonly used CBT Thought Records. CBT thought records
kinds of psychotherapeutic practices which employs self-reflective journal writing. We
and understand what combination of situations, actions and thoughts have led to a partic-
are crucial in understanding the patient’s frame of mind with respect
are extremely thankful to Dr.Tim Guimond, M.D, M.Sc, FRCPC, a Consulting Psychiatrist
ular emotion and feeling in the patient. By identifying this pattern, they can take measures
to the emotional problems that he/she is experiencing. But the problem is in the medium
in Toronto, Canada for making us understand the various aspects of Cognitive Behavioral
to counter the negative feeling. This process of writing down one’s emotional states, right
in which these thought records exist. The patient is expected to
Theraphy(CBT) and his valuable inputs on how Meemo could be used in CBT.
at the instance of an emotional shift, makes the patient quite self-aware and that by itself
articulate his/her complex emotional state of mind within the constraints of the written
solves many of the cognitive disorders. In our design project, we have designed a wear-
language. The signifiers used in the written language may not signify
About CBT and How Meemo could be used in CBT.
able audio recording device which can replace the printed form of thought records and can
the signified in its fullest essence, particularly when human emotions don’t exist in isola-
Developed by Dr. Aaron T. Beck, Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is a form of psychothera-
function as an audio journal to capture the patient’s verbal automatic thoughts (commonly
tion. (for eg. We may feel helpless as well as sorrowful, at the same time). Written word
py in which the therapist and the patient work together as a team to
referred as Self-talking). The system in tandem with a mobile application, presents mean-
lacks many of the emotional markers which are otherwise found in spoken language, in the
identify and solve problems. Therapists use the Cognitive Model to help patients overcome
ingful visualization of recordings, helping both the therapist and the patient in effective
form of tonality, frequency and rhythm of
their difficulties by changing their thinking, behavior, and emotional responses. Cognitive
CBT.
speech. So by replacing the written format of thought records with self-reflective audio
therapy has been found to be effective in more than 1000 outcome studies for a myriad of
journaling devices which can be worn on one’s body or clothing, we can help CBT patients
psychiatric disorders, including depression,
record their thoughts orally into the wearable recording device.
anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and substance abuse etc. CBT majorly uses the tech-
Read Full Paper in Appendix.
nique of self-reflective journaling in the name of ‘CBT Thought records’ which is a systematic way of writing down all the factors which may influence ones negative thoughts and feelings. Traditionally the thought record is a printed booklet carried by the patient and the patient is expected to fill it, whenever he/she experiences a negative thought or feeling.
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Part 2 - cueco the CONCEPTUAL APPROACH How inconsipicous is inconsipicous? And while wearing it, are we talking to ourselves or is there an “otherness” involved in it? The idea of the “otherness” was interesting to us. We imagined what if if the device has a character of its own and the person wearing it could talk to it. This part of the project consists of a conceptual approach on the idea of self talking.
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Form Explorations i
In prototyping phases, we were constantly either discarding or approving the different
Initial ideas
prototype ideas that we had. Some of the quirky and expressive ideas were quite interesting but did not fit into already defined intent of keeping the device as inconspicuous as
1.Exaggeration of the idea of exploitation of privacy : A complete private cover suit to
possible. And at the same time, we were handing over Meemo_Dumbbell to our friends
express this exploitation.
and were asking them to use it for a couple of days and give us their feedback. From their
2.Mindfulness : Various recordings have various moods, small vibrating jacket is visualized
feedback, we learnt that Meemo is too inconscopicous that the person who is wearing it
that will vibrate whenever a person listen to an emotion mood in his recording, to make
altoghether forgets that he/she is wearing the meemo. This posed a very interesting ques-
him more aware of himself.
tion to us.
3.Interactive Wearable: An expressive wearable product/apparel that makes you aware of
Exaggeration of the idea of exploitation of
How inconsipicous is inconsipicous? And while wearing it, are we talking to ourselves or
his presence by vibrations/ contraction etc.
privacy: A complete private cover suit to
is there an “otherness” involved in it? The idea of the “otherness” was interesting to us. We imagined what if if the device has a character of its own and the person wearing it could talk to it. This seemed more of an artistic expressive approach rather than a product centric design approach. It is tangential to our approach so far but that seemed quite
express this exploitation. There are various social issues associated with privacy and technology making our lives more and more public. Various concerns are arising as social norms are been broken.
interesting to us. Thus we decided to parallel persuade the conceptual expressive approach to the project too.
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Form Explorations ii
Form Explorations iii
Interactive Wearables : Its 2050 ! Talking to oneself is no longer a social issue, and human beings have essentially realized that all humans are same and it does not matter, who thinks what! So some of these designs have a big speaker sort of built so that others and listen to one’s self talk sessions, people can freely speak their mind.These are wacky crazy designs critiquing the future cyborg generation, questioning what if all the wearable tech based on quantified self becomes successful and new social codes and costumes/apparels come into picture, then what it be like talking to one self?
Theory of Mindfullnes : Being self aware. Sync your meemo to these sensory devices and get to know yourself better. For eg. whenever you have spoken emotional sentence/word/phrase, the sensor at your heart will vibrate making you realise of your emotional self.
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CUECO
Possessive Cueco
Cueco is a bright green color neck hugging Pet wearable. It has these long tentacles which
On further note of exaggeration, we designed a fictional necklace which will slowly stran-
can be folded into expressive shapes of your liking. They sway as you walk. The base of the
gles you when you are not talking to it. To stop the strangling, you touch the center of the
tentacles has a spiral vortex that acts as a touch sensitive switch to record your self talk
necklace and start talking and that is recorded as your self-talk session. We used nitinol to
sessions.
create the strangling effect. But the current requirements of nitinol to create the strangling made it difficult for us to demonstrate it.
The ends of the tentacles have the microphone in them. When you are not talking to the Ceuco for a long time (say 2 hours) the cueco tentacles starts to recede and curl into itself. The gradual curling in of the tentacles is symbolic of Cueco feeling sad for you not having spoken to it. And the moment you touch the base of the tentacle and start talking to it, it springs back to its expanded state.
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Conclusion Yuppie! Its a good sign if you feel that 2months zipped away like 2 weeks. Our short term project in Social Body Lab, Toronto was an amazing learning opportunity. The method of approaching the same concept from the tangents of Industrial design and expressive media art was a valuable learning. Since it was a self-initiated project, the boundaries were not strictly defined. That enabled us to explore wearability in various contexts but also posed the challenge of applying the learning in a context. During the concluding phase of the project, our interview with a Psychotherapist gave a new direction to the project. It made us realize the untapped opportunties for wearable technology in Mental healthcare. For now, bye bye from Cueco & Meemo :)
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