PRESENCE Sensing Companionship Even from a Distance.
2015 Senior Capstone by Joon Gi Shin
01
Table of Contents Introduction
07 - 14
Exploration
15 - 24
Ideation
25 - 44
Scenario
45 - 49
Modeling
50 - 72
Feedback
73 - 80
Future direction
81 - 82
02
Personal Interest I always have been interested in how people interact with their surroundings and each other. Therefore, I document the intriguing scenes and explore people’s behaviors in the environment.
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Project Subject The situation I focused on for this project is...
Family
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Members
Living
Far Away
From
Each Other
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What is the situation?
How did I find the situation?
Why do I want to explore the situation?
Who are the people related to the situation?
When do people be in the situation?
Where does the situation happen?
Why does the situation happened?
What interaction do people have?
How does the interaction go?
What are involved in the interaction?
Why do people interact that way?
What are the results of the interaction?
What results need to be changed?
Why the results need to be changed?
How to improve the results?
What would be the consequence of the changes?
What have I learned through the project?
What needs to be explored further?
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Introduction Understanding the situation Finding Design Opportunity
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Understanding the situation
Family members would start living apart when their children go to college, achieve financial independency, or one of their parents work far way from home.
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Three main changes in communication
Due to the location difference, family members cannot physically interact with each other,
need to communicate through online,
and the others might not be able to talk if there is a time difference.
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Finding design opportunity
Seek for the other’s presence The changes make people feel the distance between them and miss each other more than before.
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Send a message to ask after the other.
Check the other’s profile status
Interact with the object related to the other.
Wonder how the other person is doing.
Think about their companionship.
Seek for the other’s presence To find a solution for their emotional void, I observed people’s behaviors when they miss their beloved ones. They not only made direct contacts but also tried to remember the others, and I saw their actions as ‘active ways of finding the other’s presence.’
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Unfortunately people cannot sense the other’s presence without making the actions. But when they are in a same space, they can feel each other’s presence without spending any effort. If this effortless interaction can be adapted to the family members living apart, they would be able to resolve their longing for each other.
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Key points Missing someone can be resolved by sensing that person’s presence. If people are in as same space, they can sense each other’s presence without spending any effort.
Next step Understand effortless ways of sensing other’s presence.
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Exploration People’s interaction in a same space
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People’s interaction in a same space
To understand how people sense the other’s presence without any effort and what affects the interaction, I observed people’s interactions in a same space.
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Physical changes made by others The first thing I observed is that people can sense the other’s presence from the physical changes that the person creates. People constantly make changes in their environment without a purpose of expressing their existence. However, these changes can provide the sense of shared territoriality that makes people perceive that there are other people in the space.
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Limb movement
SOUND
Light
AIR FLOW
If the physical changes are continuous, simple and clear enough to understand that something is changed, and made within a rage that people can sense, people would be able to detect them without paying attention.
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Know that mother is in the kitchen.
Hear water boiling
Usually have a family tea time after dinner.
Just had a dinner.
Hear water boiling
‘Someone is boiling water.’
‘Mother is preparing family tea time for us.’
Context of the physical changes People can also imagine a scene from a physical change. Depends on what people know about its context such as who makes the change, how, or when the change is made, the change can tell different stories and be more meaningful to certain audience.
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How much time do family members spend in a same space? Home
Different Space
Same space
Living together Hour 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Father / Employee Mother / Housewife Children / Student
Living apart Hour 1 Father / Employee Mother / Housewife Children / Student
Frequent interaction Another finding that affects sensing the other’s presence is frequency of interaction. When family members live together, they can see each other more often compare to when they live far from each other.
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How often do they talk to each other? Greeting
Chitchat through online
Hour 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Father / Employee Mother / Housewife Children / Student
EVERYDAY or TWICE A WEEK
Being in a same space stimulates them to interact more, and this frequent interaction prevents them from missing one another. Despite the fact that these interactions can be done through online communication system, people tend to neglect communicating with each other when they live apart.
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Process of saying ‘good morning.’
Face to face
Smart phone
Text
Look at the person.
Grab a phone.
Grab a phone.
Say “good morning.”
Open the app.
Open the app.
Find the person’s number.
Find the person’s number.
Press the number.
Type ‘good morning.’
Wait until the other to pick up.
Send the message.
Say “good morning.”
Simplicity in making interaction Then I questioned why people wouldn’t communicate more often. First of all, there is not enough stimulation to make a contact other than the longing for the other. Second, the preparation for a brief greeting is too much compare to what people would get at the end. If talking through online is as simple as talking face-to-face, people would not mind contacting the other for brief greeting.
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Key points People can sense the others’ presence form the physical changes that they make. Physical changes can be more meaningful depends on its context. There needs to be something that would remind people to contact the other. Simple way of making contact would stimulate people to communicate more often,
Next step Design an interaction system that users can create physical changes in each other’s place from a distance. The changes should be made with a simple motion, and express the users’ presence and intimacy.
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Ideation Form and function Final form Mechanism#1 Mechanism#2 How ‘Presence’ works
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Form and function
Continuous change and conditional change When someone is near the other person, he or she can constantly feel the other’s presence, and they can also interact with each other if they want to. Therefore, it would be appropriate if users can create continuous changes without paying attention and create conditional changes if they want further interaction.
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SMELL
HEARING
TOUCH
TASTE
SIGHT
LIGHT
Notice changes clearly
Can make various appearances
Easy to control to see or ignore.
Easy to notice the change Often related to warm image
What should the ‘conditional change’ be There are various elements that can be changed to express someone’s presence and caring. To decide the right one, I explored the benefits and limits of each sense. I decided to stimulate the sense of sight and chose light changes such as fading and color change.
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What should the ‘continuos change’ be For the constant change I explored people’s behavior that they make without intention to communicate. I chose ‘breathing’ and focused on expanding and contracting movement.
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Breathing Clear enough to notice Gentle and won’t frighten the other Looks alive
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How users would create the changes How the changes are created can make them be more meaningful to their viewers. I observed people’s intimate interactions and chose ‘staying near the other’ for making the continuous change and ‘touching with hand’ for making the conditional change.
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Staying near the other It’s continuous behavior. It doesn’t express intention to communicate but urge to be in a same space.
Touching with hand Intimate and warm gesture Express desire to interact
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Required functions The devices should be wirelessly connected to each other for two-way interactions.
It needs to have at least two sources of light to create various conditional changes.
Its shell needs to repetitively expand and contract to simulate breathing motion.
It should be able to detect its distance from a user.
It should be able to detect the user’s touch.
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Related technology : Arduino Xbee radio Wirelessly connects two objects in a distance.
RGB LEDs Creates color variation and fading motion.
Mini servo Provides controlled speed and angle of rotation.
Ultrasonic range finder Measures its distance from other object.
Capacitive touch sensor Detects whether its touched or not.
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Final form A long touch pad to pat.
Round shape for comfortable touch.
Ultrasonic range finder
Contract
Expend
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Connected to a capacitive touch sensor.
Top
Bottom
Side
Front
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Mechanism#1
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Mechanism#2
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How Presence works
If one person is near the object,
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only the other’s sphere will expand and contract.
The spheres are wirelessly connected to each other.
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Scenario Guessing what the changes mean
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1 Family members who will be
2 They read the instruction and
3 The parents and child take
living apart buy Presence .
understand how it works.
one sphere for each.
4 The child moves far away
5 The parents put their sphere
6 The child puts his sphere on a
from his parents.
on a table in their living room.
desk in his bedroom.
7 Someday in the morning, the
8 The sphere on the child’s desk
9 The child wakes up and sees
parents sit at the table to have a
starts to expand and contact.
that the sphere is moving.
cup of coffee together.
It’s moving, so one of my parents must be near their sphere.
I think he woke up.
10 The child sees that one of his
11 The parents see their sphere
12 The parents understand that
parents is near their sphere.
moving and glowing by itself.
their child just touched his sphere and staying near it.
One of them is responding!
Good morning! Good morning, son.
13 The child sees his sphere
14 The child touch the sphere
15 The parents notice the color
moving and glowing by itself.
again while thinking about
change and notice that they
saying good morning.
are touching at the same time.
Hi mom, is your sphere moving, too? Where did you put yours?
Mom is in the living room. Is she watching TV?
Someone is hear.
16 Family members can always
17 If he knows where the other
18 Or just sense family’s
call and talk about where they
person put her sphere, he can
presence from the motion.
put their sphere.
know her location and guess what she might be doing.
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Modeling Prototyping Mechanism#1 Mechanism#2 Arduino Final model
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Prototyping
I used styrene and vacuum formed it to make a sphere,
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For the gears and small structures, I used laser cut.
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Mechanism#1
Tons of metal pins Structures to hold exterior
Placing mini servo
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Sand paper
Template to cut the sphere.
Weld-on
Mechanism#2 in progress
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Mechanism#1
Unfortunately, the mechanism#1 did not work very well because there were too much vertical force rather than horizontal force.
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It was easy to push the center for expansion, but hard to pull it back up for contraction.
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Mechanism#2
The second mechanism worked perfectly. Since it moves the metal pins by rotating the center wheel, it was good to be performed with a single motor.
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There is a mini servo attached to the center pole.
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Arduino After deciding the mechanism, I visited ‘Hive76’ to get help on wiring and coding. Every Wednesday, they have open house and Mr. Santoro had helped me a lot through the project.
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Testing RGB LED
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Testing the capacitive touch sensor
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Adjusting the speed and angle of the servo
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Final model After all the coding, testing, and figuring out where to place electronics I started building the final model.
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1. Place the servo.
2. Lock the main gear.
5. Connect the middle LED.
6. Connect the top LED.
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3. Weave the wires.
4. Place the exteriors.
7. Connect the button to the capacitive touch sensor.
8. Close the top.
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PRESENCE Due to the time limitation, I could not combine xbee radio, ultrasonic range finder, and a long touch pad as I planed. The appearance is different, but it can present the main functions.
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Feedback
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Chubai // International Student
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“It’s like logged in to the Skype with my mother and not chatting. Even if I am focused on my work and not making any conversation, I know that she is there and feel connected.” “I will be more interested if the sphere also can show me some literal messages from my parents.”
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Maria // College student living far away from family
“It looks like it’s breathing and is a genuine way of saying that I am here.” “If you can’t hear from the person who you care, you wonder everything about him. This involuntary-interaction gives me the feeling that I’m connected with him and make me less worry about him.” “I want to see more specific vocabulary that would tell me whether the change is important or not.”
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Jimin // International student
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“When I am busy doing my project, I often forget to call my family. Since I can express myself without paying attention, my parents would less worry about me even if I don’t call them for a while.” “I wish there was a way to end interaction gently. It seems a bit rude to just stop blinking the light.”
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Future direction One of the biggest issue from the feedback was that people would like to interact with the sphere, but they did not try to guess what the other person might be doing. Therefore, I want to explore how to stimulate people to think about the context of the changes as well.
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Joon Gi Shin
quiquibug@live.co.kr