Difesa
Difesa is a project which takes the human as a center and approaches design by creating values for the human. Driven by the desire of designing for mental and physical well-being for all, and by a passion for boxing, I got inspired to share the great values of the sport with all.
CONTENTS.
ABOUT VISION METHOD CONTEXT RESEARCH DESIGNGOAL EXPLORATIONS -Probe #1 Bodyprotection -Probe #2 Lightgloves -Probe #3 Vibration shirt -Probe #4 Soundpunchingbag FINAL PROBES FINAL EXHIBITION REFLECTIONS APPENDIX
ABOUT.
Facts
Studentname: Dounia Bourjila B3.2 s092488 Projectname: DPL55 “Wellbeing, from ideal to real” Conceptname: Project “Difesa” Stakeholders: ir. Carl Megens Prof. dr. ir. Aarnout Brombacher (Coach) TomTom Fitness division, UK Projectgoals: - Designing for behavioral/habitual/social/societal change and transformation - Designing for real-life, groups of people and high diversity in people - Designing and prototyping for and within an experiential design landscape Project “Wellbeing; from ideal to real” is a project within Wearable Senses, where
one of the goals is to get people to adopt a healthier lifestyle. The position of sports and sportsclubs is changing in our society nowadays. Due to our lifestyles health has become under fire. Therefore changing peoples behaviour can offer solutions, done by transformational designs that trigger this behavioral change. Most designs are made with a certain intent, but in practice and during real use unexpected behaviour can occur. The method used in this project is the Experential Design Landscape, which stands for testing concepts with real users , in their own environment for a longer period of time to use the unexpected as a transformation to the design. So the challenge is to find these behavioral changes, and how to seduce people to become active and stay active.
Motivation
As I mentioned before, I chose to take my B2.2 project to a higher level. I discovered the subject of Martial Arts within a Wearable Senses environment and vision. Since it has become a sports-related subject, I am curi-
ous about the outcome if I am to approach it within a Sports, Wearables and Technology environment. And, I am so passionate about Martial Arts,boxing in particular, that I would like to share this experience with others (and eventually take away certain stereotypical ideas about the sport). The fact that the project description is aimed at sports for all, instead of a certain niche, makes it quite a challenge for me to adjust the B2.2 concept which was designed for boxing only.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the people that helped my with this project, inside and outside the TU/e; - Prof. Dr. Ir. A.C. Brombacher, for coaching me - MSc. C.J.P.G Megens for expertmeetings and his expertise in Max MSP - Amateur boxing gym NABA in Nijmegen for providing space and members for trying the probes - Gym Train More in Eindhoven, for providing the space and members for trying the
probes - All members from these two gyms for participating and sharing their opinions - Syrano and Mohamed Cissoko for modeling - Germain op de Kamp for his expertise in programming - Hans Leeuw for his expertise in Max MSP - TomTom fitness UK for showing interest in my project and giving feedback
VISION.
Wearables & technology
Most current “innovations” are focused on flashy products and what technology can bring to fashion and wearables. This new trend, I believe, has made the world of fashion less inventive than it used to be. This over-dependence on technology and our resulting unhealthy relationship with it has created a need to refocus attention on our bodies to make them, once again, the focal point of design. Consequently, it is imperative that we better understand our body, its dynamics, and its intricate connections to technology. However, how can we really succeed in creating a better sense of awareness about ourselves, and our interactions with the world around us?
Challenges
Personal vision as a designer
Nowadays, our world is overloaded with information and complexity, which makes us lose touch with our innate understanding of nature’s subtleties. The very tools we design to help us in our daily lives, contribute to our dependence on artificial means. Having been inspired by Japanese cultural values and craftsmanship, I always seek simplicity and the use of fundamental elements in their most original form. The challenge for me is to reach the same results with fewer elements, yet, get powerful and effective results (raw and pure). This requires a deep understanding of human behavior, psychology, sociology and openended interaction, which creates a unique process of discovery I am fascinated by.
One of the challenges I want to take on is to seek new ideas combining wearables with technology. I would like to find a way to challenge our dependency on technology by creating an interactive system which maximizes the use of innovative tools to put emphasis on the beauty and strength of the human body. In my B2.2 project ‘Soft & Hard’ I answered the question by finding inspiration in the world of martial arts. Soft & Hard was a very explorative project, where the goal was to find ways to combine soft and hard materials. This project opened up a lot of possible ideas within the context I chose to explore further. One of the key aspects I would like to take into account is placing the user at the center of creation. Not only by understanding them, but by speaking to their needs to evoke emotions and raise discussions about who they are. In my opinion, this makes a design create effective experience.
“People forget what you said, people forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel” - Maya Angelou
METHOD.
PLAN: VALUE PROPOSITIONS, HUMAN-CENTERED & SMALL DESIGNITERATIONS
Design
trough experential landscapes
The aim of this project is to define the designspace by means of explorations and smaller designiterations. Value The main goal is that for mental and physical well-being, sport and boxing in particular, are very important with their contribution to health. To reach a certain level in a sport it requires many aspects such as discipline, motivation, willpower and more. This is not easy accessible for everyone, and once in, the challenge is to stay active and motivated. I believe this motivation can be derived from seeing ones progress in small steps which gives a great feeling of confidence to continue. To find out for whom to design, what kind of methods will help mirroring one’s accomplishments, what kind of values the designs will bring to the users etc., I’m relying on the reflective and transformative design processes that is used at our faculty of Industrial Design TU/e that follows the next principles: - Supporting transformation - Supporting flexibility and individuality - Integrating knowledge - Skills and attitudes - Creating moments of reflection “The central activity of the process is ideating, integrating and realising interaction solutions between users and products/the system in a context of use (central circle). In this continuing process the designer gains insight into the design opportunities. During the process these insights are physicalized and result into a final solution. “(Hummels, Frens, 2009) Focus However, the focus of this project lies on defining the designspace by doing many
iteration, and making conclusions from validating probes in society. I am not starting from a problem or a given context, but from a personal vision on society, taking the human as the center, and most important: from a value proposition. I’m aiming at developing the value of my concept trough designiterations and choices based upon real users. A valuable conclusion from Verganti’s study ‘Design driven innovations’: “Design-driven innovation does not start from users’ insights. People definitely did not ask for Chinese-like orange squeezers before 1991. But they loved Alessi’s products after they saw them. Indeed, customers hardly help in anticipating possible radical changes in product meanings. The sociocultural context in which they are currently immersed makes them inclined to interpretations that are in line with what is happening today. Radical changes in meanings instead ask for radical changes in sociocultural models, and this is something that might be understood (and affected) only by looking at long-term phenomena with a broader perspective. Design-driven innovation is therefore pushed by a firm’s vision about possible breakthrough meanings and product languages that could emerge in the future. As this vision cannot be developed solely by looking at current user behaviors, the process of these firms has little in common with user-centered approaches.” (Verganti, 2008) However, I am not designing a product, which includes a usertest at the end and is ready to be presented. Though, the explorations of this project can ofcourse be taken into business, but from a design driven innovation point of view, by means of user centered designs. The value of my project is to get new insights in humans backgrounds, behaviours, choices, particularly related to sports, being and staying active. From these insights, gained by reflective transformations, I’m applying them directly in new iterations, and opening new possibilities for exploration.
The development of these solutions is guided by a vision (top circle), in our case a vision about transformation from our current reality to a new one through an intelligent system, product or related service. Because meaningfulness and value are person- and context-related issues, we believe that the solutions have to be developed and tested in society which requires experiencability of the solutions (bottom circle). The two remaining circles show the two types of skills the designer uses to develop solutions thus integrating knowledge and skills, i.e., the cognitive skills of the designer (right circle) as well as the perceptual-motor and emotional skills (left circle). (Hummels,Frens, 2009)
My designiterations are inspired on the design driven PSS innovation process tools (by S.E. Ehsan Baha) For example: an iteration can start from sense, envision, make to integrate finally, and a follow up could be sense, envision, make, integrate and analyze again.
“IT’S
NOT WHAT PUNCHES YOUR THROW, IT’S HOW YOU THROW THE THEM”
This is what you will hear from professional boxers who have made their path through years and years of discipline and train ing for big fights.
a longer period of practice under the guidance of a trainer or coach to overcome this fear. A boxer won’t understand his feed back after a time of repetition.
Martial arts have been known for centuries for their great contri butions to the mental and physical state of a person. Practicing boxing makes one aware of his or her body, and teaches how to become in control of one’s actions and especially emotions. By practicing the techniques and becoming better, it increases also your self-confidence. The great reward next to a great physi cal condition, is also the ‘zen-feeling’ it causes after finishing a work-out (which occurs also in other sports): a feeling of accom plishment. In addition to that, martial arts are a good method for reducing risks in health conditions and stress for example.
Therefore, why can’t we shorten this path of feedback and design something that gives immediate and personal responses to one’s actions?
As in any other sport, the first thing beginners encounter are re membering the techniques, and in the case of boxing, it is cop ing with this paralyzing fear during sparring. Normally, it takes
Finding ways to increase the awareness of a boxer is the challenge that project ‘Difesa’ is taking. Difesa is a concept started in the B2.2 project ‘Soft & Hard” withing Wearable Senses in 2011. The goal is to take this project a level higher within this Final Bachelor Project, by combining it with the goals of ‘Wellbeing, from ideal to real’and to gain new insights and experiences. Therefore a flaming start from Difesa #1 on to Difesa#2.
Amateur boxing gym NABA in Nijmegen
CONTEXT. WHY
Martial arts: Boxing
Martial arts in general are a very enriching kind of sport compared to other sports (such as teams ports). For many, it is seen as a very aggressive sport, which most people don’t understand. Martial arts (Boxing) are a perfect example of training the balance between body, mind and soul. It requires more than only training the impact of one’s punches. Besides that, a boxer needs to be able to control his/her timing, coordination, speed, flexibility and endurance. And before all these physical aspects: it begins all from the mind. Martial arts teach the craft of balancing and never relying on one part of the body too much. This can also be applied our general mindset, to balance between our brainsides. This makes all types of martial arts a driver behind reducing stress and balancing one’s emotions: “In martial arts, given that you are going to be facing an opponent, you will be confront ed by fear-evoking situations (including the fear of being physically hurt).This exposure is a good thing because over time, the practice of dealing with it regularly can alleviate your internalized fear and help to desensitize you to things that provoke your fear, such as feel
ing you’re not safe, not confident enough, or that you’re unable to defend yourself. From a stress point of view, this is exposure coupled with learning how to respond effectively will begin to reduce your anxiety levels as well as training you in how to respond logically and calmly.” (source: Wikihow)
Stress reducing
We need to build our defense against stress, because we can be creative about finding alternative solutions to dealing with difficulty. This can be modeled after the Zen meditation, which teaches one to focus on the moment and to ‘go with the flow’. Focusing on the now can be incredibly beneficial to our society and to our hectic lifestyles: stress reducing. One of the ways to do this is though the art of boxing. Contrary to common belief, boxing is more than just a stress relieving exercise through the release of bad energy by punching hard. It requires accuracy, timing, power, finesse, speed and a good balance between body and mind and more. It is rather a game of smart decisions than only aggressiveness. The beauty of this sport is that it trains you on taking control of your emotions, reactions of situations, and it challenges one to go the distance and to never give up.
CONTEXT.
sports for all
What Inspired on boxing and it’s benefits as a sport, Difesa is taken to another direction: sport for all. Boxing and all other martial arts deliver a great sense of well-being , on a physical and especially a mental level. Unfortunately the sport is mostly seen as a violent an tough one, while it is more than that. To share the experience of boxing the mass needs to be reached in another way, by fine-tuning the concept towards their needs. Movement in boxing has a lot to do with finding the right rhythm or flow and especially speed. Because speed is the key to explosiveness and power (and not the other way around), which makes it important to maintain it. So what should be thought at an early stage is this short contact when punching. These key-aspects of boxing are also benifical for other sports or purposes. Training speed and agility can be pretty intense! Why This second Difesa-design starts from out of a general view of Well-being for all: one of the goals is to get people to adopt
a healthier lifestyle. The position of sports and sportsclubs is changing in our society nowadays. So how can people be seduced and encouraged to be and stay active? How can we get to voluntarily behavioral change? I combine this from what I learned from designing for the boxing world in particular. The heavy boxing work-outs are only for the people who are really willing to go for it . Yet it should be accessible for everyone. How I tried to find out behavioral change of people by means of lights and vibration (the results can be found in the posts). Another strong but yet subtle trigger is audible feedback. I did an exploration in soundscapes that are connected to ones actions. The design consists from a mat that can be placed on a punchingbag, which is connected to a loud-speaker. It keeps track of the frequency of punches one gives, and gives feedback by changes in tones. When ones hears it he or she will adapt the speed and time of touching the bag.
RESEARCH. WHAT: BOXING
Right jab, by turning the center of the body (hips) empowered by flexibility due to standing on the tip of toes
Boxing Basics
Boxing is basically a combat sport in which two people engage in a contest using their fists as tools. It consists from amateur boxing, which has as been an Olympic sport since 688 B.C. , and has its own World Championships. Boxing is supervised trough series of 1-3 minute intervalled rounds. The result is decided by a jury who keep scorecards, or by an opponent who is resigning by throwing a towl or disqualification by breaking a rule. Point are assigned to fighter based on punches that connect, defense, knockdowns, and other (more subjective) measures. During a fight each boxer has his assigned corner in the ring, where he inters the fight and goes back to it between a round. A boxer may also win by a ‘knock-out’ (KO), which means that a fighter is knocked down, while the referee begins counting to ten until he returns to the fight or not.
Boxing training
For physical training, it is about the next: training repeatedly explosive actions, the recovery from those actions and training the
lactic acid system of the muscles to be able to fight under tiring conditions and to build up a tolerance against acidification. This means doing running work-outs for example for endurance, training agility, coordination, timing, flexibility and ofcourse impact. The trainings consist often from very traditional methods such as using speedbags to train on rythm and coordination, or doing ballgames to train speed and timing. Furthermore, these aspects are based on the next basic techniques that can be combined during sparring: Left jabs, right jabs, uppercuts, left hooks, right hooks. These are all used in different kinds of combinations such as left-left-right, left-right-right-left etc. Learning the proper way of using these techniques, which are then related to bodybalance, musclecontrol, takes a lot of training and repitition. After all at a more advanced level, boxing isn’t anymore about which and when these techniques will be used (it is expected a fighter already does it in automation). The
Left and right hook
things that are playing a role, and harder to grasp are, luck, confidence, having an own stule, tactics etc. Boxing has a lot of theory to dive in to, but the particular parts I am selecting are the defense position, and the principle of Punch v.s Push.
“Attack is only one half of the art of boxing” – Georges Carpentier Punch vs. Push “Punching faster, handspeed, quickness of reflexes. These things are all related. It’s not hard to do or hard to practice, but it is most definitely hard to learn. From what I’ve seen, most people punch slow because they have the wrong attitude and the wrong training. Even most of the fast guys that I see in the gym don’t do any specific drills to improve their punching speed. I don’t need to tell you how important it is to have speed in boxing. Look at Muhammad Ali. Look at Roy Jones. Look at Pernell Whitaker. Look at Floyd Mayweather
Jr. Not only are they winning, but nobody can touch them. There are very few things that can equal out handspeed. Regardless of how powerful you are, if the other guy’s punch lands first every time, he will beat you easily!?” (Expertboxing.com) The mistake made is that most people tend to push when trying to hit, and not pulling back fast This causes that all force will get lost in the time that a fist makes contact with the opponent, and it takes a lot of effort to give another punch right after that one. Not only will it cause loss of energy, but it will also slow a fighter down, as mentioned before; by not pulling back and getting in the defense position, the opponent wil get plenty of time to hit back. Defense position The defense position is also one of the most important basics in boxing, since it is not only about hitting, but avoiding and catching punches.The defense position is simply keeping the fists in front of the face, and learn this in automation so it becomes a natural position.
Designpossibilities - the six most common focusing points of all boxing techniques which require practice and feedback. If these aspects are at a good level, the performances of the boxer increase.
DESIGNGOAL. WHY
Boxing is a very traditional and pure sport, in which most techniques are taught with old fashioned methods. This makes the contrast with technology challenging, yet interesting. Therefore, design opportunities don’t lie in the actual fights, but in training.
tion that paralyzes beginning boxers which is: fear. Fear of hitting or the fear of getting hit back. Generally, this feeling goes away with time along with the development of other skills such as speed, flexibility, coordination, timing, balance and impact.
Improvements by technology in sports
All these aspects are learned by a matter of repetition and coaching, until one can do it in automation without any thinking. This takes mostly a lot of time, and there is a chance of ‘gaps’ in performances.
We can distinguish different aspects which are taken as focus to be improved by tech nology: health monitoring, performance feedback, physical coordination, endurance techniques, strategy and tactics. The ques tion is: what goals need to be achieved in this project?
I distinguished two visions within the context of boxing combined with well-being for all:
1. Hit, but don’t get hit
As mentioned before, boxing is not only about performing the right techniques and being in an amazing physical state. Once a level is reached of participating with fights, fighters rely on confidence, luck, focus, timing more than the basic techniques. However, to get there, or to understand the sport, one needs to overcome the first emo-
Therefore, is there a possibility of shorten ing this path of learning? Giving also an optimal training to a fighter in adaption to his physics and style?
2. Be active, Stay active
The beauty of the sport is generally only understandable to people who have expe rienced it before, or have a certain interest in it. In general, the sport has mostly negative associations and a violent image for exam ple. The great aspect of each sport actually is that when one reaches the top of the first ‘mountain’, and overcomes it, it gives a great
feeling of power and confidence. Secondly, when focusing on making achievements and challenging one self in a sport, it makes you forget focusing on the physical part which is reminding you that you have to lose weight for example. Making a comparison with going to a gym for example; one is keeping count of how many crunches he or she has to do, or how many miles he/ she need to bike. Forgetting all of that can relief stress. So how can the benefits of boxing for mental and physical well-being be shared with every one? Defining ‘all’ When talking about ‘sports for all’, the part of ‘all’ needs to be defined by explorations and testing. Clubs vs. gyms Private sportclubs are shrinking, and gyms are growing. Yet people join a gym but they don’t make enough use of what they pay for due to time and planning issues. Motivation People who enjoy working out are easier to convince to work out than people who don’t like it, but yet need it. These people need an
incentive, or something that will take away their focus on work-out for well-being purposes, but do it while focusing on amusement. This group of people also needs guidance and coaching for a longer time. To make people active and to keep them active, they need to be guided and encouraged somehow. The focus is not anymore on performace and eventually healthmonitoring, but more on the human and mental side of sports: what motivates to be active? why does it motive? who does it motivate? It’s different than when designing for sportsmen who are focusing on achievements within the sport, they already passed the first stage of becoming active and developing a discipline. Feedback Guiding people trough a process is beneficial for their outcome, and gives them a something to hold on and measure their progress. A second aspect is that it gives feeling of accomplishment, or a signal to improve something more.
HEALTH MONITORING MENTAL WELL-BEING
PERFORMANCE FEEDBACK
TACTICS AND STRATEGY
FEEDBACK
FEEDBACK
COACH BOXER BOXER
IMPLEMENTATION
IMPLEMENTATION
HOW
Beginners in boxing
The most common difficulties beginners encounter is the fact that they don’t perform the techniques in automation yet. This requires ofcourse quite some time to learn by doing in repitition. In the first place it seems almoast (vanzelfsprekend) that when one (beheerst) the techniques well, he or she will automatically perform better. But boxing is mostly about a mental state of mind, adapting an own fighting style, creativity, balance; thinks that
cannot just be learned by techniques. One of the most important basics is developing selfconfidence, by taking control of one ‘s emotions. Fear is on of the emotions which can paralyze a beginning fighter. Confidence is also visible from when a person has adapted his or her punches to his own style. Again: it’s not about what punches one throws, it’s about how you throw them. Confidence can also be reached by visible accomplishments, or a good feedback from trainers.
Another important key aspect is speed and agility. What is lacking currently in most boxingtrainings for beginners, is that they start to learn punching techniques, instead of getting the speed, agility and flow that a boxer should have in order to give the right techniques.
HOW? Results(1st)
Fun & Accomplishment
CONFIDENCE
Methods
“Zen� feeling
ENERGY POWER
Adrenaline
Requirements
Getting in the
Or
By longterm training
as leader by rhytm, and not on the background NEW SITUATION
Well-being for all
When taking the benefits of boxing outside the world of martial arts, other things need to be considered. What will attract the attention of people, and what will keep them motivated and challenged? I was inspired by grouplessons of techniques of all kinds of martial arts which are lead by music, called: BodyCombat (by Les Mills). The music distracts one which helps remembering all techniques in automation. It is a very easy and understandable path to follow
and accessible for everyone. Once in the flow people will understand how to get speed, power , and energy, and soon, the enjoyment of being in control will arise, which gives gives a great feeling of accomplishment afterwards.
CURRENT SITUATION
EXPLORATIONS.
Speed by sound
Defense position by vibration
Powermeasure by light
Elbows against body
PROBE #1: PROTECTION OFTHE BODY
Why
The whole torso of a fighter is used as a tool during boxing. Therefore a boxer needs not only to know how to punch, but also how to protect himself and avoid painful injuries for example. One of the basics to be learned is to protect one’s ribs and liver, by keeping the elbows close to the body. Unfortunately, beginners don’t do this in automation yet.
How
To make them remember the rule, there needs to be something that holds their elbows back during training, untill they will do it without any help. I figured an elastic tape, attached around one’s torso, which is connected to two bands around the elbows. When one stands in the fighting position, the elbows are close to the body due to the short distance caused by the elastic band. And when one stretches out, the band between elbow and torso will stretch, but reach a certain maximum which also indicates a punching time (instead of pushing).
Prototype
The concept is low-tech and doesn’t include any intelligent technolgy. However it does require and intelligent choice of materials: the material of the elastic band needs to be stretchy enough for stances, but short when not stretched. Another concern is that during testing I remarked that the bands around the elbows move up and down my arm when moving with my arms.
2. POWERMEASURE BY LIGHT
the boxing gym where I planned to do my usertests. To understand the sport better, and also because I like the sport, I train now for 2 or 3 times a week.
PROBE #2
Why
The first thing associated with boxing is force and punching power. It is more than that ofcourse, but to stick to this idea I was wondering what kind of effect it would have when one can see how hard he or she punches? Will it encourage a person to perform better, and will it give a certain feeling of accomplishment? I was inspired by the game “De kop van Jut” which can be found on fairs: you hit the installation with a hammer, and your punching power will be shown trough a row of lights that go on.
How
I decided to translate the exact same principle of the game into a glove. I took the glove itself to place the lights on, to keep everything centered in one item.
Prototype
The glove consists from 4 LEDs, a Velo-stat sensor in the front of the glove which measures the force, and an Arduino MINI which processes and controls all the information. The harder you hit with the glove, the more lights will go on.
Fieldwork
Probe approach The focus in this exploration is to set the first steps in finding out who the targetgroup is, and to understand the communication between me as a designer, and them as a user. Users cannot tell me what they exactly want, but they can tell me what they do and don’t like. In this case I would like to know more about the characteristics of people who joing a boxing gym, their attitudes and skills. Additionally to this, I subscribed myself to
I got a selection of 3 male boxers and 1 female, aged between 25 and 16 years old. All of the selected people were advanced boxers, from which 2 participate in competitions. They were taken apart, and given two versions of the prototype; one with red blurred lights, and one with bright white lights. Observations All of them perform the boxing techniques seamlessly on a punching bag. The pace and the time between each hit goes relatively fast, which makes me have to focus more on the persons body language. I kept the assignment open for them to choose what they are going to do with this weird glove from which the lights turn on and off randomly. So what they all do automatically, are performing the techniques that they learn, without taking a moment to examine this weird glove. Between a hit they checked what happened with the lights. Most of them do it the first 4 to 5 times, and then continue with their work-out on the punching bag without looking again. Some of them I had to remind to look what is happening to the glove. Conclusions - After interviewing most of them concluded that looking at the lights between each hit was disturbing, as if one was looking on his or her watch. Lights only as measurement of performance or power, wasn’t enough. They would like to have more specific numbers of how hard they hit. - The difference they adressed between the two types of gloves, was that one was more clear that the other one (white was better than red) - I realized more advanced boxers don’t have a need of confirmation of their performances. In other words, they don’t need confirmation or feedback on techniques, but on complete performances during sparring for example.
Persona Advanced boxers training for competitions: This group of users knows all the basics and techniques in automation, and works out without thinking too much. The focus lies a level higher, in getting exact data of their punches, speed and agility etc. These people can’t be easily guided by responsive systems that have a simple outcome or interface. Discussion -There are always certain aspects in the environment when testing which can change the result of a usertest. One of the thinks I remarked is that when a user knows that I am filming, they become less open to my answers and questions, and perform too focused and tense. - Another issue that occurred was that the electronics didn’t seem to function: The sensor wasn’t effecting the outcome in the LEDS. This effected the result in a sense that they could only comment on the appearance and on their imagination of how the glove could work. (*it works the first couple of times, but apparently the hits from the first user were to hard, that the sensor didn’t work anymore) Yet they were very curious, about knowing how hard they hit. Final conclusion Though the visual feedback wasn’t perceived as effective, this probe could be taken into next iterations and into business. Apparently there is a demand for a feedbacksystem for training on one’s performances by boxers. But it could also be used in a home environment, functioning as a stress-relief. The next parameters can be explored further when taking this probe into next iterations: - the position of the visual feedback, would it be better when not placed on the glove but on the punching bag? Or another external device? - The amount of LEDs; I worked with four, but would more have another effect on the way one’s performance is perceived? And does the positioning of each LED have an effect too? - Do colors change the effect in perception? - What kind of timing need the LEDs when turning off and on?
3. FEEDBACK BY VIBRATION
Why
Maintaining a good defense position is quite difficult for beginners and amateurs. Though, even professionals seem to have difficulties with it during fight, but that is due to fatigue instead of a lack of experience and skills. In both ways it is a chance to develop something that will create awareness of their stances, to prevent getting hit. Normally, the trainer corrects his pupils, by telling them to keep their fists high, and to repeat that a hundred times.This until it gets in their automatic system, in their subconscious mind so next time they don’t have to think and then act. For amateurs this stimulates their fighting skills, giving and receiving punches, which increases their confidence and reduces their fear to anticipate (see my vision). For professionals it quite complex: it is hard to compete with fatigue, which makes the senses less sharp. This shows they become less sensitive for triggers from outside, and will notice they got hit until they lie knock-out on the floor.
to wear and gives freedom of movement. Two sensors are placed on the arms which compare the set position with the current position. These are connected with an Arduino which is programmed to activate two vibrating sensors. These sensors are placed on the upper arms, to keep them close to the source of information (sensors). concept personal feedbacksystem So when the arms areThe tilted for too |long (which is 2 seconds already), the user will feel a vibration in the arm that doesn’t have the right defense position. The user can set the ‘zero-position’ him or herself, to adapt it to their prefered defense position. After using the design, the Arduino can be connected with a computer to read-out the data which show which of the arms shows a bad defense-position (which has vibrated the most).
-90° Tilted position which activates vibration after a certain time
90° Normal (good) position
The first version of the prototype (with pink) is taken from where it was left in my B.2.2 project, and developed further. The second one is a more developed version.
Feedback by vibrating parts
Measure and determine arms position by sensors (accellerometers)
How
The design for a feedback system is focus on the position of the arms: the fists should always be at least above the chin when fighting. As soon as one lowers his arms, he will get a vibration which should ‘wake him up’ to bring back his arms up.
The prototype
The system is included in a longsleeve compression shirt, which is comfortable
1. Measure position 2. Compare to point of reference 3. Vibrating feedback if its not a good position Boxer is being remembered if defense position isn’t good anymore.
Feedback by vibration
This second version of the feedback shirt is improved in wearability, robustness and functionality. The fabric of the shirt is more stretch, so it is good for different sizes. The electronics and cables are thicker and attached very well to the fabric, so in case of hard and fast movements it does not break easily. The most important improvement is the stretch wires along the arms, that replace the thin cables in the previous version. 1.
2.
The placing and design of all parts of the circuit weren’t planned before, they all came by small steps in designiterations and by means of trial and error.
SECOND PRO
3.
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6.
Legend
1. Making the electronics work: when tilted, LED goes on (controlled by a Lilypad) 2. When standing straight, LED goes off 3. Attaching long and robust cables 4. Finding the placement of the pad on the shirt 5. Attaching cables to the leather (under sewingmachine) 6. Exploring different stitches 7. Consolidate cables 8. Replacing cables by elastic conductive tapes, finding the right placement 9. Sideview 10. Tape cut and locked in 4 parts, placed like Adidas-stripes along the arm, and sewed 11. Placing the rest, connecting the complete story and testing 12. (no picture) placing the sensors on the arms and covering them with a piece of leather
7.
OTOTYPE 9.
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PROBE # 3
Fieldwork
Probe approach Trough experential designing, the best results come from validating concepts in practice and receiving feedback in it’s most purest form. Meaning, when I ask people their opinion about a design, I would like them to say it without holding back, or being influence by me and what they think that I want. This is not always easy to get out of people, therefore an ‘open’ approach is needed. To get to know what moves people, who they are, and why they do certain things, less possible explanation of the concept is required. Therefore they need to find it out themselves. The questions I as a designer will ask, need to be open, question such as why, how and what, and in this case the why can be ask several times, to make the user think and explain deeply why he or she does something things. I took the shirt to an amateur boxing gym (NABA in Nijmegen, Netherlands), and gave it to one of the boxers training there. My intentions with testing the shirt in practice were to see what the first couple of reactions are of people, whether my intended idea is what they perceived, and whether the intended interaction actually works. Observations The shirt fitted perfectly, and the electronics streched together with the shirt without moving. The person wearing it (Syrano) stated too that the shirt felt as if it was designed with his measures, and he didn’t felt that the electronics were disturbing. The shirt got a lot of attention from the people in the gym too. The first association were ‘superhero’, ‘powerful’, and ‘spiderman’, which I caught during some talks. I explained the functionality of the shirt to Syrano (who is an advanced boxer, but doesn’t participate in competitions), because at that moment it didn’t seem correct to leave the user interact without any explanation. Once wearing it, he found the feeling of vibrations pleasant, and sensed them very well. When standing in the defense position, the vibrations worked at the right times when he tilted his arms. He remarked the functionality of the shirt when he was doing showing
the defense position consiouscly,.But when doing a work out on the punching bag, or another opponent it seemed the vibrations didn’t have any effect on his behaviour. Conclusions -The the colors, the placing of the red stretch bands and the tight form of the shirt gave the impressions of wearing a super-hero suit to others viewing the shirt. For the wearer, it was mosly the comfortable wearability, and the feeling of wearing something fragile yet valuable. - The shirt seemed to have effect on Syrano when he was consciously interacting with it, but not during a training or sparring. Apparently the vibrations weren’t strong enough, or they were not situated at the right places on the body. Discussion - First of all, it is difficult to make general conclusions, when doing the probe with only one person. A distinction needs to be made between the effect of each persons persona on the concept, and the other way around: what the effect is of the shirt on most people, and if it matches my ideas as a designer. - Secondly, the time of testing this probe took place was between two trainings, which did leave me only 15 min of time to do it. The environment was noisy, and the person testing the concept was disctracted. This meant I couldn’t go deeper in my questions during the interview after the probe - The shirt worked the way it supposed to do , but it did not seem to have effect on the user. This could be due to the fact that he his an advanced boxer, which means that he already does most of his techniques in automation. To break his focus (and therefore interrupting techniques derived from a couple years of training), is hard. - As an addition to the previous point, it seemed that the shirt worked the way it should (concluded from the words of the user), but the case could also have been that it didn’t vibrate at the moments that were needed, and that the user has interpret this as if it supposed to be like that. Is it then still a positive influence on my result? - To find out the effect exactly, this needs to be a longitudinal study with probes where
the feedback by vibrations is variated. What happens with vibrations compiled in different frequencies, and tested right after each other? Would the user be comparing them and knowing better what he does or doesn’t like about it? What would be the effect on the user when the vibrations are placed elsewhere on the body? And what if more vibrations than 2 are used? - My approach of the probe could also have had influences on the outcome. During the probe I sensed that the user is very dependant of what I say he should do. This makes them automatically less open minded about the prototype. I did try to keep the questions as open as possible at the end, but it didn’t deliver me great answers. Final Conclusion In general first try-outs or probes seem not to go the direction we as designers want, therefore they need several trials. But at that point I had to remind myself of the direction I was taking with my project. I wondered after testing the lightglove with advanced boxers, and this shirt with an advanced boxer whether that the direction is I want to go. The next step would be to do a third design iteration and explore the feedback vibration and work towards a more robust prototype. This means designing for a niche market, a direction towards the more advanced boxers who are focusing on performance. This means finding small gaps in their set of techniques, which requires high-level technology and intelligent systems, which are also robust and comforable. Reaching one of the goals within better performances is possible, but needs a lot of work, for a relatively small achievement. On the other hand there is the group of beginners, and actually all people that never a have done the sport. If the vision which I started with is taken outside the boxing gym, what would happen? If the designed system or concept is innovative and interesting enough, it could have a greater effect on many different people (compared to the focused sportsmen). This is the reason I decided to change my focus on boxers to sports for all. However, the next question rises: Who is the ‘all’ in ‘sports for all’ ?
INTERACTIVE SOUNDSCAPES PROBE # 4 Why
Switching from focusing on boxers to wellbeing for all, other aspects need to be taken into account. The idea is to encourage people to be active, based on ideas derived from previous explorations in boxing. Unfortunately, the sport is seen by most as a violent and anon-beneficial one (why would I want to hit somebody?!). To share the experience of boxing the mass needs to be reached in a way that is appealing and understandable to them. One key aspect in boxing, which is also shared with many other sports, is getting in a certain flow and rhytm of performing techniques. This is something that can be trained, but needs to be approach in a different way than by the classic way of coaching. In previous explorations I found out that when training, and being in a flow, it shouldn’be cut off when guiding someone in the process (for example with the lights). Vibration is a good example of sending out signals, without disturbing the user. I decided to explore sounds and audible feedback.
How
From the trainings in boxing, I took out work-outs on a punching bag. There are different kinds of punching bags, such as speedbags, double-end bags, upper-cut bags, body bags and many more. The focus of the bag is on training speed and power, the techniques come in the second place. The problem with (over)training on a punching bag for boxers is that it makes it easy for them to develop bad habits. Some of the bad habits are the next: developing lazy eyes, bad distance control, bad defense, push punching, a bad balance, low speed, no uppercuts, and hand damage. This all due to the lack of feedback and guidance. And besides that, for beginners who don’t have a clue of what they should do exactly, it is one of the most boring work-outs, and it doesn’t give any clarity in one’s achievements or performance.
Boxing is about punching, but it is not always about punching hard. It requires fast punching, combination punching, accurate punching, and timed punching. So it’s quite obvious that a punching bag will give you none of these instructions. The idea is to attach the punchingbag to sounds, that will play at the moment when you punch. It has to have a certain intelligence of showing whether you are doing good or not. Challenge The challenge in a certain feedbacksystem to make people active, is finding a way to make them interested in using the idea, but most important: keep them coming back and actually achieving changes in weight and health for example.
Prototype
The first iteration is to attach a sensor to a punching bag, and control that with a punching sound from the computer and see what happens. The sound from the computer emphasizes one’s punching power, and it can seem as if the person is punching very hard, which will encourage him to perform better. From that step, the next can be planned in a more precise direction with the information derived from the first user test. The remarkable aspect of this first iteration, is that I used a real life punching sound (like in Bruce Lee movies for examples, in which the punches are exaggerated) The aspect taken as a focus in this exploration, is developing speed and agility, and avoiding pushing instead of punching. This by challenging a person in keeping the sound the way he wants to, by putting effort in hitting the punching bag. The second iteration is to define the intelligence in the audible feedback. The sound is made ‘richer’, because of the adaptation on the user: when a user hit the punching bag with a high frequency (which means many short punches, and pulling back fast which is good), the tone (which is a simple”beep”) of the sound will go higher. If the person hits with a low frequency, which means with large intervals between each punch, the tone of the sound will go lower. This way I want to see how people interact with the idea and whether hey understand it.
Iteration #1 approach
With the experience of previous explorations, I decided to take more time for. I still approach the users as open as possible, by not telling too much about what the prototype does, or what I expect. With the first test I was still in the same boxing gym, but this time I had boxers of different levels: first time boxing ever, boxing between a month to a year, and advanced boxers who don’t participate with competitions. I also didn’t take people a part but let the prototype be part of a social happening; the moment in a training when everybody takes a rest. This so people get curious, and discussions happen spontaneously. Observations Some users were working-out more seriously, and trying to hear the punching sound as many times as possible. One of the trainers was hitting the back just to try-out wat was happening (it was very amusing). Two other boxers (from which one was a female) were hitting it in a slower pace, but keeping track of when there was sound. And when not they tried to adapt their speed. Conclusions - Sound seems to be open and attractive to everybody to interact with. - It has an amusing side, which takes away the heavy focus on performing and brings the fun in. - The fact that the prototype didn’t work well: the sound worked sometimes when punching and sometimes not, which actually had a positive influence. When there was no sound, the users kept hitting and hitting faster to get the sound back again. Discussion - The fact that the prototype didn’t work how it supposed to work, actually had a positive influence on the users: it made them work harder. - The feedback of the sound was very ‘flat’, and would only play when the bag was it. What happens if more punching sounds are added? Or even playing a musicsong (empowering) on the back ground? - The fact that the prototype didn’t work was because of that the sensor (accellerom-
eter) delayed the whole system. The problem was also that the sensor registrates all movements of the bag, while if somebody stopped moving his hands, and the bag was still moving, the sound would be audible.
Iteration #2 approach
To be able to approach other people than only people in in te surroundings of boxing, I needed to take my probes outside of the boxing gym. The second iteration within this probe is a more advanced follow up of the first one: the prototype is now adaptive to the input of the user. Therefore I expect more valuable results to be able to conclude what could encoure people to engage more in a next iteration. Environment I took the prototype to a ‘normal’ gym or fitness called Train More in Eindhoven. The visitors of this gym variate from men and women around 18 years old to 60 years old. The gym has a wide range of activies, including a boxing ring and some punching bags . The first remarkable thing was that these two are not used often by members (only people that already have a basis in boxing), therefore there must me a reason for that. I picked out people randomly in the gym and asked them for their opinion, and at the same time people came to me driven by their curiosity to know what I was doing (the sounds didn’t stay unremarked). Observations I placed the prototype around one of the punching bags, and provided it with gloves (my own), which still made it look as if it was designed for boxers. I explained my aim at people that have never done any martial art (the punching bag scared them, but after telling them that it won’t hit back, they were convinced). I let each user perform for two minutes on the bag, under my guidance, which was already quite intense for some of them. The first view hits are quite careful, and they try to find out when the sound raises and when it lowers. I remarked that at the end of the two minutes they start hitting a bit harder. In general most of them looked very curious, and were happy to be chosen to participate.
Conclusions - I remarked that two minutes on a punching bag can already be heavy, not mentioning doing it without any guidance. This established my assumption of work-outs on punchingbags being boring, and leaving the user with no clue of what he is doing and whether he or she is doing it well. The questions I asked were as ‘open’ as possible, as in ‘what do you think of it’, ‘why do you think that’ and more until I got valuable answers that described their feelings during the work-out and where they come from. - Yet I didn’t find I got new insights, different from my previous assumption. However, it was remarkable that each argument given was different from the argument of the other users; therefore I can distinguish new persona’s (see ‘Personas’). A remark was that it was very pleasant to have a certain guidance trough a work-out, and to be kept focused on the sound, and not on how long the work-out was still taking (woman, around 27 years old, works out twice a week). The second remark was that the good thing was that the prototype included simplicity, which is a great value when being a coach and guiding a sportsman or just a person. (an English swimmingcoach, that day leading a group of swimmers for the Olympics) The third remark was that the change in sound didn’t do anything with the person, he just didn’t like working out on a punching bag at all. (man, around 24 years old, likes lifting) The fourth remark was that he didn’t make use of the sound, and he was focused on his own rhythm all the time (already had experience in boxing, 10 years ago, and it showed he missed boxing) The fifth remark was from an older man (around 60 years old) who was hitting quite intensly and hard, he liked the idea and understood the change of sound quite early in the work-out. The sixth remark was from one of the pupils of the swimming coach who was curious, around 24 years old, he was the only one who increased his frequency of hitting right at the beginning.
Persona’s From trough out all the probes I remarked that I have been able to distinguish a couple more different persona’s: 1. No experience in boxing, but has experience and interest in sports: this person maybe has some prejudices but can be easily convinced when suggesting a new form of fun, amusing, intense and effective/healthy work-out. 2. No experience in boxing, and not active: This is a group that needs to me investigated in a next iteration. 3. Some experience in boxing, and active: Is sticking to the first techniques learned, and stopped at the level where he or she left boxing. This person understands the sport, but wants to perform it in it’s purest way, without any technology involved. 4. Experience in boxing, still doing it, but without any aims for participating in competitions: this person is very open for new concepts in improving skills, but also in amusement and daring oneself and breaking personal records (in speed and agility for example) 5. Experience in boxing, still doing it, and aiming for competitions: this person is very focused and is interested in systems that can help him or her improve performance and results. Knows exactly what direction to go, but still needs something to help him validate that direction. Discussion Within these persona’s, the male and female needs to be distinguished, on the fact of their perceptual skills, and motivational factors. When placed in one of the persona’s, in generally the difference between men and woman isn’t that big (from what I have observated), but maybe when investigating a larger group of users, the opposite could be true. The same counts for age differences, and perceptual skills and motivation of children and elderly. Other aspects that could have influenced the outcome of the probes: - Copying behaviour, the lasts users may have seen how the first ones interacted with the prototype, therefore they don’t start ‘blanc’ with the probe. - Generally the prototype worked well, but sometimes it stopped (which could have
been distracting). What actually was distracting, was the fact that the hitting area on the punching bag wasn’t completely around it, so the users had to turn around the punching bag and resume the work-out - I offered one type of audible feedback, which was a adaptation of tone heights to the frequency of hitting. Would the outcome have been more rich when offering two different types of audible feedback on the same prototype? It could be the case that the users will compare the to, and get more elaborate critism than I got now. - I think more information about motivating people and keeping them interested can be derived from changing a couple of parameters: What happens when suggesting different types of audible feedback? And when changing the ‘beep’ sound into a real life punching sound? What if these are played at the same time with an empowering song (inspired on the famous BodyCombat work-out of Les Mills)? I have explored these parameters, and set up a couple of compilations of sound, but it needs a fourth iteration to validate these in practice. - Another aspect that needs to be explored is the fact that with this iteration I have given instructions to the users, and guided them by keeping track of time. What if one wants to make this design stand alone? Then it needs to monitors the performance and improvement of the user somewhere - And what if the punching are is not placed on a punching bag (to get away maybe from the boxing image), but in the form of a pillow on a wall for example, or as an extension of the WII remotes? This way it can become easy to use for all, and in all kinds of environments, maybe even without boxing gloves, but just bare fists. It can become a new kind of ‘stress-ball’, to use during work for example, - Another potential value can be for blind people, since they rely on hearing, audible feedback combined with keeping this group of people can be also whole new and effective apporach.
Final Conclusion From all these points of discussion I think this final probe has the most potential to be worked out in next iterations, into a final prototype to be able to conduct a elaborate usertest, with many different users, and over a longer period. The conclusions I was able to make until now confirm the fact that on a punching bag, people need guidance, encouragement, and a challenge to keep them interested. The points mentioned in the discussion keep a lot of options open and combinations yet unknown of what their effects will be, therefore valuable for new iterations towards a final prototype and a final design to pitch to gyms, boxing schools, revalidation centers, home and working environments and eventually as extentions to gaming platforms.
FINAL PROBES.
Photoshoot Photographer: M.E. AMRANI PHOTOGRAPHY model: SYRANO (NABA BOXING NIJMEGEN) Make-up: FATINE BENOUARI LOCATION: TRAIN MORE EINDHOVEN
BUSINESSMODELS
FINAL EXHIBITION.
Final exhibition
I have taken this probe as my final presentation for the exhibition, together with the vibration feedback probe. In my opinion, these two include the largest potential for further development towards a prototype, final design, and business model. Both have a completely opposite direction (one is designed for a niche market, the other for a broad, yet undefined, set of destinations). During the exhibition I even had an advanced boxer (from my boxing gym) who wanted to demonstrate both my concepts. He interacted with some of the visitors which came to talk and ask more specific things concerning boxing (mostly people who do a martial art too). What happened was that more attention from the environment went to my stand, especially when the boxer and one of the visitors started sparring with each other (I also gave people the gloves so they could try-out the sound prototype). I have always like to present my exhibitions as an experience.
Laurens Prins and Mohamed Cissoko discussing the differences between boxing and kickboxing
SECOND DAY OF EXHIBITION
REFLECTS YOUR PACE, IT COACHES AND EMPOWERS YOUR TO GO A LONGER DISTANCE THAN YOU THINK YOU CAN, TO GET INTO THE
FLOW.
DIFESA FOR EVERYBODY
INTERACTIVE PUNCHING BAG WHICH CHALLENGES YOU TO KEEP UP YOUR SPEED AND REACTION POWER BY MEANS OF
SOUNDS.
EXHIBITION POSTERS
DIFESA FOR BOXING
REFLECTIONS. Generally this Final Bachelor Project can be described for me in a couple of words: intense, passionate, responsibility, trusting upon intuition, making (hard) decisions, trial-and-error, maturity & understanding Due to the fact that from the beginning I had in mind within what context I was going to design, and which aspects I wanted to train and develop, I could work towards a focus in an early stage. Yet the project has become very explorative but very enriching. Two main things that I have explored into the deep are: designing from values and humans, the translation into prototypes, taking that back to the targetgroup design for and above all: understanding the effect of choices and circumstances. The guidance from coaches by good feedback made me understand the process of reflective transformations and designing through experential landscapes. It also gave me more background in stating and argumenting my vision in design. But yet there is still a lot to learn. Probe #2: Gloves I approached this first probe by making certain assumption for feedback for example, in order to be able to decide where to place each part of the prototype. With other word; to be able to place the LEDs in the system, I assumed centering everything in one glove would be the best (because it is easy to see). The next step is validating whether it is the best place or not. The downside of this is that it takes a lot of time and many other iterations to find out what the best position is. Some iterations could also be taken away, by already being prepared by a lot of scientific research. The positive part of starting by making things and validating things, is that one can understand and experience why exactly something does not work. As still being a student, this is very valuable for my development of skills. The difficulties I encountered were getting out the right comments from users, by carefully selecting the things I tell the users and what I don’t tell. I sensed that they were too focused on my commands, and not behav-
ing naturally. What I would like to do differently next time, is some slight changes in the set-up of a try-out such as: explaining my background in general, but not giving away what I am going to do exactly, and hiding disctracting things such as cameras (placing it on a tripod faraway for example) Probe #3: Vibrationshirt I tried to step into the next iteration with this reflection in mind. What I want in a try-out is people responding to me as spontaneously as possible, and being themselves. In the first probe I had a hard time getting the boxers to talk. They did talk, but they didn’t know what to comment on the lightgloves. So with some guidance, and questions , and a lot of ‘why’ , I got more valuable feedback. Therefore I dropped the gloveprobe, to get insights in people with other means, that may be more appealing to them. With the vibration shirt I was working with Syrano, a fellow member of Naba boxing gym, who quite knew some things about my project, and what I was doing. So I approached a person with already a certain understanding in the subject, with a background in boxing, but with still a part that is unprejudiced in relation to my probe. After trying out, he could explain the idea perfectly to others, but I didn’t get a vibe about whether the system of vibrating, and not vibrating is right, or completely not. Probe #3: Sound feedback With the question in mind whether the problem of receiving useful insights was to blame on my approach or on the type of users, I started the next probe. The decision to drop the vibration shirt also, is because I made a choice in not going deeper into developing a certain technique into a better quality, but to develop new insights in effects of sound in sensing and reacting. It is a subject that I find very valuable in sports. Within the try-out of the sounds I only reached the second iteration of approaching users with one type of sound. I realized afterwards (which would have been the next step) that more different ones should be exposed to users, to make them focus on the qualities and what appeals to them and what not.
At this point (which was unfortunately at the end of the whole project), I understood how the experience suggested can be made richer for the users but also for me as a designer.
Interactions
The last learning point, or rather subject of interest, is the ‘open-ended’ interaction part in the system. By open-ended in this context I mean that me as a designer I set up a basis in sounds that respond to the user, but it is up to the user to decide what it means for them. In this iteration, I got the vibe from people that it was still too unclear what they should do with it. So the next step would be to find the right balance in defining the experience for them, and leaving a certain freedom to personalize it, or at least feel that the design recognizes them as a person.
Prototyping & Int. technology
Due to the fact that I spent a lot of time in trying ideas by making, and correcting them when wrong, I felt I developed insights and skills intensely in the field of realizing designs. The trial- and error methods seemed to give me immediately results of whether the ideas and assumptions in my head will work or not. What I learned is how to start from a step, and by taking each time bigger and more complex steps, that building complex systems is within reach. A specific example is the vibration shirt, I did not plan in before hand that it was going to look that way with the red bands, which match the cables and give this idea of a ‘superhero’ suit. It is a result of iterative transformations, taking by small steps and trying out new things when others don’t work. The same counts for programming a simple system, by making an overview of the complexity, and when help needed, being able to adress the right issues experts. The prototyping, and integrating technology has been very enriching to me this semester. A downside of prototying is that it always hard with timeplanning, and knowing what things are needed. For example, I have built quite some experience in Wearable Senses, so I know how to get along with the machines, and to solve problems in integrating electronics with wearables. People in the faculty even ask me for advice or help.
Another struggle is prototyping can be so intense, that it requires some time to get back from the ‘making’ part, and reflect again on the set designgoals and visions, to see where the making is going. Though, I have found a good balance in that after these three years.
Projectprocess
One of my goals was to try out new things, since I think it is very valuable to not always follow the same paths. I pushed myself in designing, making, and developing as many things as possible, to be able to define a certain style and approach which I could call ‘my vision and approach’ (and of course make designs of higher quality). Working alone means a load of work, and never giving up even things become almoast impossible. This is being rewarded at the end, which is a feeling that is priceless. I developed more experience in realistic timeplanning, knowing when to adress certain experts for which things, preparing the questions trough visual thinking and drawings, and making decisions based on intuition at moments when it is just not clear what decisions would be the best. I think I have reached a certain maturity in this Final Bachelor project, and it is time to develop my field of expertise!
Future
What I still would like to improve next time, is approach people with try-out, setting persona’s, finding a clear line in complexity when one reaches the stage of collecting large numbers of information. But before that, the subtleties of certain try-outs which have influence need to be understood. And above all: how can I make my feedback from users more enriching? I realized in this project that I find the combination of design-driven innovations, experential landscapes, human psychology combined with wearables and sport very appealing and challenging. If this is also combinable with subject as retail design (which I find very interesting), then I think I have my circle complete. I would like to develop more depth knowledge in these areas, which can also help me trough developing myself as a designer trough the master, and a career eventually.
APPENDIX. Sources: http://ww.expertboxing.com
Design Methods & Practice ~ Designing for Behavior , The Reflective Transformative Design Process, Hummels, Frens, April 2009 Design-driven innovation : changing the rules of competition by radically innovating what things mean , Roberto Verganti, Boston : Harvard Business Press, 2009 Fysieke training voor kickboksen , by Drs. Erik Hein, Krachttraining - vakblad voor sporters, trainers,en fitnessprofessionals nummer 20 november 2008 (KNKF kenniscentrum)
TomTom fitness UK Feedback on pitch done together with the whole department of Wearable Senses for sports: “Good explorations, all nice and promising directions but you also need to focus. Make a decision, go for one direction, start simple, as complexity will grow. Nice to approach boxing as body+mind workout for the mass. Try to take it out of the boxing center, but still aim for the boxing experience (body+mind, lowered threshold, for the mass etc). You already have some nice directions: rhythm, foot work etc. combined with light, sound etc... Make a decision here, and go. Music and audio sample seemed to work really nice, so why not this one?”
Vibration shirt
code
int ledPin = 5; // LED is connected to digital pin 13 int ledPin2 = 13; // LED is connected to digital pin 13 int timer = 0; // times vibration 1 int timer2 = 0; // times vibration 2 int switchPin = 4; // switch connected to digital pin 2 int switchPin2 = 5; // switch connected to digital pin 2 void setup() { pinMode(ledPin2, OUTPUT); // sets the ledPin to be an output pinMode(switchPin2, INPUT); // sets the switchPin to be an input pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT); // sets the ledPin to be an output pinMode(switchPin, INPUT); // sets the switchPin to be an input // digitalWrite(switchPin, HIGH); // sets the default (unpressed) state of switchPin to HIGH Serial.begin(9600); } void loop() // run over and over again { //Serial.println(analogRead(switchPin2)); //switchValue = analogRead(switchPin); // check to see if the switch is pressed if (analogRead(switchPin) <1023) { // if the switch is pressed then, timer = vibrate(ledPin, timer, true); //digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH); // turn the LED on } else { // otherwise, timer = vibrate(ledPin, timer, false); //digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW); // turn the LED off } if (analogRead(switchPin2) <1023) { // if the switch is pressed then, timer2 = vibrate(ledPin2, timer2, true); //digitalWrite(ledPin2, HIGH); // turn the LED on } else { // otherwise, timer2 = vibrate(ledPin2, timer2, false); digitalWrite(ledPin2, LOW); // turn the LED off } delay(100); } int vibrate(int _pin, int _timer, boolean _on){ if (!_on){ analogWrite(_pin, 0); //turn of vibrating motor _timer = 0; //reset timer } else{ _timer++; //add timer value _timer = vibrate2(_pin, _timer, 1,3,180); // (pin number, which timer, delay before start, duration, power)
Lightgloves code
Soundbag code
int Led1 = 12; int Led2 = 11; int Led3 = 10; int Led4 = 9; int analogIn = 3; int sensorValue; int buzz = 3; void setup(){ Serial.begin(9600); pinMode(Led1, OUTPUT); pinMode(Led2, OUTPUT); pinMode(Led3, OUTPUT); pinMode(Led4, OUTPUT); } void loop(){ sensorValue = analogRead(analogIn); digitalWrite(Led1, LOW); digitalWrite(Led1, LOW); digitalWrite(Led1, LOW); digitalWrite(Led1, LOW); if(sensorValue > 75 && sensorValue < 150){ digitalWrite(Led1, HIGH); delay(750); digitalWrite(Led2, LOW); digitalWrite(Led3, LOW); digitalWrite(Led4, LOW); } else if(sensorValue > 150 && sensorValue < 225){ digitalWrite(Led1, HIGH); digitalWrite(Led2, HIGH); digitalWrite(Led3, LOW); digitalWrite(Led4, LOW); } else if(sensorValue > 225 && sensorValue < 280){ digitalWrite(Led1, HIGH); digitalWrite(Led2, HIGH); digitalWrite(Led3, HIGH); digitalWrite(Led4, LOW); } else if(sensorValue > 280){ digitalWrite(Led1, HIGH); digitalWrite(Led2, HIGH); digitalWrite(Led3, HIGH); digitalWrite(Led4, HIGH); digitalWrite(buzz, HIGH); delay(1500); int ledSpeed = 80; int ledNamen[] = {Led1, Led2, Led3, Led4};
const int buttonPin = 2;
Serial.println(_timer); } return _timer;
} int vibrate2(int __pin, int __timer, int __time, int __duration, int __power) { if (__timer > __time && __timer <= __time+__duration){ analogWrite(__pin, __power); if (__timer == __time + __duration){ __timer = 0; }
} else { analogWrite(__pin, 0); } return __timer;
}
}
for(int i = 0; i<4; i++){ digitalWrite(Led1, LOW); digitalWrite(Led2, LOW); digitalWrite(Led3, LOW); digitalWrite(Led4, LOW); digitalWrite(buzz, LOW); delay(ledSpeed); digitalWrite(Led1, HIGH); digitalWrite(Led2, HIGH); digitalWrite(Led3, HIGH); digitalWrite(Led4, HIGH); digitalWrite(buzz, HIGH); delay(ledSpeed); } digitalWrite(buzz, LOW); for(int i = 0; i<4; i++){ digitalWrite(ledNamen[i], LOW); delay(ledSpeed); } for(int i = 0; i<4; i++){ digitalWrite(ledNamen[i], HIGH); delay(ledSpeed); } for(int i = 0; i<4; i++){ digitalWrite(ledNamen[i], LOW); delay(ledSpeed); }
// the number of the pushbutton pin
int speakerOut = 9; int buttonState = 0; // variable for reading the pushbutton status int i= 0; int previousTimeHitTen= 0; // Time between 10 hits int previousTimeBetween= 0; // Minimal time between 2 hits int interval= 10000; int intervalBetween= 150; int frequency=2000; void setup() { // initialize the pushbutton pin as an input: pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT); pinMode(speakerOut, OUTPUT); Serial.begin(9600); } void loop(){ //Serial.println(“Start”); // read the state of the pushbutton value: buttonState = digitalRead(buttonPin); intervalBetween = millis() - previousTimeBetween; // if it is, the buttonState is HIGH: if (buttonState == HIGH && intervalBetween > 200) { i++; tone(9, frequency, 50); Serial.println(“HIT”); previousTimeBetween= millis(); } if (i>1){ i=0; interval= millis()- previousTimeHitTen; previousTimeHitTen= millis();
}
Serial.print(“interval = “); Serial.println(interval);
if (interval < 400){ frequency = 12000; } else { if (interval>1500){ frequency=1000; } else{ frequency= map(interval, 400, 1500, 12000, 1000); } } }
Setup for vibration shirt with lilypad.
VIBRATION
A5
TILT
A4
TILT
A3
-
VIBRATION
A2
A3
A1
+
TILT
5
VIBRATION
+
A0
13
VIBRATION
12
6 7
8
9
10
11 TILT
Setup up for Sound punching bag.
Setup for lightglove