Overview
The project was developed within the Virtual Prototyping course in the first year of a master's degree in Design & Engineering, during a one-week workshop. The goal of the project was to make tangible data that are usually intangible through a physical product. The workshop was held inside the Polifactory, the fab lab of Politecnico di Milano, where we were able to improve our approach to rapid prototyping and programming. Groups consisted of engineering designer and communication designer.
PERSONAL IMPROVEMENTS
It was a stimulating project. The modalities of a short workshop force the participants to take decisions quickly, but not for this superficial. During this course, we have certainly improved our decision-making and relationship skills within a group. We were mostly unknown and the first few days we had to have many constructive comparisons in a short time to meet deadlines. The result of these comparisons has been incredibly positive and efficient. Besides, the course allowed me to improve my prototyping skills and to approach interesting topics, such as programming and using Arduino.
Topics
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Concept ideation
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Data visualization
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Internet of things
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Working group
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Prototyping
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Coding
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Managing a tight schedule
Unstable
One-week Workshop - Group project
Apr 2016
Unstable is a laptop’s support designed to help people, who daily spend a lot of time working on a laptop, to control their working sessions.
DATA VISUALIZATION
1. It counts only when you are actively using your PC
2. It’s available for any operation system
3. It can be used as a trigger of IFTTT
Rescue time is an application which allows you to track the time you spend using computer.
1. Rescue Time automatically sends inputs to Photon Board
2. The board calls a specific function in the code, based on the trigger
3. A specific step is activated in the prototype
IFTTT platform allowed us to use Rescue Time App as a trigger to call functions of a Particle Photon Board.
We try to make ‘sense of time’ spent working in front of the computer a tangible experience through physical feedback.
Our purpose was to help users to track and realize the amount time spent working in front of their computer. The idea came from a personal and daily experience, all of us is used to stare at the screen for many hours losing the track of time, but for our health, especially for our eyes and back, this is not good at all.
CONTEXT
Work policies say that to preserve your health, you have to take a 15 minutes break every 2 hours of work.
Dlgs 81/2008, law 123/2007, Italy.
People who use computer or internet on a daily basis:
63% of whole population
80% of young people (<30)
EUROPE 28, 2014, EUROSTAT
Target: 20-50 years old long time computer users (work/study)
Unstable is a laptop’s support that forces you to have a break after 2 hours of work.
USER EXPERIENCE
Unstable has the aim to make you realize when it’is time for a break, making you impossible to keep working.
There are 4 Steps of feedback, one every 30 minutes. At the first step a group of 3 white LED turn on. After 30 minutes, at the second step, LED turn yellow and a buzz sound it made by the board. Same feedback for the 3rd step, except for the color LED that turns red. The last step, after 2 hours has a higher buss and the board become unstable. This happens thanks to 4 servo motors that change the position leaving the computer standing on one single rounded column in the middle.
After 15 minute, while the user in having a the break, servo motors come back in the default position, the board con stable and LED turns off. Let’s start to work again!
HOW IT WORKS
It warns you each 30 minutes you are using the computer.
It’s usefull in your house, but also in your office or university.
It tracks the time you spend on computer in real time.
It blocks your working session for 15 minutes.
Rescue time sends an input to Photon board through wi-fi signal every 30 minutes. Every signal that the board receives, activates a step.
HOW IT IS MADE
1. PROTOTYPING
During the workshop we designed a prototype as realistic as possible with all the functions of the final product.
We used Particle Photon board and Arduino’s components, like servo motor, LED and buzz to build the prototype. The structure is very simple, elegant and fits all notebook types. It is made of wood, that we cut with laser cutting machine, in order to make the structure easy to built in a DIY view.
2. CODING
The team was made up of communication and industrial designers, so no one had programming experience.
We learned how to program thanks to a short introductory lesson and lots of practice. It was very interesting to interface for the first time with computer programming and I believe that in such a short time we have managed to obtain an appreciable result.
