iMedia Dissertation Diary
1/2/16
In preparation for the final dissertation, one of the modules for Semester 2 (Foundations of Interactive Media Design 2), we have been instructed to keep regular tabs on our progress in the form of a blog or personal diary. For now, I’ve chosen to proceed with the personal diary (though I may ultimately decide to use a blog also; as I’ve always been intrigued by the possibility of having one). Today, being the first day of the season, seemed as appropriate a time as any to start the process. I will regularly update this diary with posts about progress I’ve made (or at least I hope so!).
2/2/16
I initially submitted a dissertation proposal on my personal website before Christmas. Essentially, the idea was to reimagine how artwork in the home space might be changed with implementations of interactive/ wearable technology. While I think the idea sounds quite interesting, I’ll admit freely that the idea of actually potentially making such a thing seems daunting. My background is in Liberal Arts (my English degree won’t be of much help here…) so the idea of doing the more technical things seems rather a foreign one - even though it is also in large part what attracted me to this course in the first place. It seems the Interactive Media Project Workshop Module (run by Mikael Fernstrom) will provide a lot of help in getting me up to speed with the ‘hacking’ element of things though. Part of that module will involve Processing and Arduino, both of which I imagine could form important elements of my final project. I’ll find quite enjoyable (though those could be ‘famous last words’…). I’m sure the whole dissertation process will soon take shape, though right now, the prospect of me building the final product seems quite far off…
4/2/16
As part of the CS6022 module, I will soon have to assume responsibility for a seminar/ workshop session, along with a partner. While this seems a somewhat daunting idea - it is quite unlike anything that I have done in my undergraduate degree - it could nonetheless provide a useful opportunity to pursue an avenue of my dissertation of my dissertation research. It should also provide an interesting opportunity to use elements of skills relating to UX design learned in last semester’s CS6021 (Foundations of Interactive Media 1). Tentatively, I have speculated that part of my final project may incorporate wearable technology, and as such I hope to be able to tailor my seminar and workshop to explore this (assuming of course that my partner is agreeable to this!).
10/2/16
Fortunately, my partner - a classmate named Dingke - is enthusiastic at the prospect of doing our class on wearable technology. This class seems set for Week 10 or 11 (so many things to do, so little time…). Now to begin the process of finding readings and materials - the fun part. I do anticipate potentially enjoying watching videos and other such media that I might incorporate into the presentation though (though this may prove distracting…).
19/2/16
I have begun to research programming languages that could potentially be implemented into my final project. Learning coding has proven to be perhaps the element of this course that I have enjoyed the most so far, and I have come to the conclusion that I should very much like to further my education in this field going forward. This would include furthering my knowledge of Javascript (a knowledge that is currently quite severely limited) as well as several others. I appreciate that, given the relatively short timescale of this course and the intensive workload therein, it would perhaps be imprudent to devote too much time to matters such as these at present, though I should like to keep it in mind.
1/3/13
Product Design and Modelling, as it turns out is quite challenging. It is quite unlike anything that I have previously done in college (or otherwise) and the software that we’re using - SolidWorks - comes with something of a learning curve.
That being said, I imagine it may well prove quite useful, if for nothing else than for eventual prototyping. My entries in this diary have become somewhat sporadic (partially due to the time consuming nature of keeping up with the coursework); I really must try and write more regularly.
9/3/16
Both for the seminar and for my dissertation, I’ve begun looking into the field of programming in wearables, as well as biometrics within the same field; the former of which has led me to the Lilypad Arduino device, co-developed by Leah Buechley and SparkFun Electronics. This seems as though it should be a fruitful avenue of exploration, as there are a wealth of both useful documentation and interesting projects pertinent to this currently available.
13/3/16
While I can still imagine incorporating a mobile app as part of my final product’s interface, I must admit to finding elements of the Mobile App module somewhat challenging. The part of the UI development that involves using XML code is relatively easy (somewhat like the HTML5 and CSS3 that I learned in Semester 1).
However the use of Java is a different story. I appreciate that I can get by in the module without necessarily being particularly proficient in Java coding, but I find it somewhat frustrating that I, as yet, don’t fully understand elements of it. I have looked for educational sources on it online, though (for example Udemy, which is quite good), Hopefully I can improve in this area; it could prove quite useful going forward.
18/3/16
As it turns out, there is a veritable wealth of videos and other such material pertaining to the area of wearables, luckily enough. I’ll have to be selective in deciding which videos best augment our discussions, and accentuate the points that we hope to make.
Also, I was right to speculate that the process of searching through videos would prove distracting.
YouTube and academic work are natural enemies….
18/3/16
As a quick note, I have also discovered that TED talks are dually informative and very entertaining.
4/4/16 The Presentation/Workshop
This entry will be considerably longer than the last one! Today I- along with my partner - gave the seminar and held the workshop on ‘wearable’ technology. The seminar, which lasted approximately half an hour, centred on two particular areas of interest within this field; namely, existing innovative applications of this technology and the potential for enhancement of quality of life that is inherent to it. Research for the various components of this seminar proved to dually interesting and fruitful in the context of providing insight and direction for my overarching research directed toward my dissertation.
Hosting the workshop itself (while initially certainly a somewhat daunting prospect!) proved, ultimately, to be quite enjoyable.
In collaboration with my partner for the assignment, Dingke, I decided to assign the class the task of designing what they deemed to be an appropriate wearable, through the lens of the content presented both in the seminar and in the preparatory materials sent out beforehand. To this end, the class was divided into groups of two to three people (which resulted in there being four groups) and given materials for design that we had procured in advance.
So as not to set too broad a task, we decided to choose a particular need for the class to design for; a wearable for a child capable of providing feedback to the parent.
The results were quite impressive.
In retrospect, the assignment actually proved enjoyable (in parts, at least!).I have found that, given the relatively high number of them that I’ve been made to deliver in the last year, that I’ve grown more comfortable with delivering presentations (which has been something that I had hoped to achieve, and will no doubt prove useful in the future) The seminar portion of the assignment has allowed me to take another step in this direction. It was also satisfying to utilise what I know as relates to setting up and running the design workshop. This represents an example of the more practical ‘hands-on’ elements of the iMedia course that I so appreciate.
Now begins the move towards the next phase; tackling the assignments that I have left and making more progress towards the dissertation semester…
8/4/16
As for potential features of a final product, it has occurred to me that, should I aim to implement technology capable of being reactionary, that perhaps colour could be within the scope of such reaction. As such, I considered implementing visual technology capable of registering the colours in its environs and reacting by reproducing images/ media with appropriately matching/ contrasting colour. This, I theorised, might be achieved through such technology as OpenCV, which would require a degree of eduction in C++ and Python. It shortly thereafter occurs to me though that while this could be rather interesting, it would pose several difficulties. Firstly, it could prove quite difficult to ascertain what might constitute appropriate reactions, and secondly - and perhaps more significantly - a task such as this might well prove to be beyond the scope of what I am currently capable of (or indeed will be during the development period) as regards this kind of technology.
14/4/16
In order to actually present the entries in this diary so far, I’ve decided to move it onto a blog (which hits two birds with the one stone, so to speak, as I’ve long intended on starting one).
