Category: Assignment 1

IGOE

I agreed with many of his positions on overused trends and have personally seen many iterations of them in my time exploring the field of physical computing. I felt, however, that he threw blankets over some really cool potential ideas. Yes, single-input single-output networked devices such as the “Remote Hugs” project can definitely be considered to be overused, however I feel that throwing a blanket over “technologically enabled gloves” is a bit of a misdiagnosis, as there are dozens of possibilities of what the gloves can be tracking, whether they are monitoring or being used as inputs, and what types of devices they are controlling, whether the output is digital or mechanical.

DESCENDANTS

I found the idea of an intelligent machine having personality and even lying to its user amusing and a little terrifying. A seemingly seamless conversational user interface, the suit walks a fine line between person and device. It has necessary functionalities that are conveniently accessible through speech, however, making a device too “human” seems to leave a lot of room for unintended consequences in execution, such as the suit being able to lie to its user (as insinuated by the user believing the suit to be lying about their chances of survival). In a seemingly “perfect” design, new problems seem to have arisen.

 

SKILLS AND BACKGROUND

I am an Information Systems and Human Computer Interaction undergraduate. I focus my studies on full stack application design, and small device design and programming.

I have experience with Arduino, 3D printing, laser cutting, CAD, Rhino, Solidworks, Photoshop, InDesign, and various other softwares.

I have worked on a few physical computing projects before, including being a part of a team designing wearables and applications for alzheimers/dementia patients, built interactive displays, and helped design a temporary display at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.

Igoe’s List

Overall I can get behind the idea of expanding interaction modes beyond these rather than refining them. I have to admit I’m rather partial to gloves, and might be tempted to make a case for making gloves an element of something a bit more ambitious… we’ll see how that goes.

A couple of things came to mind when scrolling down this list that others might be interested in.

Video mirror / mechanical pixels: https://breakfastny.com/brixels

gloves, gestures, and my last job: Oblong Industries + g-speak

Not from the list, but worth checking out considering our theme: Access+Ability

Descendant (Milo goes to space)

What jumped out at me most was this line:

“There is a saying that we provide the machines with an end, and they provide us with the means.”

While Banks (or the narrator in his story) refer to this as a hoary adage in whatever century they live, I am quite fond of this idea. There’s a lot of (overblown) talk about machines powered by AI taking all of our jobs, and perhaps wiping us out while they’re at it, but I am a bit more optimistic. I expect that machines will simply get better at extending our capabilities.

While ultimately our hero met his demise (sorry for the spoiler), his suit served him for over a century, kept him alive far longer than he has any right to have lived, and even made efforts to improve his emotional state. My goal at CMU (and beyond) is to make things that help expand people’s capabilities, and to teach machines empathy much like the suit in this story.

Tom Igoe

I agree with most of what’s on the list. Although, I would say we shouldn’t automatically steer away from them. Yes, they are over-used in projects, but I think there is value to innovating on what’s there rather than reinventing the wheel and creating something completely new every time we set out to design a new project. I’m not saying copy them exactly, but there are things to be learned from these projects and maybe ways of thinking about them inventively.

Descendant

This is one of the most interesting readings I’ve read in a while. At first I thought the narrator was the human, but towards the end I couldn’t tell who was the human and who was the suit. The emotions that were perceived as human were also felt by the suit, for example, he kept the body in him “for sentimental reasons”.

A quote that stood out to me was “We don’t need the machines, anymore that then need us. We just think we need them. They don’t matter.” It made me think of how we try to convince ourselves we are not reliant on machines and the “we can stop whenever we can” mentality. Obviously, the protagonist wouldn’t have survived without the suit, but somehow psychologically he was starting to believe that the suit was not real and that it is not important. Honestly, this whole reading made me think a lot about our psychology and how we think, especially our inner dialogues, and our mental relationship with technology.

Background

I am a fifth year Bachelor of Architecture student here at CMU, pursuing ideate minors in Intelligent Environments and Physical Computing.

DIGITAL SKILLS
Modeling & Drafting (Revit, Rhino 3D, AutoCAD, SketchUp)
Communication (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Movie Making, Microsoft Office, V Ray Rendering)
Scripting (Grasshopper, Arduino, Touch Designer, p5.js)

ANALOG SKILLS
Curation, Drafting, Drawing, Woodworking, Model Making, Casting, Painting, Sewing, Crocheting, Knitting, Scratch Art, Stenciling, & Electrical Circuit Building. Basically I love being creative and working with my hands.

• performance skills
  • I love music, I used to play over 7 instruments, but now I can only play 5 of them: piano, guitar, drums, percussion in general and the ukulele.
• work with disability
  • everyday.. whether with myself or others.
• javascript / p5.js
  • love javascript
• CAD software
  • proficient in 2D and 3D CAD
• digital fabrication – laser cutters, 3d printers, mills
  • I am proficient in digital fabrication skills, I love working with my hands and I love working on my computer, so it’s a win-win.

I want to dedicate my life to positive social impact, whether through design, built structures, art or providing a necessary service to fulfill that. The way I see it— I have been given an immense privilege to still be alive and have access to this top-line education. It is my duty to share that privilege with others, after all, I only got to where I am today because of others’ empowerment of me.

Ultimately, I aspire to communicate in a way that changes how people think about immigration, refugees, displaced and marginalized people through strategic spatial and artistic interventions.

I am very passionate about working with refugees and displaced people. Coming from the Middle East, I am also passionate about women’s rights and women empowerment. I try to let these passions seep into my work.

Tom Igoe

Hearing all of this up front is good, I think.  In my field, I know I get slightly annoyed or frustrated whenever I see something that has been done a thousand times before, so this list as reference will hopefully make working with everyone more friendly.  While I think there is definitely creativity to be had in all of these genres, being pushed to make something totally unlike any of them will do us all good overall.

Descendant

I enjoyed the reading.  The part that sticks with me the most is how we as humans choose to personify things, tools, etc.  Here, literally giving voice and sentience to the suit.  It feels almost like the main character died once he stopped having the imagination to view his tool (the suit) as a living thing.  Imagining it as a hallucination dehumanized or deanthropomorphized the suit, and happened right before he died.  Tools as extensions of ourselves instead of separate, clunky, orbiting things feels like the philosophical lifeblood of what I’ve been taught in any industrial/product design I’ve taken.

Another small thing I really liked was the suit’s conversation with the drone missile at the end.  It felt like Toy Story in that our playthings or tools may have lives of their own outside when we are using them.  Given that the suit is sentient, that’s to be expected, but still a nice thought to be had when empathizing with others’ lives outside of our contact with them.

Background

I’m a computer scientist by training and job experience, taken robotics and microcontroller courses, some Electrical Engineering and Physics related to circuity.  I also worked in a woodshop for a couple years and have a good working knowledge of it all.  Currently, I’m a designer.  Looking forward to working with you all!

1. Tom Igoe – Igoe seems to have most of the trends covered, the only thing I could potentially see being added would just be adding any artifact to the “Internet of Things”. People have fallen in love with making things “smart” and it seems like they are willing to try it with anything and everything, which to me, seems like a bit of a fruitless venture that does not offer very high ROI in terms of helping people solve real problems. I’m sure there are still “smart” artifacts that have not been made “smart” yet and people have to push the envelope to get to those, but the concept has come up a lot in recent memory. I also think that there is some overlap in some of the concepts that Igoe mentions that have also been a major part of the interactive art installation trend that has emerged. Groups like teamlab (https://www.teamlab.art/) and Artechouse (https://www.dc.artechouse.com/) have been designing and showcasing interactive experiences using physical and digital sensors that play with and affect different visual displays (*couch* LED fetishism), soundscapes and visual components. I think there will continue to be a trend to use physical computing for art’s own sake compared to having a function.

2. I feel like Banks’ thoughts on the man and and his “smart” space-suit illustrate the achievements and dangers of great design. On the more obvious end of the good stuff, the suit is able to care for and assist the man who is slowly being burdened by sickness, malnutrition and injuries, carrying him farther than he could have ever carried himself. I have always learned that good design is good design because a user doesn’t even realize it is there. Deeper than when people talk about their phones being an extension of themselves, the space-suit becomes intrinsically tied to the man’s being. By the end of the story, the lines have blurred to the point where neither “being” knows where one starts and the other begins. In some ways, that is great design in that it allows the “artifact” to best be used/know how to help the user. On the other hand, that is one of the pitfalls of great design in that sometimes the “artifact” may not give the user the space to be a user, instead forcing him or her to rely on it so much to where they lose their own sentience at the artifact’s expense. The story itself seemed to be cautionary tale for designers, to balance the role of the user and the artifact and the relationship between the two.

3. Not sure if this was supposed to be part of the blog post, but just to cover my bases… In addition to the pre-reqs, I did my undergrad in mechanical engineering with concentrations in design, manufacturing, and psychology,  I have done a semester of improv, I have worked with designers to make accessible museum exhibits and experiences, I took an Intro to EE class in undergrad about microcontrollers, my Senior Design Project was a thermal energy control system run by Arduinos, I know SolidWorks and CREO and Maya, and I’ve laser cut and 3D printed and milled and used most woodshop tools you can think of.

Tom Igoe:

While I definitely understand the critique of many of the physical computing themes, I suppose my only concern about disregarding or looking down upon the themes can be counterproductive when trying to design better solutions for solving problems. Although perhaps one, two, or maybe three of the themes might be a Frankenstein of a project, I wonder if by combining multiple aspects of multiple themes or even implementing some aspect of one of the themes could ultimately help a new project interface with a user. I guess what I mean is that the discussed themes can be boring when they’re repeated over and over, they might have something to offer a project that has hit a brainstorming/troubleshooting roadblock.

Descendants:

The short story presents an interesting take on human reliance on technologies that, in at least some regard, are objectively better, smarter, stronger, or more efficient. After a devastating crash, the individual and the suit are thrust upon a tireless never-ending journey through an unforgiving planet. What is interesting, and also representative of humanity to an extent, is the habit of the individual to complain. The heat, the sweat, the smell, and every bit of discomfort is detailed throughout the individual’s journey. This isolates a very critical part of humanity, our insistence on not adapting, that there is a way to solve problems and to adjust for what we aren’t capable of or aren’t designed to do. And this also presents an intriguing dichotomy of humans discarding technology as soon as there is better in contrast with technology being designed to cover for all of our deficiencies.

The story also focuses on the interaction between the human and the suit. One party experiencing a organic concoction of pain, desire, and confusion with the other sensing what is physically, mechanically, and chemically possible in the former. This disconnect leads to two paths, one which points out the lack of appreciation, at times, of what we have and what is made possible through technology, and another which defines a critical issue when interacting with technology in the complexity of communication that must be felt and sensed.

And last thing, I thought this quote was interesting:

“We created something a little closer to perfection than ourselves; maybe that’s the only way to progress” (63)

In creating things that are closer to perfection compared to ourselves, are we bridging that disconnect? I wonder about when that disconnect disappears, does technology cease to exist? Do it merge with us and do we become one entity?

Related Skills:

I have taken an Architecture course dealing with accessibility called Human Factors in which we studied, among other related topics, how various places on- and off-campus are architecturally hostile and exclusive to someone in a wheelchair. I have had experience in theater and acting in high school, which has been a smaller part of my experience in university. In regards to digital fabrication, I’m familiar with laser cutting, CNC-ing, and operating architectural robots.

[EDIT:  Sorry, I forgot to mention this earlier.  If you could, please, post your comments in new posts in this category instead of posting a comment to this post. ]

tl;dr: Update your profile on the class blog by noon Thursday, post feedback on the reading assignments.

Review Tom Igoe’s page that we looked at in class. Any changes you would make? http://www.tigoe.com/blog/category/physicalcomputing/176/

Read the short story mailed to you tonight.

Ask yourself what skills you have in addition to the pre-reqs:

• performance skills: music, drama, improv
• work with disability
• linux shell
• javascript / p5.js
• CAD software
• digital fabrication – laser cutters, 3d printers, mills
• game theory