Interactive+chairs

toc =C.U.B.E.= Colorful Unexpected Bright Experience

The C.U.B.E. is created to be explored. It provides a dynamic experience for the whole family. Discover it’s intelligence through your senses. No instructions or manuals, just using your senses to discover the object and understand its secrets.

Website:
[]

= =

Visualized Simulation:
1. Movement & quote sensor: (single) [|link]

2. Weight sensor: (jump and weighting): l**eft click to increasing weight, right click to reduce weight.** [|link]

3. Move cube and Approaching: click the cubes to move. Because in reality, cubes can't be totally overlaied. Therefore in this simulation, if the cubes are totally overlaied, they go back to their original position. [|link]

4. Movement & quote sensor: (multiple) [|link]

= =

1. Megan: An experience as a first time user.
On Friday night, Megan was walking home after work. Surprisingly, she noticed an area she walked by was lighting up. As she walked closer, the shapes reflect her movements by displaying flowing shapes and colors. She walked around and explored the space. Then, she sat on one of the blocks. Once she sat on the blocks, the block gave a sound and started to change colors. She tried to sit on the other block and the block made a different sound. She walked back and forth a few times and started to make music by touching them. Then she found a handle dip. She moved around the blocks so that they were closer together. She thought it was interesting and exciting. She wants to come back again and explore more.

2. Douglas and family: Experienced user.
Douglas and his family came to play in the park after dinner. They went to the lighting blocks. The kids were crawing on the block and making sounds. They jumped on the blocks to make different colors. Douglas helped his kids to stack the blocks together into different sculptures. As the sculpture became bigger, it became more noticable. The blocks at the bottom showed different colors because it bears more weight from the other blocks. More people discovered even from the street and came to join them. They started to talk about the installation. Some people tapped the sculpture and made really nice rhythms. The blocks got brighter when it was tapped and they changed color. People started to move around the blocks and make compositions.

Story Boards:
1. Megan - First time user . 2.Douglas and family:

Design Concept:
For mocking up the user experiences on the C.U.B.E. We have decided to do a website where people can access and get an impression of what it is, what it does and how it works. We are going to use flash and/or processing to visually mock up user experiences.

Five pages:
 * Intro** - an explanation of the idea. This page will include a overall picture of the C.U.B.E.
 * Process** - how we come up with the idea, target audience.
 * Technology** - materials and technology behind. Including animated virtual user experiences.
 * Solution** - graphic, how the cube works; highlights exciting elements. Includes how each part of technology works together.
 * Conclusion** - wrap-up with thoughts on challenges and future directions.

Three/ Four parts depends on working progress.
 * Landscape** - How the cubes are placed in Dufferin Grove Park. Property: Glowing in the dark (dim); when people come closer, cubes become brighter.
 * Chimes** - touching the cube makes the cube chime.
 * Jumping/ Sitting** - take one cube for example. This animation will show the color changing of the cube according to weight sensors. The more it bears, the lighter it gets.
 * Interactive Motion detect** - Each of the cubes has a different quote. The characters were hidden while there's no movement. The characters only show golden according to the movements.
 * Movable** - The cubes can be stacked together; and the motion detectors/chimes can work together.

Content
Dufferin Grove Park is a very naturalized park with basically no technology involved. Since our contemporary society is packed with advanced technology, more varieties of individual or group activities will be possible. People can explore the park, socialize and be active. Currently there is no activity at night in Dufferin Grove Park. Several lights in the park are not functional. People are interested in nighttime events. However, individuals are reluctant to come out at night because of the lack of security.

The C.U.B.E. stands for colourful, unexpected, bright, experience.

Action plan: The park is enjoyed by people of all ages and we hope to gear our product to all of them. By creating a visually interesting environment individuals can enjoy the atmosphere however they please. Children and adults of all ages can physically activate the environment by directly interacting with it, while others can benefit from the lights and sounds indirectly.
 * Familiarize people with nature and the living environment.
 * Help make connections between technology and nature.
 * Engage people to be social, active and positive.
 * Create a more safe environment within the community.

The beauty of this product is that it involves and interaction of the community to activate this interactive environment and it can be used in many different ways.

Process: By interviewing individuals in the part we encountered many helpful clues to the inner workings of how this park has evolved. Many people have come together to make this park what it is today by taking it upon themselves to change it in ways that benefit themselves. From moving benches to more convenient places to community projects that incorporate nature and man made objects. Our interviews concluded that people are very fond of this park during the day, consisting of dog walking, taking kids to the park, hanging out, playing sports and leisure walks. However, as night falls the park become desolate and dark. There have been complaints of vandalism and theft. Our goal is to make Dufferin Grove Park a safer place by engaging individuals and families to use it while being active which will provide a safe environment for the community.

Technologies used Our product uses solar power panels to provide the main source of power, it collects during the day and can last throughout the night. LED lights create a great glowing atmosphere and saves energy. Weight sensitive sensors enable the C.U.B.E. to glow brighter or dimmer depending on how it is being used and also detect motion to reveal hidden messages that inspire and provoke thought. They can be moved around to create larger surfaces or stacked to form new shapes and forms. Sound is used to engage users to touch and move around in order to activate these features. And lastly the C.U.B.E. is made of a very durable plastic called rotational molding (rotomolding) plastic which is used to make kayak and even replace concrete materials for sewer piping.
 * 1) Solar power panels
 * 2) LED lights
 * 3) Sensors that detect movement as well as weight
 * 4) Small speakers
 * 5) Rotomolded plastic

__Concept__

The C.U.B.E. provides a dynamic experience for the whole family. Discover it’s intelligence through your senses.

__Conclusion__

The C.U.B.E. was created to be explored. No instructions or manuals, just using your senses to discover the object and understand its secrets. Some of our first challenges were the initial features of the C.U.B.E. How it would function? How will it be activated? And of course how can we provide a sense of security in the park at night?

Once the features were established the next challenge was how these events would occur when the user comes in contact with the C.U.B.E. to make sure that the object can be explored and understood.

__Quotes:__

1. Art never improves, but... the material of art is never quite the same. - [|T. S. Eliot] 2. If we don't use the technology to make art, the technology will make art out of us. - unknown 3. What good are computers? They can only give you answers. – Pablo Picasso 4. Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. – Pablo Picasso 5. Imagination is more important than knowledge. – Albert Einstein

Links and videos