Design+opportunities

**Link back into Group process page**

=DESIGN OPPORTUNITIES=

1. Brainstorming
1. Nature L: People do not go to the park, because they think there is nothing to discover. Might technology be helpful to provide Nature and historical tours? W: I totally agree. Maybe we can do something like the museum? we electronic label some plants and related flowers, insects? and make the program looks cool.. S: I really like the idea of an iphone museum thing. We can direct it to kids (which i think would be the most excited and come back just for that feature) and eventually all the parks in toronto can be a part of this application. L: I like too, but we need to develop the idea further... An application downloaded on your cell phone or iphone could provide information about the territory, native plants, trees, birds, animals, etc. It would be great for educational purposes. W: just an extension, maybe the iphone can use its digital camera to recognize some of the plants, or the person can draw the basic shape or characteristics of certain things, and the program gives feedback on certain information?

2. Dark at night W: we can make some sensative trees that light up the night we a person passes by. (lights on trees) or even luminous signs that changes according to people movements.

2. Design opportunities arising from User study
After the meeting and talking with people in Dufferin Park we came up with two additional issues about which we didn't think before: - free dogs without leash endanger kids and small animals (squirrels); - safety issue due drinking activity in the park.

Here are some ideas to solve these problems.

1. Invisible dog leash to walk and control a dog (laser, magnet). The main benefit of this device is that dog walkers will be able much better to control their pets and it become more safer for people. 2. Device with laser to see poop at night. A dog owner light up the area and poop appears in red color. 3. Same device, but with screen to identify poop. Like a scanner, you light up and it shows on a small screen the dog's license number. You do not need to do the DNA test to find a dog's owner, who didn't pick up. 4. Walking shoes to speed up the walk. The faster you walk, the faster they go until you almost fly in an air. Still you need to exercise by walking, but you don’t need to ride a bike or rollerblade for drilling out your dog's energy.
 * Ideas for dog owners**
 * A dog owner can walk a dog easily in a park between trees and bushes, without worry that the leash will tangle.
 * If dog eats garbage, an owner press a button and the dog gets a signal/shock for bad behaviour.
 * An owner can easily train a dog with commands by pressing a button: sit, stay, etc.
 * Also, a dog owner is not afraid that dog will run away, he/she press a button and the dog comes right away like magnetized.

1. If a drunken person comes to a park and he sits on a bench, the bench starts to squeak and he has to leave. 2. If he passes the lights, it changes the color and gives weird sound, so he has to leave.
 * Ideas how to reduce drunk people in a park**

= =

__**Potentials:**__
Time: Weekends at Night Audiences: Mainly teenagers (preteens) or adults, kids with parents Reason: Free admission, fun, social, close to the residence, opportunity to meet people, get exercised. What we need: lights, sensor, movements, sound ( whether fill in space or ...sounds quiet down when people talking) contents: light at night, geo-tag, a screen shows which place has most people so that people will decide where to join.

= = = =
 * Ideas:**
 * Lights and sounds response to people's movements
 * make light frames together and make them look like a recognizable. actual things can be in certain space for people to do. (ex: a log inside a frame chair to make people sit on)
 * Sound track : the speed of the sound follows their speed of walking (running) or......

__**Technology on/in nature?**__
This is a big theme about the relationship between nature and technology. I think we can even expand this theme on "human beings change nature by using technology". Historically, human beings have been responsed to nature. We immigrant and chase herds according to whether and nature changes. Nowadays, we have a lot of technology that could control or even change nature. Since what we are doing is basically to make nature to give feedback to us according to our own activity, I think it might be interesting to make this relationship as an underlying theme of our ideas.