As computing becomes more ubiquitous in our objects, designers need to be more aware of how to design meaningful interactions into electronically enhanced objects. At the University of Washington, a class of junior Interaction Design majors is exploring this question. These pages chronicle their efforts.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Week 2: Sensors

Katie Suskin & Jonathan Lai

We started to focus in on two of our ideas at this stage: health/hydration and bike navigation.

HEALTHY LIFESTYLES


HEART RATE

Tracking pulse would be a means to observing exercising habits and levels of exertion.


STEP COUNTER

A conventional means of measuring exercising habits, but still an interesting statistic. This could be measured through a pressure sensor or standard shaken counter.


FLUID QUANTITY

The amount of water consumed from a water bottle could be linked to another sensor based on amounts of exercise in order to calculate how much more water should be consumed. THe amount of water that has passed through the spout could also be measured.


TIME

Knowing how much exercise was done or water was consumed in a given time frame could be used to calculate the amount of water still needed in a day.



BIKE NAVIGATION


GPS

Take in information about position and direction in order to then relay directions to the cyclist.


ACCELEROMETER

An accelerometer could be used to sense when a rider changes direction or slows down or speeds up.


COMPASS

Something as simple as a compass could be useful information for a cyclist and could be used to supplement the GPS information.


LIGHT

Sensing the lighting conditions would be useful in adjusting how the navigation unit presented information.

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1 comment:

  1. jonlai.idApril 12, 2011 at 12:28 PM

    btw there was definitely no red text when i posted it.. or a combination of serif and san serif either.

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