In thinking about the social opportunities provided in a bar our group has
come up with two arduino enabled concepts- one pertaining to each smaller
group and the other creating a sense of the space as a whole. Both concepts
are conceptualized with the model of a casual bar implementing mostly group
table seating in mind.
The concept pertaining to smaller groups is that of voice activated
lighting, so that the lighting in the middle of a group¹s table would
respond to the sounds being made at the table. The light would have to
specifically recognize voices over music and ambient noise. It would then
change color and brightness according to the pitch and volume respectively
of the voices in close proximity to it. This would create awareness in
patrons of the sounds their speaking creates, enabling a feeling that the
environment they are in is responding to them, and encouraging vocal
experimentation. This device would also serve to help patrons modulate the
volume of their voices to keep the light at a comfortable brightness, and to
encourage all group members to speak to see how their voice pitch effects
the color of the lighting.
Our second idea would serve to amplify some of the features of a bar people
subconsciously value. The main value we are highlighting in this concept is
that of being noticed by others, but it also addresses being aware of those
around you. The concept is an audio transmitting pitcher. The device would
transmit a ten second snippet of conversational audio from one of a series
of microphones around the bar when it is tilted to pour. Tilting activates
the snippet, and the direction of tilting corresponds to a microphone
(though not one that is geographically logical). The pitcher only works as
long as it contains liquid. This experience serves to give people the
feeling of being heard, while witnessing the perspectives of others around
them. By limiting the duration of the audio and not using geographic mapping
between devices the voices retain anonymity and are less likely to limit
their behavior. This brings up the question of how to represent yourself and
points to this question's essential nature in a bar scenario.
Some of the situations we were considering appealed to us but posed problems as well.
One such situation is the how in bars people often times feel as though they have a connection or personal stake to the bar they visit, as well how their exploits at a bar could feel more important or grandiose than they actually were. Using these phenomena we thought of a system that would project or produce decorations on the walls based on the amount of time as well as the actions people performed the night before. This would allow regular customers of a bar to feel as if they are leaving their mark on "their" bar, and for groups who had a good time at a bar to feel as if their exploits were left behind in some kind of facsimile. This posed a problem in that it was hard to think of what simple actions could properly capture someone's experience uniquely, as well, what form the decoration would take. Simple LEDs probably wouldn't suffice to capture people's unique experiences, and projectors could be hard to set up in a public sphere or might not suffice as decoration for a bar.
Another idea we were drawn to but steered away from was one that utilized cups. As everyone in a bar usually has a cup of some kind, they could serve as personal controllers which could activate many sensors, and also indicate a variety of behaviors. These tokens could control lights or sounds, and also respond to group dynamics or arrangements. The problem with utilizing cups in their small size, the fact that we would need to create many prototypes, and that mixing water and electricity poses some risk.
No comments:
Post a Comment