Holly, Ying, and the Clairvoyant Lamp

Ying and I propose a lamp that reduces the occurrence of anxiety in traditionally "safe" spaces such as private homes. We hope to have the lamp achieve this by detecting movement towards a door or some other object that obscures vision, and then illuminate gradually to reflect the distance and rate that the person is approaching the obstruction. A hero scenario that we envision involves a teenager in their room who may be in a compromising situation (or otherwise socially-unprepared) and would like warning before their parents - or some other person - knocks on the door and enters. This would allow the preservation of privacy, as well as a non-intrusive means of security.

We brought a broad spectrum (private to public; indoor to outdoor) of the concept to present to the class last Wednesday. As a result, our feedback from the class critique raised questions of whether our concept was necessary, as we may as well "invent the window." However, once we described the specific situation with the teenager, the concept became more compelling. Additional questions include how detailed the lamp should get when warning of the user of the approaching figure, and what form the lamp should take within the room (wearable, stationary, etc.)

Project Concept | Anjelica Harlow + Albert Lui

Hello there. This is a short blog post about our project's concept. 
If you wish to see the functional diagram instead, please click on the following link: 
http://tangibleinteractionuw.blogspot.com/2014/05/leds-would-bring-awareness-to-plants.html

In class, Dominic told us to come up with a 'concept of situation' that consists of 3 different parts:

1) Information on the situation
2) The change and response description
3) Inputs & outputs (if you get to it)

He used an example of a table jumping into a pool to save drowning children.
The situation is kids playing in the swimming pool. The change is detecting that a kid is drowning, and the response is the table jumping into the pool.

Angelica and I met up and came up with many ideas. 

We settled on this one:
1) A plant in soil is residing within a 'smart' planter pot. That basically sums up the situation.
2) A person walks in front of the plant/pot is the change happens. It's interesting to note that another type of change happens within this system (the moisture of the soil goes up or down). The planter will respond by speaking to the person. In addition, of the moisture is within an ideal range, the planter will respond by lighting up.
3) Inputs: Person walking (motion), soil moisture
Outputs: Speech, light

Our other ideas included voice controlled blinds, spinning/glowing drink coasters, a talking fireplace mantle, and a smart library bookshelf system.