Nearing end of week five - progress report

I'm now approaching the end of week five, and do realise that I haven't 'blogged' for a week and a half, which is not for lack of interest, but simply becuase my intenet connection has been playing up, and I like to use class time to take advantage of doing web research and printing.



So to summarise where I am:

I am feeling very clear minded about what I want to get done and how to achieve it. I have decided to focus my attentions on strengthening the concept rather than trying to teach myself to create a flashy 3D presentation. So, I am working on creating a rough presentation now written in word, and then I will create some visual aids in photoshop to illustrate it. Then I will get friends and family to look over it and ask critical questions, that I can then consider and compose answers to in case I am asked in the real presentation. I will then organize the information I want to deliver into either a power point presentation or a flash microsite that promotes the concept. I have now created some mock up images of my product, 2 of the 4 I have planned, and am also wondering whther or not to create a screen grab of teh software program (or 'settings') it would be supplied with, which is challenging me because it envokes the question: what will software look like in 30-50 years time? I might instead just create a site map of what options and pages would be in the software, and show how it would be organized.
I still have a little research left to do, but it is mostly complete. I plan on producing a written 'proposal' of the product to hand in along with the presentation, that will EXPLAIN the product and JUSTIFY why each design/technical desicion has been made, offering links or quotes to research 'evidence' that backs up my decisions

As for time, I hope to finish all my visual aids and and generated all content for the microsite/presentation by the start of next week(6). I am also hoping to work towards completing by the original hand in date of next Thursday, so that I have the reading week leftover in case anything goes disasterously wrong!

I would also like to note that I found the BBC4 TV show 'The genius of Photography' which is on Thursdays at 9pm, and recommend it to anyone interested in the area. It had a really great quote last week that relates to this project:

"New technologies don't just change the future, but they change the way we perceive the world around us"
I think this is a comment worth considering, becuase it has been true of many past technologies uch as photography, moving image, the internet, satellites...ect

PRESENTATION EVALUATION: FEEDBACK RECEIVED & MY THOUGHTS

Presenting my progress thus far has proven to be extremely helpful. The process of preparing to and presenting what I have learnt so far and what I have been thinking about has helped to clarify how I should proceed with the project. The main idea I have had throughout this project that I liked most is interactive holograms, however, it is something I have tried to work away from continuously, because of concerns it is too ‘science fiction like’. However, my research has shown me that it is something that can be developed, and could be made available about 25 years into the future, around the time that holographic TV is set to emerge. I have also discovered it is my strongest idea, and that it was overwhelming preferred to all my other ideas, which were not very well received by the group. Most of the comments were fair, and were issues I pointed out myself that I would have worked on if I decided to take those concepts further, however I did find a couple of comments unfair, and they got me thinking about the presentation at the end. Until this point, I have assumed that we could imagine a target audience, and present how we would to the imagined target audience. For example, my pedestrian sensors have genuine research to back up the idea that they would have a small impact on cutting down accidents, however no one in the group seemed to take this on board, the response was more like, ‘Well, I wouldn’t slow down because of that’ or ‘ I wouldn’t want one of those’ however, I feel that given the chance to research the correct target audience, i.e mothers with children in the car or road safety organisations, the technology could catch on. However, what I have realised is that my idea needs to be something that will appeal to the group in the presentation/crit at the end of the project, as well as my suggested target audience, and based on the strong enthusiasm and comments people made about them, I think that the holograms(with a lot of development) could become really marketable. I am now going to brainstorm my new ideas on how to develop the concept into a desktop feature. I am also thinking about how I can present them, and am looking forward to the 3-d tutorial we will be getting next week, as it seems the best way. I would also like to create a concept website. It will have links to active pages, and all the graphics, but buttons such as ‘buy now’ won’t work. It will be a sort of working model of how the holograms would be supported and sold online.

Summary of week two and plans for week three(in progress already)

The last week has gone quite well, I transcribed and researched ideas from BT's Technology timeline, and generated quite a lot of concept ideas for the project.
This week, I have set myself the goal of researching three or four of my best ideas in more detail and to brainstorm more ideas to improve each one. I am then hoping to select my final concept idea at the start of next week. These ideas include:

Interactive Holograms: Using chatbot technology with eye tracking software and voice recognition, so that the hologram can always be looking eye to eye with the person who asks it a question - could be used as an information resource in libraries, museums, train stations ect
Critical thoughts about concept:
Is it too futuristic? Would it be financially worth it? Is it needed or an excesive waste of energy? If so, how could I alter it not to be? How could it be developed into a success. Could the idea be developed to become a smaller screenbased 'cyber pilot' rather than a hologram that helps people navigate the internet, like a face for search engines that you speak to instead of typing in, that talks to you. Is that too much like a chatbot? If so, how could I develop it into a future application?


Empathic TV: Using emotion reading device to assess a viewers emotions, and offer up a selection of tv shows / films that match. Would mean each programme has a mood tab applied to it
Critical thoughts on concept:
Is this too basic? How popular would it be? Should I carry out questionnaire research to see how people respond to the idea?


Pedestrian Sensors: Product added to cars, that uses blue tooth type technology to alert drivers when they are entering a new speed zone, and to ask them to slow down.
Critical thoughts on concept:
Is it too much like sat.nav systems? What is the projected statistic for how successful this could be in road safety, cutting down on accidents? How could the idea become more futuristic?


Empathic Fridges/Cupboards: Using Reznet technology, would sense health and suggest posible dietary options for food.
Critical thoughts on concept:
Would this be too novelty? Therefore, un-needed? If taken seriously, would should be thought about to ensure it gives safe health advice?

Later today I will be presenting my progress so far, and hopefully getting some feedback related to these thoughts that could help. By the end of the week, I hope to be settled on which concept to choose, so that next week(4) I can research it in more detail and develop ideas around it, and collect evidence to justify and strenghtan my decisions related to it's development.

Useful link

http://www.btplc.com/Innovation/News/timeline/


The above link has some really intersting information about BT's futurology research. It is a flash timeline for how the wolrd will develop over the next 50 years, and although it is mostly speculation, the predictions are based on their research, and some of them seem quite logical (a few are a little daft though). The different events effect one another and could be a valuable resource in checking when any concept ideas created in the project could be viable. Demographic and environmental predictions may also help with this.

WEEK ONE SUMMARY / GOALS FOR WEEK TWO

So far I am on track with my project. I have done a lot of initial research and developed a brainstorm with many different thoughts about the project and beginnings of ideas. I am trying to keep an open mind to many different ways to approach the project, and not settle on one particular technology concept to research, but many. I am thinking about environmental concerns, disabled people interacting with their environment, motion sensor holograms with speech recognition, and possible interfaces that could develop in homes in the future.

This week I plan on researching technology around the home and brainstorming ideas as to how it can be improved or how it will evolve over the next couple of decades. I then want to expand my brainstorm and start thinking up more developed concept ideas. I will then choose four or five of my strongest ideas (ones as different as possible) and begin researching how the technology behind them might work, how useful they could be, what the impact on the proposed market would be, and any ethical, economic, political, or environmental factors that might be relevant.

My research to date has included many websites, New Scientist Magazine, The Economist Magazine, Technology Review Magazine and I am now going to be using photographs to draw inspiration.

I would recommend the New Scientist periodicals in the library to everyone, as they are very inspirational and got me thinking about alot of angles to approach the project that I hadn't previously considered.

Module One: Design Futures, Week One.

INITIAL REACTION TO BRIEF

My first reaction to this brief was that it seemed intimidating. I have been trying to figure out what sort of concept I am supposed to produce. Having thought about this for a couple of days and having it discussed in class has helped me start to think about what I would like to work towards learning from this project. That is to say, I think it would be good to spend the next six weeks researching a concept related loosely to interactive design or animation, because those are two areas I would like to learn more about over this year. However digital media in general would be as beneficial. Other thoughts of the top of my head are to consider the environment. I think doing some research into future digital technology that’s is more environmentally friendly could be worthwhile. Also, I have always liked the idea that one day perhaps some sort of printer could be developed that prints images that you have stored in your brain. Or a computer that types based on your words, so you can speak and it will type what you say. However I think that last one is already an invention of the present.

TIME PLANNING FOR THE PROJECT

Below is a rough guide, which will probably change and develop based on the decisions I make over the next couple of weeks, of what I will do in each week of this project, to ensure that I finish in time.

Week one 01 – 07 Oct	Initial Research (starting point: recommended reading) Initial Ideas
Week two 08 – 14 Oct	Developed research based on selection of best ideas Evaluation of ideas based on research Idea development
Week three 15 – 21 Oct	Selection of concept Treatment created (if applicable to idea- otherwise a mood board) Developed research Concept development
Week four 22 –28 Oct	Concept development Ideas about what presentation should involve
Week five 29 – 04 Nov	Presentation development
Week six 05 – 08 Nov	Fine tuning of presentation and concept Evaluation Print and bind sketchbook

TIME PLANNING / GOALS FOR WEEK ONE

This week my goal is to look at all the suggested research to gain a better idea of what this project is about, and then to generate a wide range of initial ideas.