Theme 5: Design and Research

The key points of the paper “Comics, Robots, Fashion and Programming: outlining the concept of actDresses“ are about design exploration of physical languages for controlling and programing robotics. Where theories of semiotics in the fields of comics and fashion are explored to show how they can be used for development of these physical languages. Where the concept actDresses are presented as a result from these theories, to control and program robotic systems. actDresses can be defined as physical markings that can be directly attached to a digital artefact, and that signifies some property, action, or behavior of that artifact (which we can describe as physical programming).

I think this paper was especially interesting because of the fact that the interaction systems were developed for end-users in attractive ways. These physical programming techniques sounds great, and I would love to try them. I think the fashion theme is the better one of them, I feel like there is more potential there. The comics theme didn’t appeal to me as much, it didn’t feel convincing enough. A prototype of a device with physical programming that would fill a purpose and be useful in my everyday life would probably make it more convincing. But at the same time I think the point of physical programming using comics as language is smart. It’s a language many people probably are familiar with in Sweden at least. The learning process would probably go smoother and improve understanding to a language that is easy to understand, as in the comics example, compared to a new language.

My question for next weeks seminar is: Which target groups are physical languages more attractive to?

How can media technologies be evaluated?

To evaluate media technologies I believe input from the intended end-user is of highest value. When developing a product there is easy to misjudge how the user wants to interact with it, and difficulties because developers know too much and exactly how it works. Therefore some input about the interaction from the end-users with new eyes can make a huge difference in the iteration process.

What role will prototypes play in research?

Prototypes are important for the iteration process, as described above. It tests if the product works the way it is intended and provides information about what to improve. This prevents unnecessary costs later in the process or even after the release of the product if a critical weakness is discovered. The role is both to investigate faults to improve the product and make sure it works and to reduce costs.

Why could it be necessary to develop a proof of concept prototype?

When coming up with an idea to develop a product, it might not be as good as you think it is, and not be a shared opinion of enough people. Therefore it could be a good idea to investigate if your idea is appreciated/useful/have a place in the market/demand, to avoid development of a useless product that don’t pay off.

References

Fernaeus, Y. & Jacobsson, M. (2009). Comics, Robots, Fashion and Programming: outlining the concept of actDresses. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction.New York: ACM. 

Réhman, S., Sun, J., Liu, L., & Li, H. (2008). Turn Your Mobile Into the Ball: Rendering Live Football Game Using Vibration. IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, 10(6),1022-1033.