Huggie receiving its first big hug
Huggie is a pillow that reacts when hugged in accordance to your body position. If hugged when you are standing it will sigh to show it likes it or yawn to remind you that maybe it is time to sleep, and if hugged when laying it will play out sleep inducing sounds (nature sounds, music boxes, white noise) for a certain time then let you sleep. Having Dunne and Raby’s 2001 writing that: “Beneath the glossy surface of official design lurks a dark and strange world driven by real human needs” as a driving motto, the pillow should act as a conversational starter in this case, a dialogue with the user and its emotional needs towards the objects around him being the thing I am most interested in. Given the time frame and the resources for this project, I wish for it to be considered as design experimentation and not necessarily a scientific endeavour.

DESIGN PROCESS

As a design strategy for this project I have chosen a project-specific linear strategy (Jones, 1992) which consists of three stages: brainstorming & bodystorming, rapid prototyping and implementation. Throughout the first stage several ideation sessions have been carried out and the best idea has been chosen. Through bodystorming I have acted out possible use scenarios and identified the project requirements.

First sketches of the pillow

Following this, a hardware sketch has been put together as part of the rapid prototyping process. Here is also where the main part of the coding took part since a similar setup was going to be placed inside the pillow.

IMPLEMENTATION

In order to control the pillow behaviour a circuit has been built and placed inside an inner pocket. The circuit box is easily accessible through a bottom zipper. For this project the main components that have been used are an Arduino Duemilanove, a Sparkfun MP3 Trigger and a 3-axis accelerometer. Extra wiring, a 9V battery and a speaker are also part of the circuit, but do not play a crucial role in redoing the circuit. For programming, the Arduino IDE has been used.

Circuit to be placed inside the pillow

The physical design of the pillow follows the body line in order to be as ergonomic as possible and to increase comfort when using the pillow. The pillow has been entirely hand sewn partly by myself and partly with the help of one of my colleagues, Sepideh Azimi.

FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

If the project would be continued, I would like to observe it being taken into use by people. Due to the limited time frame that the project had, its purpose remains rather conceptual right now. Another thing that would definitely need to be improved would be the shape and quality of the sewing of the pillow. Although I am pleased with its appearance now, if given more time and sewing practice on my side I am sure it would look a lot better.

For this project to happen our Physical Computing assistants’ patience was tested several times. I would like to thank all the guys for offering me extra technical help whenever I needed it. Also I would like to thank Sepideh who has taken the time to teach me how to use a sewing machine for the first time. Without her, the pillow would have been a lot shabbier. And last, but not least our teacher Johan for his infinite understanding.

REFERENCES

Dunne, A. & Raby, F., 2001. Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects, Birkhäuser.

Jones, J.C., 1992. Design Methods: seeds of human futures, John Wiley & Sons Ltd., London.

//Ruxandra Teodoru, MSc. Interaction Design, Chalmers.

Here is a movie of what it can do:

From the site Nexus Burning Man 2010 Photos, from there you can find another page where they are showing how they did it. So go there and get some inspiration.

//Lisa Ryrholm

3D LED display sphere with snake game and earth map.

/Group 14 (Peiyao, Jörgen, Pekka, Joakim, Allen)

The TerraSimula subjects a plant to the weather conditions currently present somewhere on earth. Want to find out what the weather is like back home in Reykjavík? Is it nighttime in Tokyo? Is the weather in Buenos Aires as good as they say it is? The TerraSimula can answer all of these questions and maybe even keep a plant of your choice alive and prospering.

By pressing a button on the world map the TerraSimula download weather data from the internet and tries to mimic the conditions by emulating rain, wind and sun- and moonlight conditions. Groving moss and lichen just like in Iceland has never before been this easy!

The ready TerraSimula prototype in the lab

Per checking out some heavy rainfall

/Group 10

Rescue the helpless little duck from drowning. Swim over, grab a hold and bring him to the lighthouse. Be sure to watch out for the obstacles in the water while paddling.

The little duck can paddle with it’s flippers and is controlled by two cranks on a pedestal. A miniproject in the Physical Computing course taken at the masters program Interaction Design at Chalmers University of Technology.

Group 3
Tim, Martin, Onur, Tommi & Emil

Apparently, this worked pretty well! Many of the Tweenbots actually reached their intended destinations. Not even one of the bots was damaged or lost, which I think is incredible given this was in New York!

Read more and watch the clip here!

Tobias Johansson, Group G

Dean Kamen, inventor of the segway, has been working on a prosthetic arm for some time. The arm is special in that it is controlled with the same nerves that a normal arm is “controlled” with. This is done by relocating nerves from the original arm to the breast muscle of a patient thus giving the patient the ability to control this muscle via the same “inputs” as had it been the arm. Sensors are then connected to this muscle, and these sensors are connected to the robotic arm.

References
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/05/dean-kamens-rob/
http://gizmodo.com/243278/dean-kamen-cyborg-arm

It is easy to find out more about on the web.

/Erik Einebrant