Developing 4th generation, distributed and social media

Birgitta — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 12:33:55 +0000

Currently we are working intensively with the development of the 4th generation of Co-creative Tangibles. The 4th generation of Co-creative Tangibles are in the project plan defined as “distributed and social media”. In the RHYME project this means that the users can co-create across different media, space and time. For instance that a sibling can interact through a smartphone or tablet from another place, with her sister or brother and the Co-creative Tangibles at home.

In the 4th generation we try to accomplish, develop and realize as many of the ideas, suggestions and wishes as possible, that we have received from the users, care persons, families and experts from several fields throughout the whole project. These many ideas, suggestions and wishes have been articulated through participation in the many workshops, tests, interviews, discussions and observations during the whole RHYME project.

Some of the users’ wishes, such as dynamic microphone input to the music together with different forms of sensorial stimulating input sensors in a mobile interactive thing, has been a major technological challenge. These user wishes have compelled us to develop six different hardware platforms throughout the project, which was not something we planned to do, but had to do because of its importance for the users and music therapists.

Including direct light response and projection in the tangible objects has also been an important user demand that has been a great design challenge. We try to include and prioritize as many user wishes as possible into a new 4th generation of distributed and social co-creative tangibles with new shapes, structures, surfaces, hardware, software, music, set design, positive experiences and mastery levels, personalization and interaction forms. Here are some pictures from the ongoing development process:

New hardware solutions under development:

New shapes under development:

New materials, surfaces and joinery under development:

New light solutions under development:

New APP with graphical user interface under development:

4th Generation Hardware under development

Birgitta — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 11:46:12 +0000

During the RHYME project so far we have developed a number of hardware platforms. This has been necessary because existing platforms (smartphone, Arduino e.g.) do not directly offer the functionality and combinations we need, regarding diverse sensors and actuators such as light and speakers. It has been a huge challenge to create the hardware we wanted and needed to offer the best possibilities for our users. We have put a lot of time and effort into it, much more than we originally planned, because the current mobile technology still have major weaknesses . The main challenges we have been working on are:
– real time sound synthesis with low enough latency (response time) for musical interaction.
– sufficient sound quality in terms of loudness, frequency range,
and noise floor in mobile wireless objects.
– battery, both how it is charged, used and integrated as well as how long it lasts.
– combining input from microphone and other sensors in the same mobile object.
– wireless connection and speed related to real time dynamic sound interaction.
– light and sensor integration in soft and sensorial stimulating materials.

Therefore we have used much more time than planned on developing different hardware platforms and testing them out in diverse use situations. Here are some of the decisions we have made during the project based on our research and explorations:
– Communication protocol for musical events OSC (Open Sound Control), not MIDI.
– Mobile computer platform iPod Touch (OSX), or Android.
– SuperCollider, not PureData or Max/MSP.
– Wireless communication by Wifi not Bluetooth or Zigbee.
– 5 Volt usb connectors for all devices not multiple voltages and custom battery connectors.
– Processing as dynamic graphic generation not Jitter or other programs.
– Textile embedded surface mounted LEDs not LEDs with legs on the surface.
– Ribbon cable not Conductive thread.
– Embedded projector into the interactive thing, not wall projection.
– Embedded speakers and Subwofer, not external ones.