If you are after Pilton Festival themed T-Shirts, they are now available to purchase on my Etsy Store… http://www.etsy.com/shop/ckhattonstore

The male and female shirts have a independent design and both sides of the shirts are printed on.

Enjoy!

‘Processing’ was used to draw up the data visually in all cases. The bar chart and spiral representations were manipulated with Adobe Illustrator. We would have liked the process to be completely automated in Illustrater, but some human interaction is needed.

There is space compartment in the tray of slides; we imagine if this were a business/product users may receive badges for achieving goals that would be place in that space of the tray (as demonstrated in the images – the badges were created by my flatmate).

(lightbox)

Links:

benjaminography.com

Before that though, we sketched up some designs together for the outcomes.

While my classmate was building the recording device I created some laser-cut layouts in Adobe Illustrator to cut Perspex and plywood.

Outcomes:

• A5 plywood plates

• Microscope Perspex slides

• Plywood slide tray (for the mircoscope Perspex slides)

• Plywood light-box (for the A5 Perspex)

(lightbox)

We did some research to find some inspiration for our idea, and basically where we could take the project next.

Our most significant find was the work by Simon Faithfull, which we saw at an art exhibition held at our University recently. The installation was of lit Perspex displays depicting travels he had undertaken.

This gave us the idea to create a Perspex light-box to display the data of user’s fitness. The device could be laser-cut with LEDs to provide the light through the Perspex.

Another significant artist was that of, Info-Graphic designer, Stefanie Posavec. She created a project a called ‘First Chapters’ in an attempt to represent the differences in writing style between authors. The artwork was formulated by the number of words per sentence of a passage of writing; each left tangent is a new sentence. The representation showed that a book with shorter sentences had tighter display of lines.

We could represent the data we obtain in the same method. For example, a line drawn from the heart rate data would change at a tangent whenever the rate goes above and below 60bmp; the more vertical the image, the more active the user.

Other work we look we studied were of info graphics and posters that promoted fitness. One more interesting discovery was Berg’s Little Printer, which prints out a custom made RSS feed for you to read; it prints something similar to a receipt.

Research was also carried out to find out how we would create the Pedometer and a Heart Rate monitor. An Arduino is going to be used to record the data from users, but there is not enough onboard memory, so a new EEPROM needs to be bought. 20 pedometers for £5 was bought to attach to the Arduino. We figure (from researching) to create a working heart rate monitor, an Infrared LED and receiver will be able to record the differential of blood flow when placed next to the skin.

The hit TV show Dexter was the inspiration for the tray of slides. Dexter is a serial killer and each kill he carries out, he keeps a microscopic slide of their blood. Instead… will print the user’s heart and step data onto the slides.

Links:

8 Ways Technology Is Improving Your Health
https://www.positivehealthwellness.com/fitness/8-ways-technology-improving-health/
Simon Faithfull
http://www.simonfaithfull.org/
Stefanie Posavec : First Chapters
http://www.itsbeenreal.co.uk/index.php?/wwwords/first-chapters/
Reddit’s Guide to Fitness [Infographic] | Greatist.com
http://www.greatist.com/fitness/reddits-guide-to-fitness/#
27+ Beautiful Examples of Infographics at DzineBlog.com – Design Blog & Inspiration
http://dzineblog.com/2009/10/27-beautiful-examples-of-infographics.html
Berg’s Little Printer churns out RSS feeds with a receipt and a smile — Engadget
http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/30/bergs-little-printer-churns-out-rss-feeds-with-a-receipt-and-a/
Hello Little Printer, available 2012 on Vimeo
https://vimeo.com/32796535
VersionOne 2011 Survey Results
http://www.versionone.com/state_of_agile_development_survey/11/
The Witcher 2 Intro: A Visual Breakdown
http://www.thewitcher.com/visualdata/

Research links for creating the recording device:

Full-Featured Pedometer Design Realized with 3-Axis Digital Accelerometer
http://www.analog.com/static/imported-files/tech_articles/pedometer.pdf
RE: Suggest for pedometer sensor?
http://www.edaboard.com/thread24658.html
I2C EEPROM for Arduino – 256kbit
http://www.cutedigi.com/arduino-shields/i2c-eeprom-for-arduino-256kbit.html

(lightbox)

As a start we drew up some ideas together. We were thinking that the project should have multiple outcomes based on the same theme. The above image shows the kind of products we were thinking of.

The running theme throughout the project is that the user is unaware of the amount of fitness they are carrying out during their working day. In other words, the user is unaware that they are keeping fit by just being active. The data is then represented to them by means of different materials. The project could also take the angle that the user is surrounded by their data, but unaware of it all. So the user could see the posters on the way to work stating ‘keep moving’. This was realised when we conducted the initiation presentation. We will most likely stick to the former route, because we like the idea that user can maybe wake up to a set of slides of data in the post. The chosen route maybe a debate through the duration of the project.

Plates or slides of data would be created from the laser-cutting; the slides maybe Perspex or plywood. The concept could be that the data generates a graph of data that is drawn out by the laser-cutter for the user to keep a track of their progress; the user keeps a hold of the products made as a keep safe. This same data could be used to create printed material in the form of posters or leaflets.

In summary, me and a classmate (Stephen Dunn), are going to hook up six volunteers with a heart rate monitor and pedometer for 24 hours each. The volunteers will not know why they are wearing the device or what the data will be used for.

The two devices will create a data log which can be used to create product outcomes such as; a Perspex slab that has been laser etched with the data visually. The output will be in the form of information graphics.

The aim is to make the user visually aware that they do not need to go to the gym to keep fit and healthy.

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To download our proposal or slideshow presentation, click the relative link below…
 

Originally, my classmate had created a Arduino program to send the manually entered data to the Arduino itself. Later, I managed to create a RSS feed reader in Processing, based off the Actionscript used for the Adobe Flash earthquake visual we put together.

So with the use of a laser-cutter to create the base and all the LEDs wired up to the Arduino board, we finialised our LED cube.

ECOIDS consist with a programmable embed circuit board which is attaced with a Xbee to wirelessly send the data to a collection hub. They are powered by solar energy and can be placed carefully in any natural environment. It provides a way for artists, scientists and engineers with a real time model of the environment to develop visualistaions, sonifications (music) and interactive projects. [1]

Our task was to put together something that would manipulate the data from these ECOIDS. So I and a class mate (Stephen Dunn) had seen a video of an LED cube on Youtube, which gave us our inspiration.

We set out getting hold of a load of LED lights and resistors. My class mate had or bought a Arduino board to be able to manipulate all the LEDs. We worked out that we needed a maximum of 45 lights; five levels of nine lights. This was because there are only 14 input/output ports on the model of Arduino board used for the project.

More to follow…

Much like the Flash product I and a classmate created to represent earthquake data (https://ckhatton.com/i/d), I decided to create another one to suit the assignment of a different module. The task was to create a product that would grab information or communication with another computer via WAN i.e. Such as the Internet.

I had a better understanding of the Actionscript used to program in Flash – So I could really play with it. It ran on the same principle, of reading through the XML RSS feed data.

• The horizontal green line = Depth
• The breadth of green line shake = Earthquake Magnitude

I wanted to add a physics engine to it, so that blocks could shake side-to-side depending on the magnitude of the earthquake.

I looked into Box2D for Flash… http://box2dflash.sourceforge.net/

There is a Java version… http://gwtbox2d.appspot.com/ (You will need a HTML5 compatible browser)

I urge you to check out both links… they are interactive demos!

Last lesson we grouped up in four groups, to match our topic themes. From there, each group created a mind map of our group topics. Mainly to get our thinking processes running.

We went away with the task of finalising choosing a topic to explore, experiment and analyse. So I have looked further into Clones and created a mind map around the topic…

…It’s a start!