Design for Change Design Report

BA/BSc (Hons) DESIGN for INTERACTIVE MEDIA (Top-up)

Module: (ADM303) Design for Change
Year: 2006-2007
Semester: 1
Tutors: Stuart Neil
Date Issued: 13/02/07
Completion: 09/03/07

Student name: Nigel Whitbread
Student number: ST06000671
Email address: nigelwhitbread@yahoo.co.uk

Design for Change Design Report

Introduction

After initially looking at GPS and PDA technology, and how it could be used in the future for space tourism (Virgin will be providing flights into space within 3 years) I decided to look how this technology could be used in spacesuits. But instead of just concentrating on this I decided to examine how this technology could be used at the moment on earth instead of in space, on the moon, or on Mars.

My design concept is a helmet to be used by sports enthusiasts, motorcyclists, parachutists, paragliders, hang gliders, astronauts (one day in the future) etc to provide heads up GPS data (maps, climb rate/sink rate, altitude, airspeed, waypoints, positioning) to be used for navigation and use voice recognition software and radio technology to keep it completely hands free.

At the moment if a pilot wants to maximise his understanding of how the hang glider, paraglider etc is flying he has to carry a series of instruments (avariometer, altimeter, airspeed indicators, GPS, radios) that all have to be mounted onto the control frame or strapped to the body. The same is true for motorcyclists where GPS units etc are mounted to the handlebars with all their other displays.

All these devices could be incorporated into one device that’s built into a helmet and the data can be viewed on a heads up display projected onto the inside of the visor. This would aid with making the glider/motorcycle easier to control as you would never have to take your hands of the control bar/handlebars and you would have clear audio and visual data unaffected by weather conditions, at fingertips, so to speak.

Using GPS means you’ll always know where you are which is especially useful when participating in Competitions. You’ll also be able to plot a course of where you want to fly to and prove you’ve passed certain waypoint markers. Other uses of GPS are determining high altitude wind drift, alert you to restricted airspace areas, and identifying one’s location for retrieval teams when you land in unfamiliar territory.

For the purpose of this report and the presentation of the design concept I decided to call the device VIS COM.

PEST Analysis – Political, Economic, Social, and Technological

P Competitions take part worldwide (UK, Australia, South Africa, France, Chile, Japan etc). Each country has its own associations and sports unions.
E Prize money for competitions can be as high as £3,000. To help fund equipment you could gain sponsorship from a number of different companies.
S If the costs we’re low enough it might encourage new members to participate in competitive sports.
T The advancement in visor/eye/headset displays is coming on leaps and bounds, even car manufacturers who seemed to have given up on heads up displays have started incorporating them in their latest models. The size of high tech components are becoming increasingly smaller and wires in communication devices are rapidly being replaced with wireless technologies.

Technologies to be Used in Conjunction With Each Other

A GPS (Global Positioning System) Receiver will be used to calculate the helmet wearers position by measuring the distance between 3 or more GPS satellites. Since the signal travels at a known speed, measuring the time delay between transmission and reception of each GPS radio signal gives the distance to each satellite. The signals also carry information about the satellites' location. By determining the position of, and distance to, at least three satellites, the receiver can compute its position using trilateration.

A HUD (Heads Up Display) will be created, by projecting transparent maps, up to the minute GPS data, speed and other information onto the inside of the visor by using holographic laser technology.

Speech Recognition Software will be used so that you can perform many different tasks and use various applications completely hands-free so that you’re always in control of your glider/bike. For example you could simply have the map disappear from the display by saying “map off screen” or use the radio by saying “radio on”.

A Radio for communicating with other pilots in the air, riders on the road, and for reporting back and forth with your ground/pit crew when in competition. Especially useful when pilots want to report their landing locations.

Headset and Microphone so that you will be able to use the speech recognition software and radio.

Bluetooth so that all the separate technologies will be able to communicate with each other completely wirelessly.

Touch Screen Control Panel very much like present sat nav display units but to be used primarily to plot and view journey routes pre journey but also to be used as an aid when setting up the speech recognition software to recognise your particular voice.

A CPU (Central Processing Unit) is quite simply the brains of the device and processes all of the data received and transmitted.

Summary

Taking into account the various components needed to build the VIS COM I decided to set its value at £1000

Existing Technology

Sole rider radio mike transmitter £140
Garmin ZUMO 500 GPS £450
Helmet £68 - £250
Speech recognition software £60
Sportsvue heads up display £120

Total £838 - £1020

Some of the technology that I propose to use is more advanced than what is on the market at the moment but is in development or being used by the military, so can’t really be used as a variable for pricing up the VIS COM.

I believe there is a market for a heads up display/GPS device incorporated into a helmet. Some businesses are already developing more simplistic products with limited capabilities (Sportvue) but my idea would do away other devices or if you wanted to add to it over time all you’d have to do is set it up with Bluetooth.

References

Virgin Galactic
http://www.virgingalactic.com/htmlsite/intro.htm
[Accessed 02/07]

European Space Agency (02/02/2007): The First Hiking Maps on Mars
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMOI5O2UXE_0.html
[Accessed 02/07]

Wikipedia: Global Positioning System
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System
[Accessed 02/07]

Wikipedia: Head Up Display
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head-Up_Display
[Accessed on 02/07]

Wikipedia: Speech Recognition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_recognition
[Accessed on 02/07]

Sportvue: Sportvue MC1
http://www.sportvue.com/store/product.php?pid=14
[Accessed on 02/07]

Myvu: Personal Media Viewer
http://www.myvu.com/
[Accessed on 02/07]

PDALive (Posted by: [meiam] (12/27/2004)): Holographic projector for your future PDA
http://www.pdalive.com/showarticle.php?threadid=7761
[Accessed on 02/07]

HowStuffWorks: How Hang Gliding Works
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/hang-gliding.htm
[Accessed on 02/07]

Wikipedia: Paragliding
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paragliding
[Accessed on 02/07]

DefenseTech (22/04/2005): GPS Jumpers
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/001506.html
[Accessed on 02/07]

CNN (30/09/2004): Smart helmet for motorcyclists
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/09/16/piers.tucker/index.html
[Accessed on 02/07]

British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association
http://www.bhpa.co.uk/bhpa/index.php
[Accessed on 02/07]

Garmin
http://www.garmin.com/aboutGPS/
[Accessed on 02/07]

GA Serving America: Navigating Communication
http://www.gaservingamerica.com/how_work/work_navigation.htm
[Accessed on 02/07]

Design for Change - Presentation Notes

Slide 1 - Hello my name is Nigel Whitbread and I'd like to talk to you about VIS COM. A design concept for a helmet to be worn by sports enthusiasts who take part in motorcycling, parachuting, hand gliding or paragliding competitions.
Slide 2 - Imagine if you will driving a motorcycle in a road or off road race or piloting a hang-glider in a competition, and you lose your way because you haven't any form of sat nav. You know not which way to turn.Slide 3 - With sat nav you may never get lost, BUTSlide 4 - Your instrument panel or control bar starts to get over cluttered with more and more devices. You need to have wires trailing to a headset so that you can hear your sat nav's directions, because the weather gets too bad to see the screen, and so you can communicate with your ground or pit crew.

Slide 5 - Now imagine once more how life used to be with just the basics, but with the risks of losing your way, and maybe the race.
Slide 6 - With the VIS COM helmet you could have the best of both worlds. You can lose your cluttered instrument panel, and have the data infront of you instead, projected with a heads up display.
Slide 7 - And with built in GPS, you'd need never lose your way again.
Slide 8 - Using speech recognition software you will be able to access all of the applications completely hands-free, which means you will always be in control of your bike or glider. For example you could simply have the map disappear from the screen by saying...
Slide 9 - " Map off screen "Slide 10 - The concept itself is based around your traditional bike helmet
Slide 11 - But with added technology. It contains a CPU/GPS receiver, which put simply is the brains of the device and compute where you are using satelite navigation.
Slide 12 - A head set with a mic and speakers is to be used with the speech recognition software to control all of the applications and for use with the radio.

Slide 13/14/15 - The heads up display will be created by projecting transparent maps, up to the minute GPS data, speed, and other information onto the inside of the visor by using holographic laser technology

Design Sketch of VIS COM

Design for Change - Tutorial Notes

Helmet Headsets F1, Motorbikes, Hang Gliding
Sports Helmet Adaptability

• P world scale, sports unions initiatives
• E built, prize, sponsorship, how much does it cost
• S introduce new members to competative sports, build communications device
• T advancements in visor/eye/headsets displays, LCD-OLED, sporting technology, GPS, size weight, computing, skydiving helmets, batteries, car, bike

Presentation
Powerpoint
Prototype
Senarios

Design for Change Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paragliding
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/001506.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/09/16/piers.tucker/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hang_gliding
http://www.bhpa.co.uk/bhpa/index.php
http://www.bhpa.co.uk/hangglidepower/index.php
http://www.bhpa.co.uk/paramotor/index.php
http://www.garmin.com/aboutGPS/
http://www.gaservingamerica.com/how_work/work_navigation.htm
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/hang-gliding.htm
http://www.skywingsmag.com/hg.php

Design for Change - Development of Initial Ideas

Development of Initial Idea

After seeing a story on the New Scientist website about The First Hiking Maps on Mars, I started thinking how would people eventually be able to use this data in the future when you could actually hike on Mars or on the Moon.

I also looked at Virgin’s development for space tourism flights which will be up and running in less than 3 years. I felt that this would be the catalyst for more endeavors in the business and tourist market to get their slice of the space pie.

Using today’s technology you could view the maps on a PDA and use them for hiking using GPS technology, but if your wearing a spacesuit your not going to be able to hold a PDA and you definitely wouldn’t be able to control a stylus or touch screen.

My idea is to develop a concept for using and viewing electronic data using maps and GPS so that you could find your way round an unfamiliar planet or moon whilst wearing a space suit.

Technologies to consider

• Electronic textiles for use as buttons that can be incorporated into the suit
• Heads up display to be viewed on the inside of a helmets visor
• GPS (Global Positioning System) using satellites
• Speech Recognition Software
• Touch Screen Technology to be able to use the helmet itself as a touch screen
• TV Camera and viewer
• Hardware and Software

Links
Motion-sensitive spacesuits could generate power
The first hiking maps of Mars
Virgin boss unveils space trips
'Personal spaceflight revolution' beckons
New face on space flight
'No experiments' for SpaceShipOne
Unknown future of space tourism
Virgin Galactic: The logical next step
Virgin Galactic
HowStuffWorksSpacesuits
wikipediaSpacesuit
wikipediaGPS
wikipediaHeadsupdisplay
wikipediaEyeTap
wikipediaTouchscreen
wikipediaSpeechRegognition
Moon colony 'within 20 years'
Colonize the Moon before Mars
Colonizing The Moon
Holographic projector for your future PDA
Sportvue MC1
MiVu

Design for Change Brief

Brief

Your client, who you can assume is a community, charitable, public or business organization, has commissioned you to help identify key changes in the social, economic, cultural or technological environment and to suggest concepts for products and initiatives which can address those changes.

For example, you may consider how people are using technology in their everyday lives, in their own ways and for their own needs.
How does choice impact on how everyday things are used or are likely to be used in the future?

In response to this you are required to identify, describe and evaluate what you believe to be the key changes and possible evolutions in these environments, with a particular emphasis on opportunities for the design of new interactive tasks, systems or products.

From this initial audit you must then consider a new or novel task, system or product that you would like to investigate and further develop to concept prototype stage and offer researched evidence in support of your proposal. Evaluate and specify design concepts to capture this opportunity.

60% of marks
You are required to develop a prototype which will be presented to your client. Presentation content will be discussed with tutors.

10% of marks
In addition you will need to develop short design report including the following constructs:

• Research and discussion documents

This must take the form of a written design report. You are advised to revisit guidelines for previous modules on design research.

Research into the history of your specified design concept, find out if it came from the convergence of technologies or if it was a technological progression.

Discuss the nature of this product or initiative and all that it currently encompasses.

• Concept document

Specify a design concept to capture the opportunity these changes create.

You could choose to follow a structured process by asking the following questions and using the answers to assist you.

WHY would people want to use a particular technology?

WHAT would they want to do with the technology?

Use scenarios of how real people might actually
use your application/platform/product/tool and note how this might then change and improve your initial set of answers.



This should include an introduction, summary and complete list of references.

The Web-report in its entirety should be a minimum 1000 words.




Time structure

Week 1
• Team allocation [the team dynamic will aid you in your evaluations during your prototype development
• Group work and discussion with Stuart Neil
• Idea generation

Week 2
• Peer assessment [progress of team development]
• Development of initial ideas to form a one page document
• Documented research and discussion

Week 3
• Peer assessment [Stuart]

Week 4
o Project deadline 9th March 07

Schedule:

Tuesday 13/02/07 10am:
Briefing, Split into working groups and begin research.

Wednesday 14/02/07 10am:
Group work and discussion with Stuart Neil.
Idea generation.

Tuesday 20/02/07 10 am:
One page - Development of initial ideas to be emailed to : sneil@uwic.ac.uk
Assignment development

Wednesday 21/02/07 10am:
Assignment development

Tuesday 27/02/07 10am:
Individual tutorials
Assignment development

Wednesday 28/02/07 10am:
Individual tutorials
Assignment development

7th + 8th March 10am:
Presentations

Web-reports Deadline 9th March 06

This schedule may change notification will be put on the DfIM notice boards on a daily basis.

Assessment methods

Assessment methods

100% coursework.
Delivery of:
• Written, practical & presentations of assignment that demonstrate the required learning outcomes (70%)

• Contribution to discourse as demonstrated through group work, seminars, tutorials (15%)

• Development of Personal Progress File, through theory and practice (15%)


Assessment is undertaken in relation to student’s ability to achieve required learning outcomes.

Assessable components:

Presentation
Think ‘Dragons Den’
You will have a short amount of time to present your ideas and communicate to your client the idea for your project. Remember this needs to be conveyed in a way that your client will understand quickly.
Supporting visual materials may be included. Consider the presentation methods very carefully to ensure that you communicate your research findings clearly and effectively. (Refer to guidance notes on presentations).

Prototype
Start to develop physical products that will help you communicate your ideas. Your prototype may be a storyboard, paper prototype, model prototype, software prototype or a combination of prototypes. Remember that your ideas are based on novel, creative and innovating methods, so let this be something that transpires in your prototype. Help communicate this creativity to your employer by developing a prototype that reflects its nature.

Reports
Your written web-report should be no less than 1000 words in length. Your web-report should be detailed with the correct assignment details and bearing your name, student number and email address.

Maintenance of Personal Development Journal
You must ensure that your Journal reflects your critical evaluation of this module. Refer to the Journal briefing sheet for details.


Seminars and Tutorials
Group seminars will be conducted in the Lab and should be used for reflection and for establishing a framework for discussion on which the group presentation can be built. These may be student or staff led and may include discussions with visiting speakers. See schedule and notice board for information.
You must ensure that you book regular tutorials with staff throughout this module. Booking sheets are available on the notice board.



Directed Reading:
• Students are expected to undertake significant directed reading in all aspects of the course and will be set reading tasks from the reading lists to extend and reinforce module content.
• The library's physical and electronic resources are also heavily utilized.
A selection of key reference books are available in the DfIM Lab.


Required reading:
• Negroponte N. Being Digital., 1996, Coronet;

Recommended reading:

• Castells, Manuel (2001) The Internet Galaxy, Oxford (Paperback - 304 pages (31 October 2002) Oxford University Press; ISBN: 0199255776)

A good journal issue to look at would be:
• Howard, Rainie, and Jones, 2001;Days and Nights in the internet: the impact of diffusing technology American Behavioral Scientist (special issue on the internet and everyday life)

Tracey and Anderson 2001 “The significance of lifestage and lifestyle transitions in the use and disuse of internet applications and services “American Behavioral Scientist (special issue on the internet and everyday life)

• Brand, S. How buildings learn, 1997; Orion Paperbacks;
• Castells, M. The Informational City. 1989 Blackwell, Oxford, UK..
• Alexander, C. A Pattern Language, 1978. Oxford University Press Inc, USA;
• Card, S. et al Readings in Information Visualization , 1999. Morgan Kaufmann;
• Jones, J C. Designing Designing, Phaidon Press, (Architecture Design and Technology Press), London, 1991
• Jones, J C. Design Methods, 2nd Edition, Van Nostrand Reinhold (International Thomson Publishing), New York, 1992
• Tufte, E R. Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. Graphic Press, 1997.
• Maeda J. Design by Numbers, The MIT Press, 2001;
Woolman, M. Digital Information Graphics. Thames & Hudson, London (Spring 2002)


LEARNING OUTCOMES
On completion of this modules students should be able to demonstrate:

Subject-specific skills
• Evaluate economic, social and technological aspects of change;
• Evaluate requirements of design for emerging technologies;
• Critically assess impact of change on design, production and use of interactive products;
• Deploy appropriate design principles to development of interactive software product of system.

Cognitive skills
• Understand essential concepts, principles and theories;
• Solve problems through the application of appropriate knowledge;
• Critically appraise and review a range of practices;
• Compare and evaluate various methodologies;
• Analyse tasks, systems and products;
• Synthesize various methods, approaches and theories into a distinct, personal practice;
• Think creatively;
• Develop ideas, concepts, proposals and solutions in response to a brief and as self-initiated activity;

Practical Abilities
• Specify and design interactive products or systems;
• Publicly present their own work in a cogent and concise manner;

Please refer to Module Handbook for further information