User test

I put together a user test to see what expectations users have on a scroll wheel in different situations (traversing a menu, while watching TV, while watching a film, while listening to music and while looking at photos in mythTV).

Did a pilot test to see if the test works. It does, but I could have asked in more detail, which I will do, in the rest of the tests :) Also, the pilot participant had previous experience of iPods, which is not necessarily a problem, but people without experience should also participate, so that we can get a feel for what their expectations are.
The pilot test can be found here (pdf)

Have a nice weekend :)

mythtv

Today I installed mythtv on our small computer and it seems to work pretty nicely, apart from the Program Guide (the Program Finder works fine though), which crashes. We don't actually have a TV capturing card as of yet, so this is no major problem since the Program Guide would be pointless nonetheless. However, I did find a website which might be helpful at http://parker1.co.uk/mythtv_id.php. I'll check that out on Monday and I will probably install some plugins then as well, such as Music, Video and DVD plugins, so that we can start work on the theme after that.

Have a good weekend!

Surface testing (again)

The test with veneer and a chipboard looks like this:

As you can see the test did not deliver what we wanted, the veneer did buckle, just as we presumed (the picture does not show the buckle so well, I have discovered that i am a craftsman, not a photographer). It does not buckle much, but just to the limit that it is really is annoying. The surface feels fine, but it is a bit soft. Though, it would work fine for the interactions with the table. I have put some lacquer on the veneer over night so tomorrow we can inspect if the lacquer do something to the buckled veneer as well.


The backside of the chipboard looks like this:


I have also ordered some new glue for the veneer and the plexiglass. The glue has been recommended by professionals in the world of chemistry :-) So next week we can try the veneer/plexiglass solution again. Tomorrow I am going to begin the work with the table, perhaps this projects easiest part :-)

Veneers and plexis

Today some tests have been done. The first one was to try to glue veneer directly on plexi glass. This did not go as planned because the glue did not work as wanted and the joint broke. The second test was to veneer a piece of chipboard with some holes in it. The result of this test appears tomorrow when i am (Daniel) going back to the carpentry. If also the second test are going to fail i am going to try to glue the veneer to the plexi glass with another type of glue instead.

Menus and shortcuts

We discussed menu structures for mythTV and how shortcuts could be handled. Some of the alternatives we discussed can be found here

Interaction exercise

Today we had our second supervision meeting... We were told that we had to work on our interaction, and not just talk about electronics :)...
We made up a scenario, and tested it on ourselves and some of our classmates.
Below are some pictures from the exercise..

"Semi Interactive Plexiglass Prototyping"

so, this is remoTable...

This is the final design of the table. Daniel are going to go to Little Land (Småland) and try to do a good job as the groups craftsman. Rest of the group are going to work as the always do, with a smile and with a lot of creativity.
For more pictures of the table go here.

Texture

You don't have to wait or spam us anymore...here is the requested picture of the upcoming remoTable texture...

Designing the table

Today we are designing the table , we have some issues with the design:

- Can we control qprox touch sensors through 0.6 mm veneer and 2 mm plexiglass?

- Are the veneer going to buckle if we use an mdf board without plexiglass fills?

- Can we use veneer directly on a board of plexiglass?


The questions we have has been directed to the great carpenter Ronny Snickare (Ronny the Carpenter).

Computer

Today we got a nice little computer to play with, which contains a VIA EPIA-M main board, a beauty on 17x17 cm. It's actually one of the smallest main boards in the world! Amazing!

Close up on main board. EPIA-M is visible top right
(click on picture to zoom in).

A USB mouse as reference.

We plan to install Ubuntu 6.10 on it and run MythTV. Since it has no CD-ROM, we will use a USB Flash disc to boot it, using the nice guide found at http://technowizah.com/2006/11/ubuntu-how-to-ubuntu-edgy-from-usb.html. Good job!

Tomorrow I'll have to find a way to log in to the network without having a proper web browser or wget...

sneakPeek

Project Concept

Project Concept (PDF, SWE)

Old diary (swe)

Vecka 7

Tisdag 13 februari

Idégenerering med random words. Kom på flera idéer, men hann inte utveckla dem speciellt mycket. Det gick dessutom finfint att skapa ett übercoolt gruppnamn av våra initialer: Dr Jpg

Fredag 16 februari

Serverplats på diinoweb reggad.

Leines inflyttningsfest för alla som inte är bangare...

Vecka 8

Onsdag 21 februari

Designövning: Animal Expression Transfer

En liten tanke var väl att vi skulle kunna komma på förslag till projektet. Vi gjorde de briljanta ”CatScan” och ”Cobra Tazer Gun”. Eventuellt inget vi kommer att göra i projektet dock.

Efter övningen: idégenerering.

Torsdag 22 februari

5 projektförslag skickades in för feedback:

• GPS-försett överfallskydd
• Möbel med inbyggd dator och kontroller
• Laserspel à la ”Mission impossible” & ”Entrapment”
• ”Dörrmatta” som visar fotspår
• PDA/mobil/digital artefakt med bluetooth

Fredag 23 februari

Feedback på idéerna från Olof och Sus:

GPS-försett överfallsskydd och PDA/mobil/digital artefakt med bluetooth fick svalt mottagande. Övriga förslag tyckte de däremot var intressanta men behövde utvecklas mer.

Vecka 9

Tisdag 27 februari

Alla är positiva till ”Möbel med inbyggd dator och kontroller” och vi fortsatte diskutera idéer och lösningar på det förslaget. Vi gjorde några bilder.

Onsdag 28 februari

Designövning: Ambiguity as a resource for design

Vi använde designövningen till att utforska ”dörrmattan” eftersom vi redan hade diskuterat ”tangible furniture” relativt mycket, och dessutom har bestämt att det är ett av förslagen som ska presenteras på torsdag. Vi tyckte att dörrmattan hade potential, men behövde utvecklas mer. Det mesta vi kom på under övningen är inte direkt realiserbart, men det fick igång tankeverksamheten kring konceptet, och vi bestämde att dörrmattan är det andra förslaget som ska presenteras.

Under dagen gjorde vi också presentation i Ihateppt till båda förslagen och ett antal skisser på båda förslagen.

Dagens skisser:

Torsdag 29 februari

Presenterade de två förslagen för klassen och fick feedback.

Började diskutera hur hemsidan ska se ut. Lutar åt en 3d-bild av bordet som roterar. Känslan när man kommer till hemsidan ska vara som att komma in i ett rum.

Vecka 10

Tisdag 5 mars

Ska diskutera fingeravtrycksidentifiering på bordet. Så att man kan ha olika settings för olika personer.

Resten av vecka 10 ägnades åt hemsida och projektförslaget. Det senare skickades in på torsdagen.

Vecka 11: Tentavecka, inget projektarbete.