Day 68 @ ITP: Phys Comp

Timeline for working on our Final Project (Camilla and Jim)

WEEK 1: Prepare for playtesting.

Our diagram about how the new version (P5 Meditation - working title) will work! Before playtesting. (Click to enlarge)

Last Tuesday night before the playtesting we sat down and created a diagram of how we wanted our new version of the MIDI Meditation (working title: "P5 Meditation") would work. We ended up deciding to use P5 to store and trigger the sounds instead of using MIDI and software because we were having issues with using MIDI commands that would work cross platform for both OSX and Windows, and also this way the whole system would be more streamlined and also require less expensive software to use (and it will also be more modular and changeable based on what we end up wanting to do with the visualizations).

This way we can also just code the Arduino once to take in and send data to the sketch and make adjustments on the P5 end (and get better at using P5 and serial communication!) We decided that the user would have a choice of a few breathing exercises from a drop-down menu, and that we would use our feedback from the playtesting to figure out how that should work.

This way we can also just code the Arduino once to take in and send data to the sketch and make adjustments on the P5 end (and get better at using P5 and serial communication!) We decided that the user would have a choice of a few breathing exercises from a drop-down menu, and that we would use our feedback from the playtesting to figure out how that should work.

Our notes from playtesting... (Click to enlarge)

Our notes from playtesting part two... (Click to enlarge)

Using Processing to begin with we created a simple visualization of the breath that looked like a wave or water that filled up the screen and then subsided based on when you breathe in, hold your breath, or breathe out. People seemed to not respond to this so much. In fact we had a few people all have the same reaction, which is that they would prefer a visualization that would expand and contract rather than fill up the screen up and down. Here is our feedback written out to be able to see it more clearly:

Martin:
- I told my wife about this project and she said that people could use this before getting a vaccine, or before therapy.
- Maybe have text that appears and disappears to prompt instructions (like breathe in, hold, breathe out...)
(Camilla Note: Will the text still be needed if we have detailed instructions written out in the program's dropdown (which we did not have yet?) Or maybe just have text appear at the startup of each exercise then it could go away eventually?)

Daniel/Heng:
- Would prefer to see circles that get bigger and smaller.

Dan:
- Would prefer to see a physical light fading in and out or a dim object vs. a computer screen.
(Camilla Note: I totally agree! Though we chose to work with P5 because overall it will be the least buggy for our needs. It also requires the least amount of *stuff* and is the most versatile, so we would be able to tweak it easily up until the last moment, and also afterwards. However it would be so great to get the visualization off the screen and project it really big in a room, huge, if possible. Otherwise this is something we will take into consideration but probably only after getting all the coding to work, loading the sounds into P5 and being able to trigger then properly, and building the enclosure, rather than spending that time hardwiring LEDs which we cannot change or adjust as easily...)

Meng Zhen:
- Maybe have the heartbeat visualization slow down with your heartrate (or at least slow down).

Lin: 
- Would like to have a meditation timer or be able to pick the duration of the meditation. Need instructions for how to pick program change and then set it because it was not clear.

YeonHee:
- Maybe some visualization of heartbeat vs. speed of breath. 
- Thinks wrist band would be good for sensor placement.
- Use images to explain breathing exercises so language is not necessarily needed. 
(Camilla Note: My first thought here was to have an animation of someone breathing in then breathing out, or some visual directions like that. Will have to think about this and what we can achieve in P5- maybe that can be some kind of intro animation if we can get around to thinking about and creating that?)

Hefi:
- Would like to see something that expands and contracts.
- Maybe background music as well as the heartbeat sound? Would like if we choose it, and not to have an option on the user end for the background music.
- Colors that come to mind for enclosure: Green, brown, wood, natural colors. 
(Camilla Note: I also brought up the idea of white, and he thought maybe this could work. I like the idea of incorporating natural wood as well, and maybe green buttons if I can find some that would work well?)


Shreiya:
- Maybe create some goal or arc or game in order to help relax and know when to "stop". Helps to relax if you know how long it will be.


WEEK 2 (for Nov 15th)

  Update your system diagram and bill of materials based on what you learn from your playtest. By next week, you should know what devices or components you need, and should have ordered or obtained them.

  • Update Arduino code to work with sensor data (using MIDI Meditation prototype)
  • Write up feedback we got last week, blog change

WEEK 3 (for Nov 29th):

  Update your blog with your detailed system diagram, BOM, and interaction plan.

  • Sampling sounds, get those working in P5
  • Collect data using the NEW sensor (may work a little differently)

WEEK 4 (for Dec 6th):

   User-testable version of the project!

  • Build enclosure(s) - prototype and final design, sew sensors into wristbands(s).
  • Finalize the gui (something with a dropdown, nicer HTML)

WEEK 5 (for Dec 13th):

  Finish your final project
  Make sure your online documentation of the project is done as well
  Prepare and rehearse how you want to present your project

  • Documentation
  • Final testing (lots of user testing)
     

FINAL PRESENTATION: December 13th

WINTER SHOW: December 17th-18th


Updates

11/14:
- We got the communication working to send messages for each command from the Arduino to the P5 sketch.
- Our next step is making sound samples and triggering them in P5, and playing with the P5 interface. 

- For this next week: Think about enclosure. It will be pretty similar to the original design but with nicer more permanent materials (probably wood on the side panels with a white acrylic surface and small black buttons--which need to be higher this time to be above the acrylic surface). My next assignment for Intro to Fabrication is to make an enclosure so I plan to make the two enclosures for this combined with that assignment.