Many young children have trouble engaging and learning with a topic like art. The ARt Museum is an augmented reality app made to help educators and museums encourage young kids to learn about art, specifically the meaning and creative process behind it. The simple-to-navigate app teaches kids about art through an easy game; first, a teacher connects several phones to a computer “hub” through a simple graphical interface, then the kids go into the art museum and scan a few pieces to add to their collection. When two players scan the same piece, they enter a “battle” in which whoever scanned it first has to answer a question relating to the art; if answered correctly they get to keep their piece, but if they get it wrong the piece goes to the other player. At the end of 30 minutes, the game ends and whichever individual has the most art wins. The System works off a server and client model in which the educator's laptop runs a program that connects and coordinates many client-side apps.

Melina:

The Blueberry Tutu: A tutu with a blueberry branch design coiling from its center, bringing together a modern dancer's youthful passion for ballet and her strong roots in her home on a Vermont blueberry farm. The spiral frame attaches to a connected inner elastic belt, and when Louisa raises her arms, the spiral extends upwards.

In a society where people often feel the need to conform, a striking individual like Louisa Marie Mann stands out. Born and raised on a Vermont blueberry farm, Louisa is an expressive, goal-driven, forward-thinking, and insightful dancer for Heidi Latsky Dance. To this day, the blueberry branch is a symbol to Louisa of her strength, grounding her in her identity, so much so that she has one tattooed on her upper arm. Brought up as a professional ballet dancer from a very young age, Louisa fell in love with the art and techniques of ballet, and dreamed to one day play the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker. However, as Louisa explored other physical creative outlets, she realized that modern dancing was a much better fit for her innovative, though ballet-inspired, ideas. Now, Louisa shares herself confidently with the world as a part of Heidi Latsky’s On Display performances, challenging assumptions of what dance is “supposed to” look like and advocating for making dance accessible to all ranges of ability.

The Blueberry Tutu aims to showcase Louisa’s strong and loving roots at her home in the Vermont blueberry farm that shaped her, while demonstrating how her childhood passions developed over time into a unique expression of her personality. The costume is built from a white, contemporary-style ballet tutu frame, with rope attached to each round of the spiral. When Louisa raises her arms, the spiral extrudes upwards. White elastic grips the waist, while additional white elastic attached from the waist band to the inner hoop allows for great support, and a great range of motion. Pairing classical and modern, as well as natural and urban styles, The Blueberry Tutu captures Louisa's spectacular journey in a striking fashion.

Jakob:

A wearable designed for a dancer Louisa, to bring together her love for her Vermont home and her love of ballet by using blueberry plant patterns to create a three-dimensional, adaptive tutu.

Blueberry Tutu is designed for Louisa, a dancer who grew up in Vermont on a blueberry farm. Throughout her childhood, she wished to become The Sugar Plum Fairy in the Nutcracker. This wearable brings together these two aspects of her personality by using a blueberry plant pattern to create a tutu. A spiral cut pattern adds three-dimensionality by allowing the tutu to move up and down, changing shape based on the movements of her body. The original design was fixes elasticity to the west which allowed for some motion, but not enough. It also incorporated natural sticks which are fragile and hard to transport. The new design utilizes a spiral that looks like a blueberry plant wrapping around her. The spiral is attached to her arms at three locations allowing her to control the geometry of the tutu with her arms. 

Bad Chess: A quasi-futuristic chess set based on the expectations of  1980s culture, portrayed by both physical illusions and Augmented  Reality.

Humans have contemplated and ruminated over what their  future might look like since the beginning of time, often indulging  themselves by fantasizing possibilities more akin and catered to the  desires and aesthetic of the era they presently live in than what could  be realistic in the time frame they set for themselves. This gluttonous  go-getter exuberance is charming in an entertainment setting, and found  its way to the forefront of media, eventually creating its own genre,  SciFi (Science Fiction). The decade of the 1980s is a prime example of  such exuberance, known for loud music, louder colors, and even louder  hairstyles. The 80s had a garish flamboyance that was unmatched by any  other decade in the 20th century, and it showed especially in its  visions (and obsessions) of the future. In "Back to the Future II"  (1989), lead character Marty McFly time travels to 2015, where he  discovers flying vehicles, lasers, and lots of metallics, a far cry from  how 2015 really looked when the time came. Arguably trends recycle  every 30 years, so maybe it is realistic to think the future will look  like an extension of the present, but not to the extent dreamt of. Bad  Chess attempts to emulate this unrealism with the visual nature of the  80s.

Bad Chess is a contemporary representation of the ideals of  the 1980s, taking advantage of the long history of chess, to show a  cyclical preserved image of people's expectations for a shiny future.  The chess set is composed of a dashingly clashing geometric board, an  intensely epic graphic design on the box (inspired by 80s video game  covers), and metallic cubic pieces with lasers. When the tips of these  cubes are scanned by a phone, a 3-D model of the chess piece pops up,  only to dissolve when the piece is killed in the game from a laser.

Oliver Trejo's Brief

The Soft Robotic Hand with Thumb is a prosthetic hand made of 3D-printed parts and silicone. The usage of soft robotics allows the hand and its digits to be compliant, which means that the hand can grab soft objects, without needing a complicated feedback loop. A pump system bends the fingers by using a specific inflation technique. The original design of the thumb did not cover all of the axes of rotation needed to make the thumb opposable and with a full range of motion. The new tri-chambered design uses three inflatable pouches to bend and extend the thumb, which makes it a rather complex device. Because this style of thumb has not been fully explored before, so it requires using pre-existing knowledge of the different actuators to better understand how the thumb functions.

The thumb is an integral part of human evolution; without it, humans would not have been able to make and use tools, hold round objects, among other things, or throw things to hunt or defend themselves. The Soft Robotic Hand helps people in need of a prosthesis who work in an agricultural setting. Since the hand is soft, the user can pick up fruits and vegetables without harming them. It is also very versatile since it can be scaled up and recast, without having to reinvent the tolerances and design, so anyone can use it, no matter their size.

Beatrix's Brief
The Mean Bean Routine: a game designed to demonstrate the struggle of trying to make money after a large storm like Hurricane Maria. This app focuses specifically on how hard it is to rebuild a business that many farmers depend on when their crops are wiped out and their machines are destroyed. 

The Mean Bean Routine is designed to demonstrate the struggle of trying to make money after a large storm like Hurricane Maria. This app focuses specifically on how hard it is to rebuild a business that many farmers depend on when their crops are wiped out and their machines are destroyed. Players of the game start off as farmers in Puerto Rico, pre-Hurricane Maria. They have to race against a corporate business owner to produce as much chocolate as possible by turning a hand crank in real life to simulate grinding cocoa beans. There is no way for the player to lose the first round, so they automatically win at the end. After winning, the player is brought to a cutscene where Hurricane Maria passes by their farm, destroying their crops and machine. They then are given a new, handmade, less efficient machine to use in the next few rounds. After losing against the corporate owner a few times because, unlike the first round, this time there is no way to win, the player is prompted to support farmers post-Maria by clicking on a button that says “donate”. If they don’t click this, there is no way for them to win and they will eventually quit the game out of frustration. If they do click this, they are given a new machine in the game and are able to play against the corporate owner and win, depending on how fast they grind and how good they are.

This game is targeted towards anyone who is unaware of the damage Maria caused. The hope is to awaken empathy and generate donations for those suffering the long-term effects of Hurricane Maria by causing the players to experience frustration firsthand, and to realize what some farmers have to suffer through. The game will need to be installed on desktop computers so that players have their hands free to turn the hand crank.

Max's Brief
The Mean Bean Routine: a game designed to promote natural disaster recovery funding by putting the user into a realistic situation. The game shows how it is impossible to recover quickly from a natural disaster without help from other people and communities.

Our game is made to encourage donating to natural disaster recovery funds. You are a successful Cocoa Bean farmer in Puerto Rico. Suddenly Hurricane Maria hits and you are reduced to nothing. The player needs to click the donate link in the game to win. This game shows people who are not in bad situations what it is like for those who need help and encourages them to donate. We created this game using the Unity3D game engine for public display in developed worlds. The game would be set up in a public space for people to play. The crank controller for the game, which creates emersion, also makes a noise that attracts attention.

Karena's Brief:

Metamorphic Wings is a wearable designed to capture the personality and accentuate the features of Tiffany Geigel, a dancer with Heidi Latsky Dance company. Consisting of wings with living hinges, Metamorphic Wings symbolizes the stigma society has towards people with disabilities and empowers them to be their true and authentic selves.

Designed to look like butterfly wings, Metamorphic Wings aims to represent Tiffany's self-image: regardless of how people judge her before knowing her, she will always feel like a majestic butterfly when she dances. The wings are made of thin wood and have living hinges at various points so that Tiffany can fold them. Elastic fabric not only adds to the "plain look" but also serves as a support for the living hinge. The plain look was incorporated so that when Tiffany opens the wings people are wowed by them in a way in which they might not have been with the wings closed. The design enhances one specific position that Tiffany assumes in the dance companies On Display performances, which show off atypical bodies and performers with disabilities. When she stands and has her arms hugging her body, the wings will fold inwards and wrap around her, mimicking a cocoon. She can also then move her arms to a T pose and the wings will be extended in full glory. This metamorphosis of the positions illustrates how people think she might be dependent because of her disability but in fact, she is a very strong independent dancer. 

Tinna's Brief:

The Metamorphic Wings is a wearable design that aims to challenge the stigma society has towards people with disabilities. The design demonstrates that people with atypical bodies are much more than their disability. The Metamorphic Wings design is created for the Heidi Latsky Dance Company's On Display performance, a deconstructed art exhibit/fashion show that highlights society’s fixation with body image. The performers are a group of people with atypical bodies who pose as sculptures in a sculpture court. The design is specifically made for Tiffany Geigel, one of the performers. Tiffany loves the spotlight when she is dancing; she describes herself as outgoing, honest, and feisty, and takes pride in shocking people and proving them wrong. She has Jarcho-Levin Syndrome, which is a rare disorder that leads to malformation of the ribs and/or back. This condition makes Tiffany’s torso unusually short but also enables her to move her body in a unique and more fluid way compared to other dancers. The design helps to unveil Tiffany's extraordinary talent and surprise the audience.

The Metamorphic Wings transforms from a cocoon-like state into a majestic abstract butterfly. The wings are made with stretchable fabric and thin wood, which gives the design structure and makes the wings stay in place. The original design was made with thermoplastic which was too flimsy so the thin wood with living hinges was introduced. The living hinges are created by edging the material in a specific pattern, making it easier for the dancer to manipulate the piece. The white elastic fabric attaches to the structural piece of the design, which is the thin wood, with spray-on adhesive. The fabric is meant to add dimension to the design and secure the living hinges.

The Metamorphic Wings have a dual purpose. They enhance the performance and communicate Tiffany’s message. Also by showcasing the talent, creativity, and independence of people with atypical bodies, The wearables for the On Display performance,  empowers not only the performers themselves but also the audience to be their unapologetic selves. 

Sound Objects is an immersive experience that takes and walks you down a trip down memory lane a childhood memories/experiences and an sensory imagery, images of sorts and it is very individualized for each individual who interacts with it for each person it brings nuance and character with the sound barrel aspect component for this project. it is made out of a 3d printing parts by using rhino and the audio is created and recorded from the phone then put through into Ableton to be sampled and weathered and combined tougher and then it was mastered in and program with a circuit wired board chord that was connected through and with Arduino an then it was put within the conch shell and Then it was used to create sounds and the audio was played back through within the conch shell.  The whole entire purpose of this project is to bring back memories to bring them back to there childhood like self again, it is connected with and used for those who want to have early memories of them selfs one selfs each other it actually truly is. At first, it happened to be starting out as a music video then a beach creation of sorts and then audio files sound waves mp3 files waves experimentation files and then went on to be what it is now with the conch shell and the speaker is hidden tuck away in there with my audio files. it's those who want to be open to a new interactive experience that happens to be open-ended interoperation!!!!!! 

zach's brief

A conch-shaped device that plays ambient seascape sounds in order to stimulate the user's brain into thinking they are on a beach.

The SmartShell is a conch-shaped device that plays ambient seascape sounds, with the aim of stimulating the user's brain into thinking that they are actually on a beach. This device is for people who desire to be in a beach setting but cannot be there due to limited access, geographic constraints, disability, climate or lack of confidence and self-esteem. The SmartShell is accessible to everyone regardless of their challenges or situation. Studies show there are many physical and mental health benefits of hearing beach and ocean sounds.  Research also shows that ocean sounds can help a person feel relaxed, less stressed, happier and cope with the winter blues.  

The conch shell design can be held up to an ear to create a spiral sound chamber that amplifies the unique soundtracks. The SmartShell uses a one-inch speaker that is connected via an Arduino microcontroller to an MP3 player which then plays sound through an SD card. The speaker is embedded inside the conch’s spiral. The spiral shape amplifies the audio and makes it sound like an echo.