As artificial intelligence permeates more facets of our daily lives, our interactions become increasingly digitized, abstracted, and depersonalized.  Smart assistants, like Google Home and Alexa, have attempted to bring back a layer of humanity to these experiences, but lack a physical presence. What if we explored smart assistants that understood or related to our emotional state vs. just for a functional outcome?

This studio will explore the emotive possibility of digital companionship. Students will design a smart object using the household object of a lamp. Just as electrical lighting technology altered people's lives historically and allowed them to extend daylight hours for work, reading etc, our goal will be to imagine how the light can once again be a vehicle for altering lives of those around them.

Zenumbra brief

A game in which players explore a dark area with a flashlight to find cards, then they play on a game board that projects the cards in play on to a wall using light and shadow. It is designed to help kids become more comfortable with the dark. Many people, especially children, have a fear of the dark, but this can be managed with the right positive experiences. Zenumbra is a game that can help players ease into being around the dark by facilitating fun social interaction and play in a dark environment.

If a child is scared of a dark attic or their closet, a parent might hide a pack of cards in the uncomfortable area. The excitement of exploring and finding a new bunch of cards for their deck eclipses their timidness. When they find the pack, they will face the cards inside in a Zenumbra match, using their own deck once they have one. The game is usually played by two friends choosing cards to play against each other from their hand, it can also be played by using a randomized card dispenser.the new cards into his or her deck and feel a sense of confidence and accomplishment. When cards are played in a match, they are put down on a projector game board that shines a light on your wall and shows the shape of your cards. Once they win a match against the card pack, the player can add the beaten cards to their deck. Each turn, the to combatants will simultaneously play a card from their hand, and each card has one of five elements, being water, fire, plant, earth, and electricity. Each element can beat two other elements, but are beaten by the remaining two. For example, if you play a card with a water element, it will destroy any of your opponents cards that are fire or earth elements, but will be destroyed by any electricity or plant cards that your opponent plays. It has been shown that positive association is a powerful tool in shaping behaviors and emotions, and playing games, either by yourself or with friends, is one of the most positive experiences during childhood. If a child learns that the dark can be a fun environment, they will be more comfortable with it when they are on their own.

Annika Hardy:
The Relaxation Chair: a comfortable chair that stops nervous habits by providing alternative activities that are embedded in the sides of the chair. The chair is designed for any space that could potentially be a high stress or anxiety-producing place, like hospital waiting rooms or school offices. 

Waiting rooms in hospitals, doctors' offices, and school offices, are some of the most common places to feel anxious or restless. For many people, these uncomfortable feelings lead to nervous habits that can range from fairly harmless nail-biting to potentially destructive hair-pulling or skin-picking. Whatever the habit, refraining from acting on the compulsion can sometimes seem impossible, especially in a high-stress environment. Research suggests that the best ways to break bad habits are through distraction and awareness. When a person is distracted from acting out their habit, they are less likely to do the habit and over time less likely to feel the need to do it. When someone does act out their habit, it can be helpful for it to be clearly brought to their attention, because habits can sometimes become so ingrained they are subconscious. It is for these reasons that the Relaxation Chair should be an essential part of every waiting room. The chair arms incorporate fidget toys like buttons to push, string and tabs to pull and rotate and calming activities like drawing to engage the user. The design also includes an overhead sensor that recognizes and covers the face of a user if they begin biting their nails or indulging in any other nervous habit involving the mouth. By providing a space in which the user will be distracted and gently prevented from engaging in nervous habits, the chair will allow the user to feel more relaxed in a stressful situation and will help break potentially harmful habits.

Emotions can get the better of people and can change everyday life, the reason for the creation of the project is to establish a record of repeated emotions. In order to fix an issue the first step is to recognize it and plan out action against it, this goes for feelings as well. The rationale for this tracker is to mark unwanted feelings that are common in your week, in order to give freedom to the user colors meanings can be adjustable.

The emotional calendar would pave the way for productive social interactions while altering people's mental states. This would result in a happier and more fulfilling life that could change the way many people see themselves. The idea of the project branched from emotional states that showed prevalently in the life of many. When researching anxiety, there was a common feeling of nervousness and stress among people suffering from anxiety. In order to counter this, everyday logs and diaries have countered the suffering that comes from anxiety. 

Portfolio Day

After the Final Presentation, you have the opportunity to consider your presentation in light of final feedback and discussion. You will spend additional time reviewing you presentations, refining you portfolio, and polishing you work before it is made public on the internet.

The Self Evaluation is an opportunity for you to reflect on your work during the Studio. Students and Coaches receive the same prompts and categories, and the students will evaluate their own progress and skill levels in Design Skills and Subject Skills applicable to the studio both numerically and textually. Through a narrative, you will also reflect on the quality and rigor of your work, give feedback on the studio, and have the opportunity to receive similar feedback directly from the coach.

• Portfolio & Assessment
• Self Assessment
• Final Brief
• Portfolio Checklist
• Portfolio Boards

THE PRESENTATION POST

This post's privacy is set to Everyone. This post showcases your final design by telling the comprehensive story of how your idea was born, developed, and manifested. The arc of the story should encompass the, How of your project in a compelling narrative. It showcases your design process including your brainstorming, each of your iterations, and your final prototype. It allows the viewer to delve deeply into your process.

• Every Slide should have a Title and Caption.
  The body of this post is The Brief. You should include a version of the Brief for each collaborator in the project.
• This post will be used in your review presentation at the end of the session.

You are encouraged to make your narrative as compelling as possible. All of the content below should be included, but if you would like to rearrange the material in order to tell your story differently, work with your coach.

INTRODUCTION PORTION

Your presentation is a narrative, and the introduction sets up the scene for that story. Here you introduce the project, say why it is important, and summarize what you did.

TITLE WITH TAGLINE: This slides shows a crisp, clear final image and the title of your project. with a pithy blurb describing the project. The image, name, and tagline should draw a viewer in. 

Examples:

• The Fruit - A line following, light tracking robot
• Segmented Vehicle - A vehicle that conforms to the landscape
• Cacoon - Wearable sculpture exploring the concept of transformation and death

EVOCATIVE  IMAGE: This is a single image that shows a clear image that evokes the soul of your project. This image helps set up the why in a compelling way, sets the stage for your narrative, and will help frame the entire presentation. The caption of this slide (set with the Edit Captions button when editing your post) should discuss the context of your project. No Text on the slide.

THESIS STATEMENT: This is a TEXT ONLY slide for which briefly describes the Soul and Body of your project. You can use the project description from your Brief or write something new. This statement ties together your narrative.

Examples:

• The Cocoon:  A wearable sculpture that explores the concept of transformations and death. The Cocoon explores the spiritual journey beyond the human experience; what it means to be human, how wonder effects us, and the concept of what happens after death.
• Body Accordion: A musical prosthetic that translates the wearer’s body movements into a dynamic multimedia performance. The Body Accordion converts flex sensor input to sound through Arduino, MaxMSP, and Ableton Live. 
• Seed to Soup Animation: A whimsical animation about the slow food movement. Seed to Soup showcases a holistic method of cooking. From garden, to kitchen, to dinner table.
• Antlers: A wearable sculpture inspired by antlers found in the deer and antelope family. "Antlers" explores the comparison between armor and attraction. 

PROCESS PORTION

The Process Portion of your presentation tells the story of how you iteratively developed your project. Somewhere in that story you should include conceptual and technical precedents that guided you at each stage as well as brainstorming and process sketches and clear photo booth imagery for 3-4 stages of your process.

This portion is made up of three types of slides repeated 3-4 times. Each iteration in your process should include:

• PRECEDENTS:  Precedents are any projects that inspired you creatively or gave you technical guidance. These can include conceptual precedents and technical precedents. No Text.
• SKETCHES/SKETCH CONCEPT DIAGRAMS: These slides show your generative ideas in sketch form. These should clean, clear drawings. A sketch should show a clear idea. Do not simply scan a messy sketchbook page and expect that people will understand. If you do not have a clear concept or working sketches it is fine to make them after the fact. No Text.
• PROTOTYPE IMAGES:  These are actual images of the prototypes  you documented in your daily posts. These images illustrate your design decisions and how your project changed at each step. No Text.

FINAL PORTION

The Final stage of your presentation is the resolution of your narrative and shows your completed work. The use diagram shows how your project works and the construction diagram shows how it is assembled. Final photos show the project both in action and at rest. The imagery captures your final built design.

USE DIAGRAM: A diagram showing some aspect of the functionality. These can include:

• How one uses or interacts with the project
• The overall behavior of the project over time
• For a complex interactive project, this can be a clear diagram of the software behavior

MECHANICAL DIAGRAM:  A diagram offering insight on how the project is put together and functions technically.

• Ideally, this will be an exploded axonometric
• At minimum this can be a labeled disassembled photo  

ELECTRONICS or OTHER DIAGRAM: Additional diagrams showing some important aspect of your design. 

IMAGERY: The last slides should have an images of the final project. These images should be taken in the photo booth, cropped, and adjusted for contrast, brightness, etc. Images should include:

• An image of the project in use (taken in the booth or at large). This should include a human interacting with the project.
• Images of project alone. Include at least one overall image and one detail image.
• You can also use an image In-Use. 
• Consider using a GIF to show how the project works. 

The Brief Part 2 - Full Brief v2

This is Due Tuesday morning

Remember, all documents related to the brief are found HERE. These include a note from the writing coach and the Composition Reminder Sheet.

Create 1 post titled “The Brief v2” in the Writing tab.  The text should include the items below and should take into consideration the edits given to you on your draft v1 from the writing coaches.

1. A 1-2 sentence project description for your transcript. This will serve as the basis of the Project Description that appears in your transcript. This description should not include the name of the project and should be written in the third person. This was Question 1 in your Outline.
   examples:
   Night Light Blankie: A child's sensory blanket that provides comfort and privacy in the high stress environment of the hospital using weight, textures, and light. The blanket transforms into a mini light up fort over a child’s head.
   Cocoon: a shroud that explores human spirituality and the concept of life after death through the use of repetitive religious iconography. Composed of over 300 pieces of laser cut balsa wood lined with space tape, the icons are arranged using a mathematical strange attractor.

2. A 1-2 paragraph brief for your project based on the description below. This will be based off the information you put together in your Outline and should focus on style. The NuVu writing coach will give you feedback and you will have the opportunity to revise this text before the final presentation. The primary purpose of The Brief is to explain, entice, and convince the reader that your project is amazing and important. Imagine your project on display in the Museum of Modern Art. The Brief is hanging on the wall next to your work. In 1-2 paragraphs, a viewer should understand what your project is, why it exists, and how you made it, and who it is for. More importantly, the viewer should be interested and care. You will draw them into your project through a compelling narrative.
   
   Things to think about:
   • Use the information in your Outline. Do not simply put all of the answers together -- you must weave it together into a clear story.
   • The what is a clear statement of the thesis or problem+solution. Your project description for your transcript (#1 above) can be adapted for this purpose.
   • The why explains how your project changes the world. It is the reason your project exists – what social issue is it engaging, who is your project helping, how does the project change the world, and what important social, intellectual, or technical questions does it raise? The scope of the why can vary widely.
   • The how briefly explains what technical prowess, innovative methods, or cool materials you used in your solution.
   • The who explains who will use your design, why they will use it, and in what context.
   • Think of the reader - it is good to imagine that a college admissions officer AND a potential employer in the field of your design should both be able to understand and be excited by the project based on your writing.

Write in the Third person in an explanatory fashion. Resist using I, WE, OUR, or YOU and focus on describing the work.

Here is an example from Penelope the Pain-O-Monster:

Pediatricians and other doctors find it challenging to collect accurate self reported information from children about their level of pain due to lack of communication skills, fear, anxiety, and discomfort. Traditional 1-10 pain scales do not fully address these issues, often leading to uncomfortable children and inaccurate symptom information. Penelope the Pain-O-Monster is a cute plush toy that uses integrated pressure sensors to allow children to express their source and level of pain through play.

A previous project, The EmoOwl, helped children with autism to express themselves by translating motion into color. Penelope the Pain-O-Monster grew out of the desire to expand children’s health menagerie with a different stuffed animal, one that makes the pain charts patients use to express their pain more interactive and easier for a child to use. Because research has shown that playing with stuffed animals can take children’s mind off pain, an additional “Fun” mode was added to distract from pain and anxiety. The handcrafted stuffed animal uses force sensors in different body parts that light up from blue to red depending on how hard they are pushed to show the child’s pain level. The hope is that, as one of many future healthcare friends, Penelope can help sick children feel safer while providing more useful information to care providers.