Today, we did a lot of work.  I specifically worked on supporting the button box.  I also helped make a button with Jacob.  For the supports, I used a simple design that will be bolted to the sign post.  I started off with a simple triangular support with holes for the bolts.  The holes were supposed to align with the holes on the sign pole.  Unfortunately, the first time I tried it, the holes did not align.  I think the holes were off by about 0.5mm.  I also learned a better way of making the holes evenly spaced in Rhino.  After fixing the alignment issues, I turned the one triangular support into two, for added support.  The supports are orientated in a way that allows the user to stand comfortably on the sidewalk.  The supports attach to the sides of the pole, so that the person is not standing in the street, or blocking foot traffic.  Today, I also helped make a button.  Jacob did a lot of research into the perfect button, and then we tried out different ideas in Rhino.  We 3D printed one so that we could feel it and try it out.  I think that there are still improvements to be made, but we are in a good place.

Today Becca and I continued brainstorming for our Collaborative Art installation. We began focusing a lot more on the guest book idea and how we could make it come together. We initially were going to make it like a book, but after talking with Rosie and Nathan we began thinking of other ways to make the structure. Becca and I brainstormed ideas like a triangle, a cube and an accordion like structure, but our favorite ended up being the fortune teller idea. We both liked the way you could unfold the pieces to write and it was like little secrets because they could be hidden away too. We then began making a model of the structure out of paper and tried different methods for making it. We finished off the day 3D printing triangles that we will put together to model the fortune teller structure in cardboard.
 

Today, we spent the day refining our ideas. After listening to suggestion from our coaches, we looked into different possible set-ups for the games. We also added two more games: Wakamole and Memory. For wakamole, the user would be pressing buttons instead of smashing the moles with a hammer. We also discussed different ideas that were spin offs of the game. At one point, we were talking about making a reaction time based game (more so than it already is). We were going to time how fast a person could react, but we eventually decided to stick with the wakamole idea. Memory is a game where you have to remember a sequence of colors, and press the corresponding button in order. We decided that those three games (the button game, memory, and wakamole) were the best games for what we were trying to do. We also spent a large portion of our day brainstorming ideas for having the games without a screen. After trying to make it work, we finally decided that the screen is a must. We then finished off the day by writing list of reasons why we needed a screen. We plan on sharing these reasons tomorrow.

Becca and I began the day presenting our initial idea of having the bus stop serve as a blank canvas. We got feedback saying that we needed to be more creative and find a different way to make it more collaborative and challenging for us. After we looked at the ideas that we generated yesterday and ruled out the ones that didn't seem like they would work and elaborated on the ones that could be made into something more. We also got feedback from Rosie to try and find ways to make the art non- permanent so we were looking for different solutions to that like the magnetic mosaic or the letters to peoples favorite celebrities. Nathan and Rosie also made us think about a solution to things being stolen and it being completed quickly so we came up with the idea of a bus stop guest book. The idea is there is a large place for people to write on under the bus stop sign and there will be prompts or places for people to write freely. Tomorrow we will be focusing on how to make the guest book weather- proof and the structure of it.

Today, we did a lot more brainstorming and eventually decided on a topic.  We spent the morning coming up with more ideas.  We decided to focus on games because our other ideas were not as interactive.  We were originally going to make an app that would tell you if you had time to go someplace before the bus came, but we found out that there were already apps like that.  This is why we focused on games.  We had three main ideas for games: The Button Game, Friendship Maker, and Slingshot.  The object of the button game is to press a button as many times as you can over the span of one minute.  The minute will begin when the bus is close to the station.  The friendship maker would be a picture taking devise that would give you more points if there were a greater number of people in the frame.  The slingshot game would be an actual slingshot, rigged with some sort of accelerometer, and you would shoot a digital ball at a digital target.  We went through our options, and eventually decided that we like the button idea the most.  We are going to have high scores and city wide competitions; it will be fun.  After lunch, we began planning out the game and 3d modeled some of the components.