Real-Time Cities: an Introduction to Urban Cybernetics Harvard Design School: SCI 0646900 Spring 2014

Real-Time Cities: an Introduction to Urban CyberneticsHarvard Design School: SCI 0646900Spring 2014

Jian HeExercise #3: Case Studies in Informationally Driven Actuation

User Interface Design (UID)

This set of case studies mainly focus on User interface design (UID), and how they transform different types of data based on user’s experience and interaction. The design processes of those projects not only balance technical functionality and visual elements, but also creating a system that is both operational and usable and adaptable to changing user needs.

1 | Audible Color

2 | Myglo

3 | THREE PIECES sound installation

4 | Luciole

5 | QUANTIFIED SELF

1 | Audible Color

http://vimeo.com/43306909

Audible color is an audio-visual instrument. Sound is generated based on color detected by a camera. Red, green and blue correspond with certain music notes. When the colors are mixed, the resulting secondary colors produce different notes. The size of the colors influences the volume and frequency of the notes played. Color detection and sound generation were created and are controlled using Processing code.


1 | Audible Color

Which of the 10 possible categories of scenarios the Project belongs to?

Collective amazement

Which sensing technology/ types of sensors are deployed to impliment spatial gaze?

Web Traffic

How the performance of the piece/instalation is conditioned?

Tracking what data is being filtered though algorithmic gatekeepers

1 | Audible Color

Which actuation technology is used to provide for dynamism of the piece?

Web traffic

What connectivity technology is used to connect different parts of the informatically driven system at question?

The internet

Is the system operates based on a memory of the past and/or anticipation of the future through recognition of past patterns?

Memory is a big component that enables us to recognize the patterns of web behavior and how localized it is becoming

1 | Audible Color

What is the extreme vision of the scenario?

Back to local web traffic

Why is the project significant?

The World Wide Web has gone local

What do you identify as a poetic aspect to the logic of operation of the system at question?

Human nature prevails over a global system

1 | Audible Color

What challenges are inherent in deployment of the project or maintaining the integrity or level of operation of the system in the long run?

Access to data

What is your evaluation of the design of the physical manifestation of the system in terms of its esthetics?

Very useful to evolve the digital gatekeepers of what we get for our search instead of what we need to see.

How can the system scale up or down to fit a different context of operation? How can its logic of operation or technology be re-appropriated for the different context?

Easily scalable if the access to the data is provided.

1 | Audible Color

How the system will deal with nodal or total failure in operation?

Nodal failure and consistent with internet failures. One goes down, others don’t

What is the system’s logic of operation and information flow/architecture?

Based on Internet architecture

What is the nature of actuation explored by the system? Does it explore generation of change that is registred through other senses beyond vision?

Web traffice

1 | Audible Color

Project Video: http://vimeo.com/73686568

2 | Myglo

2 | Myglo


Solicits people’s needs


tactile sense


MYGLO offers an interactive, three-dimensional canvas to communicate through creativity. Like phones and computers, it attracts children with lights and colors and responds to their touch, but it is more tactile and encourages imagination.

2 | Myglo



Movement sensor to electronic switch


No

The quilted silicone canvas lights up with different colored LEDs as each pillow is clicked.

2 | Myglo


To spread the entire city with smart lights


Saves energyReduces light noise


Consideration to the environment

2 | Myglo


The lifetime of the light technology could be shortened

Movements of birds or other animals may provide false positives


The technology takes into consideration light noise in the city. Depending on the area however, it may be distracting to the neighbors.


The project appears to be scalable as each light operates independently of the other. IN a high traffic area, the light may constantly stay on which defeats the purpose of the system.

2 | Myglo


Since the project operates on a node basis, it could only face a modular failure


If there’s a movement, then the light turns on. Recognition of a what is moving requires more technology so it is limited to movement sensors.


It only utilized motion sensors

2 | Myglo

Project Video:





X. Adapting to new environmental conditions


Simple tension on a cord


A car puts tension on the cord brings the balloon down to the ground rendering that parking spot occupied




Balloon filled with Helium


A cord


Does not apply


To add this balloon to every parking spot in the city


Saves time in looking for a spot Saves gas Gets cars parked faster, reducing traffice


Solving a big environment problem without the use of any digital, electronic and hardware technologies



The effect of Helium diminishes with time which makes maintenance not practical


Applicable to parking lots, but not sure it is to a city


Scaling it could make maintenance costly



If a balloon fails, drivers may not be able to see a vacant parking spot


If the balloon is visible to the drivers in the parking lot, that means the parking spot is vacant


Actuation is only done through the physical push on a rope. It does not go beyond vision


4 | Luciole


4 | Luciole


The stairs communicate the designer’s concept and the audience engages with it


Pressure sensors


If there is pressure on the step, to actuates the relevant musical note

4 | Luciole


Electronic relay that translates the pressure on the step into having the sounds of the note relevant to that note emit the sound


Electric connectivity


No memory involved in this project.

4 | Luciole


Regardless of the number of pedestrians, the sound to make a coherent song, by playing the next not in a particular song.


Gets people to use the stairs rather than the escalator


A reminder to play and stay active through music

4 | Luciole

4 | Luciole


Could turn too noisy to the neighborhood as there is no coherence to the steps.


Playful, engaging and useful


Its conceptual I believe, not necessarily replicable. Only demonstrates the possibility of making simple stairs into an interactive object.


Since pedestrians are not expecting the stairs to emit any sounds, a failure may not lead to complains. However, it may lead to the feeling of abandonment


If there is someone stepping on a specific step, the sound of a not come out in an interval similar to a piano


Answer……

4 | Luciole

5 | QUANTIFIED SELF

http://ciid.dk/education/summer-school/ciid-summer-school-2013/quantified-self/

5 | QUANTIFIED SELF


Inter-subjective relation between trucks that encounter traffic and are rerouted to a a more optimized route


Data driven


Accumulating traffic, emission, length of time and geo-location data of each drop off location, the trucks are given an optimized route.

5 | QUANTIFIED SELF


Data is delivered to GPS devices on trucks


Wireless technologies – cellular


Yes, fully based on patterns of time of day and where is a package being delivered to.

5 | QUANTIFIED SELF


That all delivery trucks to following the same optimization mechanism


It saved UPS 20 Million miles so far, reducing time and energy spent to deliver each package


People easily relate to the simplicity of the project as we all know that it takes more time to make a left.

Also puts UPS in a positive “green friendly” company.

5 | QUANTIFIED SELF


The system is dynamic enough to optimize the route. So if a left is feasible, then the truck would take that route.


Simplicity of the application could reduce traffic in the city


Commercial delivery businesses could benefit from this system including the post office.

5 | QUANTIFIED SELF

5 | QUANTIFIED SELF


A car may be routed to the wrong destination, but because its nodal, that may not impact 95000 other vehicles of UPS


The shortest amount of time to a destination determines the route of the truck


Data translating into a driven route

Real-Time Cities: an Introduction to Urban Cybernetics Harvard Design School: SCI 0646900 Spring 2014

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