My group for the PComp midterm includes Fiona and David. Our project is the creation of an interactive elevator experience using sight, sound and motion cues.
Notes from Meeting
The premise is that when people get in to an elevator, they stop communicating with each other. They stand, quietly waiting to reach their floor. Or if they’re with friends, they often continue their conversation at a louder than necessary volume while everyone else stands around trying to avoid eye contact.
So their eyes are often directed up watching the progress between floors or, in some modern elevators, towards the television screens. The experience isn’t interactive or engaging, and it’s certainly awkward. Obviously, it’s ripe for innovation!
We began by meeting to sketch out what the elevator model might look like. For now, we’re going to work off the premise that our model will be based on the ITP elevator bank. It will hold between 3-4 people and it will be constructed of white PVC piping with black cloth to simulate the walls. Although this isn’t universal, we did need to begin laying out parameters to dictate the construction of the space.
(Where are we going to store this??)
Next we discussed what might actions might happen. Some of the ideas include inserting an infrared sensor that will count how many people enter the elevator and trigger a speaker that says different things based on the number of people. Or perhaps we will put force sensors on the floor labeled “A” “B” “C” and “D”, then ask trivia questions that are answered by stepping on the corresponding letter.
After discussing our ideas, we rode the elevator together to learn a bit more about how people interact. We discovered that elapsed time between floors is five seconds (10 seconds if you begin as the doors close and end when the doors open). We also saw that interactions like holding the elevator created conversations between participants. Interaction may be determined by the length of the ride, number of people present.
Here are some of my additional notes:
- Piping – for frame.
- Black Fabric – to simulate elevator walls
- Infrared Sensors – to count people coming and going from elevator
- Speaker – for audio interaction
- Buttons/Box – to simulate elevator control panel ( I think we need to find this either way to make a better looking prototype)
- Force Sensors – to create interactive experience using floor
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