Wanderer's Antennae
Finding Ambiguity in Location-Based Interaction
Charlotte Lin and I designed a tool which enables people to find and share the ‘hidden attractions’ of a city just by wandering around it. It consists of a pair of wearable devices and a website.
Efficiency is a top priority in our everyday lives; we usually decide on a destination and then take the quickest route to get there. However, the particular charms of a city, such as pretty signs, buildings, meaningful graffiti, etc. often do not appear on websites or in guidebooks. But just going for a wander in the city is a great way to discover these special places. We have designed a service which allows users to share these secrets of the city and invite other wanderers to take a look.
I was mainly responsible for data visualisation and product design in this project.
METHOD
Data Visualization / 3D Modeling / Prototype Making
TOOLS
Processing / Python / Arduino / Rhinoceros / Keyshot
ROLE
Industrial Designer / Design technologist
PERIOD
December 2018 -
Movie
Data Visualization
One function of the service is to review the trip and recall the highlights after wandering in a city. The user can then share the record with others. It shows the route they took and the things that caught their eye. I proposed two ways of visualizing the trip data: Animation and heat map. I created sample graphics using processing and the data of one test user.
Animation
This animation is designed for the process of uploading the trip data to the website of the service. The small dots show the route taken and the fan shape shows the direction of the user's gaze.
Heatmap
The heatmap shows which places users looked at for longer than others. Points in red or orange on the map indicate that the user found something of interest at that point.
Proof of concept model
To check the concept of the wanderer’s antennae, I built a prototype using Arduino and a bluetooth component. Charlotte and I took the model outside and checked that it worked when wandering in a city.
