i don't usually like using wikipedia but there is some useful links and definitions and are probably all things i need to think about for this project.

laws of robotics

friendly a.i

blay whitby knows his stuff, plus there's a snazzy pic of him on his site

more ideas

Need to think about the pros and cons of having robotic technology. If it is trustworthy and the benefits it will have to parents. Will they want to put their child in care of a robot? What effect will robot contact instead of a mother or father have on the child. Need to think about how far i can push the boundaries with this idea and think long term future and will the child become less human and more robot like?

also think about how to incorporate various elements into the design. What i need to include so there is a wide variety of options, perhaps using all 5 senses so it becomes more of a mood cot: Lighting: changing colour, brightness etc
Sound: soft music, heartbeat sound, white noise
smell and taste
touch: warmth

need to think more how i can include 5 senses into the design and more research needed into the possible psychological effects of this idea

uninspiration

Am now thoroughly bored of my idea. It was going to be some sort of baby soother/babysitter thing, but i can't quite figure out how to develop it so it's not taking over from parenting and so people feel comfortable trusting something essentially non-human. Though speaking briefly in class today we could or should think more about tech in society rather than get bogged down with all the technological details. So if that's the case maybe i could imagine society in 10 years time and how tech has developed so we are less dependant on tech but work more together, which is plausible. Also am interested by the idea of autonomous robots and robots as carers. This pic shows a robot skeleton that is supposed to help nurses lift imobile patients.

so if i'm going to stick with this concept i should probably look into the theorys behind changing technology a bit more.


my other idea i felt inspired by last night (but not so this morning) was a gaming device that uses all 5 senses which sounds really cool but also a little disheartening cuz from what i've looked at it seems that this concept is already underway, and if thats the case then it might not be technology in 10 years time but something a bit sooner than that.

Maybe i just want to do the sensory gaming thing just because they've invented something called the ismell and this amuses me

i'll procrastinate later

now i've decided my idea, looked briefly at some theories and doodled some designs i'm ready to pretty much design it properly and start thinking about my presentation. luckily my mind wanders a lot so i've given a lot of thought to my presentation and how i want it to look. For most projects i end up drawing everything, which seems to work ok for me, so i think i'm going to have hand drawn images on a moving storyboard background, and try and have a voice over so i can do less talking. If not i'll just have to have the balls to stand there and talk but i will be on valium, so either way it won't be as scary as usual.

In my head everything is planned perfectly but i've gotten to the procrastination stage of the project, which always seems to happen when i have the most work to do. So now the plan is to pull my finger out, scan and print things for my sketchbook (better get round to actually writing in it as well) and start designing the thing.

new scientist mag is cool

found some online stuff for n.s mag, got to subscribe to read the whole article, but i can just do some photocopying cuz there is still no bloody student loan.

interesting article on robots making the same errors as babies from the 5th oct 2007 issue.

game that changes when brats get bored could also be fairly useful cuz it is similar to what i am trying to achieve with my idea

not really relevant but it involves robots and amuses me, plus there are some cool dancing robots (?) in japan, where else



haven't read it, just saw some relevant words, but this article on how humans respond to their environment could be useful

i've only just found out what algorithm means, so i'm still not sure if it fits in with what i'm doing

I like the ns site cuz it has articles from the crazy 80s as well.. it was interesting to take a look back 10 years to see what was being developed, what succeeded and what failed miserably. This is just crazy enough to work


on an aside note and mainly just a memo to myself, i need to look into why people would want this particular design/concept, and research into theories might help with this.

if angie taylor wanted to, she could rule the world

in one way i'm pretty excited, but also slightly cynical, bitter and twisted. Met angie taylor, some sort of evil genius, and she explained expressions in after effects to us. If we had known that last year I would have a) got a better mark and b) not been so pissed off. But anyway, at least i know now and this might be a good start to thinking about my presentation.

i know i'd like to do some sort of animation in either flash or after effects. i quite like the idea of doing an animation using storyboards or what not, whatever it will be i know i'll end up making too much work for myself. Will start looking at nifty little animations soon to get some ideas. I do like the stuff that Rona Innes does at moshi machine

What makes this project much easier, is that i now know what my idea will be (unless i change my mind again). Right now i have settled on having a child's robot entertainment system. I use the word 'entertainment' quite loosely because the age range i will be looking at aren't really the entertained sort. The idea as it stands so far is that the robot system thing will have enough memory to know what soothes a crying brat best. Luckily i have 6 nieces, so my research there is pretty much done. I might look at the past ideas to what has worked or supposed to work. There's stuff that dates right back to the 50's with theories on parenting and luckily there was channel 4 to tell you how to do it. There's loads of books and tv shows that i can look into so this time there might actually be too much research.

Hopefully this week I'll be able to start the design for the babybot thing (its a name in progress, i just cant be bothered to keep typing out 'robot child entertainment thing')

then once thats designed i can start thinking about how to present it and then storyboard my ideas

train of thought has derailed

links to remember:

site full of shitty designs which is surprisingly useful to look at to see what has succeeded and failed and why

interesting theory by ridley scott

if they won the nobel prize they must be good

violence in games.. interesting article that may be of use to some on my theory work

interesting article on whether technology affects users privacy

thinking out loud

Finally figured out how to reset and log in to my blog.. did end up creating a different one but ah well.

Anyhoo, the brief requires us to think of a concept or product for the future, but nothing too trekkie. No transportation or anything too wizardy. It should be realistic and perhaps use current technology or tech that will be widely available in the foreseeable future. It feels like we have to invent something as well as design it which is what is tripping me up at the moment. MY ideas have wither been pretty generic or pretty far fetched.

my more generic ideas consists of something like an interactive newspaper, which is doable but i'm not sure how interested i am in it or if it is more convenient than the current papers and magazines. The benefits of an interactive newspaper would be the ability to update itself, perhaps for the headlines (local and national) and weather, and also give a weather report more specific to the area you are in. Train times and bus times could also be a feature. Thats the easy part to get certain features on it, if i take this idea a hell of a lot more research needs to be done and also need to consider the look of the product and how it will benefit consumers etc.

Another pretty generic idea is something that connects all household and personal technology together into one remote or even a feature on your mobile. My thinking is that when your out you can set your sky+ box to record stuff, check what food you need to stock up on or even check you've turned off the gas/straighteners/etc. I think this would be useful but as it is an idea that is completely off the top of my head i have no idea whether it exists or is plausible or if its something that just isn't needed. The upside of this idea is that I could have a lot of fun with it and it has seemingly endless possibilities. There is already something that can control multiple devices but is not portable but i haven't researched this a great deal.

I had wanted to develop something along the lines of a baby cry monitor, but this has been done by someone on this course last year and is a bit of a rip off of a simpsons ep. so this puts me off the idea a little. I'll probably still do some research and stick it in my sketchbook just for those sought after extra marks but I'm not overly enthusiastic about this idea. Also there's some similar technology and products out already.

The rest of my brainstorming session created more far-fetched ideas and stuff that either isn't plausible or wont be available to everyone who doesn't have a million pounds.

My sister came up with a good idea of a 3D TV where the stuff you watch is like holograms which i like but would probably be more of an unrealistic concept and hard to justify the point of it. Already in existence are those crappy little 3d movies that you need those glasses to watch, but its still something to think about.

I'm probably going to be researching all these ideas until i settle on something that i feel confident designing and presenting.

oh yeah, i also saw this great video from last year i think, really like the style of this

Lost my blog virginity

I am writing this under force. I've never blogged and probably never will, but this is my attempt at being pooterish.

First day of BA multimedia and we've made paper planes (we won), blogged and got a terrifying brief that i still dont understand and probably won't until the week before the deadline. As is my understanding, we have to make something from the future. Oy vey. Which is confusing enough, see Bill Bailey's "future people rant" on youtube, its starts at 9 mins in.

That is all