Unit 61 Interactive Media Design
Rationale
Interactive Design can take many forms. Traditionally it may have taken the form of a digital product but increasingly makers and hackers are pushing the boundaries of what could be termed "interactive".
Interactive products are just as likely now to exist in a physical form as they are digital, within a machine.
Practitioners of interactive design are learning to interact with their environment in many different ingenious ways.
Yet as we become more used to interacting with gadgets we are faced with a problem, what to d with all the electronic junk that gets thrown into landfill, helps to pollute the environment and contribute to global warming. Makers and hackers are becoming recognised around the world for creating ingenious and low impact solutions to environmental problems. Many of these solutions are produced from the very junk they are trying to eradicate.
Your challenge in this unit is to design an interactive prototype which not only uses recycled, repurposed or re-sourced materials but aims to raise awareness around issues of global warming.
Your device needs to be researched, prototyped and you must judge the impact of your device and any legal and ethical issues that arise from its concept. You must also design this device to be free from mains electricity so must rely on battery power alone.
- How does this example meet the rationale of the unit brief?
- What is the environmental impact of the device?
- How will this device inspire your own ideas for designing an interactive product?
The useless box
How does this example meet the rationale of the unit brief?
It is a low energy 100% recyclable object, if not material wise then reusable wise, meaning that all the parts used to build this could easily be used for something else. It's also interactive as
What is the environmental impact of the device?
little as the only environmental impact is the initial production and distribution of the devise, afterwords all parts of the devise are reusable or recyclable which eliminates the waste production and pollution. The only acception is the Battery for the motor which may need change every couple of months or so, however with rechargeable batteries you could also eliminate this waste product as well.
How will this device inspire your own ideas for designing an interactive product?
The simplicity and minimalistic design and completely reusable/recyclable design of the product is very appealing and inspirational as it not only functions as a working devise but leaves ideas open for anyone to plan a guide or tutorial to show how to convert this into something that functions differently but with the same parts perhaps by changing some code.
Cheap/ Basic Motion sensor
"The replacement is a homemade device, built from components easily found in the workshop of any electronics enthusiast. Effectively it works as a variable resistor, depending on the acceleration force to which the device is submitted. A prototype presented a resistance of 200 kΩ when not moving, and 190 kΩ when dropping about 1 cm."
How does this example meet the rationale of the unit brief?
it is a very small object not being any more then 5-6 cm long and tall and roughly 4 cm wide. Easily concealable and easy to dismember into is original parts if not being used and those parts can be used for anything else they are needed for.
What is the environmental impact of the device?
little to none as the device is very small, the only real impact would be the manufacturing impact and the means to power the device. The parts themselves are really basic meaning they can be used for a variety of other things.
How will this device inspire your own ideas for designing an interactive product?
being simple and easy to convert back or at least harvest the parts to make something new out off is a really interesting and useful idea as it greatly reduces the environmental impact as there is little that cannot be reused or recycled.
Legal, ethical and Moral issues
Legal-A legal issue, is a problem or issue raised, which is directly against the law. This may include: employees not being paid minimum wage, child labor, slave/illegal immigration workers, harmful products production, illegal waste dumping (sometimes toxic) and other equally bad and worse crimes. These can have serious repercussions on the company responsible (if such crimes are committed) and can resort in a negative and lasting image on the company responsible and will more then likely have to pay a substantial fine and/or even suffer lawsuits and arrests of various members throughout the business from the factory workers/managers to possibly even officials who may or may not of been. this would end with the company taking a loss in funds and profit as respectful investors may pull out and customers may loose faith in the company.
Ethical-A Ethical issue, is a problem or issues raised which is not technically illegal, but may cause damage to the environment or peoples way of life and is considered to be damaging in the long run and is questionably sustainable and respectful at best. Such issues can include: Outsource dumping/ waste disposal, increasing CO2 and carbon footprint (usually through the means of more/ new factories burning fossil ) Deforestation(usually to make room for buildings or to harvest supplies or make roads/highways. These actions, even though not technically illegal (maybe through means of a scapegoat e.g. country's leader is blamed not the company building there)can still receive a backlash in the form or protesters raising unwanted notice over these issues or even media coverage that may not only report, but exaggerate the actions leading on a negative image on the company and loss of investment and sales.
Moral-Moral issues are, problems that causes risk to workers or a populations well being by indirect means through the presence of the workplace and production of the product this examples of this could be pollution created that damages the health of local populous and while neither the company nor the prodyuct can be blamed
Proposal
BTEC Interactive Design
Unit 61 Interactive Media
Design Design Proposal Template
Student
Name: Scott Yates
Global
emission display
Brief
Description of your design concept
The
devise will display an interactive display of planet earth and showing the
effects of global warming in the main area of damage that has been caused
throughout the world by using small red LED’s to show where global warming is
massing. The Lights will glow and alternate in intervals to show how the planet
is being damaged.
Materials
you intend to use to build this device
·
LED’s:
Red, blue and green LED’s
·
Wood:
small lengths of wood or even cardboard build a casing and hold all components
inside
·
A Ball:
a small ball (no larger than a tennis ball) to act as the planet earth display
·
Wires:
lengths of wires to connect everything together
·
Batteries:
to power the devise
·
Screws/Nails:
to hold the casing together
Sketch/Blueprint/diagram
of your proposed concept for a device
Environmental impact of this concept (what methods will you use to
measure this?)
Little to none, the devise will be battery powered so there may be
waste batteries and battery power may be wasted as there may still be energy
left in the battery after its disposed. I can measure this in two ways, firstly
by the amount batteries thrown away and secondly I can use a voltmeter to
measure if and hopefully how much energy is left in the battery
Legal
issues you need to research for this concept
·
The wiring
system may be patterned to some extent
·
The
usage of electronics of parts to build my devise may be liablr to plagerism or
copyright
Ethical issues associated with this concept
· Possible waste batteries
· Possible scrap
Software
skills/Electronic skills/manufacturing skills that you will need to learn to produce
an interactive prototype of this concept
·
I will
need to learn how to program a blinking system/ code to allow my LED’s to blink
and light up and alternate in sequence
·
I will
need to learn Wiring skills so I can wire the batteries, LED’s, arduino together
and function as a circuit
off
cardboard prototype
