Edeline Bernal
FA YSDN 4001 3.0 Design in Interactive Environments
Professor Wojtek Janczak
6 April 2010
Project 3
1.1 Project Title "123 Smile."
1.2 Project Overview
Hospitals are usually not associated with fun, luxury or relaxation. It is a place where people go to because they need to, and not because they want to. Arguably, the experience of staying there cannot really compare with the comfort of being at one's own home. As you can see below (see Location Survey), hospital environments appear to be sterile and uninviting. Areas especially like waiting rooms are often bland and empty, decorated only with a table of magazines, occupied with people waiting anxiously for a medical result. There is very limited activities available.
This project aims to redefine the hospital environment through an interactive installation. The goal is to create a fun, yet useful piece that would engage the patients, visitors, and workers not only to be entertained, but also in spending more time / communing / interacting with each other. As two people share the space and the experience of the installation, their relationship will most likely improve, and thus would contribute to a friendlier atmosphere.
This project focuses in the implementation of this installation at a children's ward. Children, in particular, are often least likely to fully understand the situation why they need to be in a hospital. As a result, it is easy for them to feel uneasy and anxious. To make them feel as comfortable as possible, it is key to provide them with a creative outlet / distraction to get their mind off being in an unfamiliar place, having to do activities that are outside of their routine.
#
123 Smile is designed to occupy an entire wall of a hospital hallway (or any shared space, such as a playroom/cafeteria). Inspired by the tradition of counting prior taking a photo i.e. "1, 2, 3...Smile!", it's message is simply to remind passersby to maintain a positive attitude, and to remind them to smile no matter what the situation is, or whatever they are doing.
It is designed to use back projection for its display, while using a camera overhead to track the motion of people passing by. It adds up the number of "objects" e.g. people, that the camera sees, and displays the total sum as a word. The horizontal position of this changes as it follows the movement of the respective object (i.e. If there are four objects in total, the word "four" will follow the fourth object's movement.) The color of the word changes at random, but is set to be additive. This creates visual interest as the layers of words stack on top of each other. The words appear to be 'merging' and create an illusion that a new word is being formed.
The arabic numeral is also subtly displayed and appears exactly on the location of where the object is (with respect to its x,y coordinates; i.e. first object that the camera recognizes will be assigned the numeral "1"). The size of each varies according to the intensity of the audio being played. (The accompanying audio is optional to allow the operators some control in terms of noise regulation, etc.) The circular elements in the background also act as a marker of the position of the people passing by. Each object is assigned a specific color, while the diameter varies according to the intensity of the audio playing.
Sketches
#
1.3 Project Goals and Objectives
To make it:
- fun/playful
- interactive
- have a positive/inspiring message, easy enough for children to understand
- simple but complex enough so adults could also appreciate / enjoy it
- for it to be fairly educational
Potential sponsors for this project include: Children's Miracle Network, Johnson & Johnson, Fisher Price, LeapFrog, Toronto Municipality, SickKids' Foundation, The Ontario Government.
Download test1-A.mov
Action: Just walk or pass by or interact with the camera. Threshold might need some adjusting as the light conditions will change per situation.
Note: When opening Isadora file and a missing file is encountered, please search for the file in the enclosed "_Source" folder.
1.4 Audience
The audience for this include children ages 6 to 13 who are in-patients at a hospital, nurses/doctors/workers (adults).
The typeface used is Gotham Rounded, which has the personality of being playful yet also modern. It is designed to be extremely colorful (bright and lively colors that would appeal to children.) The interaction would hopefully encourage children to get up and walk outside of their room (to encourage exercise, or talking to other children, and even to motivate them to get better so they could go out and play with the installation).
