Bar of the future: immersive environment project

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Basic 3D model of PhotoBooth Timeline paper prototype

Using Maya, I created a basic 3D mock up of the ‘prototype’ we worked on last Thursday. Each colour represents a stream of technology, the coloured boxes show where the buttons will be. The white box is the button that completes each stream: the smart phone.

The grey boxes allow space to include labels for the buttons, plus a date and interesting fact.

Photo Booth by narwhalsdoexist on Sketchfab

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Interactive Photobooth Tech Timeline!

Our team has done a lot of brainstorming on theme, aesthetic, layout and technical functionality of the photobooth idea. We can’t get access to the antiques we need to involve them like our original idea, so the idea has now evolved into a kind of abstract, interactive tech timeline. 

Basically, the booth will feature lots of icons representative of pieces of technology in different ‘streams’ (eg communication tech, writing, music and games). Users start with one icon, and then must find the next ‘development’ in that stream. The interaction is additive - they continue pressing, and then also press the next one in order to connect all the icons in a stream. When they do, a photo will be taken. Actually, photos will be taken the whole time, so the output is a timelapse of the user connecting the timeline! This will be automatically uploaded to a twitter feed which might be shown in the bar!

Don has gotten a good start on the programming using Max, Polly focused on the aesthetics of the icons including the colour scheme, and Jeremy and I worked on the list of streams and creating a paper prototype with sticky notes, pictured above. I’ve also been researching how to add LEDs (to help signal which icons users should push) with Arduino.

Jeremy already created a rough 3D model but we will redo it now to reflect the more solidified concept. This week we will also continue to develop the details, begin working on the actual icons and buttons etc.

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Individual Components

Last week, we turned up to class and were told to break into groups and start working on individual interventions in the bar. A new concept for the bar’s design has appeared (I’m not sure where from) that involves a whole lot of small boxes. The new brief we were asked to create was not mentioned- this was disappointing, but I’m happy to move on and get started on making things. 

Jeremy, Polly, Don and I are in a group working on a photobooth. We planned it out last class, and this class are bringing in various objects to start working.

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New Brief

A list of intervention ideas has been created, and people are deciding what they want to work on. The brief is still up in the air, but we’ve told all the groups to at least remember that they should just ask the question ‘does this improve/increase social interaction?’ whether directly or indirectly. After all, other than the actual consumption of food and drink, thats why people go to a bar, and it should continue to be at the core of ‘why’ this bar exists.

During last class, we had a meeting with the Research team and the graduate students in which grievances were aired in terms of the progress and level of teamwork, and we resolved to create a new brief ready for this week. 

Over the break, Jeremy and I completed a new brief, finalizing it with feedback from the grad students. We are now waiting on feedback from the profs to make sure it is approved, before distributing it to the class.

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Interaction Idea: Camera

Jeremy posted a precedent of a ‘climb in selfie’ - where cut out are mounted on a wall, and have to be filled for the photo to be taken. 

Concept 1

Based on this, I wondered if we could use the old fashioned aesthetic that has been established for the bar, to create something similiar: a ‘photo booth’ type set up. Firstly, this would work in conjunction with another intervention discouraging users from using their phones (discussed on the group Trello board). Then, since they can’t take a selfie on their phone, they will be more likely to want to take it with something in the space. This could have the appearance of an old fashioned camera, perhaps set up on a stand, in front of an interesting scene.  To get the camera to work, perhaps someone has to place their eye on the viewfinder (so if you want all your friends to be in it, you have to ask a stranger). Perhaps there is some other key to make it work. 

Concept 2

Combine ‘not using’ your phone with the photo booth idea: upon arriving at the bar, patrons insert there phone into a holder (perhaps styled like an old camera). Its placed at a good angle to view the table, it charges the phone, and it is connected by a cable to a button on your table. Just like a selfie stick: you hit the button to take a photo. This way, you can take photos whenever you want and they are already on your phone, but you aren’t using to to interact externally. Also, like having to wait til the film was developed in an old camera, you have to wait til the end of the evening to see your pictures. Perhaps to add appeal, the set up adds an interesting filter (eg sepia). Or, it prints out pics like a polaroid camera.

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Perhaps this could be the way that everything in the bar works! The bar is filled with old technology, just like in the initial presentation, but it doesn’t work - until you plug in your phone. Hence, taking the idea of ‘if you are on your phone, connected to the external you aren’t interacting with the immediate environment’ and apply it directly: you literally can’t use your phone while also be properly interacting with the bar!

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“Human to Human Interaction”

Before last week’s class, I looked into whether any research had been done on people’s awareness of how much they use technology. I couldn’t really find anything, which surprised me: I expected to find quite a lot, and be able to use that to further inform this whole why revolving around control over technology. 

What I did find was a lot of very negative media about technology - combined with the phrase titling this post, it seems the media is constantly pushing the idea that technology undermines social interaction. However, there was research going both ways. A study showed that when couples spoke with phones present, they tended to fiddle with the phone and seemed to be a bit distracted. When phones weren’t present, they rated the quality of the conversations, and the level of empathy much higher. 

On the other hand, I found some studies that successfully implemented technology in public spaces to improve social interaction. ‘Fish Pong’, a game that is started automatically when a user places their coffee cup on a table, gets people spontaneously interacting to keep a projected fish from falling off the table. In other cases, large installations, like an interactive wall, are found to have a ‘honeypot’ effect: people will gather around them, and once there, the strangers interacting will end up chatting. 

So the thing is: why are we vaguely talking about ‘technology’ in this way? 

Yet, I found  suddenly realized a problem with this. The term technology is so insanely broad! There’s no point arguing whether tech is good or bad because a) its here, and not going away and b) WHICH technology? We should think about when tech is bad, yes, but also when and how technology can be good. 

In the context of a bar, a social environment, we should be thinking about how we can use tech to improve that social experience. This is the key reason people go to a bar- yes food and drink is important, but you can get that at home too - the social atmosphere is the key. In this space, technology that takes you OUT of the moment, that connects you to the external (the internet, people you are texting) is negative to the social experience. Technology that helps you better ENGAGE with the current environment - either assisting interactions with the people you came to the bar with, or to meet new people there, is positive. According to the authors of the ‘fish pong’ study, the advantage of these tech interventions is that they can get people interacting the way kids do! ‘Play first, talk later’. They break the ice, they get past any cultural barriers, so you can be having fun, and interacting spontaneously, then get to know each other after. 

I think that interventions within this bar then, need to keep this in mind. They should be trying to improve interactions with either 1) people who already know each other 2) strangers in the bar. And they should do this by 1) Discouraging people from using their phones to connect to external, 2) Smoothing, assisting natural interactions between people (eg a system to get server’s attention so you don’t have to be distracted from a conversation to order a drink) 3) Encouraging people to interact WITHIN the space (eg honeypot, or things that only work with multiple people).

Unfortunately, despite presenting this research in a team meeting last Tuesday, it didn’t seem the art directors decided to use the information. Then, in class on Thursday, when I spoke about this, I felt that the interventions people started to present did not reflect this concept (some, like the twitter wall, went in the opposite direction). Hopefully, this week we can do better.

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‘Video Game’ in which you control a real person in a bar!

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What and Why

So last week, our group failed to impress the professors with our ‘why’- they felt it was not, in fact, a why at all. My thoughts (and others’) had been that ‘to encourage interaction’ and that ‘if you don’t like technology as it is- change it’ were good ‘whys’. But the presentation really crashed and burned.

This was rather disappointing, as I felt at least partly responsible for the direction the group had taken- I thought I had some good ideas, and wanted to encourage the group to choose them. Perhaps I was too vocal and prevented others from being able to contribute much. I was actually very confused about the reaction to our presentation, but I guess I was too focused on the elements and not on the big picture. I think tomorrow I will see about moving into the UI/UX group because I feel like I am only holding things back in my group and time is limited. 

Anyway! I do think we had some interesting ideas: in particular, the concept (I think Jeremy came up with it) of the AI, Jack, being embodied by the actual bar staff: as people take orders, they are entered into tablets (as is becoming common), but the tablets then let the bar staff know how to behave in order to represent the current personality of Jack. These staff would look and act somewhat robotic. As part of the hijacking the bar concept, people might be able to hijack these staff- control them (limited commands) via a computer like a game. I’ll post a precedent video for this after.

I also still think that the interactions in the bar driving this changing AI and changing environment is pretty great. People will be encouraged to work together to get different outcomes, and the bar would be different each time you visit, encouraging people to come back. Interactions would include games, people’s food and drink orders, how much people play with their phones etc. I like that some of these interactions could be very direct and obvious, and some more subtle - people would be participating even without consciously choosing to participate (eg if they order a drink it still effects things).

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Team Ideation session

So I am in the research team which is responsible for finalizing the core idea of the space, establishing the ‘WHY’: why would people come to this bar? And what is its purpose - what is the story?

Yesterday’s class we started with the usual sticky note brainstorm. Lots of people made great points. Eventually we arrived at the idea that ‘Jack’ could be an AI, in control of the bar. The bar doesn’t just consist of technology that is hijacked: the point is to hiijack the bar, to take control from the AI, and from other patrons, in order to make the bar the way you want.

The bar might be very controlled when you arrive, eg Jack, as a computer, has calculated ‘ideal’ conditions for all patrons: eg there is a menu, but Jack has decided only house wine is available because the majority of humans like wine. Patrons then need to do things to change it. Alternatively, things are normal except when Jack melts down, then patrons of the bar need to work together to fix things. Or, things are always in a state of flux: changing according to what users do in the bar (eg ordering drinks, dancing)- so to get music and drinks you like, you should work together. In that instance, Jack as an entity perhaps helps or hinders whichever patrons it likes. In any case, the point is still to ‘hiijack’ the bar: we need to decide which story we want to tell.

I guess the point is to say that while people complain about technology changing us, we need to remember we are in control: if you don’t like the way technology is right now, change it!

Interactions that change the bar might be ordering drinks: which might change prices, for example once over 50% of patrons order the same drink it becomes discounted. Music might also be selected by vote, or by sensing whether patrons are dancing or not. The old telephones from the original presentation might be placed on tables to allow patrons to call other tables to pass information, clues etc, or to call the bar. 

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Ideas for the Bar

I’ve started researching for the bar, and created a Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/Narwhalsdoexist/hi-jack-future-bar/

Interactive screens that let you create art in the bar, as well as order food and play games, are not quite new - if not widespread...

Perhaps we can do something different with this. 

Some ideas:

- Silly idea: the screens simulate tearing up a paper coaster or napkin: I’ve seen so many people do this at a bar and leave a mess

- Assisted cocktail creation: choose from some options like if you want sweet, sour, spicy etc, plus favoured base alcohols and key fresh ingredients like fruits and herbs, and then have a unique cocktail made for you, using mixology principles so it should end up much tastier than if you just added whatever you like

- What about taking things that are being made completely digital, like the screen touch menus, and making them a mix of physical and digital? Eg physical menus, but you can scan an item to see a video of it being made ( I don’t really like this example, but perhaps there are other ideas along this route). Or, dials and switches to change a digital display (since touchscreens are becoming the norm). Or, gestures to control an old radio INSTEAD of dials - gestures are becoming common for touchscreen and no-touch digital but what about for controlling things that were once analog?

- What about a game of chess where you are connected to another person in another bar - but its not digital. Each person has a physical chess set. The sets are connected digitally though, and as the other person makes their move, the pieces move (eg via magnets) on the present chess set! 

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‘Graffiti Bar’ in Tokyo lets you interact with huge screens on the walls and the bar tops to create visual graffiti, flip through the menu, order and play games

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Fill drink from the bottom, from here: http://i.imgur.com/xYIAXeu.gifv

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Hi-Jack: bar concept

The concept presented by the post-grads is ‘Hi-Jack’: wherein the aesthetic and key interest features of the bar come from the idea of hijacking old technology for a new purpose. They seemed to indeed have in mind a bit of the Edison bulb + wood look, and lots of plants but want to do something more clever with it by incorporating obsolete technologies/items like dial telephones, old radios and picture frames, and pumping new life into them with digital technology. I think its a great idea. 

However, as the dean and a few others pointed out: its not quite there yet. The fact that its a bar in terms of the actual functioning of a bar: the drinks, food, etc seemed to have been neglected a bit, which is funny since I was kinda worried about the opposite - that we’d be paying attention to making the serving process smoother without thinking about the rest of what a bar is! Still, there was also a big issue of WHY in terms of the interactions they proposed: why would people interact with the art etc in the bar? 

I think some of the interactivity needs to be maybe tied more intrinsically to bar functions like ordering drinks (eg via the telephone, or screens that let you make custom drinks). I did really love the mention of sensors that could tell when your drink was empty so staff would come to ask if you want more - great mix of automation with old school human interaction. Interactivity with the music sounds great too. 

I signed up for the team doing research and answering the why question. I am really interested in polishing this concept and getting it to its potential (which is clearly there! The post grads did such a fantastic job with the presentation itself too). Then once that stuff is sorted I’ll get to switch to one of the other groups anyway.

Now to start collecting ideas and inspirations to build from this concept.

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Thoughts before kickoff

Creating an immersive interactive environment, and with a topic with awesome potential... I’m so excited!

One of the first things I really started thinking about though is what a ‘bar of the future’ perhaps SHOULDN’T be. It should NOT be some kind of completely automated, robotized conveyor-belt experience: nor should the aesthetics look like something from a Jetson’s movie. I think Alex mentioned this too: that it would take away from the ‘romance’ of a bar. Look at the Edison bulb, exposed brick trend we’ve seen in so many hipster bars. People love the warmth of these old fashioned elements.

Not that we want to just copy that look either! Of course, we want to make something new. Still, depictions of bars in futuristic science fiction (eg Star Trek and Star Wars) tend not to stray too far from what we know to be classic components of a bar: eg the physical bar itself with countertop to lean on... the archetypical wise bartender is still a key character in Star Trek’s Ten Forward. And perhaps there is a reason for this consistency... more than simply lack of imagination.

So there’s going to be lots of amazing, innovative, high tech ideas we can put in to this: but we should really also make sure we don’t lose the essence of what a bar IS- and thats not just a place to get booze. A bar is a place people go to escape and to connect people: and in the future, if we see technology everywhere, perhaps it will be one of the things we want to escape from. 

It can be annoying to wait for service at a bar, jostling with others and trying to get the bartender’s attention. But let’s just think about the whole experience and the FEEL before we replace this with a screen and a robot mixing drinks. On a side note, if we DO decide this is ok, we’ll need some mechanism to prevent people being over-served.  

Anyway, I look forward to hearing the full project proposal: perhaps these initial thoughts will prove irrelevant when we find out more!