Body Prototype
Aleah and I started our ideation process by thinking about super powers, and realizing we were both interested in focusing on the senses. Our discussion led us to think more about how we can enhance “less popular” senses, and between taste and smell, we decided to focus on smell. Lastly, while thinking about how to enhance smell we decided to invert our thinking and focus on how to *control* smell. More specifically we decided to come up with a prototype for a device that allows users to control *what* they smell!
We dove into physical prototyping, which may have been a misstep, as we had a few more questions we should have tackled first. Below are photos from our prototyping session!
During our prototyping sessions we asked ourselves: how do we remove bad scents, and more importantly, how do we even detect scent? We decided to create tubes that dangled from the nose device that acted as vents to blow smell away from the user. We also developed a wrist device that would detect smell. When paired with an app, the device would use machine learning to “learn” from the way users coded their preferences through the app. With time, the device would block out scents users didn’t like, and let in scents users wanted to smell. We decided to position the sensor on the wrist so that scents could be detected before they reached the nose.
Through our process we developed a concept that, while silly, helped us learn a lot about the way we each of us approaches a problem. Aleah created one version of the prototype, while I created an entirely different one. Both had the same functionality, but differed aesthetically. I realized that preserving our difference in style and perspective was important to us, and I hope we can continue to do so!