Connective Compasses: (Telepresence Through Tactile Representations of Orientation and Distance) Final Reflection
In Assignment 4-5, we developed a prototype for a pair of connected compasses as an alternative way for two humans to understand each other’s geographical direction through haptic feedback. These Connective Compasses allow for two people, who are separated by a specific distance, to recognize each other’s direction through haptic feedback. Similar to a compass, the orientation of the instrument is critical. Assuming there are two people apart from one another, these compasses explain the opposite person’s position tactilely. As each user attempts to locate each other, vibration cues are provided as output feedback to inform and identify their direction. The haptic responses felt on the compasses are designed to emit this vibration feedback until the person is pointing at the other. Once the user’s orientation is located the compass switches to a neutral state, ultimately explaining the other users’s direction.
The connective compass ignores typical visual feedback describing a person’s direction. Alternatively, providing vibration patterns or cues as the tactile feedback to explain the person’s orientation.
During our design process we worked with 2 of each of the following parts as we built our prototype. SparkFun 6 Degrees of Freedom Breakout - LSM303C, SparkFun GPS Breakout - Chip Antenna, SAM-M8Q (Qwiic), Vibration Motor, SparkFun Haptic Motor Driver - DRV2605L, ELEGOO 170 tie-Points Mini Breadboard kit for Arduino, MELIFE 2 Pack ESP32 - ESP-32S Development Board, & Insignia - 5000 mAh Portable Charger. Which ultimately led us to the final wiring design shown in the Fritzing Diagram below.
The next process included designing an enclosure that would efficiently house the electronics and the wiring shown above. We worked through this process with more of an efficiency approach than a aesthetically pleasing one. This allowed for the following our first compass prototype. See an exploded axonometric drawing below describing our first iteration of the compass. Moving forward we will work to refine this design so that the materiality and the
Future work would first focus on further refinement of the compass’ design. During our initial design process we were more concentrated on the technical components and assembly, which ultimately drove our physical design. As the design continues to develop, we would need to ask ourselves the following questions; how doest his compass feel?; what is the materiality of the compass?; what is the ideal size of this object?. Furthermore, we must consider the emotional factors as we refine our design. These decisions will be beneficial to how potential users experience and interact with the compasses.
Additionally we may consider incorporating user tests with our compasses. In these user studies we would need to consider testing three different group; two companions, two friends, and two strangers. The feedback form these types of users would allow for us to determine how successful each group interacted with the compasses. Observing the results from the tests would allow us to identity which areas in design we would need to focus on refining.
Another factor we could consider testing is the physical location of where the user tests are based. Since the compasses focus on orientation of a person, it would be interesting to see how users react when tested at varying geographical distances. One test could be done at a small scale on a campus while the other test could be done at a larger scale in a city.
In the final analysis of the user tests we could understand how different relationships and places from one another affected the users interaction with our design.
This week Nicholas was able to get the SparkFun 6 Degrees of Freedom Breakout - LSM303C connected to the system. This part is comprised of an accelerometer and magnetometer to be able to identify the four cardinal directions, north, east, south, and west.
This is important because one of the factors we want to identify is not just the GPS location but also the orientation. The north direction reads as “0.0″ and as you rotate the device clockwise 90 degrees the reading moves to “90.0″ to indicate the east direction. Here is a video showing the device working and the output data being displayed on the screen. These readings will be key as we work towards connecting the two devices later this week.
For Assignment 4 (Connected Artifacts), Nicholas and I are focused on developing a pair of artifacts that act as compasses that have a direct relationship with each other. The goal is to have the two separate compasses be able to point and locate each from long distances apart. We envision that these compasses will act as a way of connecting two users that are apart from one another.
Once we received all of the materials and parts for our project we were tasked with modifying a socket.io web page that Dimitris had provided to us. We implemented the GPS coordinates from the SparkFun GPS Breakout - Chip Antenna, SAM-M8Q (Qwiic) to this socket.io web page.
