Eyeballs - A Concept

The above is a screenshot for a concept for my interactive toy.
How it works:
. When you click the left mouse button an eyeball appears where the mouse was.
.The longer you hold the left mouse button the larger the eyeball will be.
.As you move the mouse around the screen the eyeballs will look towards the mouse.
.If you move the mouse faster so the eyeballs follow it faster they will become agitated and their colour will change from what started as a serene blue (maybe) into a violent red.

In this there are two interactions, the placement of the eyeballs and the movement of mouse so that they follow its gaze.
I think that both interactions are interesting enough to hold a persons attention for a certain amount of time, when the person has figured out what it does there are still new possibilities of placement and size that can be created and therefore the user is more likely to play with it for longer.
I think that if it were just a geometric shape being created it would be rather boring, but because they are eyeballs they are creepy enough and bizarre enough to be enjoyable to arrange and explore.

Wind/Tornado

 

An idea that I have had for my mouse interaction is to create a wind elemental. When you move the mouse you create a breeze, thiscould be displayed by grass or hair or pins. When the mouse is movedin a circle it creates the beginnings of a tornado, as the mouse moves faster the wind gets faster. You can create an unruly tornado by making circles faster with the mouse, this will burn itself out if you stop using the mouse.

This has potential to be created, it will be time consuming to figure outhow but it is doable.

Spaceship!

 

Spaceship!!!

Everyone loves playing with spaceships, so one of my ideas involves an awesome spaceship,and an interactive maze.

 

The interaction is in making the spaceship goup and down while the screen whizzes past using only the mouse wheel to create the up and down action.

This interaction however is almost a game, I would have to abstract it away from being a game and ensure that there were no game elements like goals or a timer if I were to continue using this idea.

Keyboard and Mouse

Making a mouse toy, can involve the left and right mouse buttons, the movemnt of the mouse, the mouse wheel, and on special ocasions the keyboard. [If you want to use the keyboard you miust have an amazing interaction].

So far I think that the best actions using the mouse are rolling the mousewheel and movement of the mouse, another good action is the length of the click.

I will try to incorporate at least twoof these interesting actions into the interaction I create in procesing.

Navigation Interface - Concepts

I have had several ideas for a futuristic deisgn.

Navigation interface for deaf people, will tell you how to navigate rather than show you.

Snap lock screen shot photograph, you find the map (or any screen for that matter) and snap the film over the screen creating a physical copy of the screen.

Hologram technology, projections come from rings, bracelet and palm.

3D Projections come up and can be interacted with.

 

A pen that can write hologram messages, it can recognise when certain commands are written.

Paper thin digital pirate map, can be interacted with by touch.

Modes Of Communication

Today's lecture was about the organization of our project.

We also hear of some modes of communication. This is relevant because our project asks specifically for a way of communicating location to us.

Some suggested forms of communication that could be useful to the project are:
Speech
Sign Language
E-mail
Txt Message
Morse Code
Semiphore
Carrier Pigeon

The lecturer suggested that carrier pigeons are more reliable than some high tech GPS systems as they can adapt to ever changing conditions whereas GPS relies upon the maps being currently updated and the roads being constant and not needing road works.

I don't think I will be needing carrier pigeons, but it is some food for thought.

Interaction

Our first studio for coding since the break, we have been given our next project which involves creating what is called an interactive mouse toy using processing.

An interaction is any action that occurs between two things. eg a person saying hello to another person. Sometimes interactions result in a reaction such as the second person responding.

I thought back to an interactive flash application I played with many years ago and thought was quite amusing:     Singing Horses  

The horses each sing a different tune when you click on them. You can choose to play them one at a time or overlap each horse and its sound, creating an eccentric sounding choir.

Before Friday I must draw 3 short storyboard/timelines that each tell of a different interaction. These can be as simple or complex as I like.

For these interactions I must ask the following:
    What does the user learn?
    How long does it take for the user to learn it?
    Does it still remain interesting when the user has learnt it?

 Image form: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/flash/play/744309/#7BpSA9wPU65EZ0td.15