note:
this project is archived (scroll to the end to see why). the final for my intro-to-physical-computing is found in final-project-2_log.
when i worked on my midterm (see midterm-log), aram had reached out to me about wanting to work together. at that time, i wanted to work by myself; so, he ended up working with bolong instead.
the two of them were interested in robots, and they attempted to make a robot that expressed emotions through movement.
eventually, they made a robot that expressed feelings such as happiness, being shy, and being scared, based on where a person kept their hand (in relation to where the robot was placed).
after my midterm reflection & short interaction with them during the midterm, i decided to work with them for the finals. originally, i wanted to make an analog synthesiser(see final-project-2_log), but not working individually was something that i wanted to experience after my midterms.
so, i ended up working with these three:
after an initial brainstorm of interests, we decided to make a robot machine that facilitates a task between two (or more humans) better than humans do themselves.
then, we got more specific and decided to build a robot that helps people resolve interpersonal conflict.
preliminary research:
i first began to look at why human beings fight, how humans resolve conflict, and then proceeded to look at ‘robot-based mediation’ such as in this project.
i quickly sensed that a robot actually mediating a conflict (such as by asking “what do you think went wrong”, et. al.) feels extremely dehumanising. a person mediating conflict (such as a boss or ‘team-lead’) is also dehumanising.
so, i looked at other interesting aspects of conflict.
for me, it makes more sense to help people identify that a conflict is taking place, or mediate more implicitly. there are two ideas in the above map (in boxes) that illustrate the same. i quite like the pixar-lamp one.
dump:
a robot persuading other robots to go home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UIYN2fuZYc
this is not what we’re building:
^ even though the above are ‘expressive’ robots.
251110:
i then met with aram & bolong. we spoke about research that people had done, and i realised that both of them were more concerned about the project looking good for the winter-show, while i was concerned about the project itself.
working in groups has always been hard for me. but i decided to go with it — i’m here to learn (and this is part of the learning).
anyway, after a lot of back & forth, we arrived at an idea where the conflict is amongst the robots (and the human is causing it). this thing is not purposeful (and i perhaps have a little bit of disdain towards that), but why not. not like we’d come up with something purposeful in a 4-week long project (i tried for 4 years, and 3 years ‘professionally’ after that).
here are more resolved drawings that explain the idea:
the interesting bit is that the human plays god. they can choose to have a fairer world (by shining light near the most deprived unit), or have an unfair world (make the rich richer). the extension of this idea would be to make each unit behave differently (so that god (human) could choose favourites).
251111:
aram & bolong wanted to improve their previously made lamp project, and i was beginning to tell that it wouldn’t satisfy my curiosity. time was also flying by, and changing the ‘what’ wasn’t an idea i was comfortable with.
i knew the two of them had very specific interests, and worked well together. aram & i desperately wanted to work together, but i decided that it’s best if we do our finals separately.
then, tom & i spoke, and he helped narrow down the other ideas i had. he asked me where the learning would be richest for me, and i knew the answer. we decided against trying to make something for the show, and strived to make a project that does justice to the course (and my curiosity within the course).
so, i focused on making an analog synthesiser instead (see: final-project-2_log).