--Original idea/group,
- Mobile networking concept
- Wearable phone/media concept.
The original idea for our Mobile group was to create a social networking concept that would center around a website. The idea itself consisted of a few parts, all aimed at exploring the implications and questions inherent in social networking using a location aware device.
The first idea was essentially an enhancement of the facebook 'events' concept. Essentially creating mini-events that would alert people in your area of an intended activity. As an example if you wanted to carpool to work in the morning you could send a message out at 6am reading 'carpool at 8 beach haven to town' and people in your area could reject or accept and provide further details. This idea didn't come to fruition for two reasons, firstly iPhone does not have a very easy to use GPS function, and also we later found that someone else had already achieved something very similar using a paid application called 'Peek' that got around all the security and social issues we were concerned with.
A related idea we had was a 'rating' application for iPhone whereby a person could be rated by his/her peers based on social interactions. This interested me not because it would work, but rather because of why it (probably) wouldn't work. Why is it that people cannot be trusted to make unbiased reviews of their peers, and what ways would the system be misused, possibly even in constructive ways. In the end our group rejected this idea too because it seemed unfair to those who would be rated low.
Finally the mobile group decided to take a different direction and investigate wearable technology. To do this we decided to insert a mobile phone into an item of clothing in such a way that the clothes and the electronics were part of one whole. This is an interesting concept because of its limitations and its possibilities, such as how do you wash the hoodie, or what if you want to use the phone but wear a different jumper. Perhaps a better solution would be a vest that can be worn under other clothes and plugged into a selection of accessories like hats with microphones and headphones.
This is the point at which I switched groups, mainly because I felt wearable phones are a well explored concept and the limitations would be tedious to deal with rather than raising new and interesting questions. I decided to join Tash and her tangible interface project, thereby continuing to explore the ideas we were looking at in 2008.
- Mobile networking concept
- Wearable phone/media concept.
The original idea for our Mobile group was to create a social networking concept that would center around a website. The idea itself consisted of a few parts, all aimed at exploring the implications and questions inherent in social networking using a location aware device.
The first idea was essentially an enhancement of the facebook 'events' concept. Essentially creating mini-events that would alert people in your area of an intended activity. As an example if you wanted to carpool to work in the morning you could send a message out at 6am reading 'carpool at 8 beach haven to town' and people in your area could reject or accept and provide further details. This idea didn't come to fruition for two reasons, firstly iPhone does not have a very easy to use GPS function, and also we later found that someone else had already achieved something very similar using a paid application called 'Peek' that got around all the security and social issues we were concerned with.
A related idea we had was a 'rating' application for iPhone whereby a person could be rated by his/her peers based on social interactions. This interested me not because it would work, but rather because of why it (probably) wouldn't work. Why is it that people cannot be trusted to make unbiased reviews of their peers, and what ways would the system be misused, possibly even in constructive ways. In the end our group rejected this idea too because it seemed unfair to those who would be rated low.
Finally the mobile group decided to take a different direction and investigate wearable technology. To do this we decided to insert a mobile phone into an item of clothing in such a way that the clothes and the electronics were part of one whole. This is an interesting concept because of its limitations and its possibilities, such as how do you wash the hoodie, or what if you want to use the phone but wear a different jumper. Perhaps a better solution would be a vest that can be worn under other clothes and plugged into a selection of accessories like hats with microphones and headphones.
This is the point at which I switched groups, mainly because I felt wearable phones are a well explored concept and the limitations would be tedious to deal with rather than raising new and interesting questions. I decided to join Tash and her tangible interface project, thereby continuing to explore the ideas we were looking at in 2008.
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