Variables and Form

This project is very interesting to me, particularly it reminds me about psychology and how the mind can recognise objects based on lines.
Our brain can recognise objects easier when the intersections are not changed e.g. the point when the lines connect are the same, but the middle of the line dissappears, we can still detemine what the object is.

The example used was a watering can - with the angles and connecting points still there, but parts of the middle of the lines gone, we can still figure out the object is a watering can - but if the intesecting parts of the object are taking out it is much harder to determine. There is also another phenomenon which is that we can recognise objects from ALL viewpoints, except one. SO we could recognise the watering can from all major viewpoints, except the one where we face the spout. It is very interesting to see. What is great about this project is that one simple change of a shape can not only completely change the shape so it is unrecognisable, but also surprise us and change into something we hadn't imagined would be possible. It is all possible though im beginning to see! Simple coding changes create massive visual changes!

More Investigation

SO I have been thinking about the one user situation - for this project, they would prefer that one person can use your experiment at a time. The problem this leaves me with is that the whole point to my experiment is that it is surprising for the user how they perceive objects sounds.

A possible way to combat this is to have have pre-recorded sounds and make them all myself and then have the user put on headphones and guess that way. But it wouldn't work as well because I would have to time how long between the noise and the answer - and some people wouldn't have decided which pictures they wanted to choose. Also if I do it this way, I would have to include a lot of technology in my experiment and the materiality would be advance, instead of using simple materials which is something we should be doing.

The element of surprise would be lost if I had one user where a mask and pick up two objects and beat them together - they would use touch to help them decide on the objects - and the experiment would be changed dramatically. It wouldn't be testing how user's perceive sound from sight and what they think the objects will sound like, because the touch aspect would give them too many clues.

I also like the element of human interaction in my experiment - for instance - how each user reacts to the situation. Does the person creating the sounds want the other user to guess correctly, or do they make it harder on purpose? Does the person looking at images entirely guess, or do they guess one and always get one object they recognise? Are they completely surprised and think they are definitely correct when they have both objects wrong? These are all interesting interactions to observe.

I also like the element of curiousity that my experiment has - once you hear the sound you automatically want to know which objects were used - because sometimes from sound alone we think we know what we are hearing, but we are completely wrong. As humans we wouldn't be able to interact with the experiment I have created, and not want to know the answer. If I took away the element of finding out whether you are right or wrong, the user wouldn't be as intrigued because they wouldn't be testing how efficient their eyes and hears interact. The care factor would go down if that makes sense!

So in terms of  Useability I think the object side of my experiment needs enough room to smack objects together ( but not enough so they can go to town and try and make the loudest noise possible, as the object might break!) without the image side catching a glimpse. Also I need to make sure that the barrier between the two is at neck level or below as the experiment works best when the two can communicate efficiently (eg. "ok I'm starting now").

Already I am surprised how many people guess correctly - but I am going to create my own objects for another user test to see if people's perception of what the noise should sound like changes when objects they are not familiar with are used.

Still trucking along....:)

More, more, more

More experimentation

Today in class we had move user tests from other class members.  We had tastes tests,  and awesome glasses and wheres wally putting your hand in a box and trying to find the right texture.

The glasses were my favourite - you put on a set of glasses and then someone else draws something on some paper - then looking through the glasses you have to try and replicate the shapes/pattern the other person drew. Very hard, but fun.

photos from class today...

A new take on "Snap" - snap when the word is the same, not the colour.

Cole's box of textures

T's morphing glasses

Framina's Taste Testing

Thoughts and decisions

Ok, so I have decided to go with the object sound images experiment, over the other one. I am a little disappointed because I feel like the colour/ball test would have been really good! But I went to some shops looking for coloured balls, and the balls would have ended up costing too much. To make the test worth doing I would need at least 20 balls - and to get even pingpong balls (which wouldn't work because they would bounce off everything) it would cost me around $20. So I have decided to stick with the idea that I user tested last week. Now comes the more in depth testing and changes!

I want to create another test like the first one, but with unidentified shapes/materials instead of everyday items. I think it will make it harder as everyone thinks they might know how things sound because they have those items themselves, but it will be interesting to see how the experiment works with random things like wood, and acrylic and materials of some kind. Obviously material (unless its VERY textured wont really work as the sound made when interacting with other object wont really be noticed.

Coding process

I am finding this very difficult at the moment, I feel like I need a personal tutor as everyone seems to know more than me, and I need more time with the tutors in class but they need to get around everyone so it's not really possible... I can practice all I like but I haven't solidified any variations apart from my shape and I'm unsure whether the variations I am doing are good enough...

More plays with shapes

I'm really enjoying testing out different things with my shape...I only don't know that I am going to have time to get something I really am proud of that looks awesome enough! I am having a little bit of trouble getting two variables changing at once because I want to test one first and then add in another to see if that makes it better! But I will continue to experiment!

P.s. I am not sure if this progression is ok, because in the first two I have enlarges one set of points seperately from the other set of points and then I have done them both the same...

Progression of shapes practise

I really like this below shape which I constructed out of 2 lovehearts, but then Angela pointed out it was a diagonal cross!! I didnt even realise, haha.

See it transform, just using line placement

Here is me increasing the stroke weight and the line placement...

Some more line changes....