Be the ray you wanna see in the world – week 13 – fsou4085

WordPress

 

After the final presentations I came across a few major issues in regards to WordPress once more. Sort of a classic user experience/system’s design clash. An attempt to copy images from desktop always ended up with failure due to the platform forcing the user to upload the images directly. Unless copying from the web, for instance in my particular case: copying images from facebook (i uploaded them to myself and then copied to the blogs). I didn’t foresee that the platform operates on time-based keys aka generated tokens, that eventually expire for particular images. Therefore, I had to spend a few hours managing the images once again, as it’s a bit tedious to follow massive contents without supporting graphical imagery. Unfortunately, WordPress, once again, became more rather a nuisance and an obstancle, than a solid platform supporting the documentation of my progress.

Video

 

Nevertheless, there are a few loose ends that are in semi-dire need of tying up. First of all, the video, which was shot in an extremely short time span, considering that the product was formed up, technically by Saturday, therefore 2 days before the presentation was due. I filmed partially the process, as there was nobody to help me out with the shots, I could not get some parts features (such as sanding, soldering, filming assembly was difficult as well). Some shots were required to be filmed using the environment and weeks before the presentation, for instance before I started doing keto (fat stomach, shots in the bathroom) and required some crazy solutions, such as: tying the camera up to a railing or other objects that supported my output vision of how the shots would be established. I also pushed for depth in my shots, involving a 1.8 focus. Most of the shots were made within the faculty and managed by myself, all the shots featured also myself and did not include additional hardware (not even a tripod!).

Afterwards, I blended in the imagery with a mixture of shifting shots, attempting to portray the problem and overview + user experience of the solution featured. Most of the video was product-oriented, edited and exported with the use of Adobe Premiere.

Struggle

 

My final keto concept, targeting Obesity was developed quite late and there are a few reasons for why it turned as it did. The short story involves me, struggling heavily with my final examinations while still finishing up my overseas exchange period, teaming up last-minute and adjusting to a project-based pace back in Sydney, recovering from chronic fatigue, jet-lag and then going through 2 weeks of illness, confusion with assignments’ requirements and expectations, eventually diverging ideas for final solutions, recurrent shifts in theme changes, last-minute requirements and waiting time for arrival of additional components, to name just, in fact, a few. I believed a restart would eventually benefit my project, as I could readjust every single element involved and do it properly, get passionate about it and find particular value that could benefit the potential users for whom the product would be actually made.

Concept

 

At one point, considering the tight and fleeing time left I came to a conclusion that I would like to do something health-related, perhaps that I do already have knowledge of and target a problem that involves many parts of the world and perhaps even myself. Or at least used to. That problem became Obesity and it turned out that it was more severe than I preliminarily thought it would. I was overweight for quite some time before. Eventually turned Obese without me even noticing it in time. Turning from 97 in January 2016, to as low as 73 just last week. I tried a variety of methods, with following classic low-fat scenario, eating healthy and an exponential physical activity during my overseas period. But I eventually could never match the woopin’ 15 kilo weight-loss in just 4 weeks that took place during February last year. The entire idea comes with its limitations, difficulties and there were plenty of user needs that required addressing. On top of which, I obviously had to redo the entire classic design process to discover whichever elements came into play and whether any better solutions exist, or just came up. During my research, none really came across as effective and the ketogenic diet became even wider in terms of recognition within all sorts of communities and is somewhat a recent discovery, as methods and the diet itself is still analyzed by many.

Product

 

After the presentation I have given on Monday, I was reminded for not including too much information regarding the product itself. Considering the time constraints, it was relatively difficult to perform such, nevertheless, I managed to have a few people to stand on the weight scale, one person was as heavy at 93 kilos. I let others take a look at my design and point out recommendations for how to make it even better, in terms of ergonomics, feel and structure. The skeleton was entirely designed by myself, such as the wooden parts that connected the entire thing. I also built each element and refined by myself, yet a few technical suggestions were pointed out by DMaF staff, for instance I was not aware of the sanding technique, rather considered applying additional material like cloth to make the weightscale feel better. Instead, the wooden parts were post-processed, keeping the product concise and potentially showcasing the replicability and potentially the modular structure, as the design could easily be managed to fit additional liking of any person that would be interested in purchasing it. I acquired the thickest 0.6mm ply-wood available, to make sure that it withstands particular weight and positioned the sensors in a way that it would carry any person (and that as a result of logical reasoning, would properly detect a person’s weight). The entire course of final development rather turned out really as a consequence of a series of partially live-saving splits of events and knowledge that I managed to develop within past few years. Some roadblocks I was not able to overcome, such as bogus load sensors that I repeatedly even re-soldered to rule out possible human-related errors. Unfortunately, with no luck.

Application

 

In terms of developing the application, the straightforward answer is, that processing in android mode made the entire endeavor of creating something real and of extremely high fidelity possible. Nevertheless, I came across quite a few problems, some of which took an exponential amount of time. The logical structure was one part, but my skills – a complete different galaxy, that likes to clash with the logical assumptions altogether. Some conclusions were so close, but I blindly kept on reaching out in areas that should have not been of my interest. Afterwards, I tried implementing features that would have improved user experience, but were surprisingly difficult to implement from the technical point of view. Such as transitions. On paper it seemed to work, but the implementation was a nightmare. Saving the user’s states worked on my computer but didn’t on android, making some concepts pointless to execute eventually. Hours spent on trying to get the application to run properly and even coming across problems beyond what I foresaw, such as too quickly shifting pages, errors due to not enough internal memory. Some solutions had to be adapted even from the android environment. Getting the bluetooth module to work was a nightmare that I thought would be impossible to get up and running, but as due to my logical reasoning, it finally was feasible to launch, ’cause despite it was a single module mounted on another circuit meant for a complete different set of prototyping measures, it was after all, just a bluetooth module and software supporting its communication had to be somewhere. And I found it.

Workarounds

 

The technical implementation was multilayered and even today I am still surprised that I managed to stick all the elements together rather successfully. It involved skills from a great variety of divisions. To name a few: programming skills, of which mine were overly poor. Logical comprehensions to support the aforementioned and maths to calculate the physical dimensions. Physics to figure out how parts on the arduino worked and especially which ones did not work and exactly why they didn’t. Visual Design, to create a compelling and impacting app, Human-Computer Interaction and Interaction Design theory knowledge and skills to make sure the app is functional, informative and easy to use. User Experience Design techniques, to make sure the user-centered design process was followed thoroughly leading towards a product that people would actually use. First-hand knowledge of obesity, problems that came along, potential solutions that had to be learned and researched. Many areas I already had the knowledge of, some I had to dust off and many more just simply learned the hard way – by myself and due/throughout  process. Despite that I like to reach out to a variety of people in order to gain feedback on my process, especially in regards to potential roadblocks, in my case the vast majority had to be dealt by myself, due to everyone being busy with their own stuff, especially considering how advanced the semester was. Getting additional feedback outside the university was also deeply limited, as I am not exactly a native, more resembling an international student who knows primarily only people from within the university and even faculty, but almost none around the area from where I currently live. Also the must of acquiring additional components and spending quite a vast bit of money was difficult. While today I may afford to get crucial hardware, I must state that if the course took place 2 years ago, I would hardly be able to cover even a fraction of what was spent, even with governmental help and what the faculty offers to disadvantaged students. Concluding, It certainly was not a one-man’s job, not even a team’s job considering the tight time-frame, notwithstanding, I pulled through, somehow.

Used Components

 

Application

• Processing Language
  • Android Mode
  • Ketai Library
• Python Language
  • SpaCy Library
• Adobe Photoshop
  • Mockup Creation
  • Adobe XD, cancelled due to lack of gestures support
• Adobe Illustrator
  • Tracing images for vector acquisition
  • Icon8 for the majority of icons featured
• Invision
  • For High Fidelity prototyping and user testing
• DSLR Camera & Adobe Lightroom
  • For taking the background picture
  • & Color grading it

Device

• Sparkfun Arduino Uno
  • 4x 50kg Load Sensors
  • Pulse Sensor
  • mBot Bluetooth
  • Liquid LCD 16×2 Screen
  • Load Combinator
  • HX711 Amplifier
  • All the cables I had within my Sparkfun kit
  • mBot library
• Breadboard
• 9V Battery
• Arduino and Breadboard holder

Assembly

• 0.6mm Ply-Wood
  • Laser-cut
    • Induced markings for components positioning
  • Sanded (repeatedly)
    • Manually
    • with power-tools
  • Glued pieces together
  • Refined edges
• Thin Ply-Wood
  • Measured and cut manually with power-tools
  • Drilled into certain parts
  • Used as holders for the LCD Screen and Pulse-Sensor
• Soldered components (Device related, but required soldering iron)

Resolution

 

I may eventually come back to launching the product once again, seeing to its proper and working condition. Unfortunately with these kinds of projects, literally anything, everything or even nothing can go wrong. Murphy’s Law is strong with this one and even if you may find yourself of not committing to any wrongdoings, some may do just something that may even implode your final design solution and nobody will know why. For now, I’ll need to focus on finishing the remainder of what the course includes. Too many things could have gone wrong, too many things did turn out wrong. It was one particularly excruciating and monstrously heavy semester, outsurpassing all of my even wildest estimates, sleep is one special thing that I will put between my cross-hair and melt away to regain at least some sanity or perhaps just life that I put aside.

And now, a few words of inspiration, featuring Declan:

‘Be the ray you wanna see in the world’

The question remains.

what next?

Gamma Ray’s, Man – Week 12 – fsou4085

Monday:

 

I have a prototype of processing for Arduino working, the pages change when I tap on the screen. I have found some scripts for gesture implementation and transitions, although the latter may be difficult to implement. I need to chuck in a way of saving and reading values, though. It took me 6 hours to figure out how to get the pages change depending on a simple counter, though. I was quite aggravated by how much time it took, but it was one component that was pretty much done so. Tomorrow I’ll be getting the bluetooth sensor.

http://arduinobasics.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/bluetooth-android-processing-1.html

Tuesday:

 

Today I was sort of trying to get some components done in processing driven application. The logic implementation is problematic and getting some more sophisticated code to work even worse, as the entire structure starts to crumble. Coding is sort of like a merger between lego blocks and an actual language. Somehow you may try explaining stuff in a variation and the other person will understand, but if you’ll structure it the wrong way… actually, it doesn’t matter, specific bits of code are usually meant for specific uses. Perhaps there is a correlation after all?

Wednesday:

 

I received the bluetooth sensor and managed to get the file saving to work. Now I’ll just have to implement a good logic and start messing around with arrays, so that I may create nice visualizations. It took me around 3 hours to get the Bluetooth working and I never managed to get it working. The piece is dead so I’ll need to find another way.

 

I consulted further the bluetooth sensor. Yeah, it seems dead. I’ve created pieces to be lasercut and potentially I’ll try to 3D print missing parts. The structure is simple: Base holding the arduino and breadboard with 5 chunks so that it does not collapse. 4 load sensors attached on a middle part, holding the top part, through which an LCD screen and pulse sensor will gather and show data. I’m travelling to Hornsby to get my components (took bloody week to get them). Perhaps I’ll be able to get a bluetooth component as well? Anyway, once I get all the components, I’ll continue working on the app prototype and the arduino and connect these two via Ketai. If I do get these two communicating, now it will be the monotonous, long but still huge part: Recording the video, putting more pages into the app, completing the documentation. Let’s see how it goes. I still have Virtual Reality, Independent Studies and Graduation Show to monitor.

When I received the components I asked (likely the boss), whether he had an extra bluetooth module. He hesitated, something rang a bell and he went off to look for extra components that he presumably had. It took a few minutes but he found nothing and recommended me that I ordered it. I voiced a concern, though, that my assignment is on monday, that I have a non-functional bluetooth and that any functioning type would be perfect in my case… Then, as if automatically, he turned and started searching through scrape electronics… eventually coming up with a few ideas, going through shelves and finding… a module, made specifically for controlling robots. I looked at it, he mentioned theoretically it could work and… I found out that indeed it is just basically a bluetooth module with an extra something that the module was placed on. From lack of options I said I’ll get it. Payment was difficult as no spare change was present and lack of reception inside the reception. But the boss said: ‘-Take it. I trust you’. We discussed a bit his door alarm which apparently was 3D printed and tinkered with. Said good luck and I made the payment around 10 minutes after.

I just tested in the train whether it really works. And it did. Optimistic I returned to the uni and continued testing and found out problems. I would not be able to connect with it, on my mobile or PC but could on my app on my mobile. Strange, right? Then I narrowed down, narrowed down… Turns out, there are two bluetooth signals being emitted or something and the non-low energy called was the one. But it still gave me nada as I couldn’t get it to work, read or anything for the next few hours. Until I found some strange corelations and some people that tried getting it to work. After sometime I found out that the module works on a specific library, even one little component. Once I loaded that part in, my mobile responded with crazy numbers… at this point I realized: I have a working module, but how do I print text on it? That took me an extra half an hour. Once I realized that the crazy text was just a reboot I wondered, what exactly could’ve been printed? Serial.write… That was it. For some reason, bluetooth already transmitted it, but I still had to make sure. And eventually it was clear. I just couldn’t do it both ways, but it’s okay. I just need the bluetooth module to transmit pulse and weight… that’s all. And my processing code to make visualization based on it. That might be a problem, we’ll see.

Thursday:

 

On this day I had to primarily focus on the Virtual Reality assignment (also upcoming… soonish). So I really looked into product design with delay, but still had the ambitious plan of fulfilling as follows: Lasercutting, Soldering, Mixing in the code to read pulse and weight, transmit data, refine application to refine data and create the video & documentation. Like usual, that did not exactly take place. I got some feedback for lesercutting, soldered just one component (hopefully well), blended in the code to read pulse and weight but they need to be calibrated, MANAGED TO TRANSMIT DATA BETWEEN BLUETOOTHS, but need to refine the application to natively read the data (in my app that is) and obviously I tried documenting the process but it’s significantly more difficult when I’m solo. Nevertheless, the largest issue was the bluetooth module. It’s working, I knew it was, but I was still unsure of how exactly it worked (cause yesterday it worked). And finally it turned out that I mixed up the cabling. Now the application reads everything I want it to, even the sensor readings! Now I’ll just need to store them in an array within the application, when needed and project charts… Lasercutting will come tomorrow and refining the concept. I received positive feedback on the device so. But some components might need to be wizard-of-ozzed. Still, I’m very happy, ’cause my device seems to work and so does the app, but there’s still heaps that needs to be finalized.

Friday:

 

Today I went to the University. Woke up at 6. Went back to sleep and woke up at 6.30. Got up at 6.40. Ate salmon stuffed with peanut butter with chia seeds, a cup of Joe and went off to the Neverlands… In fact, actually, I just went to train station as I had to get on 8:40 to lasercut my base of weight scale. I could not start doing any filming before I have completed that part, so. There I went, lasercut with plywood of 0.6 thickness. Assembled the build, but… The problem was that the sensors were still not reading correctly and I had to get my LCD screen running, which turned out to be quite a hassle. More problematic were the load sensors and pulse sensor, the latter started to work but detect the pulse whenever it really felt like it. Plus it really liked to short circuit and the load sensors… eventually started to receive something but these were just plain weird. I had to solder the remaining parts. And then resolder them. And despite my best efforts, the thing worked as dodgy as before without any clear reasoning behind it. I wondered and wandered a little longer, trying to get things done that day. It took me 3/4 of Friday to get the stuff running and I did some progress but failed in the process. Gotta say, it’s quite frustrating, when you find genius workarounds with some parts and then start hitting major roadblocks, mostly relating to the components themselves. The user experience here is hitting real lows, intuitiveness is one of the last qualities that I would ever assign to what I’m being rolled through, despite my best efforts. And despite that the packaging was lasercut and done, it was my semi-final option, as less thick material would be insufficient to hold anyone. On the other hand, the feel of it, the material, it’s… just not good enough. I could potentially perhaps paint it, but that would be just ply-wood with paint on it. I cannot lasercut anything else, which is a huge problem. The timeframe is just an impossible component. My product will have to be featured differently, as not entirely as a product but an actual ecosystem, which anyone can create, develop, even reproduce especially when it comes to information. It might turn out expensive. But knowledge comes first. Anyway, paradoxically I managed to create most of what I wanted: It’s lasercut, it’s soldered, the code is working, the data transmits, the application needs refining but the code is working, some shots for the video were made but a timeline still requires some work. I had to leave my project at the university as I had literally no way of transporting it home (1.5h by train out of which quite a huge chunk by foot). I never imagined university would be that difficult, it’s just gotten absurd.

Saturday:

 

So I didn’t manage to get half of what I intended done. Instead, I just refined my product, which I believed ‘didn’t’ look good enough and ‘didn’t’ feel good enough. So I went to DMaF and looked for solutions, which have been found. Just the problem is that I do not know the words to describe the techniques or devices that I used. I scratched the surface and refined the corners. I polished the top surface and made it feel good (with a model 320/250). Found a way to position the pulse sensor in a more dignified way just as much I did with the Liquid LCD. I gotta say that it looks like an actual scale now, which is truly great. I just wish it presented reliable data, though. I did a few videos showcasing the product and tried introducing a bit more code, but the documentation is stalled a bit longer just as much as the rest. I came up with an idea to create something bit more intriguing in case of the presentation itself..

 

Sunday:

 

I refined the Mockups, I developed the Code, I documented the entire thing, finalized the Video, introduced the timeline and concluded my Presentation. What’s else there to talk about?

One of the largest issues I’m facing is the presentation itself. Even my exchange didn’t seem as difficult as that course, despite that it was lead in a language that I didn’t even fully understand to its full extent of. I’ve redone everything and refined my concept to a maximum feasible level at this moment. The only potential thing I could add is a better application and this seems like it. I’m partially content with my product. One thing I can say for certain, it’s not a one man’s job, I was doing more than I could and miraculously found ways to make some parts somehow feasible despite the circumstances. I’m personally quite dissapointed, although it is truly a mixture of feelings that is hard to describe, assume and establish, even once you get most of the tasty details.

Despite that: There is a product. There is a video. There is a Documentation. Only thing that is left? It’s the presentation. And that will be one hell of an improvisation.

Swiss Knife – Week 11 – fsou4085

User Evaluation – Survey

 

So after having settled on the ketogenic diet, I had to look into what were the user needs, constraints of the diet. The difficulties its community has to deal with need to be eased so that the diet becomes more effective. In this case, I’d have to target exactly the communities themselves and the largest one is harbored on reddit. At first I looked into the IRC chat of /keto channel in which I greeted everyone, showcased my form, my research and… waited for responses. I was told that I cannot do the form on the main keto website, but I could potentially on a keto australia channel… And it turned out that quite a few Australians are present there. So, I pasted a survey on the /ketoaustralia channel and another that is specific for surveys itself. I don’t think I eventually got any responses in regards to the latter. But for the first…

Let’s go through what I wanted to find out.

• Obviously: Age.
• Then: Why keto?
• What were the results?
• What are your needs?
• How Satisfied are you with your diet?

These were probably the most important parts, although I looked into details as well and provided with a range of potential answers with the possibility of creating your own… Eventually I got just one part wrong with the word ‘forthcoming’, but apart from that? I got some quite decent reviews on the chart itself. The incentive was the possibility of peeking at the results by the end of the survey. In a relatively short time span I managed to get quite a few responses. Eventually, 110, which is a perfect quantified and scientifically valid amount! Let’s take a closer look at numbers.

67.3% of my respondents were over 26, which means that primarily people in quite some age start thinking about the diet altogether. That somehow co-relates to the data of weight excess in Australia and how it is laid out throughout each age group with older Australians being prominently heavier.

43.6% have managed to be (or are) on keto for more than half a year, the following 18.2% managed to be on it for 4 months. It seems that mostly I’m dealing with keto veterans, people who know their dietary requirements and how they should deal with them in everyday life. Although the latter 1/3 had different experiences.

Why did they do keto? Now that’s an easy part. Primarily, 92 people just sought weight loss. Just as simple as that. Following 54 required body-fat loss and 50 a lifestyle change. It might be also the case that many decided for a lifestyle change and the next in line – Better Quality Food and Nutrition – 35 people, once they found out what the diet comes with. This was the only multiple choice question in this survey.

When asked to be more detailed on their results, the most prominent comments involved a significant weight loss, usually ranging between 10-20 kg. Although there were many surprising answers, after all, people were allowed to speak freely.

What are the most difficult parts of being on keto? For 25.5% it was the lack of options when dining out. 14.5% mentioned sugar cravings. Maintaining fat/carb/protein balance was also difficult for 11.8% and lack of meal variety of 8.2%. It seems that it comes down to the food options available and making sure you’re still on diet.

What helped the most during keto? 33.6% said, the abundance of information on the internet. 24.5% mentioned overall improved wellbeing. 10.1% mentioned preliminary weight loss. Especially the wellbeing part is quite surprising. Once you approach a diet, you even expect to not feel as good as before (as you narrow down on your own choices). Nevertheless, in this particular case, people actually felt good, as compared to before.

Forthcoming ways for keto turned out rather inconclusive. Overwhelmingly 88.1% of my respondents rated the diet favorably, out of whom 53.6% gave it 5/5. At the end people were asked to add comments in regards to where they sought information from. The majority provided some quality contents!

User Evaluation – Interviews

 

For the test fair I have created an application mockup based on around 30 slides, all in consistent style, which introduces the user into the application, showcases the most important features and as an idea and classic designer’s approach – meets user’s needs. I managed to get 10 participants, crafted a short interview trying to extract information in relation to the design, additional features and good/bad parts, on top of which, dietary requirements were pursued. The interviewees were rather critical, yet some parts were praised.

First of all, quite surprisingly, a lot of participants verged in terms of for how long they decided to keep on answering my questions. In some cases, they kept on producing more ideas and criticism, also potential solutions. In some, they didn’t provide as much feedback as I would have expected. I found out a few interesting things like ‘Slow-Carb diet’, breadcrumbs, multi-level community feedback, info vis showcasing progress and a User Journey Map built-in as part of the app. Nevertheless, the main criticism was placed on the navigation and lack of some features. On the other hand, the design was relatively often found quite soothing, although distracting. All in all I took a right approach, although iterations are definitely welcome and recommended.

Unfortunately I only got to interview 10 people, on the other hand I did receive quite valuable feedback, so the amount turned quite good after all.

Prototyping – Programming

 

So, I was wondering how to succeed in a mission impossible of just building a high fidelity prototype, that fits the profile of my research and project’s outline. So I wondered. Knocked my head against the wall to find a feasible implementation. Optimally an app but connected to a physical product. A weight scale and… what exactly? It felt like as if it was not enough. Perhaps some more sensors? Well, what about… I’ve been developing some AI implementation beyond the project’s scope, but I could potentially implement it into my project… And I developed a working processing sketch that coexists with AI and… Still I would require to code an entire application for android and that’s ludicrous. So I wondered, inquired, asked around… tried finding some feasible way through this, what it seemed like, beyond my reach situation… and then, I found a solution. Like an eureka moment, almost hard to believe but after preliminary struggles, an extremely durable and a working one: Processing for Android programming environment.

Now, that came with additional problems of its own. First of all, I don’t have a bluetooth implementation in my project, cause I just simply did not need it in the course of the previous week. And I have just one USB port in my laptop. To connect my android and arduino devices I need two. So for now I’ll just continue working on my PC to optimize and communicate these two, but without firmata serial communication, it’s not that easy, and there is no serial implementation in the android mode, there is firmata, though… But, I mean, it’s all about just sending bunch of signals from one device to another, right? So, eventually I looked into some forums, I’d be surprised if people didn’t try to do it, so eventually I stumbled upon this tutorial:

http://www.instructables.com/id/ANDROIDARDUINOADKRGB-led/

Eventually I came upon a problem with wiring.h which had to be converted to private…

https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=88449.0

…now I have a problem with .SPI

I had to fix more parts in Visual Studio, it’s an old library, now arduino part works.

I managed to fix much but I have a problem with an ‘exception error’ so I decided to test out how it works in an emulator which is very slow. But I didn’t eventually managed to get it to work, as the socket/port/whatever kept on being busy (despite it not being used at all). It seems that the only way to do well is to get the Bluetooth component implemented and communicate with it between smartphone and arduino independently.

Now, the thing is that I eventually became quite let down with the android implementation for processing, If not that it was just the processing part that I felt quite sad about, as I realized that actually my logic did not entirely work. My reasoning was actually proper and I knew that it could be achieved, as the thing was, learning how to program in an entirely new environment was madness, so adapting processing to android and seeing how everything works flawlessly, I became quite uplifted as suddenly it turned out that I may actually have a shot at succeeding in this course. So once I hit roadblocks in implementing logic, again I got quite stressed.

It took me an entire day to try getting arduino and android communicating: they failed. Then I tried writing the script in processing and… my implementation of the logic failed. It took me around 6 hours to figure out the most obvious and easiest thing, as the entire structure had to somehow rely on being dependent on some variable. Like to pass between screens, but through code but it knew how and what you’re trying to achieve. And so! I found out: it was basically a trigger system based on a counter, or just a counter. Based on a trigger, the counter increases. If you want to get back, it may decrease. If you want to go somewhere else, it may increase by a certain amount. Perfectly reasonable, right? I knew I could try to achieve it via if statements and perhaps a for loop but the environment already operates on a constantly refreshing scene. So I tried… with monitoring the number of clicks I did. But I knew that was a little shortsighted. So I went ahead and… Yeah, eventually I found a solution. Literally what I did create, was a prototype like invision, yet coded and versatile to a degree that I may use it on ANY device, a smartphone, tablet or a PC.

Now I’ll have to get the bluetooth module on arduino to get it communicating with android. Get the sensors working on arduino. Receive the components that are still arriving. And then send the information back and forth. Seems easy right? But it’s a lot of work. All I need is design implementations, logical ratios implemented… but it’s doable and finally I may provide something of really high fidelity. Provided that I don’t hit any roadblocks underway.

For week 12, please click here.

keto – Week 10 – fsou4085

Let’s take a closer look at keto itself, abbreviated for ketogenic diet. A potentially viable approach to life that probably ought to be established in many unknown cases is to treat any wonder-solutions with caution. It’s cool to see that perhaps there is a very efficient and of very high efficacy solution out there, but the question that I like to ask myself and others whenever I do not understand certain mechanisms, is how do they actually work? How is that different from other available approaches? Why is it such a powerful tool to lose weight? Is it a viable and safe solution? Either way, why? What are the additional details that need to have an eye kept on? What are the potential side effects? And if I ultimately decide to approach this diet from a designer’s perspective, how will I shift user’s needs into an actually functioning device, that will improve their lives?

Well, it’s a diet so first question that pops up is, what are its constraints? What can you and can you not eat on this diet? Quite a large keto-related community was formed with additional subcommunities, local, that got together and support through the dietary journey, which probably already says something about the diet itself. If there is one medium through which anything can be quickly and successfully verified, that would be the internet, provided that there is, in turn, a quite huge response. In these terms, there actually is and a humongous one, consisting of a large reddit community, which spans across all varieties of age, occupancy… And so, there is heaps of materials to be read, even research papers are stored by users and showcased as proof that the diet is valid, it works and that you may even live well on it.

So, what about the diet itself? What can I say, in theory you could live off bacon for a few weeks and technically lose weight (although, not recommended). Once we look closer, we’ll see, naturally, all the carbohydrates erased. Where did they all go? And the number one question you’d like to ask yourselves is, what do you consider as starchy foods? Or even high in carbohydrate foods? So I’ll give you a glimpse. Bread, Pasta, Rice and Potatoes are gone. I’ll let you dwell on that for a minute, when we eat those, we usually ate a lot of one of each during a larger meal, didn’t we? I mean, any of the aforementioned usually functioned as an extra in high quantities, even overpowering other foods that we might have had together, such as meats and vegetables. I always sort of refrained from eating rice, as I didn’t see the point in it, I mean what are the clear nutritional values in it? Are there any real health benefits of eating each, except for extra and cheap energy that they provide? Well, I’m not quite sure.

Moving on, sugar, high fructose corn syrup (blee). Now while the second might seem a little bit abstract, it might be seen in many products, making them significantly sweater. Researchers at times label it as harmful, as it’s literally just a sugar bomb and not necessarily of any health benefit anyway. Moving on, corn, wheat, flour, legumes and beans are a no-go. All high in carbs, unfortunately. Fruits with some minor exceptions like berries are unfortunately quite a loss due to their sugary nature, despite that it rather comes with the better types like fructose, glucose (and then sucrose, widely known as sugar). Classic soda are a no-go and even milk is not a good idea. So, what is?

Basically all sorts of meats. Especially green leafy veggies. Eggs & Dairy, cheese, all sorts of oils (although gotta be careful with these choices now), nuts & seeds, avocados (everybody loves avocados and especially low-carbers). Cauliflower (could make a mash!), berries (in small quantities), some non green veggies (careful with tomatoes, now), heavy whipping cream, diet soda (coke zero is really cool), tea and coffee are perfectly fine and among all, water! So, that’s basically the end of it. The purpose is to follow a ratio of 70:25:5 for continuously: fat, proteins and carbohydrates. If you do just that, you’ll manage provided that you’ll survive the keto-flu period.

Now keto-flu is a period when the body is transforming to the fat-burning scheme in full motion. The body dumps its water meant for insulin, in which case you could lose up to 7-8 kg in a week. That comes with a rapid and major loss of electrolytes, which invoke relatively problematic symptoms along such as: muscle cramps, dizziness, fatigue in severe cases even arrhythmia, so the simple remedy is to fulfill the daily electrolyte needs: Magnesium, Potassium and Sodium (you’ll get your Calcium via food, no worries). Sodium may be acquired via higher salt intake, potassium and magnesium preferably via veggies and meats, although if you’re vegan, you might need to keep a closer look at the micro-elements that you’ll be taking, especially during the keto-flu period (as mentioned, a week), it is highly recommended that you’ll take Magnesium supplements (~200 mg a day). Afterwards is the keto adjustment period, which usually takes 1-2 weeks. At this point, you will be burning fat, but not at full rate, therefore any excessive or prolonged physical activities will very likely amount to fatigue. It might be partially a matter of electrolytes, but the thing is that your body is using a different metabolic route, that’s not really used much at times of a standard, carb-based diet. In the 3rd, 4th week you ought to be fully keto-adapted and live just like before, yet, without sugar cravings.

Now, a few things to note: in case of diet sodas, not all of them will be a good choice, as they usually come with sweeteners. Now, without taking under consideration some voices of some being harmful at this point, foods may be measured under the so-called GI (Glycemic Index). Now, while this rather applies to foods based on carbs, you may get an insulin response in regards to sweeteners as well, which might eventually lead to kicking you out of keto. Maltitol, Xylitol, Splenda and Malodextrin are all a bad choice in this case. Stevia, Erythritol, Allulose: quite the contrary. It’s still best to check before buying anything dietary, yet, sweet. Some sweeteners might be even be counted as carbs, like Erythritol, but is treated by body kind of like fibre (doesn’t count really as carbs).

There are also other things to look out for. Infamous trans-fats are the worst, run if you see them. But also Omega-3 and Omega-6 in bad proportions will have questionable health-wise benefits, as the metabolic pathways do not fully make use of them (in certain cases). Fish are usually good, though (as a healthy source). Also in terms of frying stuff, general rule is to use refined oils with a higher smoke point, that’s when the fried oil starts to really break down into compounds that are just not good for you health. Technically, three types of fat come into the picture: monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and saturated. I gave a glimpse on the polyunsaturated bunch, monounsaturated is great (I mean, olive oilll!) and saturated on keto is actually quite fine as well (as you metabolize these well on keto), so cheeses are perfectly fine.

There are also some exceptions in regards to some compounds, for instance: Coconut Oil comes with MCT (medium chain triglycerides), which cannot be stored in your body. To oxidize it, ketones are produced, even when you’re not on ketogenic diet. Another interesting thing is that on this diet, there are many alternatives to existing products high in carbs – even items that you’d primarily not suspect of even being able to be so. So, long story short: it may be the case that you may eat ice cream (Halo Top). Some chocolates may be eaten if they come with the right sweeteners (Quest Bars!). You may even bake stuff with almond flour and Erythritol sweetener. You may drink Coke Zero or even many other dietary versions of popular sweet drinks. Many items may seem off, as if a clear example of an uncanny valley for your taste buds, but they may also get your sugar cravings in check. And last, but not least: despite, that fruits are a no-go, there is the small exception (avocadoes are always awesome btw) for berries, especially raspberries, but also blueberries, blackberries, even strawberries… all in moderation, though! But usually they come in small quantities and are high in fibre, therefore, not a bad choice.

Unfortunately, due to many dietary requirements it might be the case that you’ll have to take some supplements. On a regular ketogenic diet, it shouldn’t be an issue, but if you were to run into allergies or prefer not to eat certain products due to ethical/religious issues, well: first of all, it might be difficult to meet daily calorie needs (which may be good for weight loss). In such cases, best to consult how to meet micronutrient needs with a doctor, despite that relying on veggies ought to already meet your daily needs for vitamins, minerals etc. Still, technically this diet is (almost definitely) good for people requiring a gluten-free diet and technically feasible to be followed by vegetarians and vegans. It’s difficult, but not impossible as I have already seen people making even vegan fish & chips, so it all comes down to the amount of knowledge and levels of creativity.

Now, as you may see, there are a lot of moving parts happening in case of keto. It is in theory not an easy one to follow, however, once a person starts doing it, it turns out that there are many alternatives available, a person starts to think of the food choices taken, gets a grip on what specific products are good for and which may even amount to as harmful, what nutritional value do they come with etc. It’s also an educational route, after all you learn about many new products, ways you may come up with preparing them and especially just try preparing. Some might still believe in the diet being harmful, but if it was, would nature equip us with the metabolic route that the ketogenic diet relies on? We humans bred specific types of fruit so that they became larger, sweeter, more appealing to ourselves. We pretty much do this with anything in every single case. And so we consume in large quantities, that’s what the economy bases on. In many cases, our bodies may not spend so much energy that could be made from these thousands of calories. But what if they were gone? The primary sources of food? In certain cases, our bodies may even hop into starvation mode in which our metabolism slows down (usually extreme cases of below 800 calories per day). In such case, such phenomena as little-to-no appetite start to sort of make sense. But either way, the diet works and people will lose weight on it and it is proven by research. Now that I have all the information I will let you know how did the user evaluation that I am about to perform.

For week 11, please click here.

Potential Remedies – Week 9 – fsou4085

To kick off this part, I was wondering how I should approach it. There is a number of ways of tackling obesity and many countries have applied a range of measures, although that is the top-down approach. Organizations come up with campaigns, posters, educate via a variety to means, all to target its users and provide some knowledge in regards to hazards or potentially benefiting changes in lifestyle, usually involving emotions, feelings and a direct approach with thought-provoking imagery.

Nevertheless, from other measures the ones that may require additional attention are: Sugar Tax, in which usually specific amount of sugars found in food/beverage products are taxed at a specific degree. Studies have proven some improvement after having introduced the measures, nevertheless it is still a relatively not necessarily widespread measure and some countries even back out from the idea such as Denmark.

Another interesting idea is to target student cafeterias. And when I mention students, I include all ages, all from the earliest stages of education such as primary school, secondary school (in countries eligible), high schools and universities. Germany has been rolling out a very extensive network of student cafeterias located all around the country called Mensa, in which with a pre-loaded card, foods may be purchased, at times even billed per purchased 100 grams. The cafeterias unfortunately vary in terms of quality and ranges of food they provide, however there was one quite new, sustainable building raised in Munich, which had 4 different wings with a range of foods: pastas, soups, full meals and a vegetarian/vegan. In total, usually a range of 5-10 different meals in a variety of combinations could be bought. Salad bars were available and could be added to the primary choices. Deserts, side-dishes, freshly made juices. A standard meal usually cost around 5 Euros, most of the time it consistent of great health-wise choices and and additional cafeteria was placed downstairs in which an additional salad bar and kitchen with another deserts and meals, with vending machines, coffee machines and a cafe itself.

It is my belief, that by providing the students with such a variety of choices is a great way of targeting unhealthy habits and minimizing obesity within students, but many also decide to go in directions completely different, especially in schools by providing optimal, tasty and healthy, sustainable meals. Then there is the physical education, which is a vital part, when you actually burn calories. However, at times these students avoid attending such classes, at times having the provision of a doctor’s certificate. Nevertheless, physical education for some even more obese may not necessarily be optimal if performed every day about which I will speak more later on.

National campaign at times may actually have some effect if designed properly. Many will showcase the benefits of a lifestyle change, some will directly criticize eating at fast-food chains. Such could be considered propaganda, although in this particular case the use is slightly more directed towards documented health hazards. Ultimately I came to a conclusion, that such campaigns do not necessarily make a larger effect. To think of it, obese need to be willing to accept some changes in their lives and want to actually lose weight. The very next step is to introduce measures so that they may successfully reduce it. And that can only be achieved from bottom-up methods.

There are a few bottom-up methods. Let’s start from the last listed: Surgery. It relies on Bariatric Surgery which rely on a number of potential methods. Without getting much into details, of which there is plenty: the method is effective. Patients lose weight, that’s the entire purpose of it. But on the other hand, usually it is not refunded and only recommended to people with a very high BMI, starting from 30 (obese). If the method is not refunded, then it is very costly and may come with complications and after the operation, the patient is required to a great number of constraints, which brings many risk along. Potentially viable, however, due to costs and risks, it’s not an optimal idea.

The second approach is taking medications. They usually target appetite or calorie absorption. The issue with them is though, that they are not fully tested, therefore it is difficult to assume the health impact they might invoke long-term. Unfortunately, they do not seem effective, modest results were achieved and they cost money. There are many different types that try to reach the goal, yet it doesn’t seem like a good idea to take such a massive amount of additional medication. Despite that it is an illness, other methods seem to be much more effective.

Exercise! So one of the potentially most effective ways to lose weight could be just movement and physical measures taken, right? You run, you kick or hurl a ball. You ride a bike or swim, so your muscles are forced to work, no question there and this requires vasts amount of energy. Question is, what amounts? Are they enough to actually induce weight loss? How much would you have to train to actually lose? In such case, I’d go straight to diets, however, I’ll continue a bit here. Now according to the info-graphic showcased underneath, we might learn a thing or two. Let’s assume that a person runs in the morning and in the evening, an hour each. Which is highly unlikely, considering how fatigued a person would get. In theory, that would be a burning rate of 700 calories each session. a DCI* (Daily Calorie Intake) for a person is usually around 2000 calories. In the values bound upwards, so it is technically easier to lose weight, however your muscles require regenerating and for such, high-protein meals are highly recommended. My point is, that even if you try really hard in performing a lot of physical activities, you might still remain in weight gain, perhaps it will be the muscle build, but it is unlikely to lose weight rapidly and the repercussions in terms of fatigue could eventually blow back . Also, I find it highly questionable for obese to perform extremely demanding activities. It may be possible to do so, but it’s definitely not an easy task, especially that also a diet needs to be considered in this case. So, what if we focused just purely on the diet? As physical exercise may always be blended in some way or another.

Well, after having researched the topic, it turns out that there are basically two primary types of weight loss diet, all linked to one general rule: your calorie intake needs to be lower than your DCI. It doesn’t matter what you throw out, if the calories will turn out to be an added value, you will gain weight, just as simple as that. You may try to eat without imposing any constraints on yourself, which is potentially viable. Or you could try following certain rules, out of which there are two primary methods. Before we go any further, I’ll just provide an additional reason for which I decided to approach this route. Basically, each person needs to eat. They have a variety of dietary requirements, but still the primary thing is and where we draw energy is food. So anyone can technically change their habits. Furthermore, you may also easily manipulate with your calorie intake if you monitor the ingredients. For that, additional education is required, yet the bottom-line is, you may eat an equal of 100% DCI, 150% DCI, 50% or even 0%, which will be harmful but in case of everyone and each, it is technically and potentially possible. Therefore, it is potentially the cheapest and healthiest approach – provided it is managed properly and you follow some general rules and potentially look into what products consists of which ingredients.

So there are literally two types of weight-loss diets that a person may follow: a low-fat diet, which is likely an obvious approach, quite popularized throughout the years and called as the healthy route. The effects are good, you’ll lose weight if you keep to the scheduled calorie intake. And there is the low-carbohydrate option which, especially recently is becoming an increasingly popular approach, called out by increasingly many as very effective and paradoxically healthy, opposing many voices taking it into question. I decided to delve a bit more into which diet is potentially more effective and narrow down afterwards on the user’s needs and requirements that diverge from it.

I tried looking more into each diet. And the number one problem I had was the lack of resources. I mean, in case of low-carb diet, there was a bazylions but not that many in case of low-fat. In such case I had to take a peek at basic differences in how weight-loss works in relation to each and perhaps what are the reasons of people who follow low-carb. And there were a few solid ones. First and foremost? Well, the thing is: hormonal differences. How a body works: when you eat anything starchy, with carbohydrates which are naturally high in GI* (Glycemic Index). Now, what happens is that insulin is being released to metabolize glucose. The interesting thing is, when Insulin levels are high the body is signaled to absorb fat (so it cannot be technically released). Once it wears off, glucagon rolls in, an antagonist produced by the very same liver, which signals now that fat may be released. That very reason showcases, that the effect of a low-fat diet is already relatively reduced. Furthermore, fat is just more filling. Sugar cravings are at times radically reduced and a single person find it difficult to eat above what’s needed. A few more reasons were posted, but I figured the provided are sufficient.

Well, let’s take a closer look at the low-carb options, shall we? There are literally a few types, all relate to low-carb, some variations that include going beyond but technically: the ketogenic diet, which relies on going below (recommended) 20g daily or above 50-70g of carbs (which kicks tends to kick out of the ketogenic state). Each potentially may invoke the same effects, as it’s, once again, all about the calories, however it is a question of how efficient each is. If you go above the limit, it will basically remain just a low-calorie diet as no major changes will really happen in your body. Whereas the ketogenic route is somewhat peculiar and especially interesting, out of which it needs to be stated, it is a completely natural way as we were built via evolution to be able to: primarily metabolize carbs, secondarily fat and thirdly amino-acids (basically, proteins). We tend to run primarily on carbs. What happens if we hop onto the fat burning schedule?

A lot of information is available on the internet in regards to how effective the diet is. Hell, even I tested a few approaches including even the low-fat approach, yet only with the ketogenic option I managed to drop 15kg in just merely 4 weeks, finished by the end of February last year. After having tried pursuing it a few times recurrently, weight-loss was still visible, yet these terms last for around 2 weeks each, potentially too short periods. This time, I decided to try it by myself again, for a period of 4 weeks until the final presentation surfaces, to check out whether it works with people who are in a normal BMI. Also, it needs to be stated that the ketogenic diet is nothing like the severe ketoacidosis experienced at the diabetic, as the ketone values never surface too high so that the body pH value would drop too severely, including the production of acetone, as any carbs that are intaken, may be and are still continuously metabolized by a fully functional pancreas. There are still some medical worries encompassing this diet, but research is continuously being undertaken so hopefully soon we will know more on long-term effects, as many tried to go down this road.

In week 10, I’ll discuss more the details of keto and perform some research in regards to user needs, I plan on conducting a questionnaire within the keto community and ask some of the individuals I know tried the diet and ask for what are their needs, how the diet went, its progression and such.

For week 10, please click here.

Targeting Obesity – Week 8 – fsou4085

After having been evaluated poorly on the execution of my design, I took some time, dwelling on what has been done wrong and how could it be improved in the future. The process was rather stagnant, as I was not entirely sure how I managed to perform so badly, except for the lack of background research that I was primarily judged on. Quite severely discouraged and underwhelmed, I refrained from pursuing the theme of Anxiety and came with an idea to actually work on something that I would potentially be passionate about, from which work I would actually derive some pleasure in working with and that I actually knew quite a few things about, especially in terms of the featured problem, its occurrence, morbidity and effective solutions, all of which, supported by grounded research that I have performed over a year ago, predeceasing the start of this course and the problem of which directly affected me and out of which I eventually managed to crawl myself out of. That problem is Obesity and it is a major issue with tackling which many nations spread across the world are succumbing, into an exponentially mounting up problem.

Before I went straight to any conclusions, I had to take under consideration quite a few notions. It has been quite some time since I went with the problem head-on, personally and that my methods were relatively radical, if not desperate. Also, the world changes now each month and it is significantly difficult to predict what might have shifted without actually looking into the heart of where it comes from and what new solutions might have arisen. So I analyzed the problem from bottom-up and top-to-bottom.

First of all, I looked into what Obesity is, with all its implications and how does it relate to Australia. What measures were taken to combat it? Are there any taken? How bad is actually obesity and in combination with which issues does it come with? Is it really so bad? Where does the problem come from? Myriad of questions out of which many were actually answered.

Compared to classic mental illnesses and disorders, obesity directly affects primarily just the body and that is exactly what’s becoming eventually a problem, a structure that is supposed to support us throughout life, slowly becomes an obstacle in many instances even without us knowing it and what degree of an exponential issue for now an obese person it has become. It’s a gradually developing problem and it partially relates to the mental sphere as well, even on many levels, yet primary: the lack of control on what you eat, impulsiveness in eating, supported by the current market structure which rather encourages consumerism, lack of knowledge in the foods you eat, especially which products contain what amount of calories, the energetic composition of chemicals that we may metabolize and use to function as our fuel. For instance, did you know that a 100g of chocolate amounts frequently to over 500 calories? Therefore, 2x classic 200g chocolate bars in theory already fulfill our DCI (Daily Caloric Intake)? On the other hand if you eat 1 kg of tomatoes, which may be considered partially starchy food, will result in just merely 170 calories? Now if we compare in grams, that is a whoopin’ over 30 multiplier, do I need to remind you with which food you’ll be able to actually satisfy your hunger? What about the nutritional values? Would you think chocolate is a healthy alternative? And that is just the tip of an iceberg, there are also: ice cream, chips, jellies and other sweets… But then, nature didn’t really equip us with regulatory measures. Cause, what for? We needed to survive and seldom had times of great abundance.

Now, let’s take a spin at the epidemiology. While it might be contested that obesity could be of considered any illness whatsoever, WHO says that it actually is and that it is a civizilational issue in developed nations. When I took a look at the numbers, I was staggered. In 12 countries more than 60% of the population is overweight. Australia sits in the top 5th for males and 7th for females. Surprisingly a few Arab countries are sitting at the top, yet this is likely due to not only sedentary lifestyle, but also an elaborate culinary culture, rich in relatively healthy, yet calorie-heavy foods. But then, we have countries in which the first violin is being played by fast-food chains, in which it is technically possible to remain within dietary norms, but long-term becomes just unsustainable and harmful. Little vegetables and fruits consumed, high in all: fat, protein and sugar, yet none of clearly sufficient quality. Especially the fries and classic soft drinks are the most harmful and do not come with proper micro-elements, except for exponential amounts of calories. The major companies are starting to apply some changes among the unchanging habits of the population, with the introduction of diet sodas, giving an option to customize meals, especially overseas in Europe there is a specific trend of forcing changes by major companies by invoking pleasant interior design, professional service (even table service) and a range of customization options, with the entire purpose of targeting also medium and higher income earners, even coming to a point where they actually started calling their joints restaurants (which had valid base and reasons).

For instance in European Pizza Hut (example: Poland), a customer needs to wait to be seated, is offered water, separate menus for meals and deserts, pizzas may be designed to your liking but the menu far outreaches its standard meals, Italian cuisine, unlimited salad bars, appetizers, comfy interiors all fitting a restaurant’s profile. Even new KFC joints, one opened near my old neighborhood opened up with a soothing mixture of wood and greens, as actual plants, which came along with customized meals and marketing as a friendly company, sourcing their ingredients fresh from local produce. Despite the clearly positive changes occurring in these particular instances, there is hardly any education relating to health, affecting the consequences of eating in large quantities apart from abstract numbers that do not necessarily mean much to an average consumer.

As mentioned before, in Australia obesity is a prominent issue, 1 in 3 people in the land down under are obese. But that’s not the end of it, in total: 2 in 3 people have an excess weight. Statistically speaking, every second person you’ll meet will have weight excess and every third will be obese. Now, while mental illnesses are widespread in developed (and not only) nations, obesity might become number 1, as it affects all dimensions within the country, most severely touching on the expenses sustained by, in many instances, public healthcare, which keep on piling up. There are also parts difficult to estimate, such as the decreased level of productivity in workplaces, which came as elements of the PwC report, conducted in between 2014-15. These come into direct and indirect costs bared by Australians as a nation and the forecasts are not uplifting.

What does Obesity exactly affect anyway? It is not that easy to project the exact health implications, as each person may have slightly different tendencies to plunge into some sorts of illnesses, in many cases genetically predestined, yet the most prominent are cardiological, respiratory, rheumatological, orthopedic and psychological. Studies show that in 35% of heart disease cases a direct link leads to obesity. 85% of population suffering from high blood pressure have a BMI over 25 (excess weight). 11-14% of heart failure cases were directly linked to obesity. Many have abnormal cholesterol levels and suffer from issues alike to depression and anxiety, frequently as a result of social stigmatization. Decreased mobility, deformed spine linked to back problems also come into play. Nevertheless, the potentially largest life-threatening issue is type 2 Diabetes which is directly linked in a substantial rate to obesity: between 64% and 77% of cases are directly linked. The question then that should be asked at this point – What is diabetes? If there is such a major correlation, perhaps answers may be sought within?

Type 2 is developed as a result of progressing insulin resistance within a body’s cells. Insulin is produced by pancreas, of which function is to regulate glucose levels. When sugars, or more specifically: carbohydrates are eaten, insulin metabolizes the intaken levels so that the mitochondria within body cells may produce ATP (and ADP) to provide energy for its cells to function properly. Once they begin to develop resistance, glucose is not metabolized properly anymore. Its effect may be mild, not affecting greatly the body, or severe in which the glucose levels will prevail in the body without the necessary mechanisms introduced to metabolize it. When the cells run out of material to run themselves, secondary body mechanism comes into action, as liver starts producing ketones to burn body-fat. The problem surfaces once the body starts producing an excessive amount of ketones, as a result of a sort of if I may describe it as that, a broken loop. Ketones keep on being produced, reaching a threshold when the body turns into an extreme version of ketoacidosis, with a pH blood level decreased and a substantial amount of acetone produced. In extreme cases it may lead to death preceded by turning into a state of coma. One may ask: why am I describing this? On one hand it describes intriguing body mechanisms, including metabolic pathways and on the other: the resistance is primarily due to substantial glucose-levels, which come primarily from sugars and carbohydrates alike.

In week 9, I will talk more about the potential remedies for obesity and the direction the concept will take.

Egomonsters – Week 4-5 – fsou4085

Final Concept

 

It was quite hell of a few weeks. First of all, once I came back from Europe, after having survived all of these exams, I felt a unique mixture. I did not exactly feel, rather it was a sense of accomplishment, or absolutely burnt out brains that were flushed right into another brain-dazzling tournament of a final approaching semester at University of Sydney. Hell, I missed it. But the interesting part was, that once I arrived for, practically speaking, week 3, suddenly I teleported to week 5. I did not know what was happening, I could not adjust easily to the old-yet-new environment. Everything seemed as if it stayed the same, but progress clearly was made around the faculty. And I made some poor, reluctance-based decisions, as I went on a 2-week diet that needed to be emergency-stopped due to an illness that I caught. So not only was I jet-lagged but also eventually managed to get seriously hit with an illness, with which I did nothing (which blew back eventually on me in a variety of vectors). Fortunately for us, we received an extension. Unfortunate for us, we didn’t exactly meet the expectations. However, let’s take a look, closer, into what happened within these weeks.

Electronic Tattoo Concept.

Stjepan managed to arrange to shift from OCD to Anxiety, as we had major difficulty performing interviews due to narrowed-down and yet quite ambitious approach of tackling a quite dangerous type of disorder. The progress did not go forward as planned and I slowly succumbed into the unfavorable and chronic lack of energy to perform anything, which additionally impacted a few adjacent units of study. Eventually once we hopped on the Anxiety wagon, we managed to kickoff with some relatively good stuff. Although, the major problem in my case still remained the illness, therefore I primarily focused on creating the additional graphical components such as mockups and storyboard. I tried researching a bit and also finding out perhaps a notch of my previous mild/medium-sized experiences, as I had to deal with some major/rough changes in my life, especially at the start of my journey at Design Computing. I suppose everyone has not only a breaking but also a bending point, mental illness takes a while to develop and usually comes with a number of additional, even more severe disorders.

What is one of the things that people like to feel? I suppose it is to feel okay, that everything is fine. Reassuring that the bad things aren’t necessarily bad. Redirecting from the bad thoughts, ideas and shedding some light on the positives. Many succumb to the vast limbo of negatives in moments of severe stress, triggering anxiety attacks. Therefore, a set of devices that could redirect attention to, might just do the trick maybe? Create an aura that books managed to invoke successfully for years and other media altogether? Each capsules emotions, feelings, atmosphere. There is plenty to be chosen from, however most are digital, intangible and therefore even a tamagotchi could be a solution, as it provides with a virtual character, that you potentially, partially can even feel in your hands.

Holograph Concept.

Perhaps then invoking a series of meaningful characters that actually try to provide direct help and feedback at times of great stress a good idea? That you have to look after? Develop some sort of a relationship that a person with anxiety will likely want to sustain? In order to sustain larger structures, smaller might need to be assembled. Instead of focusing on talking through problems perhaps it could be better to occupy oneself with an actual character? Fictional, yet always within reach.

I found the entire idea that we’ve developed relatively complex, yet straightforward, covering a range of users’ needs. Despite that I was not entirely able to support Stjepan in covering most of the design steps required for the Assignment 1, I still tried putting my best during the period of my illness and eventually believed in the concept as its development was feasible, within reach and potentially helpful for our target users. I am quite optimistic in regards to the presentation and will try to get relatively better to make sure we convey our ideas in a succinct and powerful way.

Fidget Cube concept.

In the upcoming Week 6, I will look into building a low-fidelity prototype with some, yet to be announced functionalities to test with potential users and showcase a few kickstarter videos, to provide some nuanced analysis in regards to how the projects related to their presentation.

BoomBox – Week 1 & 2 – fsou4085

You tried.

Before I could head back to Australia from the becoming lovely (and hellish) summer of centrally positioned within Europe’s very heart – Munich, I had to cope with a number of exams, all of them held in German and taught partially in a variety of mixtures: Slides in English, lecture in German or entirely in German. As a person, who had to take rapid courses to get myself to a satisfactory level in merely 2 months of time, approaching such a slushie seemed from any point of view like a deathwish. Nevertheless, I succeeded in Interaction Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Computer Graphics and likely in Advanced Topics of HCI and approached two extras. All totaled in around 2000 slides that had to be learned, comprehended and adapted to exams of which length was around 2 hours each, split within days of each other. A truly incredible experience, provided I took a rather ambitious approach of actually overloading at the consecutive semester, yet, I managed to acquire a vast amount of knowledge, that covers a bit more the technical aspects of Design and the feasibility of certain combinations, as well to understanding in a clear, succinct and forthcoming ways of how things work.

Accidents happen. This time nothing happened. Although, it did happened.

Nevertheless, during the first semester I actually approached a unit which was practically the other half of Product Design, yet sliced in half and condensed in a week and a half of rapid, constant 9to5 prototyping, trying to come up with a product of certain fidelity to meet the expectations of having it work in certain levels, at the very least, in our case to make sure that it works in relation to signals sent by the midi controller. I believe, considering that I lost the first two weeks of Product Design due to purchased with a year ahead plane tickets (had to, as the university needs to know, the government needs to know..) and examinations that were taking place even two weeks after the 31st of August (in which case I managed to arrange consideration for my circumstances), I may give a glimpse on what I have done, what I am capable of doing and what I have ultimately co-constructed, by what means, in what time-frame etc. etc.

So I approached the Sketching with Hardware practical course, which was held around February, just before the new semester came in. I was seated in the first row, next to a, as soon I was to find out, a German-Canadian who already had some experience with tinkering, was a member of the local Hackerspace (in which I have seen and heard things that were at the very least: truly inspiring) and… proposed from the very beginning that we literally ‘blow shit up’. I conferred, liked the idea of a symphony of destruction, as the following notes come up, something detonates. Fairly basic idea, fairly dangerous and could have been difficult to manage, considering how delicate most materials were that could be produced within the faculty’s boundaries.

We began with some basic stuff, which made the entire learning process of tinkering so easy to comprehend, that it was as if we were taught how electrical physics worked in just a few words (even in German) and somehow, magically, everyone already knew the principles of sketching with hardware.

We were told us to keep the colors of cabling in-tact. And so we sort of did…

Now for the interesting part: this course did not force the students nor did it necessarily encourage incurring additional expenses, even more interestingly, everyone was given an extra 20 Euros to spend on any additional equipment that was not already provided to us, out of which the given components were: Arduino Mega, stepper motors, batteries, piezzo speakers, a megaton of cables available at plentiful of varieties, LED diodes and a gigantic amount of scrap elements that were crafted by the past teams of Sketching with Hardware, making it a somewhat truly environmentally friendly course, as most elements from previous years were recycled, yet documented well, therefore none were ultimately gone (these courses are a gold mine for complementing students’ portfolios!).

Anyway, continuing, at first we were taught some more principles and so: provided with keyboard controllers… or were these just keyboards for us to disassemble? Anyway, most of the actual keyboards did not work, so no one really cared about them, so we used the controller by plugging it in to our arduinos and tried figuring out how does this actually work (write!). This was a classic example of hacking into devices, near-genius way of teaching complex mechanisms in a nearly, even over-comprehensible approach. We basically just wrote a bit of code (after finding out what the device was), touched the pins, figured out what combinations provided letters and voila! Mission successful!

At times, the impossible needs to become an anachronism.

The teaching part took 2 days, for the remaining we were scheduled to do our thing. No constraints, no nothing, just as long as we do our work, document it and should we have difficulties, speaking with the tutors to solve problems was encouraged. So, what we basically did, was agree on the components we needed and what we originally were willing to blow up. We quickly found out, that the stepper motors could be an idea as they rotated in a specific order. We calculated how many spins we could generate. And then figured out (or even beforehand), that capacitors should explode quite nicely, in accordance to their sizes (and hence, exploding force). Then we figured out, that we could laser-cut acrylic plates with holes in them and then, place: 5 step-up motors, laser-cut acrylic plates and many, many capacitors on them, all on a single plate, mounted and connected to electricity of potential high enough to make these little, meant for electronic components just go to a satisfactory boom, probably like Note 7’s did, once tried to be charged (I’m a Samsung guy, I like my Galaxy S7, just a quick note).

For the basics, we tested whether the stepper motors actually work and what were its constraints. Martin went off to start building stuff: laser-cutting ideal acrylic plates (that needed puncturing, one of which I unfortunately broke as I tried making the process more efficient), which turned out perfect to mount the capacitors onto. Wooden blocks were rounded and polished, although mounting the step-motors onto them came with some struggle (quite fragile material to drill into), I measured and adapted the design in Adobe Illustrator to make sure the entire setup will work as foreseen. Eventually I also run into power-related problems as the five step-motors started lacking power.

Presumably, several types of heaven may exist.

In case of brainstorming, we thought of the variety of capacitors available and the ones that we eventually had to detonate. Amplifying the sound could have became an option, although eventually we had to go a different direction. Eventually we managed to build the skeleton in just the second day, having some problems with power, programming, figuring out how will the blowing-up thing work and whether it will provide adequate sounds.

The very next day, we fixed the power problems with an additional power supply and started testing out popping up the capacitors. The smaller ones exploded. The larger ones did not. And probably it turned out for the best, as once the tutor heard of how strong the larger capacitors were about to explode.. likely it would have created mayhem and not a pleasant one, at the very least. Especially that we tried going the more dangerous route and plugged the entire rig in, eventually, directly to the power outlet, which resulted in burnt magnetic tape and students complaining next door, that suddenly their computers went off and why was that. Beforehand, we tried using a device which generated specific voltages and amperes, which we found as a quite handy tool.

Power tools and some advanced hot-air-spitting device in the background.

Nevertheless, there needs to be some reflection notes too. I probably shouldn’t lead this post too far away, so I’ll focus on a few major problems that we ran into. First of all, the design seemed solid from the very beginning, its execution quite likely and while many teams have struggled, we already had 75% of the prototype built by the 3rd day. Then, we ran into many sorts of problems. One part was, the midi controller, which we couldn’t test as it was not ready until later on. Secondly, we could not blow anything up during the presentation day, as there were many visiting professors scheduled to see what we have created, therefore we substituted those with piezzo speakers. Thirdly, the last but not least, we ran into the most problematic question: how do we connect the power supply to the capacitors/piezzos? We needed something sturdy enough to connect the power. Yet flexible enough for the piezzos/capacitors to move with the stepper motors and these did not have unlimited power. We tried with screws, we tried re-positioning, we tried conductive tape, nothing worked or it just glitched out. We found out that the mounted acrylic plates were slightly unstable, hence Martin decided eventually to just apply some strong glue to it, which helped… until. Eventually the way to go was to drill in screws into the surface, apply a bit of foam of exactly measured width, length and height, tape it to the screws and apply a bit of split apart conductive tape, so that the + and – did not connect to one another. Eventually… it sort of worked. But then, the glue went into the stepper motors and halted them altogether, which happened just the day before the presentation was about to take place (so we had to do our best to get them unglued, cleaned and so that they span like they should, which we partially managed to achieve).

Sometimes, we require more than we’ve been delivered.

The final effect was… fair. It’s impossible to create an actual working product in a week and a half, yet a functioning prototype… That’s a positive. Once all the projects were plugged into the midi controller, all hell broke loose, but it seemed that the audience was relatively impressed with the constructions. Our project seemed to be the most aesthetically pleasing with its laser-cut engraved BoomBox right on the acrylic plate, primarily made as a shield against shrapnel produced by exploding capacitors. Instead, piezzos annoyingly yelled for extended amounts of time. Still, we tried 🙂

One of the objectives, as I presume, of this course and other practical courses is to get hands-on with actual project-work in which 90% is practice and 10% is theory and apply techniques that were learned throughout the other semesters. Everyone that I spoke with kept Sketching with Hardware in high regards as the students could showcase their knowledge and creativity altogether. Also, we received highest marks for our project (1.0).

Please, don’t do this at home (even at work, ain’t a prime idea)

Additional information about the project(s) may be sought here: (Day 4)

And here: Project’s Overview and reflections

For a youtube project video, please click: Here

For a Day 4 Progress video, please click: Here

In the upcoming week 3, Stjepan will showcase our approach to OCD topic.

ANX – Week 6-7 – fsou4085

Week 6

 

Ok, let’s take a look at the stats. When people want something, these usually really want something. But at times, they don’t even know they want something, until they get met with a decent marketing campaign. The coolest cooler is a reinvented cooler (duh!). The interesting, though, about this project was, that the first coolest cooler was not kickstarted. It reached a 100.000$ out of the goal set for 125.000$. Now it might seem that the project became a flop, the founder did not stop there, redesigned the cooler and tried his luck again. With a woopin’ ~13.285.000$ raised. But the thing is, the older marketing campaign wasn’t that bad actually. It was informative, well-structured and directed, a bit witty, just the video probably a notch too long, however it didn’t feel as if it went on forever.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryangrepper/the-coolest-cooler-with-blender-music-and-so-much

In fact, the newer version was restructured, started off in better fashion by focusing on the essence of traditional coolers and took the marketing ideas a bit further. Many lines were repeated, yet new features came with new monologues. It was professionally shot, nevertheless some angles I found to be a notch worse and clearly standing out poorly compared to all the professionally directed sequences. All in all, though, the product did get a massive amount of money, millions compared to originally asked for 50.000$?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1002143342/undertale

If there was one other project that requires to be mentioned, except for many like pebble or of this grade like Pillars of Eternity etc. It should be undertale. A game for which the creator just asked 5.000$. He reached 50.000$. Once you take a look a the video, it seems almost like a joke. Pixel-style, old-school game with some potentially witty outlook. But what is it about? What’s its purpose? Why would anyone want to support it? Well, after it was released, eventually it broke a million copies released and even received some game of the year titles. Quite an unexpected turn of event, right? All thanks to unorthodox gameplay, highly compelling narration and very well-matching soundtrack.

 

Seems I haven’t lost my Arduino skills yet.

 

Week 7

 

So I decided to continue with the idea of Ego Monsters. In order to approach that idea I believed that merging the four monsters into one could be the best approach and to gamify it, in order to make it a complex approach at addressing Anxiety. Despite that research showcased that people wanted an app for combating the illness, it was my stance that a physical product should likely be constructed for the purpose of this unity of study.

At first, however, I had to take a look at how does the arduino board work. So I started messing around, installed the additional software and the LCD screen that comes with the sparkfun electronics kit. At first it took a while to install everything with all the cables and such, but eventually I got it working, surprisingly without any major problems in the process!

Then I decided to take the bull by its horns and play around with additional hardware that came with Sparkfun. So I tested out further devices such as the LED diode, which turned out to be not as difficult as I thought at the time. At first I coded for separate colors, although it turned out that I messed up the cables and some code, and the positioning so after some tests and trials performed, I reached the satisfactory setup. Furthermore, I introduced a code to display text and a counter in the LCD screen.

I believed I had to keep on making progress so I installed a button and a piezzo speaker. The button had a relatively straightforward setup, yet the piezzo required a bit of work, especially to make it work in conjunction with the other elements on the board. Eventually I got that to work and play sounds in different frequencies. One problem I had was that the piezzo took quite a fair bit of time along with the LED diode, making the loops long enough to freeze the LCD screen and the counter. So I had to find some satisfactory workaround to keep the device fluent. Nevertheless, it seemed good so far!

Along the way I found out that the LED diode does not necessarily require resistors, in fact they are pointless in this setup. Anyway, I added two more buttons along the way and tried to differentiate the outcome in case of pushing each button.

I did however come across an extremely peculiar problem as it was impossible to get the setup working properly. First of all, it only responded to the button as if it was not pressed (LOW). Secondly, only the red button and at times the blue button worked properly, the other two were overs-ceded by the red button, which was not pressed nor was any other way that it could have been connected. So I investigated the matter for an hour and… found no clear answer, except that I put in a resistor which holds the system’s shape. The other buttons for some reason do not require a resistor and I don’t know the answer to the sudden – why. Eventually, once I took the piezzo out, the system seems to be working just fine.

Eventually I had to remodel the entire setup. At this point, I ran out of cables so I’ll have to work with what I’ve got at the moment. I hardly was able to include all of the elements: LCD screen, 4 buttons, a piezzo and a manual resistor regulator. All the digital output pins are taken and it seems that it’s good that way, as all we need is a simple device that targets anxiety. It embeds the idea of Ego Monsters, there are four buttons and a screen which at this point I decided to program so that it showcases different outcomes and has different functions. That became quite a problem.

First of all, I had to figure out some logic system by which any scenarios could be played out. That was tricky, but I found a counting system, inspired by the counter that was already going on every second in case of the LED screen. The new counter would have to be independent, actually dependent solely on the button presses, with each that would introduce a different outcome. After vile attempts at getting the system right, after half an hour, it became what I expected it to be. IT FINALLY WORKED (but with flaws, like automatically lit red light). Anyway, there are 16×2 of space for letters to be introduced. I’ll have to make it count.

Along the way I also managed to connect the board to processing sheet, but I could not find a great way of applying it. I thought of converting sketches to the screen, but at present moment it’s kinda pointless.

During the course of development, some glitches at times arose, becoming a problem, but in the long run I got quite far already.
My objective for the prototype… make the user feel better.

Basically what I created is a device that is kinda like a pager. The buttons are relatively durable and you know it when you click it. The tangible part connects with the user and the user knows it, as the response time minimal, the information comes instantly.

At this point, the point of the device is to issue messages that will be user-friendly. Many people who suffer from anxiety attacks may not be told kind things. It is the device’s job to reassure that everything’s okay, what you’re feeling is okay, others might feel similarly and have similar problems. If you’re feeling uncomfortable, then the device might uplift you straightaway. It’s cheap, yet durable and responsive. A simple device targeting complex problems, yet at current stage, just merely a prototype, relatively low-fidelity yet with some additional inclusions of a variety of functionalities. Tiny dialogues, audio-visual feedback, with 4 senses involved.

OK KIDS, REMEMBER THAT ELSE IF IS VERY IMPORTANT

CAUSE IF YOU ONLY IF, YOU’LL GET LOOPED

AND IF YOU ELSE IF, YOU’LL GET ELSE IF’ED (WHICH IS BETTER, TRUST ME)

The prototyping phase taught be a few things. First of all, you need to keep working on the code and if you get stuck, ask someone for help, ’cause the solution might be closer than you’d think it is, just you’re looking at the problem the wrong way. Coding can become very mundane especially once you keep on hitting roadblocks, but it’s just a question of how long you spend on getting the device running, you trying to research a variety of ways of combating the problem, applying proper logical approaches and learning the theory itself (and then applying it). So far, it’s been fun, though and I truly believe my prototype may actually become an actual device.

Tune in here for Week 8 endeavors.

WordPress rants

Nevertheless I did have major problems with WordPress. At first it was not responding as I had limited options to access the account. My websites are not fully showcased, for instance this blog was not, my default one was, however, as wordpress was not responding, I didn’t have access to anything. I had to change my password which I forgot, so I reintroduced it, but it took a while to get the email. The rules for the introduction of new passwords are not clear and not safe as it showcases what you apply. But anyway, I got through with it, after getting blocked for a few minutes.

So I started writing this blog, but then I figured I’ll need to apply some pictures, so I looked into the wordpress app installed on my smartphone, which said that I could log in with fingerprint authentication, so it sent an email, which I activated after the second time as the first showcased a blank page, but the app did not budge so I had to introduce my password manually. The system showcases notifications in chunks of three different languages: English, Polish and German which is further annoying. But the most worst part? I pasted in three paragraphs that were not supposed to be saved into a blog and then I lost them as WordPress applied the previous state without taking under consideration what I pasted in, losing around 20 minutes of my work. Extremely annoying platform, for some uses perhaps a relatively good idea, but I just keep on running into, perhaps compatibility issues.

Also, it doesn’t support simultaneous workflow PC-Mobile, therefore I lost additional content. How convenient.