Elective course
(6 credits)
This course is closely linked to a research project called Touch, which looks at interfaces between mobile phones and physical objects through a technology called Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID). Touch is funded by the Norwegian Research Council and is led by Timo Arnall at the institute of industrial design at AHO. The project is dealing with highly important industrial questions and uses ethnographic methods to understand the way people use tangible things as part of their everyday life. For more information about the project, visit www.nearfield.org
The course is introduced with a broad perspective of how humans interact with everyday objects, the environment and network objects by using all of our senses. Touch and tactility in physical interactions for new digital services and products is the focus of the course. A central element is therefore new physical interfaces and the connection to interaction design. The course gives the students the possibility to take part in the exploration of new social interaction patterns, to conceptualise and potentially co-design demonstrators in co-operation with the Touch research team.
The students will:
- understand the fundamental challenges with NFC-, RFID- and mobile technology in relation to services
- gain an overview of research and projects within the field of physical computing
- gain an understanding of interaction design methodology, innovation processes, embodied interaction, social and mobile computing
- understand the connections between interaction design and industrial design
- develop their abilities to evaluate and give critique with regard to physical interactive experiences
- get an introduction to ethnographic research
- learn more about working in interdisciplinary teams of designers, programmers and sociologists
All students will also learn methods and tools to make working physical prototypes, and gain basic practical abilities with electronics.
The course is based upon hands-on learning through doing by experimenting with physical interaction: sensing the environment, processing data, and affecting the world.
The course starts with a series of weekly workshops that will give the student an understanding of the practicalities of electronics, sensors and actuators. In these weekly workshops the course encourages experimentation and reflection, students are encouraged to play with interactive prototypes using both physical materials and digital programming. The goal is to break with tradition and develop novel, yet natural solutions.
Areas covered:
- Design methodologies for interaction design and physical computing
- Designing interactive products and novel ways of using them
- Using new interface technologies
- Using different senses for interaction, like sound or movement
- Designing systems that range in size from the hand, to the body to the scale of buildings or cities
- Incorporating sensors into everyday products
The remainder of the semester is a major assignment. Students will work in multi-disciplinary teams, where the goal is to create solutions, make them and try them in co-operation with the Touch research team. The course can potentially give students access to more resources than normal. Students are encouraged to make and test physical prototypes using the materials workshops available at AHO and the rapid prototyping machines.
Students hand in four minor assignments and a personal major assignment.
An external sensor will judge the final results in dialogue with the internal teachers and give written feedback. We expect students to read and discuss theory even though the course is mainly practical and experimental. The course is graded as PASS/FAIL.
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