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GMU:Printed Circuit Board Art/mxkllmnn (view source)
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The good thing about dismissing this first idea was the new opportunity to find a topic closer to what I was doing in my thesis at that moment. To call a spade a spade: I wrack my head around the question of how to cope with the challenge of increasing automation with regard to interfaces that are being transformed as a result. In most cases, if the cybernetic loop of control and display is being altered, a transformation of the underlying system’s user interface is implicit. In home automation, for example, this has led to the disappearance of well established interfaces and now all too often leave us frustrated. In a nutshell, this project is about designing new interfaces as an alternative to popular but dystopian smart home futures or: How to teach old switches new tricks. | The good thing about dismissing this first idea was the new opportunity to find a topic closer to what I was doing in my thesis at that moment. To call a spade a spade: I wrack my head around the question of how to cope with the challenge of increasing automation with regard to interfaces that are being transformed as a result. In most cases, if the cybernetic loop of control and display is being altered, a transformation of the underlying system’s user interface is implicit. In home automation, for example, this has led to the disappearance of well established interfaces and now all too often leave us frustrated. In a nutshell, this project is about designing new interfaces as an alternative to popular but dystopian smart home futures or: How to teach old switches new tricks. | ||
'''The SwitchSwitch Project:''' | |||
At first, the concept was to introduce capacitive touch areas (a formation of discrete sensor pads, a matrix or sliders <- pictures) to the surface of a conventional switch to extend its binary characteristic and to broaden the repertoire of input gestures. However, I soon realised that such a modification would undermine exactly what I am trying to preserve – the switch mechanism’s inherent psychophysical feedback. Great user interfaces (read: Switches), which are much more in line with our human sensory nature, have been replaced by touch displays in many places (picture). Especially with regard to automation, this was an obvious choice, as graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are much easier to integrate due to their ability to react to system changes simply by programming. A physical switch does not respond if the system’s status is being changed automatically or remotely. So the idea to have a remotely switchable switch was born, hence the working title SwitchSwitch. Furthermore, by temporarily decoupling the switch from the circuit of the object to be turned on or off and putting a microcontroller in between, the (automated) system becomes capable of utilizing the acoustic, visual and haptic signals evoked via the usage of its interface to articulate intent (at least this is the hypothesis to be confirmed). To conclude, my thesis is about designing output gestures made of sequences of clicks in combination with flickering lights. To do so a conventional switch is being equipped with some more advanced technology, and that is what this project is about. | |||
[[File:ButterflyPCB.jpg|800px]] | [[File:ButterflyPCB.jpg|800px]] | ||