Jerry Wei-Hua Yao – Tangible Interfaces

Group 5 | the Third Eye

Jerry Wei-Hua Yao — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 18:09:32 +0000

the Third Eye | ChoongHyo Lee, Jerry Wei-Hua Yao, Seong Ho Yun, Xi Yao Wang

Concept
The Third Eye is a navigation glasses for visually impaired people, helping them to understand the environment where they are at. The goal of the glasses is to provide a better walking experience for blind people and make them understand the space through different vibration patterns.
Inspiration, Motivation

The most common aiding tool for visually impaired people nowadays is the walking cane. Although the canes do solve a lot of problems for blind people while they’re walking, there are still certain aspects which remain unsolved. For example, the blind people can only detect the objects within the moving range of their canes (a small sector area). And also they need to actually touch the obstacles in order to know what objects are they dealing with, or where the obstacles are.
Therefore, most of the time blind people are just avoiding obstacles on the street. They didn’t really know what is around them until they touch it with their canes. That is why we wanted to build a device which can work WITH the cane, solving the problems that the cane have and doing the things that the cane cannot do. By wearing the Third Eye, it enables the users to have the a basic understanding and the sense of environment just like we do.
Design Decisions, Constraints
We started this project trying to replace the cane by different types of wearable devices. However, after realizing that the cane does not only work as an aiding tool for blind people, it also makes them feel more secure and safer while using it. We decided to put more effort on helping the blind people to understand the environment without touching the objects. And we came up with the idea of vibration patterns.
Features

Default Mode: while the glasses is not detecting any obstacles within 5 meters (16 feet). The vibration pattern goes from back to front, signaling that the user could move forward. The idea here is imagine an invisible person who is pulling you and guiding you forward.
http://m834.media.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/forward.m4v

Obstacle detected: When the glasses detect the obstacles in front of the users, the vibration patterns activate from front to the back. It makes the users feel as if someone is dragging them from behind, signaling them to move backwards and avoid the obstacles. As the user gets closer to the obstacle, the frequency and intensity of the vibration increases as well to warn them.
http://m834.media.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/obstacle-detected.m4v

http://m834.media.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/moving-closer.m4v
Multi sensing/3d scanning: The two ultrasonic sensors on the glasses could work separately, allowing users to scan the environment and have a basic understanding of how the structure and environment could be like.
http://m834.media.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/multi-sensing.m4v

http://m834.media.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/12/3d-scan-environment.m4v

Implementation (and links to code/related materials)

Final Experience, Lessons Learned

Research about the best location for the vibration motors (the most sensitive spot on the face)
The vibration somewhat affect/interfere the users hearing experience.
Think of more interaction between the glasses and the canes.

Video
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nl0jz7mp5ykhjyn/thirdeye.mp4?dl=0

Team 4 – Drink Me – Project I

Jerry Wei-Hua Yao — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 13:56:23 +0000

Group 4 Members

Caroline Rozendo, Choonghyo Lee, Jaleesa Trapp, Jerry Wei-Hua Yao, Jianing Tao, Xiaojiao Chen

Video

Concept

Drink Me uses the combination of smell and color to invite a friend to have a cup of coffee. When a cup of coffee (or another hot liquid) is placed on the sending drink coaster, the receiving coaster changes colors and emits the smell of coffee, signaling that it’s time to have a drink.

http://m834.media.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/11/Animate.mp4

Affordances

There are three affordances that will allow users to interact with Drink Me without having to spend a lot of time figuring out how it works. The affordances that allow for simple interactions are scents, coffee mugs, and drink coasters.
The affordance of scent is that smell is closely linked to human memories and emotions. Emitting the smell of coffee will evoke a memory and encourage the receiver of the message to pour a cup of coffee.
The affordance of a coffee mug is the handle. Users will know to pick up their hot mug by using the handle.
A drink coaster is an indication that a cup should not be placed on a bare table. The drink coaster will encourage the sender of the message to place their cup on their coaster to invite the receiver to have a drink with them.

Implementation

Drink Me was implemented using a combination of fabrication, sensors, code, and coffee mugs. The two drink coasters were created with a 3D printed base and a waterjet cut top made of metal, and painted with thermochromic ink.

The inside of the coasters contains a photon, peltier sensor, and a color (RGB) sensor. The RGB sensor detects the color of the coaster that is sending a message. If the coaster does not have a warm drink (45 degrees celsius or warmer) the paint is orange. When a coffee mug containing liquid warmer than 45 degrees celsius is placed on the coaster, the paint will turn to yellow. Once the color sensor detects the color yellow, it will trigger the peltier in the receiving drink coaster to heat up, changing the color of the thermochromic ink and heating the wax that will emit the smell of coffee. The change in color of the receiving drink coaster and the smell of coffee is an invitation to have a drink with the person on the sending end.

Jerry Wei-Hua Yao

Jerry Wei-Hua Yao — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 03:58:46 +0000

Hey I’m Jerry, first year graduate student at MAS. My works focus on comprehensive specialties ranging from product design, vehicle design, and interaction design. One thing that I desire is to integrate my design ability and knowledge of engineering, achieving infinite possibilities among different projects.
I believe a deeper understanding on human-centered research and design methodology can be achieved throughout tangible interfaces. I wish to integrate two vastly different areas and have a better understanding of product user and their concerns.
From my perspective, a really good product is one where it combines both its technological innovations and marketability. My goal is to create better products that can actually improve life experiences and raise quality of life in the future.