What I thought I was going to write an essay about.

For my essay, I will be researching and writing on the topic of E-Ink based technologies. (I've actually changed my mind now, but I thought posting this might be helpful anyway.)

Initially I will be looking at the Amazon Kindle, and how it is portrayed.

This advert is of a stack of books, with a Kindle resting to the side. It's simple, and effective. The kindle is the same height as the stack of books, but so much smaller. The message is easy to see - the Kindle can hold a lot of books in a small device, it's equivalent to the stack of books and more, but at a much lighter weight and much smaller size. The advert uses no text apart from that on the books and the kindle logo on the device. The advert casts the books in a slight shadow and highlights the Kindle, making it the subject of the image.

As a result, it is depicted as a good alternative to having a lot of books - carrying a small and light Kindle around is far easier, as well as providing a storage space for books if your bookshelf is already full. It is depicted as an alternative to traditional paper books. The kindle could be seen as a replacement for books, and although I think that it's a really useful piece of technology, I am fairly sure that most people will still prefer traditional books over ebooks.

Reflection

One idea behind this installation, and the idea that I think is probably one of the most useful, is to create a replacement for the screens that display train times at the train station. While I am not sure about the RFID tag idea, as it would be tricky to implement, it certainly would be a much better way to display the information than the current system.

I'm very happy with the way my little cloud weather demo turned out. It's a simple and quick way to see the weather, and one that adults and children can understand easily. It has the advantage of being useful for foreign travellers too, as it based on images rather than writing or spoken words, so it could be easily understood for someone who is just visiting and just has a travel book for translations.

The train journey map would also be useful - audio announcements at the train station are often unclear and hard to hear over the general noise of the station. Having a quick and easy referable map that can be easily understood would be advantageous.

Creation and Realisation

I've created two little videos showing what some aspects of the dome might look like. They're pretty rough around the edges and not that spectacular, but I'm hoping that they convey the idea.

While Vimeo has a nice interface and design it's pretty slow unless you want to pay. It took about fifteen minutes to convert my 10 second video clip, and cut a second off the end. Edit: Now it has cut off about half of my second video. :c I'm just going to use YouTube.



This video shows the idea of a map that would be projected onto the inside of the dome. The idea is that if someone has an RFID enabled ticket, they can view a little map showing their train's journey when the RFID signal is picked up by a monitor.



This video shows another idea for a projection inside the dome. It displays in a cute and fun way, the weather of different towns / cities in the UK. The first would be the one where you are currently, and then the rest would be for locations that trains due shortly would be traveling to.

Requirements of our Interactive Installation

Here is a list of requirements for our groups interactive installation that I have come up with.

1. The installation must utilise a dome within the internal space of the current train station without any constructional adjustments.
2. The installation must use projection as its main display method.
3. The installation must be a good source of information for the traveller.
4. The installation must be a better replacement for the screens which display the train times currently.
5. The installation must be non-obstructive - there should be no large things getting in peoples way in the middle of the train station.
6. All projection equipment should conform with requirement number 5 and if possible be wall mounted also, to further reduce any path blocking.
7. The train times information must be very clear and easy to see - it should be the main focus of the installation.
8. The installation must be visually appealing and suitable for all ages.

...

My Inspirations

I wanted my 'tattoo' to display what influences me most of all, and to show what kind of person I am. The background of my image is a section of my bookshelf, which sits at the bottom of my bed. I see it every day, and I feel it shows my interests (Japanese culture) and aesthetic tastes (how I like bright, childish, and rough designs, but also dark, elegant, and mature designs).

I adjusted the levels in the image to darken the background slightly so it did not overpower my hand. I chose to go for a handwritten and organic feel for my font. The font is called "Sunshine in my Soul". I decided to stick with one font as I wanted to give the image a uniform feel, and show how my inspirations are all interlinked as I like to mix and match styles.

The swirls on my arm are there to tie the text together. I wanted everything to be subtle, so I made all the images and text faint and in fairly neutral colours.

The text in my design is a collection of things that inspire me and make my days brighter. They are:

• Listening to music
• Playing the guitar
• Colour, texture, and pattern
• Photographs
• The Victorians and vintage items/antiques
• Japan
• Alice in Wonderland

A Little Bit About the Kindle...

For my essay, I will be researching and writing on the topic of E-Ink based technologies.

Initially I will be looking at the Amazon Kindle, and how it is portrayed.

This advert is of a stack of books, with a Kindle resting to the side. It's simple, and effective. The kindle is the same height as the stack of books, but so much smaller. The message is easy to see - the Kindle can hold a lot of books in a small device, it's equivalent to the stack of books and more, but at a much lighter weight and much smaller size. The advert uses no text apart from that on the books and the kindle logo on the device. The advert casts the books in a slight shadow and highlights the Kindle, making it the subject of the image.

As a result, it is depicted as a good alternative to having a lot of books - carrying a small and light Kindle around is far easier, as well as providing a storage space for books if your bookshelf is already full. It is depicted as an alternative to traditional paper books. The e-ink technology within the kindle provides so many more benefits over the usual way of reading e-books, on LCD screens. It's a lot gentler on your eyes, and consumes very little power. The Kindle has a battery life of over a month within optimal conditions. The kindle could be seen as a replacement for books, and although I think that it's a really useful piece of technology, I am fairly sure that most people will still prefer traditional books over e-books.

Procrastination

If I let myself talk about whatever I want this will no longer be a work blog, so I've got to make sure I don't start ranting about anything... I should probably set up another blog for the purpose of talking about which odd socks I am wearing every day and other deeply personal issues.

I'm really quite excited about making a game. It's something I've attempted to do loads of times but I've always given up because I didn't think it was good enough or just could not be bothered. This time something will get done, because I have to do it. I wish I was one of those people that have the motivation and willpower to make anything they want, but sadly I'm not one of them. This piece of coursework comes at a good time, as it was only yesterday I was thinking about what kind of cute and mildy amusing game I could make. I might do a game where you have the character bouncing from platform to platform, like the kind you have on smartphones with the built in gyroscope as the control mechanism. I'm not sure if it's for a smartphone or just the computer, but I would imagine just the computer at this stage. There's no point in trying to make a RPG or anything, considering I spent a few hours trying and failing to make a snake clone a few months ago, this should challenge me enough for now.

For one of Simon's modules I'm going to write a bit on E-Ink. In fact, I should probably do that now.

I made a few sequences of pictures which I'll animate (using flash? or a video?) tomorrow in Simon's other module, the one with the group work (train station stuff). They demonstrate how the inside of the dome would look if you let a 7 year old take control. I'll write up more about this later, because I'd like to attempt making something a bit better at a later date.

Hannah's modules coursework is writing an essay on a particular technology (there was more to this but I don't remember), past or present. I'm going for past, as it will give me an excuse to spend ages reading about Victorians, and I'll probably enjoy it! I should certainly make a start on research this week... I'm not sure which kind of technology I will research. Perhaps the printing press, or another industrial machine, or gramophone? Maybe one of the earlier wax cylinder players... I'm not even sure if they are all in the Victorian era.

I should stop writing about work I need to do now, and do some work.