TRACE

Conclusion & Future Work In a world that is constantly constructing and reconstructing the definition of art, there is a huge distancing effect that stems between people and the act of creating itself. Movement, and especially the data associated with movement is full of complexity and personal relevance, making it a rich domain for open-ended exploration. TRACE, a tool that allows people to engage with art by combining digital and tangible representations of movement, is another step towards addressing the challenges of designing an interactive system that translates user input into a means for creativity. Future work will continue to tackle these challenges by implementing arduino capabilities with the TRACE interface. By creating more pathways that link digital interfaces with movement, we hope to provide additional alternative outlets for creative expression in the digital arts.

Original Artifacts Interactive Display Surface The interactive display surface is a tangible screen that a user can interact with via touch. The screen displays the output of our tangible device, and allows a user to interact with the output via tangible device. Sock The sock is a typical sock, made smart. Using conductive thread, a sensor, and a data collector, the sock becomes a tracking device for the user’s movement. It takes in data such as pressure, time, position, and distance in order to be used in the visual display created by the interactive surface. Updates to Original Design Our main design alteration is converting our sock design into an arch band support; we considered several critiques from the TUI class when making this design decision. 1. Comfort and accessibility for different types of users When reflecting upon the class’ critique of the sock, we realized that the design has two flaws relating to comfort and accessibility. In terms of com...

Technical work Our technical implementation involved a lot of learning-by-doing. Our input options went through several cycles that allowed us to learn what worked (and what didn’t): Nokia Go API Our first attempt utilized Nokia Go , a low-cost fitness tracker similar to a FitBit. The Nokia platform has an API that allows developers to read information including daily steps and acceleration. However, once we set up both our device and the API keys, we couldn’t read the data from the server. We spent over a week debugging this API, we could not find an implementable solution.  Arduino (LightBlue Bean) Our second attempt utilized the LightBlue Bean device, an arduino with a Bluetooth Low Energy development platform. While we were able to link the Bean device to our computers and successfully change the LED colors based off acceleration, we were not able to read the values in the serial monitor on our macOS system. Thus, we decided to switch to a PC com...

Team Rachel Dodell, Mina Oh, Maddie Kim OhKiDoKi Problem Our project expands an average person’s artistic toolset by enabling an individual to create art through movement — which allows for a more accessible platform for an audience that was excluded from creating their own pieces through traditional methods. Our goal is to make walking, running, dancing, and other forms of movement into a richer artistic expression by create a visualization and a creative experience through our interface. TRACE allows users to preserve represent and preserve their movements in a beautiful visualization keepsake. Users We envision two primary user classes, which we call “performance users” and “casual users.” Performance users  include those who consider themselves to be athletes, whether professionally or recreationally: dancers, runners, tennis players, etc. These performance users are skilled in their exercise of choice. They are excellence-driven and value their performances/games/ru...