News/Research

Revisited: Critical Making Showcase

07 May, 2018

Revisited: Critical Making Showcase

Critical Making students operationalize and critique the practice of making through both foundational literature and hands on studio culture. As hybrid practitioners, students developed fluency in readily collaging and incorporating a variety of physical materials and protocols into their practice. With design research as a lens, they envision and create future computational experiences that critically explore social and culturally relevant technological themes.

On May 2nd, students showcased their final provocation, in which they were challenged to envision and create a landscape of new-wearable interactive technologies, as part of the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation Spring Showcase.

Find more information at http://make.berkeley.edu/showcase.html

Eyeris

Silvia Kim
George Moore
Arianna Ninh
Katherine Qiu

Eyeris is a performative wearable that aims to tackle the issue of sexual harassment –specifically, non-consensual touch. It’s common for many people, especially women, to experience inappropriate touching in their day-to-day lives. So, how can we prevent these violating encounters from happening? We designed Eyeris, an interactive coat speckled with mechanical irises that deter potential predators from pursuing non-consensual contact. When someone touches the jacket without the wearer's consent, the irises open to reveal eerie, glowing eyes. This causes the assailant to feel like they are being watched, hence discouraging criminal, inappropriate behavior. This subtle yet immediate reaction to touch reminds us to be more cognizant of the implications of our actions.

PerSpectacles

Nour Eldifrawy
Leeann Hu
Crystal Lee
Nigel Mevana

Many of today’s problems stem from social disconnect, despite social media’s promise of making the world more “connected”. That’s why we created PerSpectacles, a pair of spectacles that challenges that promise of a more connected world. They provide a comfortable, but narrowed perspective, symbolic of the actual effect social media has on our world view. Each of the lens were designed to exaggerate the ways technology facilitates and/or manipulates the way we view the world (e.g. unduly optimistic, narrow-minded, and ignorant). The ability to manually control the filters, as users of technology, is symbolic of our role in causing our lives to become more filtered, controlled, and detached.

Flip-Fluvs

Carolyn Chen
Michelle Kim
Alyssa Li
Yang Liu
Christina Pappas

Flip-Fluvs are wearables designed to help wearers enjoy sunny weather safely. A UV sensor on the Flip-Fluv detects UV rays and triggers a haptic motor on the shoe to vibrate and an LED on the wristband to light up and notify the wearer that they should apply sunscreen. The wearer then uses the wristband to input the SPF they used, which then resets the notification cycle. This triggers the Peltier in the shoe to cool down and provide the user with the reward of a soothing cold sensation. The design was inspired by the fact that sunscreen is a simple but often elided method of protecting one’s skin and body from the various health detriments of UV rays. Since sunlight is usually considered to be positive, people are often unaware of how vigilantly they should protect themselves from its negative effects. Flip-Fluv is intended to increase their awareness and proactiveness against sun damage.

iTag

Essie Xu
Carina Sauter
Arnaud Bard De Coutance
Sally Tran
Vineet Nair

In the age of hyper connectivity, people are always on their phones, texting, calling, scrolling through social media...Real life human connections seem to be less and less important. We wanted to create a product that fosters in-person interactions between people. iTag is an all-in-one smart name tag for business networking, socializing, self expression, etc. To use iTag, you input your information on the iTag portal using your smartphone. This data connects to the iTag screen which can display a variety of information onto a screen, based on your purpose of use. There are a variety of modes available that can display your LinkedIn information, your emotional state, or hobbies you like. In any case, iTag is a device that can encourage and facilitate in-person communication between people.

Social Butterfly

Justine Chia
Vivian Liu
Yuki Zhan
Varna Vasudevan

Kids who are just entering the social world may have a hard time getting out of their comfort zone when all they know is the cocoon of home. Social anxiety disorder can begin during formative elementary school years, resulting in low confidence in social situations. This can lead to trouble developing and maintaining friendships. Current solutions in schools include activities that encourage a positive learning environment and healthy social communication. Social Butterfly encourages this activity-based socialization using wings as a medium, capturing the playfulness, confidence, and larger-than-life personality associated with wearing wings. The wearer can attract the attention of nearby playmates by triggering a motor-actuated fluttering motion. Our wings also celebrate creativity and foster conversation – children can draw and write on six panels to create a set of visual, personalized conversation topics. Playmates can touch a fragment of the wing mosaic, which illuminates a panel as a conversation starter.

PaniCam

Kiran Delneuville
Nisha Pathak
Purva Jauvekar
Yayu Zheng

PaniCam is a wearable device, hidden in one's collar which helps the wearer safely journey home at night. Containing a camera, a piezo speaker and an alarm light system, PaniCam helps the wearer feel secure by providing video footage of a potential assailant, while emitting light and sound in order to scare the assailant away. PaniCam is contained within the collar of the wearer's jacket, and is activated as soon as the wearer feels like she or he is in a potentially dangerous situation. By popping their collar, the wearer activates the camera, recording the potential assailant. Should the assailant make a move, the wearer can then activate an audible and visual alarm via a small capacitive touch button located on the tip of the collar. PaniCam is a discrete, subtle solution to the dangerous realties of walking along at night.

TheraSTITCH

Fiona Duerr
Advaita Patel
Conor Farese
Lieyah Dagan

TheraSTITCH helps individuals overcome panic attacks by giving them distractions, a breathing guide, and a visual symbol of their progress. Individuals suffering from anxiety often struggle with hyperventilation when a panic attack occurs. Breathing exercises and distraction can be used to overcome the attack by re-centering the user. While TheraSTITCH is designed to have a variety of distracting material for users to play with, the main interaction focuses around a zipper built into the sleeve to mediate users’ their breathing. At the onset of a panic attack, an LED trail will light up on the sleeve to guide the user through slow, 4-count breathing. Upon successful completion of four slow breaths, a unique image reveals itself on the user’s front patch, using thermochromic fabric to highlight and celebrate their progress. TheraSTITCH is a prototype of a line of textiles aimed at bringing wearable technology to users with mental health challenges

Professor: Eric Paulos
GSI: Christine Dierk

Many Special Thanks to: Chris Myers, Kuan-Ju Wu, and Mitchell Karchemsky

2018 NWMEDIA C203 Showcase