Ubiquitous Computing TDA471, 7.5 hec

Project

The main part of the course is dedicated to the design and implementation of a larger ubiquitous computing project. The purpose of the project is to practice interaction design by doing, as well as to experience the value of prototyping. The project will also bring together technical knowledge from the Physical Computing course with more design-oriented thinking of IT. The project should result in a working prototype ready for demonstration at the end of the course.

• Project groups
• Locative media and sustainability resources

Possible Projects

Projects should be about creating a computational thing or a computational environment with a clear relation to the ideas of ubiquitous computing. Preferablly, the projects should also involve the course theme locative media. Exceptions to this may be accepted.

When you are trying to invent your project try to look for settings that will help you come up with ideas, for instance:

• Design for a specific use situation or for a specific user group
• Find inspiration in a boring situation and design to change it
• Game and play - A game or a toy with a well defined user group
• The invisible interface
• Digital artefact - or simply digital art?
• ...

All projects must be approved by the teachers before they are initiated.

Groups and Supervision

Projects should be carried out in groups of 3-5 students.  The groups will be formed by the teachers at the beginning of the course. In the creation of groups, focus will be on a forming groups with a good mix of various skills. Throughout the project there will opportunities for supervision regarding both interaction design and technology.

Project Drafts and Project Proposals

Five Project Suggestions

Three Project Proposals

On November 14 each group will present 3 project proposals to the rest of the class for feedback. Focus on the following issues:

• Background / problem area
• How you intend to work with the suggested problem
• Related research / products
• How you came up with the idea

Final Project Proposal

Based on the feedback from the presentation of the project proposals, each group selects and describes their final project proposal. The final project proposal must be submitted by sending an email to Olof Torgersson no later than November 18.

The following should be presented in your written project proposal:

• Title of the project.
• Description of your idea or concept, motivate your choice and give a short background description. You can for instance mention related research/projects/ideas that you know of, user group, or a use scenario.
• Some sort of picture or sketch of the concept.
• Description of how you have planned to implement and how you plan to realise your idea.
• If your project is dependent on a certain technology, then describe this.
• Suggestion of criteria for how you can validate how well you have succeeded with your project.
• A time-plan for how you imagine to realise the different parts of the project.

Project GO

Budget

Each group has a budget of 1500 SEK. Expenses will be covered by handing in receipts. Each group should collect all their receipts, and hand them over to Olof Torgersson together with name, adress, and bank account of the person who shall collect money for expenses.

It is recommended that you check with Lalya Gaye or Daniel Leinerud before you buy any electronic components. We might already have them. It is also wise to check for other things as well.

Grading

• Concept - originality, development etc
• Realisation - how the project work is carried out
• Presentation - the result displayed at the end of the course.
• Documentation - the quality of the project report.
  

Project Report

• project concept
• an introduction to the context of your design,
• main goals of the project,
• possible related work,
• the design process and critical design decisions made,
• how the project was realized, including a description of the technology behind it,
• evaluation against goals,
• discussion; what worked, what did not, possible improvements, interesting findings,...
• conclusion, lessons learned,
• technical documentation, as appendix,
• project plan as appendix.

1. Introduction
2. Background
3. Concept
4. Realisation
5. Evaluation
6. Related Work
7. Discussion
8. Appendix: Technical documentation and project plan

The website should contain the following:

The purpose of the website is to draw attention to your project and create an interest for reading your report for further information. The website will be read by future students, media and people without your knowledge.

• Short abstract in Swedish and English
• Description of the project
• Video (if there is one)
• Pictures and/or powerpoint
• Downloads of source code, technical specifications etc, required to re-create the project.

Submitting

Last update: October 30.