Creature Comforts (T2)

Studio Brief

Dyani Robarge

Whether it be chew toys, tasty treats, or over-the-top accessories, humans love to indulge their four-legged friends. In this studio, students will put their entrepreneurial skills to work as they research and develop interesting products that appeal to animals seeking permanent homes. In addition, they will also look into the market of animal alternatives for owners who seek the comfort of owning a pet but cannot keep one. Creatures and caretakers at the Humane Society of Polk County (Winter Haven) shelter will serve as 'clients' for the students, wherein product ideas will stem from the specific needs and personality traits of the animals themselves.

They will then create physical prototypes to test the feasibility of their ideas and gain greater insight into the entrepreneurial process. In addition to building physical models, students will focus on the importance of articulating proposed ideas both verbally and visually to an audience.


THE PRESENTATION POST

This post's privacy is set to Everyone. This post showcases your final design by telling the comprehensive story of how your idea was born, developed, and manifested. The arc of the story should encompass the, How of your project in a compelling narrative. It showcases your design process including your brainstorming, each of your iterations, and your final prototype. It allows the viewer to delve deeply into your process.

  • Every Slide should have a Title and Caption.
    The body of this post is The Brief. You should include a version of the Brief for each collaborator in the project.
  • This post will be used in your review presentation at the end of the session.

You are encouraged to make your narrative as compelling as possible. All of the content below should be included, but if you would like to rearrange the material in order to tell your story differently, work with your coach.


INTRODUCTION PORTION

Your presentation is a narrative, and the introduction sets up the scene for that story. Here you introduce the project, say why it is important, and summarize what you did.

TITLE WITH TAGLINE: This slides shows a crisp, clear final image and the title of your project. with a pithy blurb describing the project. The image, name, and tagline should draw a viewer in. 

Examples:

  • The Fruit - A line following, light tracking robot
  • Segmented Vehicle - A vehicle that conforms to the landscape
  • Cacoon - Wearable sculpture exploring the concept of transformation and death

EVOCATIVE  IMAGE: This is a single image that shows a clear image that evokes the soul of your project. This image helps set up the why in a compelling way, sets the stage for your narrative, and will help frame the entire presentation. The caption of this slide (set with the Edit Captions button when editing your post) should discuss the context of your project. No Text on the slide.

THESIS STATEMENT: This is a TEXT ONLY slide for which briefly describes the Soul and Body of your project. You can use the project description from your Brief or write something new. This statement ties together your narrative.

Examples:

  • The Cocoon:  A wearable sculpture that explores the concept of transformations and death. The Cocoon explores the spiritual journey beyond the human experience; what it means to be human, how wonder effects us, and the concept of what happens after death.
  • Body Accordion: A musical prosthetic that translates the wearer’s body movements into a dynamic multimedia performance. The Body Accordion converts flex sensor input to sound through Arduino, MaxMSP, and Ableton Live. 
  • Seed to Soup Animation: A whimsical animation about the slow food movement. Seed to Soup showcases a holistic method of cooking. From garden, to kitchen, to dinner table.
  • Antlers: A wearable sculpture inspired by antlers found in the deer and antelope family. "Antlers" explores the comparison between armor and attraction. 

PROCESS PORTION

The Process Portion of your presentation tells the story of how you iteratively developed your project. Somewhere in that story you should include conceptual and technical precedents that guided you at each stage as well as brainstorming and process sketches and clear photo booth imagery for 3-4 stages of your process.

This portion is made up of three types of slides repeated 3-4 times. Each iteration in your process should include:

  • PRECEDENTS:  Precedents are any projects that inspired you creatively or gave you technical guidance. These can include conceptual precedents and technical precedents. No Text.
  • SKETCHES/SKETCH CONCEPT DIAGRAMS: These slides show your generative ideas in sketch form. These should clean, clear drawings. A sketch should show a clear idea. Do not simply scan a messy sketchbook page and expect that people will understand. If you do not have a clear concept or working sketches it is fine to make them after the fact. No Text.
  • PROTOTYPE IMAGES:  These are actual images of the prototypes  you documented in your daily posts. These images illustrate your design decisions and how your project changed at each step. No Text.

FINAL PORTION

The Final stage of your presentation is the resolution of your narrative and shows your completed work. The use diagram shows how your project works and the construction diagram shows how it is assembled. Final photos show the project both in action and at rest. The imagery captures your final built design.

USE DIAGRAM: A diagram showing some aspect of the functionality. These can include:

  • How one uses or interacts with the project
  • The overall behavior of the project over time
  • For a complex interactive project, this can be a clear diagram of the software behavior

MECHANICAL DIAGRAM:  A diagram offering insight on how the project is put together and functions technically.

  • Ideally, this will be an exploded axonometric
  • At minimum this can be a labeled disassembled photo  

ELECTRONICS or OTHER DIAGRAM: Additional diagrams showing some important aspect of your design. 

IMAGERY: The last slides should have an images of the final project. These images should be taken in the photo booth, cropped, and adjusted for contrast, brightness, etc. Images should include:

  • An image of the project in use (taken in the booth or at large). This should include a human interacting with the project.
  • Images of project alone. Include at least one overall image and one detail image.
  • You can also use an image In-Use. 
  • Consider using a GIF to show how the project works. 

 

THE PRESENTATION POST

This post's privacy is set to Everyone. This post showcases your final design by telling the comprehensive story of how your idea was born, developed, and manifested. The arc of the story should encompass the, How of your project in a compelling narrative. It showcases your design process including your brainstorming, each of your iterations, and your final prototype. It allows the viewer to delve deeply into your process.

  • Every Slide should have a Title and Caption.
    The body of this post is The Brief. You should include a version of the Brief for each collaborator in the project.
  • This post will be used in your review presentation at the end of the session.

You are encouraged to make your narrative as compelling as possible. All of the content below should be included, but if you would like to rearrange the material in order to tell your story differently, work with your coach.


INTRODUCTION PORTION

Your presentation is a narrative, and the introduction sets up the scene for that story. Here you introduce the project, say why it is important, and summarize what you did.

TITLE WITH TAGLINE: This slides shows a crisp, clear final image and the title of your project. with a pithy blurb describing the project. The image, name, and tagline should draw a viewer in. 

Examples:

  • The Fruit - A line following, light tracking robot
  • Segmented Vehicle - A vehicle that conforms to the landscape
  • Cacoon - Wearable sculpture exploring the concept of transformation and death

EVOCATIVE  IMAGE: This is a single image that shows a clear image that evokes the soul of your project. This image helps set up the why in a compelling way, sets the stage for your narrative, and will help frame the entire presentation. The caption of this slide (set with the Edit Captions button when editing your post) should discuss the context of your project. No Text on the slide.

THESIS STATEMENT: This is a TEXT ONLY slide for which briefly describes the Soul and Body of your project. You can use the project description from your Brief or write something new. This statement ties together your narrative.

Examples:

  • The Cocoon:  A wearable sculpture that explores the concept of transformations and death. The Cocoon explores the spiritual journey beyond the human experience; what it means to be human, how wonder effects us, and the concept of what happens after death.
  • Body Accordion: A musical prosthetic that translates the wearer’s body movements into a dynamic multimedia performance. The Body Accordion converts flex sensor input to sound through Arduino, MaxMSP, and Ableton Live. 
  • Seed to Soup Animation: A whimsical animation about the slow food movement. Seed to Soup showcases a holistic method of cooking. From garden, to kitchen, to dinner table.
  • Antlers: A wearable sculpture inspired by antlers found in the deer and antelope family. "Antlers" explores the comparison between armor and attraction. 

PROCESS PORTION

The Process Portion of your presentation tells the story of how you iteratively developed your project. Somewhere in that story you should include conceptual and technical precedents that guided you at each stage as well as brainstorming and process sketches and clear photo booth imagery for 3-4 stages of your process.

This portion is made up of three types of slides repeated 3-4 times. Each iteration in your process should include:

  • PRECEDENTS:  Precedents are any projects that inspired you creatively or gave you technical guidance. These can include conceptual precedents and technical precedents. No Text.
  • SKETCHES/SKETCH CONCEPT DIAGRAMS: These slides show your generative ideas in sketch form. These should clean, clear drawings. A sketch should show a clear idea. Do not simply scan a messy sketchbook page and expect that people will understand. If you do not have a clear concept or working sketches it is fine to make them after the fact. No Text.
  • PROTOTYPE IMAGES:  These are actual images of the prototypes  you documented in your daily posts. These images illustrate your design decisions and how your project changed at each step. No Text.

FINAL PORTION

The Final stage of your presentation is the resolution of your narrative and shows your completed work. The use diagram shows how your project works and the construction diagram shows how it is assembled. Final photos show the project both in action and at rest. The imagery captures your final built design.

USE DIAGRAM: A diagram showing some aspect of the functionality. These can include:

  • How one uses or interacts with the project
  • The overall behavior of the project over time
  • For a complex interactive project, this can be a clear diagram of the software behavior

MECHANICAL DIAGRAM:  A diagram offering insight on how the project is put together and functions technically.

  • Ideally, this will be an exploded axonometric
  • At minimum this can be a labeled disassembled photo  

ELECTRONICS or OTHER DIAGRAM: Additional diagrams showing some important aspect of your design. 

IMAGERY: The last slides should have an images of the final project. These images should be taken in the photo booth, cropped, and adjusted for contrast, brightness, etc. Images should include:

  • An image of the project in use (taken in the booth or at large). This should include a human interacting with the project.
  • Images of project alone. Include at least one overall image and one detail image.
  • You can also use an image In-Use. 
  • Consider using a GIF to show how the project works. 

 

Parents Night 08.30.2018

Dyani Robarge

Pet Furniture Studio: The Donut

Ben Cohen

    Our project is an interactive lawn chair for a dog and human called The Donut. The insides of this donut-shaped chair are hollow, allowing most dogs to run through in case he/she wants shade, or he/she can simply next to the human’s feet in the middle of The Donut. This chair brings dogs and humans together in an environment that is comfortable for both species.

    Average folding lawn chairs today are simple, and not dog friendly. Also, the lush grass underneath dies from a lack of sunlight. In contrast, The Donut was made to give a dog and human a sense of intimacy and companionship surrounded by the outdoors.  Due to the spaces between the layers in the bottom half of the chair, water and sunlight can seep softly and quietly into its interior.  This keeps dogs involved with the outdoors while maintaining shade under the shell of the chair.  With beautifully layered wood, and an in-built seat that blends with the rounded design of The Donut, this chair will be a beautiful piece of furniture for an outdoor space. By creating a comfortable outdoor space for both dogs and humans we help to make the bond between the two species stronger than it is already.

Dog ++ Studio: Kong Dispenser

Jacob Florence

A fun and interactive dog treat dispenser that entertains, trains, and rewards your dog using fetching and feeding techniques.  ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

All pet owners have found themselves feeling guilty when leaving their pets home alone for hours at a time. Days spent home alone tend to result in either extreme boredom or depression and separation anxiety. Our dog treat dispenser tackles some of these issues by entertaining our loved ones in a fun and educational way. 

The dispenser is made with an eye-pleasing interactive maze to attract the attention of the dog after it inserts the ball. To activate this dispenser, the dog must insert a ball at the top of the maze and wait for it to land on a windmill type contraption that spins out treats. Not only is this treat dispenser sure to captivate our pet's attention, but also train them in ways without them even knowing. Pets who use this dispenser will need to master basic fetching and returning skills by placing the ball in the correct area to land inside the maze. Our pets will also have to practice patience when waiting for the ball and treats to dispense out of the bottom. It is time we let this new wave of pet products take over doing the things we are unable to do day to day.  

Pet Furniture Studio: Transforming Chair

Dyani Robarge

People who live in smaller spaces can find it challenging to find room for furniture for themselves and for their pets. In addition to that, there are not many pieces of furniture that are versatile enough to be used for either people or animals. The Transforming Chair is a versatile piece of furniture that provides an elegant solution to this problem by morphing between two states: a papasan chair for humans and a dog bed for dogs.


The Transforming Chair was inspired by a combination of the Hoberman Sphere and the Papasan Chair. The Hoberman Sphere is a toy ball that can expand to three times it's size and the Papasan chair is a comfortable bowl shaped chair. The Transforming chair expands and contracts using the mechanism popularized in the Hoberman’s Sphere. This  allows the chair to expand, from a small chair, for the pet, into a papasan chair, for the human. This also saves space in the homes of users, as the chair can be stored in the smaller phase.

The chair will be comprised of an outer expanding ring conntected to four expanding half rings that attach to a stationary base. When completely contracted a pillow can be placed on the contracted chair for a dog to sit on. When expanded it will be a Papasan chair for people to sit on. 

Dog++ Studio: Trainer

Max Kreppein

Trainer is a device that trains your dog basic commands using IBM Watson’s visual recognition API. In our studio, we decided we're changed to create a device that improves lives for dogs especially ones that are stuck all day at home. We looked at training dogs and how that can be improved and noticed that a lot of it is just repetition that can be done by a person but doesn't need to be. We decided to go with IBM’s visual tracking because it was the fastest way to get an accurate reading of the dog’s position. To actually transmit the commands we are using a speaker that has a recording of someone saying the verbal command. To reinforce the commands we wanted to dispense some sort of reward so we decided to make a dog treat dispenser we also wanted verbal encouragement so we added another recording of someone saying "good job".


Final Presentation (new edits)

Ellyn Evans and Reese Tittel
IMG_8601.MOV

Final Presentation (new edits)

Ellyn Evans and Reese Tittel
IMG_8601.MOV