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Tangible Computing, Lights will guide you home

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Description

This team project was related to my computer as an expressive medium course at Georgia Tech. The prompt was to create a tangible interactive narrative. We decided to use this medium to come up with a representation of who we are. We aimed to show no matter where we are, out identoty come from the ones who love and remember us. 

Challenge

The project had two main parts: illustration and tangible computing.

We dedicated hours to get to know each other's friends and family members so that I could illustrate precise moments, capturing the memory of those people.

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Screenplay

I created a home with seven distinct rooms, each representing a different memory of our family. As part of the tangible computing project, we brainstormed various ideas for how users could physically interact with the project. Once all interactions are completed, the heart-shaped LEDs in the center of the girl, who is observing everything, are turned on.

My Role & Scope

This project took about six weeks, and I collaborated as an ideator, storymaker, illustrator, and user tester. My dear teammate was Jasmine Kaur who was responsible for coding and computing directory.

Critical Lens

  • Our goal was to highlight that each individual is shaped by the influence of those who have loved and cared for them. We wanted to emphasize that, regardless of distance, we carry the presence of our loved ones with us, even across borders.

  • When someone enters a new place, they face an internal struggle to define their identity. They find themselves torn between a connection to a homeland that no longer feels the same and the need to establish new roots in unfamiliar surroundings. We hope to remind those in similar circumstances that, no matter where they are, there are always people who care for them and welcome them with love.

  • Touch is the very first sensation humans experience. Through touch, we began to understand the world—by feeling our mother's skin, interacting with family, and exploring our faces and food. That's why we aimed to create an experience rooted in the sense of touch.

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Process

Our house has six rooms and an attic, with each room visually depicting an ideal day spent with loved ones. As users interact with these rooms, they are eventually led to the little girl in the attic, a representation of ourselves. Each memory is a part of us, and being with all these people forms who we are—a whole heart. In the third phase of our project, we focused on refining the visuals and aesthetics. With the code and technical aspects already in place, we built on that foundation. Our process involved two steps. First, we used a house outline placed over a box to visualize where the actuators would go. This helped us better understand placement and realize the need for more organized wiring and code, given the variety of possible interactions. We brainstormed ways to make the final version cleaner and more visually appealing. The images below illustrate this stage of our process. At the same time, we worked on detailed drawings to bring our project to life, guided by the theme "Lights will guide you home."

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