As we plugged in the power, we couldn’t resist and put out our hands to feel the vibration.
The project is getting more and more real by the day!
-Rachel
Mini Prototype Speakers
The speaker drivers have FINALLY arrived and experimenting will very begin very soon!
Now we just have to attach the circuit from Shariq’s old speakers before we begin our experiment!
Rosanne
Prototyping!
Prototyping has officially begun!
We are currently working on testing the frequency response of speakers made up of different materials! Working with different types of fabric (velvet, felt, jersey, brushed cotton), foams (styrofoam, packed foam) and even bubble wrap, we are creating a catalogue of materials with their respective frequency response graphs!
-Rachel
Elevator Pitch
Here’s Jaysern trying his best at delivering yet another Elevator Pitch to Sayjel and Naga!
Also featuring our cool curtain!
Hypersonic Sound
From our talk with Prof Jer-Ming, he mentioned a cool technology that he couldn’t seem to name, but with the help of google, here it is, Hypersonic Sound!
This is basically the epitome of invisible sound, but since he introduced this in 2004, there has been companies that have picked up this ultrasound technology but have not been able to commercialise it. Makes you wonder how safe it really is!
-Rachel
Our first practical session
On Wednesday the 16th of March, the three of us EPD seniors went down to the IDC workspace to work with my UROP supervisor Dr Ulf Bissbort. Having worked with him on the Stealth speakers, I had gain a little bit of experience and found it really useful for the project. Our goal on that day was to understand the parts that went into the Stealth, and to correct certain flaws in the first iteration of the design.
We had identified a few problems with the current iteration
- A background hum on standby mode- likely attributed to noise in the ground loop. Proposed solution- Produce a transmitter and receiver circuit
- The second speaker does not turn on with the first from standby mode. Proposed solution- Change the XLR cable to a 5 pin one so that it can accommodate a power relay.
IKEA Exploration
Since we were at Courts, we decided to hop over to IKEA to check out the showrooms and maybe grab some decorations to spice up our space at Capstone 4!
Look at our corner!!! We are also implementing a DISTRACTION JAR that will prevent us from getting distracted and also fund our snack habit.
Consumer Buying Experience
We went to COURTS on Saturday to check out the current products in the market.
Courts had isolated listening rooms (3 walls) with speakers scattered all over the place (for the surround sound effect). They would demo with action movies like Fast and Furious, Transformers, and other Michael Bay-like movies that had a large “boom”
for the customers to FEEL THE BASS. It was pretty impressive.
It was a great experience, particularly with YAMAHA as we realised that while their stuff doesn’t look that impressive, they had some pretty good stuff like a SOUNDBAR WITH FOURTY SIX DRIVERS!!!!
While it was eye-opening, we realised that there isn’t really a clear selling point of these speakers (besides quality and price), and hence we need to come up with some breakthrough idea that will shock the market!
Misdirection
Following up with the idea of misdirection, here’s a TED talk! The speaker is a pickpocket who talks about how to control people’s attention and what he does with it. It’s amazing.
-Rachel
Personality and Space
Our team is moving towards incorporating personality into our invisible speakers and thus into the space. I went online and looked for articles regarding personal space and personality to better understand this.
Based on the article, people are able to judge another’s personality quite accurately purely based on their bedroom. There are two factors by which a person is able to “inhabit” and personalise a space.
- Identity Claims
- This refers to the decorations or symbols that the user chooses
- It may be the choice of colour of walls/ceiling in the room.
- There is both self-directed and other-directed, where some things are chosen simply because they like it while other objects are intentionally placed to portray a certain image to others.
- Behaviour Residue
- There are two types, external and internal residue.
- External residue refer to the objects that don’t naturally belong in the place but are still placed there because of the importance to the user.
- Internal residue refer to the way the person arranges items, perhaps due to importance or maybe a character trait that is guiding them to act this way.
According to the study , through one’s space, people are able to determine (or rate) the user on Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience.
Other traits like Emotional Stability and Agreeableness were not exactly accurate.
I feel that we can use this study to better understand our users and where our product fits in their space and lives. We may be able to tap on little hints that will help to portray the user’s personality without explicitly designing it.
-Rachel
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