Um eventuelle Fehlschläge im Vorhinein zu verhindern, habe ich die elektrische Schaltung bereits zuvor auf einem Entwicklerboard umgesetzt. Ich habe für die Umsetzung ein MOS-Modul verwendet. Dies war jedoch nur eine Hilfestellung für die Entwicklerumgebung. Die Transistoren werden zusammen mit dem anderen benötigten Equipment auf einer Platine verlötet und in die Einbaukonsole der Gitarre verbaut.
Der PD Patch für die aktivierung der Hubmagneten hat die ANgewohnheit nicht immer zu funktionieren. Nach Anschließen der Komponenten und ausführen des Codes funktioniert es einwandfrei. Einen Tag später nach erneutem hochfahren des Setups, passiert nichts mehgr. DIes muss noch einer weiteren Kontrolle unterlaufen. Da der PD Code betreffend der Hubmagneten immer wieder Probleme bereitet, wird für die Präsentation die selbige Schaltung auf herkömmliche Art vorbereitet.
Getestet wurden die Hubmagneten indem ich die Baugruppe über einer Gitarre montierte. Es funktioniert einwandfrei, wie das folgende Video zeigt.
Leider konnte das selbstgebaute Theremin immer noch nicht zum laufen gebracht werden. Es wurde im IFE der TU vermessen, aber der Fehler konnte nicht ausfindig gemacht werden.
Mit einem geliehenen Theremin konnte ich allerdings testen, ob das Konzept ein Schlagzeugbecken als kapazitiven Abstandssensor zu nutzen funktioniert. Die Antenne wurde ausgebaut und zuerst durch verschiedene Materialien/leitende Gegenstände ersetzt. Nach etlichen Versuchen hat sich gezeigt, dass ein isoliertes und nicht zu langes Kupferkabel die beste Möglichkeit zu sein scheint. Es wurde im Theremin angebracht und das andere Ende von unten am Becken befestigt. Dadurch lässt sich das Becken berührungslos spielen, siehe Video.
In my exploration of cultural adaptation through interfaces, I recently conducted a survey to gather information and details about people’s opinion on this topic. The survey, which was given to 6 people from different countries with different cultural backgrounds, consisted of questions about each person’s interaction experience.
Key findings:
Language. Language is a critical factor because all respondents emphasized that having an English translation helps but there are also sometimes information, specifications, important notes on government or similar websites that are only available in German. Using a feature for changing languages to English or online translator doesn’t really work. This makes them more stressed.
Document hand off. Multiple respondents said that they would like to be able to send documents online and come to the office after. This would take less time and pressure, especially when you still don’t know the city that well.
Navigation problems. In order to find what you are looking for you have to go through hundreds of different pages and then you get lost in plenty of information and there is no clear navigation, which would tell you where you are, what you need to do and where you can find it. Some also said that government websites felt old-fashioned.
Open information. Respondents said that they want to be able to find needed information online without having to talk to someone. One of them clearly stated – “I want all the info available online because I always avoid calling or writing an email”. Some of them said that a lot of the time they couldn’t even understand if they needed an appointment or not, or the information was incorrect or not updated.
FAQ section. Something like the FAQ section is really important because then you can find your question there and answer for it right away.
Future directions: The survey results have provided significant insights, which helped with the idea of what to do next. After my last Design & Research meeting, I decided to research and explore the creation of an open-source bot or chatbot.
Some design Patterns might be relevant in international context. Design patterns are commonly assumed to possess universal validity, but it’s important to recognize that they are inherently contextual. Each design pattern is intricately linked to a specific environment, and the extent to which these patterns hold true in diverse cultural contexts remains largely unexplored by researchers. Consequently, the validity and effectiveness of design solutions in different cultural settings have yet to be thoroughly examined.The proposed design pattern network can be likened to a design system, such as service design, in which each individual element (design pattern) comprises a combination of socio-technical components. These components encompass technology, team management and tutoring, and social interaction. However, not all of these components are given equal consideration within a design pattern. Some patterns prioritize technological aspects, while others emphasize social mechanisms, team management, and tutoring. certain patterns may not achieve equal success across different cross-cultural contexts while certain design patterns have universal applicability. [1]
In the paper Mobile Gaming with Children in Rural India the researchers outlines the approach, which leverages game design patterns commonly observed in successful earlier games, utilizing them as fundamental building blocks to inspire and inform the development of new game designs. Games also have design patterns which are relevant for the success of the game and they help designers with less experience to design a good game. Björk, S., and Holopainen J pubilshed a compendium of Patterns in Game Design in 2005.The experiment showed that generalizing patterns might not lead to the best results. There are crucial contextual factors that must be considered when employing patterns to design mobile games especially for the target users in rural India. On one hand, patterns can indeed serve as fundamental elements for crafting successful games. However, on the other hand, if patterns are not applied in a manner that aligns with the contextual and cultural nuances, it is likely to result in bad gameplay experiences.Another interesting result was that time pressure, which is often employed to enhance the challenge and engagement of games, might not work as good with people that have less experience with playing video or computer games. Another finding was aesthetics especially colours are very important for the user experience. If players could change the colours of the game to their likeings makes the game experience even better. The stong relation to colour might be related to the indian culture were vibrant colours are part of every day life and cultural events. [2]
In the paper of Oh, JM., Moon, N. Towards a cultural user interface generation principles the authors discuss various faktors thaht are relevant for good UI related to culture. Techno-social design involves the combination of technology and social interaction to facilitate and understand communication between people or between people and technology. Many apps and websites today are international, so it is also important to do global design. Culture-centred design can be understood as a design process that focuses on the intended user group and their cultural environment. Design decisions should therefore also take cultural specificities into account. The behaviour of users, or their behavioural pattern, is strongly dependent on their cultural background. The cultural dimensions model reveals the attributes of content consumption and the preferred types of content based on cultural regions. In the United States, there is a significant interest in news, broadcasting, economy, and sports, whereas in Japan, the interest is primarily focused on news, economy, sports, and shopping. On the other hand, in China, the interest tends to prioritize broadcasting, economy, the latest issues, and news. The existence of country-specific preferences for both websites and mobile application usage highlights the importance of considering cultural user interface (UI). Cultural UI should not only encompass visual factors but also prioritize information structure based on cultural preferences. Cultural markers are a methodology to identify and incorporate signs and cultural symbols within different cultures, serving as important design factors for interfaces. This includes colors, layout, language, icons, and sounds that resonate with specific cultural groups. By leveraging cultural markers, the unique cultural characteristics of each country can be naturally conveyed to users. It is also important to incorporate cultural specifics into the “look & feel” of the application or website. The crucial elements of cultural markers (CMs) encompass color, language, text/typography, and layout which are implemented as factors that are reflected in visual design. But The sole application of all processes that incorporate cultural preferences and characteristics might lead to unwanted rsults. Therefore, the implementation of Cms should involve relevant designers and experts. A UI that incorporates cultural characteristics delivers exceptional usability, a sense of affinity, effortless navigation, reliability, and a high-quality user experience. Moreover, it fosters a personalized and interactive interface at an individual level. [3]
The research of cultural markers in websites from 2003 highlights the significance of cultural dimensions when designing websites for diverse cultural environments. The values and visual characteristics of “cultural markers,” essential attributes in web design show variations for different cultures. The study had a checklist of general design elements and culturally specific design elements, referred to as “cultural markers,”. The study was conducted and compared with 40 website in South Korea and the UK. The researchers made a list of attributes. They had 3 categories in which they compared the websites. First were the verbal attributes such as language, formats of time, date, phonenumbers etc.; Visual attributes like images, colour, typefaces and layouts. The third categorie was audiovisual attributes like sound, animation and 3D. The findings indicate minimal differences in format, 3D, sound, logo placement, title placement, and typography of text. However, notable differences exist in color, menu placement, menu layout, and text animation and movement, which are considered significant factors. [4]
[1] Schadewitz, Nicole (2009). Design patterns for cross-cultural collaboration. International Journal of Design, 3(3) pp. 37–53.
[2] Mobile Gaming with Children in Rural India: Contextual Factors in the Use of Game Design Patterns, Matthew Kam, Vijay Rudraraju, Anuj Tewari and John Canny, 2007
[4] R. Juric, I. Kim and J. Kuljis, “Cross cultural Web design: an experiences of developing UK and Korean cultural markers,” Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Information Technology Interfaces, 2003. ITI 2003., Cavtat, Croatia, 2003, pp. 309-313, doi: 10.1109/ITI.2003.1225362.
Just recently I was thinking about how unfortunate it is, that my main resource so far has been a book in German (as I will be writing the thesis in English). While starting a glossary for my future work (which obviously will include terms used in production management) I found out that I don’t have a clue what “Pensen” or “Stäbchen” are called in English industry standards. So here’s a short table explaining what each of them are and how they are called in English.
Spoiler: “Stäbchen” are not called chopsticks.
German
English
Definition
Stripboard
Stripboard
A production document looking like a list in which you can organize scenes by using strips.
Stäbchen
Strips
Parts of a stripboard used to plan shoots. There are three different types: scene strips, daybreaks and banners.
Pensen
Shooting Order
The result after ordering the strips by various parameters like location, actor availability, etc. divided by banners.
Daybreak
Daybreak
A black strip that marks the end of a shooting day. All strips above the daybreak will be shot that day.
Banner
Banner
Custom strip that represents time which is not meant for shooting. Might be used for breaks, moves, meals, etc.
Friedhof
Boneyard
Strips that are non-essential or have been removed due to changes in the skript or delays go to the boneyard. Works like an archive.
Drehplan
Film Production Schedule
The plan every production follows to ensure a smooth execution. A breakdown of information necessary for a successful shoot.
Drehplan (für einzelne Departments)
Call Sheet
A document distributed to the cast and crew that provides specific details about the shooting schedule for a particular day, including call times, scenes to be shot, locations, and other important information.
Day/Night Ext./Int.:
Day/Night Ext./Int.
These abbreviations indicate whether a scene will be shot during the day (Day), at night (Night), or both (Ext./Int.). It helps organize the schedule and allocate resources accordingly.
Setwechsel
Unit Move
The relocation of the entire cast and crew from one shooting location to another. It involves the coordination of logistics, transportation, and equipment.
The beginning of some sort of glossary
As the previous table states, this is just the beginning and first attempts at making a glossary. This list will grow over time as I read and learn more about production management.
I am currently exploring ways how to improve/change Instagram, and one of my potential ideas is to create an Instagram platform specifically for teenagers, with the aim of introducing them to the social media platform. The process could involve prompting users to input their age upon downloading the app. Based on their age, they would either be directed to the regular version or, if they are underage, redirected to the youth version. To begin with, I conducted a brainstorming session to identify which features could be adapted or restricted for this purpose.
1. Restricted Content:
To ensure that sensitive content is filtered out, Instagram for Kids/Teenagers employs robust content moderation algorithms. This helps prevent the exposure to inappropriate or harmful content, creating a safer browsing experience.
2. Parental Supervision:
Recognizing the importance of parental involvement, this version of Instagram allows parents to set up and manage their child’s account. Parents can review their child’s activity, control their privacy settings, and regulate the content they see, ensuring a protective and nurturing environment.
3. Break Time:
Understanding the importance of balancing online interactions with real-life activities, Instagram for Kids/Teenagers incorporates a “Break Time” feature. This prompts users to take periodic breaks from the app, encouraging healthier screen time habits.
4. Favorites Bar:
The “Favorites Bar” allows users to create a personalized list of accounts they wish to prioritize and view content from. This feature helps foster positive connections and makes it easier for users to engage with their preferred content creators or friends.
5. Pause Push Notifications:
Recognizing the need for uninterrupted focus or reduced distractions, users can pause push notifications on Instagram for Kids/Teenagers. This feature promotes mindful usage and empowers users to manage their digital well-being.
In addition to these key features, Instagram for Kids/Teenagers offers helpful tips that are repeatedly displayed within the app to educate and empower young users:
– Privacy Management: Right from the start, users are guided on how to manage their privacy settings effectively. They are encouraged to make informed decisions about what information they share and with whom, helping them build a strong foundation for online safety.
– Interactions Management: To prevent cyberbullying and maintain a positive online community, users are provided with tools to manage their interactions. They can control who can comment on their posts, block unwanted comments, and apply comment filters to ensure a respectful and supportive environment.
– Usage Time Management: Instagram for Kids/Teenagers helps users keep track of their activity by offering insights into their usage patterns. They can set daily reminders for responsible usage, mute push notifications, and receive periodic reminders to ensure they stay up-to-date without excessive reliance on the app.
With these thoughtful features and educational prompts, Instagram for Kids/Teenagers could create a safe and enjoyable social media experience for young users. By prioritizing their well-being and providing tools for responsible digital citizenship, this platform encourages creativity, connection, and positive engagement while promoting healthy online habits.
My next step will be to create a prototype in the form of a storyboard based on these considerations, in order to illustrate how the interactions could look and what exactly would happen.
After exploring what I want to communicate on paper I moved on to a Figma prototype. Here I explore which solutions are necessary to show enough information without becoming too overwhelming. I am also testing out different modes of designer-consumer.
I showed and discussed the first prototype with Mrs. Bachler. We found that the prototype need to be placed in a context/story. I will therefore also explore how the webpage can be designed to enhance the importance of the prototype.
As we were discussing more it becomes clear that the “societal” context also will matter a lot. Will this be a certification, “quality stamp” or just information bank? This would need more exploring than I can do this semester, but it should be mentioned.
As a result of the higher density of water compared to mixture of gases in the atmospheric, sound travels four times faster in the sea than in air. Marine mammals, including whales, dolphins and porpoises, are much more dependent on sound than land mammals due to the limited effectiveness of other senses in water. Some mammals like whales and dolphins highly developed their sense of hearing over millions of years to send and receive variety of complex sounds. They highly rely on sound to communicate with each other, navigate, find food, defend their territories and avoid the predators. Fishes also use sound for basic life functions.
People produce some sounds intentionally, such as military sonar and seismic tests for oil and gas exploration. Other sounds are an unintentional, such as shipping and underwater construction. Many human-produced sounds in the ocean are periodical, whereas shipping creates an almost constant rumble in the ocean. Even the motor of a fishing boat creates extra sound underwater.
All of these sounds add to overall ocean noise and contribute to the “soundscape,” which scientists define as the combined sounds made by humans, natural events, and marine animals. Because sound travels so well underwater, many of these sounds can be heard miles from their sources.
Noise pollution in the ocean can be split into 3 different categories: – Environmental noise – Noise of Ocean Life – Anthropogenic noise
Environmental noise is caused by airbone noise which propagates into the sea, wind and waves, seismic noises (oils and gas). Many environmental events make non-biological sounds, such as low frequency rumbling of a thunderstorm the cracking of singing ice as ice sheets slide against each other and break apart. Vulcanic eruptions and earthquakes oscillate in a very low frequency band, sometimes only fractions of Hertz and the sound last longer compared to the most species living underwater. The environmental noises are responsible for noise floor, which its power is higher compared to the noise floor in the air.
Noise of ocean life produces a variety of different signals. Mammals are called ‘the birds of the sea’ and vocalise in a different frequency bands. The song of a blue whale consist mostly of low frequencies. Together with fin whale they produce sweeps at about 20-35 Hz, which results in fin whale sound masking content of the blue whale calls.
Anthropogenic noise Human activity in and around the ocean makes a variety of sounds, such as pinging from echosounders or low-frequency vessel noise from motorized boats and ships. Some anthropogenic sounds can be disruptive or harmful to marine life.
References: 1) https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/science-data/sounds-ocean-environmental-and-anthropogenic 2) https://fast.wistia.net/embed/channel/tvcq9ovg1h?wchannelid=tvcq9ovg1h 3) Ocean Noise, from science to management – Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 4) https://dosits.org/animals/use-of-sound/how-do-marine-animals-use-sound/
In the present, the employment of smartphones and tablets among young children has become an area of interest for researchers. The study “Young Children’s Use of Smartphones and Tablets”, conducted by Jenny S. Radesky and her colleagues, explores the intricate nuances of young children’s engagement with technological devices. The purpose of this research is to comprehensively examine the implications of smartphone and tablet usage on the development and well-being of our new generation. By employing a discourse analysis approach, the study looks at different aspects of young children’s interaction with these devices, exploring both the benefits and potential risks.
Previous research has highlighted the increasing prevalence of technology in children’s lives and its impact on various areas, including cognitive development, socio-emotional well-being, and physical health. Radesky et al. maintain that despite the potential benefits these devices offer, there are concerns regarding their overuse, potential addictive behaviours, and negative effects on attention spans.
To evaluate young children’s use of smartphones and tablets, Radesky et al. realized a discourse analysis. This qualitative approach allowed the researchers to explore the language, symbols, and social interaction that children have with these devices. The study recruited a diverse sample of participants, comprising children between the ages of 2 and 6 years, along with their parents or caregivers. Data was collected with interviews, observation of children’s interactions with devices, and analysis of relevant artifacts such as children’s drawings and recorded conversations.
The discourse analysis revealed several key findings regarding young children’s use of smartphones and tablets. Firstly, the study pointed out that technology can be used as a tool for learning, entertainment, and socialization. Additionally, it was observed that parents played a significant role in mediating and shaping children’s interactions with these devices. The researchers also identified concerns related to excessive screen time, disrupted sleep patterns, and the potential impact on language development.
The findings of this study contribute to the ongoing discourse surrounding young children’s engagement with smartphones and tablets. The identification of diverse discourses provides a differentiated understanding of how these devices are perceived and utilized by young children and their guardians. The study emphasises the importance of parental mediation and the need for balanced and mindful usage of technology. Moreover, the findings highlight the requirement for further research and the development of evidence-based guidelines to support healthy technology practices for young children.
In conclusion, this study conducted by Jenny S. Radesky and her colleagues offers valuable insights into the usage of smartphones and tablets among young children. Through the lens of discourse analysis, the research sheds light on the multifaceted nature of children’s engagement with these devices, exposure both the advantages and potential risks. The study emphasizes the relevant role of role models in guiding and moderating technology usage, as well as the significance of promoting balanced approaches to ensure the well-being and development of our following generation.
Bibliography
Radesky, Jenny S. et al. (2020, July 01). Young Children’s Use of Smartphones and Tablets. https://econsultancy.com/brands-vertical-video-social-examples/
For this entry I wanted to finally sit down and have a look at Adobe Photoshop’s own text-to-image based AI tool, generative fill. This feature was introduced with Photoshop (Beta) 24.7.0. and works off Adobe Firefly, a group of generative models based on Adobe’s own stock images. It allows the user to generate images based on text prompts to remove, change or add to an image inside of Photoshop. The tool currently only supports english and is limited to the beta version of Photoshop.
Basic functionality
For starters, I wanted to have a little innocent fun with the tool’s primarily intended use, which seems to be photo manipulation. For this, I naturally needed to use a picture of my cat. First, I turned the portrait picture into a landscape version, for which I left the text prompt empty and generative fill gave me three versions of the generated content to choose from:
Next, I gave her some accessories for the summer and some friends. The AI was able to generate convincing fellow felines but struggled with giving the left cat glasses so I changed the prompt to a scarf and it worked more or less. I assume that the AI starts lacking in performance quickly when it needs to reference itself. This is when I noticed that files with generative layers get large fast, this particular file takes just under 5GB of storage, at a resolution of 3000 x 3000 pixels. I want to add that performance is excellent, as the first step of filling out the original photograph to an astounding 11004 x 7403 was a matter of seconds.
After expanding the image even further to end up with a square, I wanted to test the AI’s generative capabilities with a somewhat abstract prompt: I told it to generate some grunge for me:
To my surprise, the results were not only promising but, standing at 3000 x 3000 pixels, usable as well. After a quick kitbash to generate a fictional album cover of the artists below, I stopped myself to examine another possible use case.
Image to Image
The tool seems to work best with real photographs, likely due to the nature of the data that Adobe Firefly is trained on, but I would need to do more research on that to make a valid claim. For this next test, I wanted to see whether generative fill would be able to take a crude drawing as an input and turn it into a useful result.
For this, I expertly drew the schematics of an island meant to represent a video game overworld, with a rough estimation of a volcano, a beach and a castle. I then selected the entire canvas and prompted the AI to generate a stylised island with a castle and a volcano upon it.
The results, while technically impressive, don’t take the original drawing into account very well. The AI doesn’t seem to understand the implied perspective or shapes of the crude source image.
For this result, I specifically selected the volcano and the castle and told the AI to generate those features respectively. Interestingly, the AI was able to replicate my unique art style quite well but failed to produce any novel styles or results.
As a comparison, this result was achieved with Stable Diffusion with very basic prompts similar to the one used in Photoshop. Stable Diffusion seems to be much more competent at working with crude schematics provided by the user.
Conclusion
I am deeply impressed with the capabilities of this new feature built-in to Photoshop directly. I suppose that image restoration, retouching and other forms of photo and image editing and manipulation will experience a revolution following the release of the AI. It does come with its limitations, of course, so it will most likely not be a solution for all generative AI use cases. This development has me worried however that I can achieve something meaningful with my thesis. It seems that the most powerful companies in the world are spending exorbitant amounts of money to develop tools specifically designed to speed up design processes. Nevertheless I am eager to find out how the field develops in the near future and will for one definitely adapt this feature into my workflow wherever possible.
