One of the major visual stimuli in the interactive product will be the fan (second to the flames..or maybe not) and it is important that there is a focus on how this fan will be viewed by the user. Will it look harsh, sharp and dangerous OR soft, welcoming and motivating... there is definitely a strong push into what direction the form should go considering the context and what it's purpose is.
With the aim of the product to motivate and promote productivity in a group collaborative environment, the form of the product is very important. However, we must also follow "design law" and follow the form off of the function while still considering how it relates symbolically to the user.
But it's a fan... how can you make a fan relate to the user in a way that it will change the way they think and act in a positive way..? It is as simple as what has just been mentioned.. "harsh, sharp and dangerous OR soft, welcoming and motivating".. if we can describe how the fan should look, then we can design the fan to suit the description.. rather than what normally happens of describing something that already has form..
Some words that may spring to mind when thinking of the context of group collaboration... stress, procrastination, deadlines, distractions, assignments, group members, exhaustion, frustration, collaboration, "burning the candle at both ends", communication, achievements, togetherness... " Q6. How should the fan look? A6. The fan should have a soft feel, easy to hold.. and shouldn't hurt you when you go to remove it from its position. I think it should feel intuitive to place whilst welcoming to be grabbed at the same time.. " With this information we can start creating forms and exploring shapes in which the fan will be:
Sketch: Fan blade form concepts 1
Sketch: Fan blade form concepts 2
With the previous information we can begin to see which fan blades would most suit the users. With a fan spinning it must also be remembered that a level of safety is required. All the of the sketched fan blades look as if they would spin in the direction of the sharper part which is something that needs to be avoided.. However sketch 7 seems to suit the manner of what is required looking soft and motivating, yet applying a sense of purpose. If this were to be placed upside down with the defined point on the top side, it would mean the fan would spin in a direction in which the curve would lead and take out any safety issues - it almost brings a sense of.. "follow me.." with the form of the blade. This form will be further explored through computer aided design and simulations.
With the group decision made to use a spinning fan as the added visual stimulus - a method had to be used to suspend the fan above the flames to allow the heat to pass through and in turn spin it variably depending on the amount of flames that are active. Several methods were discovered with some brainstorming:
Sketch: Brainstorming for fan suspension system
Through the exploration we can across a few ideas. They were split into two sections: hanging and supported. Hanging referred to the fan being suspending by a flexible material or something that was not physically holding it in place. Supported referred to methods that would suspend the fan in place and use a bearing system of some kind to allow the fan to spin freely. All methods proved to be somewhat viable although there seemed to be some common problems:
Hanging
The problems with most of the hanging concepts is that in using a flexible material to suspend the fan while the hot air spins it will cause problems once the material has wound itself up to a point where the fan must attempt to spin the other way. Eventually any kind of material that suspends the fan in this way will be subjected to this. It will cause the fan to spin back and forth in an irregular formation and eventually come to an ultimatum where the fan will stop spinning all together when the force from the heat and the force from the tensioned material will equal out.
Supported
The problems with having a supported fan are much the same. You will lose out on the visual affects by have an almost static spinning fan (as opposed to a dynamically moving spinning fan with hanging applications) and there will be much the same problems with the use of bearings in the creation of too much friction. With very little force being produced by the flames, the bearings friction co-efficient will easily overcome the force of the heat. This will also add a less fee flowing fan movement which will move away from the positive visual stimulus that is required.
However a solution was found when looking at a magnetic levitation globe (available from national geographic):
Image: Levitation globe
Through the use of a mix of permanent magnets as well as electromagnets - the globe is able to levitate steadily as well as spin completely frictionlessly. This seemed to be the perfect solution to creating a frictionless bearing system to suspend the fan above the flames, while allowing it to spin freely and easily.
How does it work...?
It seems this type of magnetic levitation has already been achieved using an Arduino circuit board. Basically, the concept uses an electromagnet as the hanging support with a permanent magnet as the levitating device. Because the electromagnet is able to be variably controlled, the magnetic strength between the two can be adjusted to make whatever is levitation to sit at the desired position. The output to the variable electromagnet however, is controlled by a hall effect sensor - these output an analogue reading of what the magnetic field is in the immediate vicinity. So, when the permanent magnet gets close enough, the hall sensor will read that there is a change in the magnetic field and will adjust the variable electromagnet accordingly to allow the object with the permanent magnet to levitate and spin freely. The following video demonstrated magnetic levitation via an Arduino circuit board.
Using magnetic levitation to suspend the fan will allow it to "hang" freely without the need for any kind of mechanical support as well as spin with very minimal friction. This means the heat from the flames below will be able to control the speed at which the fan moves easily and more noticeably to allow for the positive visual stimulus to take full affect.
The group got together to try and come up with the model for the gas release mechanism. Building and manufacturing this mechanism are two very different concepts but to prove the concept we must make these scrap models. This model in particular used mechanics sets to construct a frame for the lighter to sit while the wedge was positioned to depress the gas release lever on the lighter. The wheel that can be seen in the following images is spring loaded to allow it to push past the wedge whilst forcing it to depress the lever.
Photo: The wheel away from the wedge.
Photo: The wheel touching the wedge but not depressing the gas release lever
Photo: The wheel forcing the wedge to depress the gas lever and igniting the flame
This concept can be used int the product to create real flames!
The following image shows a possible design for the arm that will attach to the servo-motor to allow it to rotate, knock the wedge in to release gas, as well as spring back an forth to reduce breakage to the mechanism:
Sketch: focusing on the right hand side of the image - an arm mechanism that will have the abilities as stated above.
Other options for the arm include using only an extension spring as the arm to allow flexibility and force applications. Or solid materials, depending on how the wedge is designed.
Because we will now be needing to control how many flames are active we will need a device that is able to actively and easily "knock on- and knock off" using the already designed gas release mecahnism:
As this is applying a principal of using a lever to "knock" a wedge into place - we will need to use something that can control what a which lever it is pressing.
Such a device can be a servo-motor: (this video shows the function of a servo motor)
Servo motors have the ability to rotate to specific angles, both clockwise and counter-clockwise. This can be applied in our gas release mechanism in a way that each gas release mechanism will have a specific position in the ring to which the servo motor can rotate too:
Sketch: Servo motor positioning
The sketch shows how the servo motor might rotate from one position to another from the control of the Arduino circuit board. The servo motor will have an arm attached to in that can spin around with the shaft and knock the wedges into place to release the gas.
From previous meetings with the group, we had explored the different methods of creating this motion through the use of the flame itself. From the original concept(link), motion was a direct derivative of the flames and heat. Ergo, by losing heat at one end, the candle would rise, and vice-versa.
Several concepts were explored: eg.
...Horizontal Motion...
...Vertical Motion...
...Spinning...
...etc...
Though to come to the outcome of spinning motion came from the inspiration of decorative candle pieces.
Photo: Candle spinning top - decorative
With the flame at the base of the object the fan shaped spin top is able to rotate as the hot air is drawing in from the environment surrounding the object and forced upwards do to the heat. This will pass the fan and spin it at speeds controllable by how much heat is rising.
Control
Control of the fan/spinning top speed will be easily obtained when implemented with the new "ring of fire" concept. By controlling how many flames are coming out of the flame dial at once, we are able to control the speed of the fan to a certain extent. However, a question to ask from here is how do we control how many flames are active at the one time...?
By utilizing this concept, we take away the need for any wax - consumable, messy etc. Instead we move towards a clean, tangible interactive product.
Through the model exploration a few key components were found that needed to be refined to a point of a higher degree of functionality. Though this can be seen and attributed to the fact that the models are only prototyped crude constructions.. However they do prove the concept very well!
To add to this however, feedback from the tutors suggested that an added visual stimulus is still needed - other than the flame.
Visual stimulus exploration: This image shows a rough summary of the outcomes of the visual stimulus exploration that took place amongst the team.
Originally the bobbing was suggested to be brought back from the original concept, although it developed to something that spins would suit better to allow for a background movement without too much disturbance to the visual field. This also ties in the the ring of fire that the product is now utilizing.
From this idea more model making will take place to explore how this spinning will occur..
