Interactive Map

This project was part of the course Interactive Technology Design. The goal is to communicate an urban issue from a critical perspective by offering an interactive experience with a prototype, based on a future scenario.

The year 2068, Rotterdam has evolved into a state where economic areas are the ones in power. Now, they are responsible of negotiating the energy distribution of the Cool neighbourhood.

Prototyping

To acquire the preferred interaction, prototypes were made with fellow students. About five different prototypes were made to get to the final prototype. This helped to improve the interaction and find out what really works (or not).

Building

The prototype for the final exhibition was built by lasercutting a transparent map of Rotterdam Cool (Illustrator). Underneath, magnet sensors are attached to it so the participant can turn on the energy for a certain area. The whole program is run with an Arduino together with Max MSP.

Final Exhibition

The final exhibition was an interactive experience with people at Delft University of Technology. The game was played with three people by interacting with their own panel (connected to Arduino) and getting feedback in the form of lights (on the board) and a video message (the screen).

The outcome

The goal was to create awareness among the participants where a neighbourhood is divided into different economic areas (housing, commerce, entertainment). The outcome showed that there was (and actually is) never a good solution. Sufficient energy for housing could be maintained, but then commerce would lack in energy which caused problems in the interface and what was shown on the screen. The participants realising this and discussing how to divide power is the desired interaction that was initially wanted.

Project

The tools used for this project consisted of paper, cardboard and wood prototyping, programming with Arduino and Max MSP and lasercutting.

The used software was Arduino IDE, Max MSP, Illustrator, Photoshop and After Effects.

Group members: Liz Espinosa, Emiel Wolf, Jimena Perez and me.

I was responsible for the hardware part of the project and created the video that was used during the interaction. For more information regarding this project, don’t hesitate to contact me.