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Outcome


Outcome

Friend Finder is a pair of augmented clocks that lets you know when your friend is available to hang out.  When one friend presses the button on his clock, it lights up the paired clock, sending a signal that he's available to hang out.  A small character in the corner of the clock also jumps up and down and waves to say "Hi!".  When both friends activate their clocks, the lights mix to represent that both friends are available and they should make plans to hang out.  This project was designed as a reminder to keep up with your best friend, no matter how far apart you are.

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Inspiration and Context

This project was inspired by Ricky, Fangzheng's friend, and the group's interviewee.  During the interview, he said that he really wanted to know when his friend was available to hang out but didn't want to keep texting him all of the time.  

Our team designed this device to be a gentle reminder that both people could reach out to each other in an unobtrusive way.  When one person is available, the device would send a notification to the other person that could be either responded to or ignored and was also a cute notification system that fits well into the home environment.  We did not want to include screens or text in an effort to make a glance-able and an extension of pre-existing IoT technology. 

Discovery

Our team interviewed freshman CMU student, Ricky, who studies architecture. We learned that he likes to hang out with friends, but would like to know if they are available to hang out without texting or bothering them. Sometimes friends miss each other but don’t want to annoy other people by asking them to do an activity too often. Other times, friends are separated by distance and can’t talk to each other in person, but would enjoy a way to communicate without texting or talking on the phone. 

Intention

Nowadays, everyone is only a couple of clicks away from each other. Communicating over long distances with text, video, images has never been so easy, and as mobility has become even easier, many of us live apart from our close friends. This makes instant messaging (IM) app valuable actors in our relationships. However, the sensory experience of these messages is the same whether it’s a message from a stranger or a close friend. Receiving an IM becomes a banal experience.

So we want to create an ambient device that is a playful solution to enhance the experience of instant messaging between friends using the possibilities of the Internet of Things (IoT).

Prototyping Process

First Prototype

The first prototype was a set of two augmented clocks that send information to each other through hardwired connections.  When one friend presses a button, his led lights up to show that he is sending a signal to his friend's clock.  His friend's clock lights up red, and a character jumps up and down to say "hi!".  If the friend is available, he presses his blue button, and it sends the same signal back to the paired clock.   To turn the signal off, either friend pushes their button.

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Second prototype 

In the second prototype, the team started to experiment with particle pairing capabilities.  When both buttons are pressed, the clocks turn purple to show that both friends are available.  This connection was made through the particle cloud instead of a hard-wired connection.

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Iteration and Refinement

After demonstrating our prototype in class on November 22, our team changed a few things to make our device's purpose and function more clear for the user.

Feedback 1: The paper guy is not clear.  Therefore, we made the character larger and moved it closer to the window.

Feedback 2: We should do some sound design which uses a different sound pattern to show different status.  Therefore, we changed the speed of the solenoid to match different button press conditions.

Feedback 3: We should make the two boxes separate completely.  Therefore, we connected the Particle boards through the cloud.

Feedback 4: We should make the box looks cleaner.  Therefore, we remade one box and fixed a few things on the other box.

Final Prototype

Below is a system map for the Friend Finder augmented clocks.

Diagram
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Friend finder circuit bb
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Friendfinder bom
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Next Steps

Here are things that our team would like to improve in future work:

1. Experiment with a different motor to change how the person waves its hands or notifies that the friend is available to hang out.

2. Experiment with other form factors such as a bracelet, necklace, or key chain.  These objects are more mobile.  

3. Consider making the clocks smaller and use batteries as their power sources. Also, the sound can be more ambient so that it won't be too disturbing. We can also connect them to an app if possible.

4. If we take these ideas forward, we would need to consider how different motors work, how to scale down the circuit.  

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