MONDAY 7th JAN 08 - FIRST DAY BACK AFTER XMAS

To start off this blog I would like to quote qhat Mike Blow said at the beginning of the session:

"The work changes you and you change the work..."

This is a great quote to conisder in the design of my interactive project, especially considering that I am creating an interactive piece which is immersive and involves gettting improved feedback within the interaction, so you actually feel the piece, rather than just see it. This relates to a lot of my previous research, including the science museum's simluators and my research into "haptic" i.e. feel and touch.

CHAT WITH MIKE BLOW:

I managed to have a quick chat with Mike Blow about the current interactive project and laid down some of the following ides for my final design / product:

- An Interactive Immersive Gym Experience

- Using Immersive Interactivity and Virtual Environments I hope to digitally enhance the interactive experience of using gym equipment

- For example, running on a treadmill could be enhanced so it feels like your running through a meadow (using simluation simliar to that seen in the Sim-Ex Simulator in the Science Museum).

Mike and I then discussed that using technologies such as Accelerometers could really improve the interaction, for example when riding a bike you have a sense of steering and this could be easily incorporated into a standard bike workout, see previous blog post).

He then introduced me to a more artistic reference and piece by Jeffrey Shaw (also researched earlier in blog) called 'The Distributed Legible City':

This new version of The Legible City (1989) encompasses all the experiences offered by the original version, but introduces an important new multi-user functionality that to a large extent becomes its predominant feature. In the Distributed Legible City there are two or more bicyclists at remote locations who are simultaneously present in the virtual environment.They can meet each other (by accident or intentionally), see abstracted avatar representations of each other, and when they come close to each other they can verbally communicate with each other.

I can definately use this piece as a huge influence towards my final design and has really opened my eyes to the world of immersive interactivity.

Research Plan:

- Accelerometers used in gym equipment (Treadmills have constrained movements unlike Bikes).

- Physcology of sport and fitness (working harder in competitive environments, does music affect work rate, does visuals affect work rate etc.)