Micro Challenge¶
MC1: Anxiety Necklace¶
13th February - 16 February
Sophie Marandon and Carmen Robres
Repository¶
We decided to create a wearable device that would sense your anxiety and help you follow breathing exercises guided by vibrations to calm down. As anxiety is often an irrational feeling, it is hard to communicate to others. What is more, most people are not even consicous of the fact that they are anxious. This is why we decided to make this device collaborative: when it senses that you’re anxious, the device sends a signal to a paired device (a partner, a friend etc.), which helps them understand how you’re feeling and act accordingly, without needing any communication from your side.
Reflection¶
This project presented numerous challenges and proved to be quite demanding, as we were initially unaware of the extensive work involved in the projects we were visualizing. Our goal was to become cyborgs or experiment with technology to integrate artificial intelligence into our daily lives. We had been eagerly anticipating the MicroChallenge for quite some time, hoping to create technology that would enable us to live as cyborgs for a week.
Initially, we underestimated the complexity of the task, assuming we could complete the project in three days. However, following the MicroChallenge, it became evident that programming with Wi-Fi is quite intricate. While the components of the collar are relatively simple and functional, coding to perform two simultaneous actions, such as connecting with another device while engaging in breathing exercises, proved challenging and required a deeper level of code development.
Coming from an Engineering and Industrial Design background, I found it both exciting and frustrating to learn how to develop code without delays and loops. Similarly, my partner, with a background in Policy, found the process of designing a casing from scratch equally exhilarating. The MicroChallenge highlighted the complexity of creating seemingly simple objects within a short timeframe.
While our initial intention was to innovate and create something entirely new, we ultimately decided to explore existing concepts. This decision allowed us to gain a better understanding of how such objects function from the ground up. Moving forward, I aim to expand on this idea, refining its functionality to include breathing exercises, enhancing its aesthetic appeal, and integrating data collection capabilities for subsequent analysis, such as visualizing anxiety levels over time or connecting it to an app aimed at assisting people with anxiety.
Despite the intensity of the week-long project, the experience was incredibly rewarding. However, it also underscored the importance of having dedicated time and space to work on such projects, as well as opportunities for rest and mental clarity. Due to time constraints, there was limited room for in-depth research, necessitating additional support from instructors to address any uncertainties.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the week and am eager to embark on the second MicroChallenge to further develop our existing project and explore its potential integration with artificial intelligence.
MC2: Representation of Our Health¶
4th March - 8 March
Anna Fedele and Carmen Robres
Repository¶
For this week, we decided to combine two projects that had originated from the first microchallenge, where Ana had a representation of abuse throught tech devices, and I had the anxiety necklaces that I explained in the first microchallenge. Essentially, what we did was, in order to join forces, we wanted to create a graphic representation of what health is, specifically mental health regarding anxiety, and physical health regarding abuse. Our research on understanding and making devices that could collect data and reprocess it in order to create an artistic artifact that is a mapping of these.
Reflection¶
For me, this microchallenge felt less intense because I think we were more practical in deciding what we wanted to do. Initially, I wanted to work on the microchallenge alone and experiment with using artificial intelligence with anxiety necklaces. My idea was to add a camera to the ESP 32XIAO so that whenever the anxiety necklace was activated, it would take a photo. Then, an AI would interpret the image and generate audio to help calm the wearer.
However, since the project required group work, I teamed up with Anna. Together, we created a simple task—a graphical representation using intelligence and technology. Both projects focused on health, and we both agreed on representing the invisible, making our collaboration logical.
While we organized ourselves well, we may have lacked ambition in pushing boundaries further. We spent too much time on automating the process instead of exploring additional ideas or creating a greater impact. Personally, I’ve learned a lot about coding and Python through this microchallenge, and I plan to apply these skills to enhance my own thesis project. I aim to expand the necklace project by incorporating artificial intelligence.
Having already programmed the Raspberry Pi and MQTT, I can focus on extending my thesis. Additionally, I believe graphical representation is an effective way to communicate these concepts to society and spark reflection.