Fourth Year: 100 Ideas

The latest task we have had to do was a biggy. Just before lunch on the Monday of Week 4, we were told that we were to try and get 100 ideas to do with our project to try and find someplace even deeper in the grand scheme of things to be focussing on in the year. We also had to prepare and come up with ten insights that our ideas were to revolve around.

The proper work started after lunch and by the time I left the studio at just after 5, I was half way there. I had 50 ideas, most of them rubbish I should admit, but I wasn’t discounting any at the time. Any idea goes just as long as it roughly has connotations to light and colour relating to sleep.

A long night lay ahead and by the time I got into the studio in the morning, I was stumped at 80, but at least it was a decent amount. From what I could tell, no one got up to the 100 mark, but it didn’t matter. Some of the ideas generated, did help to focus the mind on what we actually wanted our project to do, but I will say more about that in another post.

Fourth Year: Other Examples

On the Tuesday of week three, during a one to one session with the lecturer, I was asked to try and come up with a couple of other examples of colour that is used in a subtle way to let the user know something is happening or something is there but not in an obvious way.

So far these are the examples that I have gathered.

• Disposable contact lens: has a blue tint to it in order for you to see it better. After looking them up on the internet, this is because they are soft. From what I had seen, the monthly lenses are hard and do not have a colour added to them.

• Car dials: Whilst the dials on the car showing the speed and whatnot are in a non specific colour for each car, the needle tends to be red so it can easily be seen moving.

• Barcode scanner: Whilst this may not be a personal project that you come into contact with daily. Whilst out briefly with a friend who wanted to go shopping, I noticed the red light of the barcode scanner bouncing off the counter. This is a good way to see that the scanner is working, or is at least on. You can just see the red light on the counter in this photo but in real life it was much more prominent.

Fourth year: Project Area Part 1

What am I going to be doing for my project over the course of the next 8 or 9 months? A tricky question which I still do not know for certain. So much so that earlier today I started looking at a second area to work in, but more on that one in a later post.

After hours of deliberating over this major dilemma, I hit upon an idea. It involved taking the very basic groundwork I laid for the radio project in second year and developing it and making it evolve into something that I could do in this final year. My radio project in second year looked at the relationship between light and sound and the outcome was a radio that had a light organ built in. When the radio was switched on and music began to play, a light bulb would flicker in time to the music thanks to the microphone in the light organ changing the levels of resistance in the circuit hence making a light bulb filled with LED’s flicker.

This time however, I wanted to make the project go a bit deeper, a bit further into what could and what couldnt’ be done. Something a bit different and something that could have a lot of potential. This was the part that probably took the longest to complete. Getting an idea for an area which I could sustain momentum with over the course of this year.

I ended up with this as a starting point for this project:

How that in different situations, lighting can be used to affect human behaviour and how subsequently, colour can be used to affect mood

This in turn created a sub area for this parent branch which is:

Taking mood lighting and/or ambient lighting and advancing it to the next level

There still needs to be a bit more depth looked at in this but if all goes well in this area, things should start to flow very well idea and project wise. This success however, did not stop me from creating another idea today, but in saying that it does share some fundamental roots with this topic.

#172 Some Flux

Are you the sort of person who uses a computer? And are you the sort of person that can have difficulty getting to sleep? I stumbled across F.lux, a simple programme that automatically adjusts the temperature of the colour on the screen, adjusting it to the time of day resulting in less strain on the eyes and it could help you get to sleep better.

Since computer monitors are basically meant to replicate the sun in their performance in colour management, at night they can blind you for being too ‘white’. F.lux, changes the colour temperature to be yellower or more sepia reducing stress on the eyes.

Whilst I cannot say for sure if it works or not at the moment as I have only been using it for a few days, it definitely does change the colour balance, but if you are working on the computer, you won’t really notice it at all as it is done gradually.

Below is a screenshot of the preference window, I can’t show what the colour difference is between midday and midnight as that can’t be captured in a screenshot. For those interested, here is a link to the F.lux website: Here

#158 Bobino

A few weeks back whilst in St. Andrews, I bought one of these: a Bobino. It’s soul purpose in life is to stop cables getting tangled up, and from what I have found out in the past couple of weeks from using it, it does the job perfectly. Available in three different sizes for different sized cables, I got the smallest size which is for headphones.

It is one of those simple ideas that works very effectively and you wish you had thought of it yourself.

Bobino Website

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

#43 There’s An App For That, A Very Well Designed One Too

Again, this post is about something which I found online. I should really stop doing this as, well, it probably isn’t the best of things to be doing when I could be getting on with some sort of work.

How many of you out there have an iPod Touch or an iPhone? Well this post is probably most relevant to you then. A while ago, someone posted a link to this site on Twitter, can’t remember who it was so I am unable to give them credit for it, but nonetheless, it is a site dedicated to showcasing all of the, or what are considered to be the best produced and designed applications in the iTunes App Store.

app.itize.us has a mission statement which is as follows:

app.itize.us is a painstakingly curated presentation of the best produced and designed iPhone applications that are available for download via the App Store.

I agree with every word in that sentence, figuratively speaking of course.

A few weeks ago whilst on this site, browsing, I stumbled across what has to be my favourite game I have ever played on my iPhone or iPod Touch. Colorbind. Essentially, the aim of the game is to connect all the dots on the screen with the coloured strips of paper. It is an utterly gorgeous game which probably wouldn’t work very well on any other platform. It is a good way to let the time slip by. In a lecture, before going to bed, if you have nothing else constructive to do, or even if you should be doing something else.

There are 80 levels in total, ranging from simple one colour puzzles to more complicated 4 colour conundrums. Included is a tutorial, but the game seems very intuitive from the very start. I highly recommend this game, it is without a doubt the one of the best 59p’s I have ever spent. Slight update, I seem to have got the game when it was at its discounted price, it is currently £1.19, but it is still worth the little extra money.

The website for Colorbind is nonverbal.ch

Link directly to application in iTunes: Colorbind

If you own an iPod Touch or an iPhone, or if by the time you are reading this, an iPad, then I couldn’t urge you more to go to app.itize.us and find something which is considered to be wonderfully designed. On top of that I am going to say definitely buy Colorbind, well worth the money, even if you aren’t sure about buying it, there is also a lite version, but why waste time and install that when you could have the full one instead?