I have been sorting out some files on my external hard drive and I came across this. It was an image that I used for a while as a background on my computer. The text was from an article in a magazine about designers and their inspiration.
mrdouglaswood
the idiosyncratic musings of a designer
Tag Archives: computer
#173 A Mclaren Blueprint Pt.III
Another update to what I am doing with the Mclaren Blueprint. This time I am toying with the idea of making it like a technical drawing. I am still looking at doing the camera one which shows where cameras are usually located in racing games but I seem to have hit a dead end with that one at the moment.
This one was done very quickly using the raw ‘blueprint’ outline I got from the internet, if I took this one forward, I would go round the car in Illustrator as per my others:
#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
#171 A Mclaren Blueprint Pt.II
Small update on the Mclaren, it is still a work in progress, and the idea is coming along nicely albeit a bit clunky…
Meanwhile the Mclaren I posted up last time is now my iMac desktop wallpaper.
#170 A Mclaren Blueprint
A quick something that I have done, in preparation for another idea I am working on and have had for a while. Coincidentally, this has become another contender to be put on canvas…
A Mclaren Mk.II
#157 More IOGraphs
Some more IOGraphs. The first one is 2.1 hours, done last night. Just light internet browsing:
The next one is 6.5 hours worth from almost a whole days worth of computering. I turned the mouse stops off (the circles in the other IOGraphs) and it gives a different kind of image all together. Activities on this one included some light photoshopping, and light internet browsing. I turned the background on whilst saving it too so you can roughly see where abouts on the screen I was moving a bit clearer.
#153 Helveticat
The second in my series of Helveti…
The Helveticat
#148 Little Planets
I like little planets I do.
By taking a regular panorama and turning it into a polar panorama, you get something that looks like a little planet. Having completely forgotten all about them, recently whilst stopping off in South Queensferry and not having my normal camera to play with, I recruited the use of my iPhone and some photography apps. One of which was 360 an app which automatically creates and stitches together a panorama. One of the options once it has been created is to make a polar one and here you go.
The output straight from the application was this:
But with a little quick tweaking in Photoshop, I got this:
And in case you were wondering, my last foray into little planets was a few years ago and here it is (made using a panorama on Uist):
#134 HT30007 Dissertation Proposal Part 2
Here is my part 2 for my dissertation proposal. I am finding the dissertation related things some of the most interesting things that I am doing at the moment, and am currently speaking with a few designers at Jaguar and Volvo in regards to my topic which is rather exciting. Though with only a week and a half left until the Easter break, I am rather glad that we will get a bit of time off soon despite the work load slowly winding down.
Title:
The future of computers and interactions in Automobiles
Summary:
Computers are playing an ever increasing role in the world. One of the main areas they are being used in, and have been used in for many years is in the automotive industry. Starting out in the 1970’s, their main function was related to ignition timing (Laurens, 2009). Ever since that point they have seen exponential growth in their use, with their function addressing and overlooking almost every aspect of a vehicle.
Today, computers located in cars are responsible for keeping the occupants safe and entertained, it ensures the engine is running efficiently and it keeps the car on the road. But what role does the computer have in the future of motoring, and how will we, as humans operating cars, end up interacting with them?
One direction the automotive world may head in, is the truly autonomous vehicle. Driverless cars, filling the roads letting the user carry out other tasks. This has been a dream for many for decades, and is only just becoming reality thanks to computers. The DARPA Grand Challenge (approximately 135 miles over desert), subsequently followed by the DARPA Urban Challenge (roughly 60 miles in a closed suburban environment with all the usual perils of town driving) has pioneered part of this dream with it’s quest for driverless cars, albeit with the United States military specifically in mind (DARPA 2004).
Certain aspects of driverless cars are already in operation today in many forms. Some manufacturers have developed adaptive cruise control systems where the speed of the vehicle is not fully based on driver input but instead, on the traffic surrounding it. Speeding up and slowing down as needs be in the ebb and flow of modern driving. Other cars have a system which keeps the vehicle in between the lines on the road, preventing lane drifting and potentially serious accidents by moving into another lane with a car in the drivers blind spot. One of the more useful automatic features some new cars have (specifically Volvos), is pedestrian safety technology, which detects if a pedestrian steps out in front of the driver and if no input is detected to avoid a collision, it applies the brakes automatically (Volvo Cars 2011).
What if the direction taken is completely different? What if cars do not become driverless and humans remain fully in control of vehicles? This is a possibility, where people fight against the increasing amount of technology and do not want a piece of silicone deciding where and what the car goes and does. Social factors such as this will play a massive part in the future of the world and not just the automation of cars. Forcing people to accept new technology in something as potentially lethal as driving could go either way. Granted, it has been achieved many times in the past, though in a less deadly form, with technology such DVD’s, Blu-Rays, and even ATM’s.
The direction in which the technology is most likely to take is somewhere between complete automation and having the driver in control. This would give the driver an option of whether or not they are in complete control one day, enjoying the thrill of driving, or the next day, letting the car do the driving whilst the driver catches up on some work.
If the interactions in vehicles is looked at from a different view point future cars could lead to somewhat of an uprising in many different disciplines. In the late 1990’s, the head of Ford’s design department, J Mays, enrolled the help of renowned product designer, Marc Newson and created the Ford 021C (Argyriades, 2009). A car that was designed more from a product design point of view rather than an automotive design one. It was applauded form the product designers as it was thought to increase the usability and functionality of certain amounts of the cars features. From an automotive design point of view it was, in short, slated. Many thought it looked far too much like a toy car, that was far too simple and didn’t adhere to the unwritten ‘rules’ that were set out in the field.
Trying to take into consideration the past and present forays of interactions and computers in cars, where is the future of this field headed? Will it be awash with self driving vehicles or will it be a technical tour de force with computers allowing drivers to achieve things they only dreamed would be reality in the past? In essence there are only a few directions technology could lead the design and innovation, but the outcome could be massively different to what we experience now, in our cars that have not really changed much technically in the last century.
Aims:
- Explore the future of interactions in the automotive sector by looking at the possible directions this area may head into.
- The Social aspects of new technologies and implications they may have
- Interactions are often a key part of product design so looking at this would help with my design practice to some extent
- To uncover of direction car manufacturers are taking in terms of technology being included within their vehicles
- To look at current interactions to show what needs to be improved, in detail which would be useful for the wider audience to try and take note and compensate for such inadequacies.
Objectives:
- Review the relevant secondary sources of information and provide a comprehensive analysis of the sources
- A report of opinions from people in the automotive industry providing they are able to disclose such information relevant to the topic. Initially these opinions would be gathered using email but later on in the research process, a phone conversation would be more appropriate to get a deeper understanding of the subject.
- Discuss whether or not the current interfaces in cars are adequate in what their function is, and if they are in fact distracting the driver
- Collate opinions from people about current interactions in vehicles and what they think the next steps should be and additionally what they would like to see to make their driving lives better
Keywords:
Computer, car, future, interaction, interface
Bibliography
- Argyriades, M. Ten years later // FORD 021C by Marc Newson. yatzer, [online] 01 October 2009. Available at: <http://www.yatzer.com/Ten-years-later-FORD-021C-by-Marc-Newson> [Accessed 07 March 2011]
- BBC, 2009. Top Driver Distractions Revealed. BBC News, [online] 27 September 2009. Available at: <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8277436.stm> [Accessed 24 November 2010].
- BBC, 2008. The future of interaction?. BBC Click, [online]17 October 2008. Available at: <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/7676552.stm> [Accessed 24 November 2010]
- Bisaik, P. and Womack, A., 2004. Computers in Cars. [online] Available at: <http://www.uri.edu/personal2/pbisiak/computers_in_automobiles.htm> [Accessed 24 November 2010]
- DARPA, 2004. Grand Challenge 2005: DARPA Schedules Autonomous Robotic Ground Vehicles Event. [press release], 08 June 2004, Available at: <http://archive.darpa.mil/grandchallenge05/InitialPressRelease.pdf> [Accessed 09 March 2011]
- Diem, R.. 2009. DARPA Events Inspire 2011 Autonomous-Vehicle Challenge. [ONLINE] Available at: http://wardsauto.com/ar/darpa_2011_challenge_091125/. [Accessed 04 March 11].
- DiTullo, M. 2011. Car of the Future. Designophile, [online] 31 January 2011. Available at: <http://designmind.frogdesign.com/blog/car-of-the-future.html> [Accessed 5 March 2011]
- Gizmag, 2004. The future of the human-computer interface. [online] Available at: <http://www.gizmag.com/go/3519/> [Accessed 24 November 2010]
- Kim, K. and Ramakrishna, R.S., 1999, Vision-Based Eye-Gazing for Human Computer Interface, 2, pp.324-29
- Eyben, F. et al., 2010, Emotion on the Road – Necessity, Acceptance, and Feasibility of Affective Computing in the Car, Volume 2010, pp.1-17
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- Horrell, P. 2007. Behold the all-seeing, self-parking, safety-enforcing, networked car. CNN Technology, [online] 15 March 2007. Available at: <http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/03/09/cars.intelligence.popsci/index.html> [Accessed 5 March 2011]
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- Macey, S., 2009. H-Point: The fundamentals of car design & packaging, Design Studio Press
- Moggridge, B., 2007, Designing Interactions. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
- Norman, D.A., 1988, The Design of Everyday Things. New York: Basic Books
- Objectified, 2009, [DVD] Directed by Gary Hustwit
- Patrick W. Jordan, 2000. Designing Pleasurable Products: An Introduction to the New Human Factors. 1 Edition. CRC Press.
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