Solas
Bringing light to dark times.
The story of Solas
Covid restrictions have made human connection worse… so much worse. Every interaction is cold, detached and fearful; Solas aims to change this. This project looks at taking covid-safe seating and bringing light and warmth to each other through organic movement in conversation through use of distance sensors, pressure plates and LEDs.
Brief
As an introduction to physical computing, we were briefed as a pair to create an interaction that connected people. The objective was to be covid-friendly, not encourage a mass of attention/touching, and use two inputs to connect two or more people.
Timeline
5 weeks
Skills
Research, observation, lo-fi & hi-fi prototyping, testing, programming, workshop production
Year
2021
Discover
Observation
We spent time wandering around the campus looking for problem areas where connection seemed to be particularly lacking.
Covid restrictions meant that people were acting in unusual ways, trying to find the best, safest way to connect in these new, distanced, barricaded spaces.
Location
After observing behaviour in the queues, studio, canteen and more, we found the benches to be particularly bad. We observed that people would rather sit backwards and talk to each other across two benches rather than sit into the seat as intended. This was a major flaw.
After conducting interviews and experiencing it ourselves, we realised that you can hardly even communicate with those in front of you, never mind those at diagonals.
Findings
“It’s bad, plus we have to sit out here in the middle of December, it’s f****ing grim", it looks so grey and cold.” - Ruarí
“I feel like I’m in prison… hang on… this is prison.” - Mark
“It just feels and looks so bad, the whole thing is just so industrial.” - Aisling.
Define
Mapping and ideation
We saw huge scope for intervention and began to throw all of our findings into a virtual post-it board in case we entered lockdown again, and began to create some links, rapidly ideating as we did so within the context of what an Arduino is capable of.
The ideas were limitless, however we had to at all times ensure that we were not encouraging people to break restrictions, creating something people would touch, or drawing a crowd. It was strange to design with such restrictions, but we persevered nonetheless.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.”
Martin Luther King Jr
Storyboarding
We took three concepts forward with us at this stage and began creating storyboards to further understand the implications of what we could potentially make.
At this point we saw the ideas as quite game oriented, however, this would change later on. One game involved painting a random image together, using the perspex divider as a screen, another involved a charades-type game and another involved a sequence of flashing LEDs that if triggered together, the LEDs would join and flash as one.
Rapid Experience Prototyping
We took our three storyboarded concepts and created 3 rapid prototypes that we tested to the best of our ability in a Covid-restricted environment.
All three were thoroughly enjoyed, attracting attention from friends and onlookers, however we decided to go for the LED sequence at this time.
The painting screen would have really taken advantage of the desire to create graffiti and collaborate, however this would have caused a large amount of touching, the charades game seemed too complex and needed explaining, but the LED game seemed full of potential in new, interesting ways.
Develop
Detailed Scenario
We decided on the concept and decided to iron out any of the inconsistencies/issues by detailing exactly what would happen, and what emotions/feelings we were trying to evoke.
Sketching
We started sketching out exactly how things might work, and what we would need to create. This was crucial for thinking about what sensors we might use, how people could use it in unexpected ways etc.
Building/Coding Arduino
Upon deciding on the concept it was time for me to start programming the interaction and building the physical box.
This stage took place in late December 2020 to be completed upon returning to campus in January. This was no longer possible and so we had to improvise and build what was possible with only limited supplies and only a single RGB LED, so a certain amount of witchcraft was necessary. This was incredibly disappointing, however if allowed on campus in September 2021, this will be finished.
Interactions
I programmed two interactions that recognised the movements of natural conversation to trigger a warming, mood-changing diffused LED sequence. Lean forward and you will apply pressure to the foot pedal, triggering your event, whilst on the other side of the table the other person may become animated with their hands, triggering their LED event via the ultrasonic sensor. If both lights reach their maximum brightness, they join in unison, pulsing in tandem and bringing connection to each other.
Deliver
With no access to materials and supplies on campus, I had to rebuild and improvise. I could only make one Solas with one LED, and we could no longer put it in the space it was intended for, however, given the constraints, I feel it turned out the best it could. I also intended to finish this in the following few months, however the lockdown never ended and we still have not been able to collect and resume the project.