I FINALLY HAVE A WEBSITE!!!

http://christinelam.com/

GO CLICK ON IT AND HAVE A LOOK!!!!!!

It’s just about 11pm and the general access lab in Wilkinson is packed!

who would have thought!

 Just put my finishing touches on my final minisite, with over 24 hrs to spare

 Yay for me!

 I guess that I have finished for the year!

I decided to ask a number of people 3 questions about sweatbands – the type that tennis players use to wipe off their sweat!

Please keep in mind that this was over myspace, that’s my the response style varies. I was trying to aim for an audience who would like to be seen in public wearing sweatbands. I gave the audience no context so they wouldn’t be influenced about having to use it with an iPhone

 The questions were:

-How often do you wear them?
-Do you find them comfortable?
-Would you find it annoying to wear one all day everyday?

Here were my responses.

—

how often do you wear them? Everyday
do you find them comfortable? yes
would you find it annoying to wear one all day everyday? No

—

I used to wear them alot and I found them pretty comfortable
But sometimes they make your skin itchy
And sometimes they cut off your circulation LOL
but eh thats only if they’re tight

—

Yeah,
i used to wear them heaps.
there pretty comfy.

—

I wear them if I’m playing a gig and i know it’s gunna be a sweatfest. It protects my pickups.

otherwise, very rarely.

—

i wear them alot.
their ok to wear if you have a comfy one. . . but most of them are way to tight. and i have tiny wrists too!!

—

um. no one wears them really?

cept for maybe the hardcore kids.
they are kinda comfy. cept for where the embroidary is. very annoying to wear one everyday

—

Used to all the time, now sometimes
Yes
No

—

I don’t.
Ever.
Even when I played tennis I didn’t.
I would find it incredibly uncomfortable, and stupid, to wear one all day everyday.

—

>how often do you wear them?
Only time I wore them was when I played competitive tennis as a kid

>do you find them comfortable?
sure

>would you find it annoying to wear one all day everyday?
probably not annoying, but I can’t think why would. They’re SWEATbands – they get smelly!

—

I don’t usually wear them because I tried awhile ago and found them extremely uncomfortable.

—

Please feel free to contribute your response as well

I was thinking to myself, who the hell would use this thing?

I first thought that it would be a fun socialising tool, with the use to entertain and keep people in touch…much like how people use myspace or facebook.

But this is too simple.

People have been hinting to me to develop this application for a certain target audience, and the overwhelming theme of suggestions pointed to people who had difficulty with expressing their thought. This could help persons undergoing mental healthcare  who don’t know how to express their feelings. Or to people who are generally too shy to tell people how they generally feel.

But that got me thinking, would these people really use an iphone to start with? Would they agree to use a device that measures their emotions? Would it be practical for someone with such a mental state to use such an expensive device?

I was just thinking about how this application would be useful in everyday life.

Luckily for me, Rob forced us to do this in class today, so now I feel that my idea is half practical.

 So, if someone is having a bad day, the sensor in their wristband would be able to detect that and send it to their iPhone. The iPhone could then send the info to the people that subscribe to the feed, the same way that RSS works. A friend on the other side of town would then know how they are feeling without having to talk to them to start with, and be able to call them to see if they are alright, or know to be nice to them when they next meet.

Sound reasonable?

 So now I have to work on:

-How can you control who sees this information

-Implementing it into your social/study calendar

-How to ‘tone down’ the information so that it doesn’t alarm other users

-How to implement it into an interface thats practical for the iPhone

It just occurred to me that you can feel the pulse through the wrist. Therefore, it would be a great place to put an emotion senor. I thought it would be good because it doesn’t need to be worn under the clothing, and can be disguised in a wristband or something similar. It could then send signals to the iPhone in a way similar to what a heart rate monitor does. Does this idea seem plausible?

Expanding on the idea from last night.

So myspace has introduced a new function that allows users to share their status and emotions.

This is surely to allow users to interact with and understand each other without having to have an actual conversation.

I was thinking that this could easily be done on the iPhone as well.

Because its a touch screen, it already has sensors built in.

What if the screen had the ability to detect the emotion of the user based on the temperature of the hand, as well as the speed of the vibrations in the hand. (OK, I know I’m dreaming here, but I can’t think of another way for it to pick up your emotions)

This data could be shown to nearby users via a bluetooth network, or on a larger scale, to people all over the world, who subscribe to that phone, much like how RSS feeds are currently used.

Of course this function could be turned on and off, just like any other plugin, so people don’t have to share their emotions when they don’t want to.

So is this idea too ridiculous or too simple?

I’m trying to implement web 2.0 and being fairly realistic at the same time.

So I gather Web 2.0 has something to do with user interaction?

It affects the way that software developers and end users use the net.

Blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds, wikis, instant messaging and other such advancements in the recent past have made the net so much more interactive and user-driven.

Things are tagged and linked from one page to another, to the extent that one page can virtually link to any other page on the internet.

—

Here are just some of my thoughts that I needed to get out of my head.

-A mobile phone is a device which was designed to help you interact with other people.

-Advances in technology have also meant that the user can interact with their mobile phone.

-How is the iPhone any better than other new phones on the market?

I’ve also been sent this link, which has helped me understand what other phones have to offer.

-What sort of application can help users interact in ways that they do online, but with a phone instead?

-Is it viable to interact like on myspace and flickr on a mobile phone?

Would it be cost-effective enough for the average phone user?

—

What if phones could detect your emotions, based on the temperature of your hands?

It could then save it as a status, and then share it to nearby users via bluetooth!

Please tell my it hasn’t been done before!

This is the first idea that I’ve had, but I like it so far!

Well, I’ve been asking people on myspace what they thought of the iPhone, because I wanted a public opinion.

Here are the questions I asked people

Who has one?

Can you think of any improvements?

Here are some of my findings…

—–

1. i don’t hjave one

2. because it is expensive and my motorfunctions are that advanced to work with the touch screen lol

3. improvements involve it being able to walk and make up excuses for me so i don’t have to listen to ppl from india trying to sell me a phone!

—-

Well.. no i dont have one

I dont have one because there was expensive, and im happy with what ive got.

I think they’re a great product, all apple products are. Ummm but i guess it depends on the individual, i find that i dont need a phone so techincally advanced because i already have the things it offers, not all in one product.. but, so yeah, i see no need to spend the money.

Improvements? uuummm heh… not as yet

—-

Dont have one, was excited about it when I saw previews and such. Not impressed when I got hands on with it.

Too difficult to navigate, seems like it would be too easy to scratch up, break if dropped, and way to hard to type anything.

Slider type of phone would be cool, easier navigation, and much smaller “buttons” to type. Maybe even ditch the whole touch screen keys.
—-

I was also linked to this site, which I thought was pretty funny.

—-

From what I gather, people are excited about the idea of an iPhone, but arent rushing out to get one because it is either too expensive or they simply don’t need the technology. I seem to agree with these people, I like the idea of an iPhone, but I’m not going to upgrade my phone because it does everything that I ask of it.

Now, to design an app that makes everyone just want to have an iPhone.

I’ve set up this blog because I need to document my progress in my studies in DECO 1200.

Creating an app. for the iPhone seems quite daunting, but I’m making an early start on this and hopefully, I’ll come out the other end with a decent mark.

I’ve altered my current art/photography myspace to include a little section where I talk about this course, and I’m just about to put a link in it to this page. Talking of myspace, I’ve been using it today to ask people of their opinions of the iPhone, what they do and don’t like about it, and how they think it can be improved. I’ve got some good feedback so far, and I’ll work in this a little more tonight.

While I’m here, why don’t you check out some of my other sites:

ART MYSPACE
DEVIANTART
FASTERLOUDER
MYSPACE BLOG