Today I sketched some scenarios of usage for the biosphera interface. Typically the user can operate completely into the simulation, flicker between the simulation and the physical plant or work completely with the actual plant.

These are few random notes i took during our group retreat.

– Spiral -> SPIROGRAPH

– Colorforms: shapes, spatial relationship, aestethic

– knots -> motor skills

Sometime the tool is an object sometime is a conceptual framework.

Alfred Gell’s “The antropology of time”

Howard Gardner “Multiple Intelligences”

A quick sketch on how the different variable can play together in the user interface.

Some notes I took while reading William Friedman’s About Time:

– rhythm

– grouping of intervals

– sequencing

– temporal order -> young children, like adults, use information about sequence to infer casual relationship

– temporal duration -> alongside order, must be stored in the long-memory representations

– event differentiation

– flow -> uniform, all encompassing single dimension along which only two events can be ordered and only two intervals compared

We need to allow children to explore freely time and duration also giving them a tool to construct a reference system.

This “Footprints of Nations” report compares the ecological impact of 52 large nations, inhabited by 80 percent of the world population. It also shows to what extent their consumption can be supported by their local ecological capacity. One key finding is that today, humanity as a whole uses over one third more resources and eco-services than what nature can regenerate. In 1992, this ecological deficit was only one quarter.

I designed today tri-variabgle visualization to represent the three factor chosen in the Biosphera project and to give a way to the user to play with different combination of the variables over time. The idea is that these variables can assume different values along the day and that the modification of one variable can have an effect on the others. Consistently, I am trying to represent the following concepts:

1- value of each variable in the system

2- interaction between each variable

3- projected (wanted) value of one variable and instantaneous (current) one

4- definition of the wanted value in time

Additionally, I am trying to merge the control and the sensory information in one single visualization system. When the user is modifying a variable s/he might also want the variable to be represented in the current status and the time it takes to reach the projected wanted value. There is also an issue on how to match this information with the virtual and physical world. The user should be using the system to build a story. The story should be represented on the virtual side and have many different alternatives and decide which apply best. The the final version of the story should affect the physical domain.

Today I sketched with Jamie a couple of different collaboration modalities, where people take charge of one part of the controls of a shared interaction environment.

I sketched a possible diachronic visualization of the interaction with a plant for the Biosphera interface. The idea behind is to offer the possibility to reflect on the influence of underexposure or overexposure to a certain variable over time.