Trent's BCT Journal
'Purgamentum'
Of all the words I'd use to describe our final project, I'm willing to bet "arduous" and "frustrating" would be among the top contenders.
To start with, all of the people who made up our final group were in some kind of bad situation trying to find people to work with. At first it seemed like Brian and I were set to be in a group, along with Sam and possibly Jonathan. However, this was short-lived as one of our members had already taken off with another group by the next day. Similarly, Jonathan was forced to go with another group and I was left all by my little lonesome (I saw nothing of Brian for a long while). By this time, it was somewhat too late to force myself upon another group, so as soon as Brian turned up we got stuck in to the project. Eventually, we heard word of another member who would come in as soon as they could, Reuben.
With just myself and Brian, after tossing a few ideas around we came up with a good starting point - a large "f*** off" rig that one of us would wear, along with a hidden camera in a backpack or shopping trolley to capture people's reaction to the outrageous contraption we were wearing. Eventually, this evolved into a slightly different hidden camera scenario, in which the big rig was stationary, with a large camera and a sign saying something along the lines of "YOU ARE BEING FILMED AND STUFF". A small ways away from that, a small setup would be placed, likely a bin, with a hidden camera inside. We would then use this to observe the ~difference~ in behaviour between people who are aware they are on camera, and those who do not believe they are being filmed, hoping to see something along the lines of people 'showing off', or at least shying away. However, this did not meet all of the paper requirements, and though we had some leniency because of our group situation it was not quite enough to simply write off.
By this time, Reuben had come in, and Brian resumed his sporadic attendance. From this state, Reuben and I worked on a solution to our compliance problem, eventually taking the bin from the second concept and putting focus on developing it while omitting the big, eye-catching setup entirely. From this point onwards we would not be observing people, but their rubbish. We accomplished this by way of a webcam mounted under a cone that would deflect rubbish, with a clear plastic window on top so the camera could see out without being affected by refuse. In part, this fulfilled the psychological aspect of our first few ideas in that we were able to analyze the type of rubbish people were disposing of with respect to their appearance, location etc. More importantly, with the bin came an environmental aspect in which the purpose was to use the data we had gathered to better understand waste disposal methods. In turn, this would allow for a better infrastructure in waste management.
Once we had our idea down pat, I mocked up a concept in Blender to illustrate our entire setup, while Reuben worked on a Solidworks render of the piece to be fabricated.
The next step was visualizing the data, something we accomplished with some clever Max patching and Reuben's Macbook. Instead of simply capturing raw data, we set the webcam to begin recording when it detected motion. This eliminated the often long waiting periods between people putting rubbish into the bin, a complication which was not surprising at all (I mean, who's not a little suspicious of putting rubbish in a bin with a wire coming out of it and a trollface on the front?).
After some quick testing, at last we had our final product, working exactly as we intended it. The bin, along with our exhibition and a portfolio of previous projects, will be available for public viewing on Thursday 16 June, from 5:30.
To start with, all of the people who made up our final group were in some kind of bad situation trying to find people to work with. At first it seemed like Brian and I were set to be in a group, along with Sam and possibly Jonathan. However, this was short-lived as one of our members had already taken off with another group by the next day. Similarly, Jonathan was forced to go with another group and I was left all by my little lonesome (I saw nothing of Brian for a long while). By this time, it was somewhat too late to force myself upon another group, so as soon as Brian turned up we got stuck in to the project. Eventually, we heard word of another member who would come in as soon as they could, Reuben.
With just myself and Brian, after tossing a few ideas around we came up with a good starting point - a large "f*** off" rig that one of us would wear, along with a hidden camera in a backpack or shopping trolley to capture people's reaction to the outrageous contraption we were wearing. Eventually, this evolved into a slightly different hidden camera scenario, in which the big rig was stationary, with a large camera and a sign saying something along the lines of "YOU ARE BEING FILMED AND STUFF". A small ways away from that, a small setup would be placed, likely a bin, with a hidden camera inside. We would then use this to observe the ~difference~ in behaviour between people who are aware they are on camera, and those who do not believe they are being filmed, hoping to see something along the lines of people 'showing off', or at least shying away. However, this did not meet all of the paper requirements, and though we had some leniency because of our group situation it was not quite enough to simply write off.
By this time, Reuben had come in, and Brian resumed his sporadic attendance. From this state, Reuben and I worked on a solution to our compliance problem, eventually taking the bin from the second concept and putting focus on developing it while omitting the big, eye-catching setup entirely. From this point onwards we would not be observing people, but their rubbish. We accomplished this by way of a webcam mounted under a cone that would deflect rubbish, with a clear plastic window on top so the camera could see out without being affected by refuse. In part, this fulfilled the psychological aspect of our first few ideas in that we were able to analyze the type of rubbish people were disposing of with respect to their appearance, location etc. More importantly, with the bin came an environmental aspect in which the purpose was to use the data we had gathered to better understand waste disposal methods. In turn, this would allow for a better infrastructure in waste management.
Once we had our idea down pat, I mocked up a concept in Blender to illustrate our entire setup, while Reuben worked on a Solidworks render of the piece to be fabricated.
The next step was visualizing the data, something we accomplished with some clever Max patching and Reuben's Macbook. Instead of simply capturing raw data, we set the webcam to begin recording when it detected motion. This eliminated the often long waiting periods between people putting rubbish into the bin, a complication which was not surprising at all (I mean, who's not a little suspicious of putting rubbish in a bin with a wire coming out of it and a trollface on the front?).
After some quick testing, at last we had our final product, working exactly as we intended it. The bin, along with our exhibition and a portfolio of previous projects, will be available for public viewing on Thursday 16 June, from 5:30.
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