Assignment 1A - Observe

1A is due on Wednesday, September 13th at 10 AM

Learnings:

  • Observing the world and the technology we live with every day and take for granted.

Instructions:

Observe Carefully

You will observe your everyday actions in order to better understand all the ways you interact with technology every day. Start from the minute you leave class on Monday (Sept 11), and stop when you enter class on Wednesday (Sept 13). The goal is to be as observant as possible and as thorough as possible. Don’t leave anything out….

Make a copy of the spread sheet provided. Write your name in the space provided. Use the spreadsheet to keep track of every single interaction you have with technology, whether it is a computer or a sensor or a digital interface of any kind. Be specific. You can record in some other way to make it easier for you, but you must transfer the data onto the spreadsheet, filling it in as best you can. It is more important to observe carefully than it is to be right about the kind of sensor or the way it works.

We are looking for an electronic or digital device that gets input, analyzes the input in some way, and responds with some sort of output.

For example, when you enter a room, do the lights turn on automatically? That is a sensor that is recognizes motion, and then outputs a signal that turns on the light (such as the infrared motion sensor diagramed below). You don’t need to fully understand how the device works, just make a good guess at what kind of sensor or computer chip or electronic device is being used and what it is detecting, processing, and out putting.

Record the activity

You will write down each time you interact with a device or sensor.

For example, when you use your phone:

  • You do lots of different interactions on your phone. Note each type of interaction separately. For example:

    • Using the camera is different from

    • Using touch to input information, which is different from

    • Using heart rate or other bio-sensing information, and different than

    • Using the microphone to record sound, which is quite different from

    • Using a computer chip to understand what you’ve said and perform a function (natural language processing), which is not the same as

    • Listening to music, etc….

  • If you do an action more than once, you can record similar interactions on the same line, as long as they are similar enough in the kind of interaction it is.

  • When in doubt, enter it on its own line.

  • Feel free to add lines to the document if you run out of space.

Record the interaction itself—be specific

Pay attention to the interaction itself. For example, when you take a photo on your phone, there are all kinds of interactions available to you. You can:

  • take a photo facing outward or inward (selfie)

  • Zoom in our out

  • Choose to take a photo, video, pano, etc.

  • Press the shutter

  • Save the image or delete it

  • Edit images

  • Share images

Make note in the notes section on anything that stands out about the interaction itself —was it particularly fun, hard, frustrating, surprising?

Turning in the Homework

  • 1A is due on Wednesday, September 13th at 10 AM.

  • Turn in your document HERE, in folder 1A of the class Google Drive