MAESTRO -Compose your Emotions

MAESTRO
Compose your Emotions

With the advancement of portable palm pilots, short-term amnesia patients have the benefit of planning out their lifestyle and are able to live an independent life. Even though the palm pilot is a useful tool for planning out the day it doesn’t cover the aspect of remembering emotions.

Facing the problem of not remembering their emotions can cause the patients to have frustrations and mood swings, which affects their personality and behavior. Enabling patient to function in the everyday life activities. With my interface music and sound will aid in associating and evoking emotions for the amnesia patient. Thus, by the sound triggering their emotions induces memory. In other words, the purpose of using sonic memory material as a tactic of production is to ‘trigger’ a sensorial engagement with audio stimulation.

The interface helps compose the music to convey emotions for those who suffer from short-term amnesia. Maestro is the ideal software for portable hand held device such as a palm pilot. With Maestro the user is able to construct and rate their emotions through a library of music and sound. Maestro functions like a personal log for the user, dividing into categories of people, events and places. In the software package there is a default library folder, which contains music and sound clips that the user can use as a starter kit to construct their emotional association. It also has the ability to download other audio tracks. Maestro also has a (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) MIDI keyboard for the user to compose his or her own music and sounds. Through the MIDI keyboard the user has a library of instrumental sounds. Where users can efficiently assemble and associate their emotion with the events, places and people. Hence, with the aid of palm pilots, short- term amnesia victims are able to plan their day and to remember their feelings to lead an independent life. With MIDI, the patient is able to not only construct music and sound but also creates a pattern of their emotional behavior. This helps benefit not only the user but also others to have a better understanding of the individual. Maestro could be the stepping-stone to understand the relationship between sound associations and emotions.

memory assist

Assistive Memory Loss Project

For this project I have chosen to develop a device that would be used at home mainly by the person who has acquired memory loss, or in conjunction with a caregiver. It is a magnetic board that allows the user to plan their day. On this board, the user would place magnetic images of all of the day’s events, at the appropriate location on the board. These images, some of which may contain text, would be designed by the user and would therefore have a very specific personal meaning. The user would choose certain colours, images and text that have a specific meaning to them. This customized feature would allow the board to have a very personal meaning or value to the user. The board wouldn’t be time specific but would resemble the profile of a set of stairs ascending than descending. The beginning of the day would be on the far left of the board at the first step. As the day progresses the stairs ascend with the top step being midday. The stairs now start to descend, as the day progresses and the end of the day is the last step. This profile of ascending and descending stairs is meant to represent sunrise to sunset. Each step is meant to represent a change in activity and the magnetic pieces are placed on the different steps.

Key Features:

Repetition. Board is done daily. Repetition is key to regaining memory.
Personal. Image pieces are custom designed by user to incorporate personal colour and image preferences.
Hierarchy. More important things are first or higher on the board.
Text. Text can be added to include things like the specific time of a doctor’s appointment.

SUN and SHADOW

Shadow is used as a time and is meant for telling the time with the help of the sun. When ever, where ever, whoever, whatever, when the sun is out you can tell the time. Shadow is part of us, in respective of who we are. Your Shadow does not disappear because you had a brain lost. Either you have short or long term memory your shadow is always your best friend, that's why its low cost but effective way to remind your self the time to be in bed because it past nine in the evening or to the time to watch you favorite T.V show or take your medicine, you get the idea. The best thing about this tool is, you don't need to have a memory problem to use it. As long as you not afraid of your shadow, but even if you are I got something for you too. This tool can be used with all other memory tools. Imagine you lose your palm palette or forgot where you put it (not the same with shadow), but if you know the time, you will find out what you are supposed to do from the notice board.

How it work

It does not matter where you face (North, South, East, or West), as long as you know where your sun is. If you can not locate the position of the sun you can use this as your compass. When you know your East or West, now you ready to tell the time. By the length of your shadow you can tell if is 6 when your shadow is the same length as you, or 12 when your shadow cannot be seen or is under you. Click here to watch what I mean. In other to tell if is P.M. or A.M. depends on where you facing. Example if am facing towards the west, my shadow will be behind me when is 6am or in front of me when is 6pm. Click here to see what I mean.
The whole idea is to create an interactive flash using 3dmax and flash. In this flash the viewer will tell in time what it wants the the character to do base on his shadow.

Traits

Using paper trait is another memory tool. We are found of cleaning our house daily, either picking up pieces of papers from the floor or moving the cup from the counter. Leaving pieces of paper behind you, that contain what to be done either before you go to bed or on your way to the leaving room. It can be random on what you have to do. That means you can end up picking paper number two before one, but at the same time you will get things done. Watch this movie to see what I mean. These are the traits of the movie you just watch.


that's me - oh boy is hot

by Ephraim

final map project

I used a game element to express how I felt and where I used to live and moved from place A to B. By creating a game interface to use for my friends who lives in Korea, they do not have any idea how I used live so far so on.
This game can be suit in to my friend’s cell phone and they will play through and gain knowledge of my different states of emotional icon by looking at the different pictures of mine. The avatar represent my memories of emotional states depends on the different environment circumstance.
I utilized the “Ladder Game” to make this events of mine can be shared by my friends from far away.

PLAY! (Phase 3)

Rediscover Toronto and yourself with Naviwear sunglasses. Integrating several technologies in a wearable format to help users experience walking around in a city in a whole new perspective. Have fun and PLAY!

Warmware: Olive Jar

The Olive Jar is used on a Palm Pilot and is meant for random jobs or rewards. The jar can hold many olives, but each one is worth very little, it is meant for things that don’t need to be done on a regular schedule or have great importance. The main user will contribute both jobs that they tend to put off, and rewards that they have been meaning to do or have done. Other people with the same Olive program will be able to send jobs or rewards into the mix. (Many can contribute but only the one user can redeem). If someone contributes an olive, it shows you what the job or reward is, and then it is mixed up in the jar. The virtual olives are floating around in the jar, they all look the same the outside, so you just point on one and the pimento will pop out. Once you have read it, it is put in the ‘trash’ so that it wont be used again. The ‘trash’ can also be looked at as an archive of what you have done both rewards and jobs, and give you ideas for ones you need to rewrite. The system is kept interesting because it is something you will do when you know you have time to do something, but you don’t know if it will be something good or bad, and most of it is out of your control. ‘REMEMBER’ to restock the jar!

Jason Whetter

warmware: the melody + non-linear timeline

Music has always been connected to emotions in a symbolic way.
Although this symbolic connection differs throughout different cultures,
to the individual, it can be an obvious when a melody is excited, happy,
somber, tired, proud, timid, dramatic, etc....

The Melody:

This is a special new software written for blackberrys.
This software works not only with melodies which help users
remember certain entries by the associated melodies, but also
uses a special link system which allows the user to bounce
around the entire database using keywords which occur elsewhere
in the database.

This project was created with the two ideas formed in class
for the virtual communities assignment and the non-linear timeline
assignment.





Melodic Memories

This was my Timeline project.
This is a system which creates a non-linear timeline of events
with the use of pictures, videos, and sound files. The timeline
is ordered by the similarities in the associated melodies.
Users can enter their own melodies and memories, and a slideshow
of their life relative to the associated melody.


This is me!

Warmware: RemAUDIO

RemAUDIO, by me.



People are arguably the strongest support network – why? Well, one reasoning we can determine from this is the fact that people are complexly intelligent individuals who have motivation to check up on you. At any rate, people are the basis for a quality system of reminding – combining that insight with the notion of audio and phones, I’ve created RemAUDIO.

RemAUDIO is a warmware system that allows you to take any digitally stored data that is being used in the context of a calender or schedule, and then upload that data so that you are able to receive a set of audio reminders via your cell phone. A powerpoint including all of this data is available in the title link.



RemAUDIO works in a few basic steps -

First: Take data from scheduling tool – either Palm or the computer – and upload that data onto either your cell phone or the specific website. Either way, you must register with the website in order to download the cellphone software or upload. Registering requires the telephone number you wish to be called at.

If website: After data is uploaded, select category of clips you would like for reminders. The site will automatically correlate the specific reminder with an appropriate phrase depending on the kind of audio chosen, or text-to-speech audio is available.



If Cell phone: Confirm the data transfer on one’s cell phone and activate the alarm system.

You’re done! Get ready to be reminded.

How it works: You will receive phone calls at the times you have specified in your digital schedule, reminding you of what you desire to be reminded about.

Customization: You are able to customize the audio you hear when you are called; with either a selection from previously stored audio or basic text-to-speech digital audio.

For example - if you wish direct audio reminders, you can use the text-to-speech software which would sound like this.

Or if you wish for something a bit more tied to popular culture and have a hair appointment to meet, then you could use this.

This system is ideal for users suffering from memory loss due to acquired brain injury because it can be direct with reminders as well as poentially re-conciling them with popular culture without having to rely on other individuals for these direct reminders.

Warmware: e-calendar

Final Project- Warmware
Memory Assistance
Memory is precious and valuable. Future events are important and significant. There are thousands of things we need to do in our everyday life. In this modern age, we are busy with all kinds of things such as school works, money making or taking care of kids. For example, nanny day care is necessary for business women and men to help with looking after their children. We are always looking forward new sources to help with our life. Technology is continually improving and progressing so fast that it makes our life easier and simpler. We tried out best to achieve better living and working quality. Therefore, I have decided to create a digital calendar based device to assist our memory system. It is an emotionally- rich tool that everyone should have.

Warmware- memory ripple

This is a continuation of my personal timeline. I find that alot of people have the habit of using online albums to store their photos, and I am one of them. I want to create a new way of utilizing online photo albums, a method much more personal and interactive. I present to you www.memoryripple.com (guys, I know you are all tempted to go there, but the site doesn't exist yet =p)

This will be a personal album, so no one else would be able to view it unless you send them the link and password. Since this is more of a personal diary of non-linear events narrated by photos, no one else will be able to relate on a deeper level then you. Users will start by first, applying for an account. Then then will go to the upload section to upload their pictures. They can upload as many as they wish, but they should remember is always better to upload pictures that relate to one another (it just makes more sense that way), and also to write down dates and captions that go with each picture.

Whoo-hoo! After this process, you can then rearrange you photos simply by the click and drag methods. The begin with, the pictures will always be placed in the order that you uploaded numerically. So let's say you want picture #5 to be the first one, simple click and drag it before the first picture, and *ta-da*. It's as simple as that. But there's a catch. #1 must relate most closely to #2, then #3 and so on so the computer can then generate the ripple effect.

The last step is to view and admire the masterpiece that the user has "created". The album will run horizontally, depending on how many photos the user has uploaded, the longer the page. The page opens blank, but when the curser touches a hotspot, a picture will appear with the captions that go along, and the ripple will start to form. The ripple will contain pictures that relate to the event in the middle. The more outter of the ripple the picture is at, the less relevance it has.

Then when the curser rolls over to another picture or a hot spot (which appears blank) that contains a picture, the same effect will appear again, but only now the previous one is gone.

Warmware: Emotion Database

My last posting about my emotional database idea went into much of what I would have gone into to take my idea into a 'warmware' phase. For this final posting I want to refine those ideas and provide a number of possibilities for customization of my proposed program. My last post was: "a proposal for a way of recording and creating a sort of digital simulacrum for this memory process that could be carried around by a person on a PDA-like device or cell phone." It was basically a database that a user could build up emotional information and experience in (Sample images from my last post: [1] [2] [3] [4].)

Most important to me with this idea was the idea that each entry would have a user generated colour background that would be shaped by user input. With this in mind, and with the discussion that we had in class last week, I have come up with a series of modifications and ideas that I think improve and expand upon my last posting.

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1. Allow for user-customization of the emotional scales and of the category tabs.
The emotional scales that I created for my first post were admittedly crude and non-specific. The best solution to this problem is to allow the scales to be user created and editable in both what they represent and the colours associated with the tabs. For example if the user did not like my initial "Boring<->Fun" and "Important<->Unimportant" scale for entering information about People they could opt for another entry scale like "Best Friend<->Enemy" and "Nearby<->Far Away".

On top of being able to customize the entry of the emotional information for each category it would be nice if the user could also create categories of there own. For example if the user didn't like the "People-Places-Ideas-Things" layout they could change it to "Friends-Movies-Music-Books" or whatever they preferred.

2. Provide more opportunity for user modification of the background visualization.
The simple gradient background visualization is a good starting point for visualizing the emotional input into the database, but a more direct approach mght help the entries be more personal. Perhaps if the user could directly add images (like clip art, camera images, etc.) directly to the background they could personalize the entry to their liking. The gradient would still be visible on top of the altered background so the emotional scale idea would still work with users altering the background.

3. Add the ability for the user to add sounds or movies to an entry.
Adding sounds and movies to the entries would allow the user to add another layer of information to an entry and make that entry more interesting and accessible. It seems like a logical step if only to add more options for the user.
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Using the above three ideas I've come up with a few sample images of what the modified program would look like with these changes:

This image shows the modified interface (different buttons and tabs) as well as a user modified backround visualization (the stars)

This image also shows the new buttons, but without the modified tabs. It shows the possibility for user edited backgrounds.

These three additions to my initial idea will make the program more user friendly and customizable. With these additions the program also becomes more personal to each person that uses it so that two people using this program could have completely different experiences and output using the same program.

-Jacob Fowler

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

Warmware- chocolate

The memory project that I created was simply a calendar with different special chocolate to represent the events and emotion throughout the month. The chocolate are used to demonstrate the mood of the day and to remind the individual for particular dates. Chocolates are for all-aged typed and there is no gender restriction; it is, to most individuals, a special kind of desire. This allows me to take into consideration of establishing a calendar in human daily life by taking into account of individual’s greatest passion – chocolate. For each type of chocolate, it has various colours along with a different sweetness level and this is significant in turns of how the chocolate are categorized. For example: Crown is a bitter dark chocolate and it is expressed as a negative emotion/event; in contrast, Chocolate Twist is a sweet white chocolate and it is symbolized as a positive emotion/event. There is also a chocolate, Heart, for special occasion and is designated for specific activities which also has a distinctive taste from the chocolate in norm.

Warmware- Forget me not

The image of a standing in front of an open fridge and not remembering what it was that you were looking for really stuck with me after the presentation on Tuesday afternoon because I felt it was one of the most common issues. I thought I’d use the contents of the fridge as connections to the bits and pieces of the emotional story. This way the viewer is waiting for or gets the idea of ‘what’s next’, what am I looking at, the viewer gets the sense of frustration and randomness, the way many people with memory problems often feel. The interface I have chosen to use is an internet website. Every time you roll over an item in the fridge it will link to a particular emotion or memory attached to the taste, smell, look or feel of each food item. The website will allow people with memory loss to document their memories in their own account or fridge. They can customize their own fridge according to their memory progress they make, this way the website can encourage their random non-linear memory patterns, possibly encouraging new random links, almost in the same fashion as brainstorming. The site will document blogs, and other media dealing with memory issues connecting many individuals with memory loss.

For example when someone logs into their fridge account on the website they can investigate it buy moving items around in the fridge, giving certain items priority or significance depending of what visually represents priority to each individual. The example I have shown here is that if you clicked on the Mayonnaise in this person’s fridge you would find that they have associated it with memories of their father’s distaste for it, not necessarily their own experiences with the item themselves. After clicking on the Mayonnaise the website would make a picture chart showing that it is connected to a specific memory/thought and then when you scroll down it will explain it in words.

Each fridge has a password so that only the amnesic people will able to add to or change their fridge. Although only people with memory difficulties will be able to customize a fridge, family and friends in the support network of a recovering amnesic can still have an account on the “forget me not” virtual community. This way the support network for someone who is amnesic is also supported. If the family and friends of the amnesic individuals want to help them, they can ask them to add something to their fridge by posting a message to the blog or e-mail them via the complementary e-mail you get when you sign up with “forget me not”. E-mail coming to this account can be forwarded to other e-mails. From this e-mail they can retrieve newsletters about topics concerning memory loss, the research on memory loss, and stories about other people who have dealt with or are dealing with memory loss issues. Members of “forget me not” may communicate with other people in the virtual community including their support networks (that have also signed up) via the community blog, and via “forget me not” e-mail. This website will also have links to other websites of interest and a video library or homemade video diary of people from the community or perhaps of anything concerning the topic of memory, some people may honour their memories by making a video reminder of a certain point in their past or an event to come. There will also be a picture library documenting images connected to memory issues. The link shows a video compilation of a possible video memory of someone’s dad through pictures and music.



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License.

Dec 12- final day

Hello everyone, Andrea and I are looking forward to the presentations tomorrow.

Light to Unite

Follow the link to light a candle.














Bristol-Myers Squibb is donating a dollar to fight AIDS every time someone goes to their website and moves the match to the candle and lights it. This site is functional and well designed, and contains memories and stories from AIDS health care workers, family, friends and survivors.

my post

Here is my first post, I am thinking....