Looking at different ways of creating heat as well as maintaining heat.

Exploration of PEM, personal environmental module. How to move heating elements increase the mobility of the mechanical system.

Exploration of using individual bikes for power. Steve: “Heating air is incredibly inefficient”.

Different ways to generate energy through human power as well as heat the rest the human body with motion. Stationary pedals with generator. Heat and cooling fan powered in user controlled proportions.

User moves heating elements by hand, for direct contact with body. Cooling system initially set by human. Areas sweating will be added to “rotation list” for motion tracking list. Infrared or camera will detect excess sweat.

Demo Progress:

Stationary Pedal Exerciser. Although this will in no way power a fan or a heat generator, the pedals will serve to prove the feasibility of pedaling while working. Also, those pedaling while sitting will feel the heat they generate because of their muscles creating energy to pedal.

Cardboard prototype of crank

Design of crank as well as framing further direction of project.

Crank design out of cardboard taped to generator.

Second test type of crank. This version felt far less unstable.

For my final cardboard prototypes I ended up shortening the length of the crank in order to for a user to more comfortably turn the crank.

This is my preliminary proof of concept demo. While the crank is a final product, the fan itself is bent paper taped to the front of a motor. This proves the viability of using human energy to power a fan.

I explored the possibilities of charging batteries or storing charge over time. However, through looking at how warmth would be produced, I reasoned that a direct transfer of energy would be most effective in heating a human. I also began to specifically define what my heating system would be capable of.

I had trouble defining how the fans or heating would work in specifics. While I worked through many different issues I had difficulty showing my design process in my final project.

Here I looked at the user and what they would be experiencing when using the heat system.

I finally created a wireframe concept that I felt content with that involved manipulating a thermal image of the user. However, these wireframes didn’t make it to the final because they weren’t essential to the story I was trying to tell.

Initial wireframes. The three main avenues I wanted to capture were quick heat manipulation, and specific heating and cooling settings.

Personal critique of wireframes.

Idea to use analog knob in order to alter temperature while giving digital feedback. The standard interface of the app could be displayed with AR.

I finally began my storyboarding process, finding the key moments that would define what my story was was. I tried to use the quote: “You’re not telling the truth, you’re telling a story” in order to guide my storyboarding process.

Continued storyboarding of key events.

I revisited my app interface late in the project. I ended up wasting time trying to polish a relatively insignificant part of my final project.

Continuing work on the heat dial.

Storyboard index cards. The middle three rows were the main storyline. So the shot order is left to right row of 3, row of 1, and row of 5. The two index cards in the middle were alternates.

These are the storyboards annotated with stage directions and the meanings behind what I wanted to show with each shot.

My initial dial for a user to determine how much heat they wanted. The red was meant to represent heat and would be the unit of measure since the user would heat themselves with the pedals as well as a heating pad, while just the fan produced cool air. However, after talking with classmates, I reasoned that the design was too ambiguous to be used.

Final version of my InVision app wireframes.

Final Video

Credit for Arduino and Processing code:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Overview/?ALLSTEPS

Inspirations:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/14/tech/innovation/wireless-electricity/

I wanted to reduce the heating costs of a building and bring about energy consumption awareness.
Reflection