internship

SUMMER INTERNSHIPPROJECT - I

Dhyan SumanInteraction Design - 09633004

IDC, IIT BOMBAY

Under Guidance of:Mr. Dhaval Joshi (Designer Researcher)

Dhyan Suman | Summer internship | IDC IITB

Acknowledgement

I would like to acknowledge the support of all those people who were involved with me in my project and made it work out in a very successful manner.

First of all I would like to thank my parents for their love, blessing and support and encouraging me to give my best all the time and providing everything, such as money, to buy anything that are related to this project work and their advise, which is the most needed for this project.

My warm thanks to Anirudhha Sir and Ravi Sir for letting us to go ahead and do a selfsponsored project and all IDC faculties for their support and guidance.

To my guide Mr. Dhaval Joshi for his valuable guidance and direction through out the project period.

Last but not the least, GOD for providing me strength when things were not going well and motivation to go on.


Synopsis

The Summer Internship is the first project of your second year at Industrial Design Center, which offers a student an opportunity to learn, hone and display the design skills in a real life situation. In a period of 4-6 weeks, the student with guidance from faculty and external guide, strives to offer a comprehensive solution to the need.

This Summer Internship was a self-sponsored project, which was carried out under guidance of Dhaval Joshi, a Design researcher in field of Interaction deign. The project aimed to understand and explore the basics of electronics using various textile and non textile materials. Working on this project required me to be self-disciplined, organized and motivated, since it is very difficult to work when there are no constraints with timings and no one to tell you what to do.


Contents

1 Exploring ways of interacting (project 1) 1.1 Project brief and scope..........................1 1.2 Approach................................................2 1.3 Secondary research...............................3 1.4 Material sourcing....................................6 1.5 Learning electronics...............................7

2 Computing for socio-economic development (project 2) 2.1 Introduction to ICTD...............................20 2.2 About MSR Summer School...................21 2.3 ICTD projects by TEM MSR...................22 2.4 Projects..................................................24

3 Conclusions........................................................29

4 References.........................................................30

Dhyan Suman | Summer internship | IDC IITB 1

1-Exploring ways of interacting 1.1 Project brief and scope

With getting into Interaction in IDC, I always thought that I would try mixing technology with textiles during my extra time, but could never make it. Summer internship was the opportunity for me to explore this field and since I am from non-technical background, I had to start from the basics.The project brief was to understand, learn and explore the basics of electronics, so that I could be able to make working prototypes for my projects in future.

The project provides great scope for experimentation and innovation; a good opportunity for exploring different materials and techniques.

It also gives an opportunity to research about the ongoing experiments in related field, become literate to the technical language, and to learn some basic coding for your experiments.


1.2 Approach

The first task for any project is to research, study what is the present scenario in this field. This is an important phase in project life cycle, in which the project focus was realized and basically established a direction of the project.

Next phase involved developing the skills; understanding of working of electronics.Material sourcing was carried out in local markets of Delhi and Bangalore, were explored to find the options available for project.

In the next phase, explorations were carried out. Due to the experimental nature of this phase, it was a good learning experience. Small working projects were developed in the last phase of the project.


1.3 Secondary research

The field of smart textiles is very new in India and there are barely any firms working on this field. So doing a secondary research was the most appropriate option given the 4 weeks time.

The once I came across were

1) Talk to my shirt:

This site is dedicated to Wearable Electronics in the purest sense: Textile based, Clothing and Fashion Accessories. That’s all. If a new product claims to be Wearable (Electronics) but does not meet this criteria, it will not be included in this site. Portable (Electronics) does not mean Wearable (Electronics). talk2myShirt is the ‘missing link’, the worldwide communication platform to enable such collaboration.

2) Plusea:

This site has DIY (Do it Yourself) projects on wearable technology which require a reasonable understanding of electronics and circuits.

Calle Rosenqvist, Beat Dress (photo by Johan Sundell)


3) HIgh-low tech:

High-low tech is a collaborative effort of faculties from MIT Media labs, working on wearable textiles. The faculties involved are Leah Buechley (Assistant Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab), David Mellis(Graduate Student of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab), Emily Lovell(Graduate Student of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab), Hannah Perner-Wilson(Graduate Student of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab), Bonifaz Kaufmann(Visiting Student of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab).

4) Fashion & Technology at the School of Arts and Communication at Malmö University:

The course explores the field through a study of clothing and style as socio-cultural communication and an investigation of how emerging technologies can assist in personal expression. After that, practical workshops invite students to craft their own prototype.


5) Cute Circuit:

CuteCircuit is a fashion company based in London that designs wearable technology. CuteCircuit products are innovative intelligent clothing that integrate new functionalities into fashion through the use of smart textiles and micro electronics. CuteCircuit is the first company to merge wearable and telecommunication technology to create emotionally rich experiences for users in the fashion, sport and communication industries.

One of Cute Circuit’s products, the Hug Shirt, was honored as one of the Best Inventions of The Year by Time Magazine. This same product was also awarded the First Prize at Ciberart Festival in Bilbao, Spain. CuteCircuit work is frequently featured in books on design, art and innovation, publications include: World Changing, Fashioning the Future, Smart Materials in Design, Fashion and Architecture, Sex Design, and Designing for Interaction. Many of CuteCircuit products have also been published on magazines and newspapers worldwide, such as TIME Magazine, ELLE, Design Matters, Stuff, WIRED, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, the Financial Times, and CNN. CuteCircuit was featured in the special issue on the American Avant Garde by Surface Magazine. The recent book Fashionable Technology, prominently features all of CuteCircuit’s work to date.


1.4 Material sourcing

During the secondary research, I came across through materials which were suitable for my project; Conductive thread, conductive fabric, conductive sheet (velostat). These materials are flexible, washable as a polyester fabric and sewable, even with sewing machines.

I tried few manufacturers in India, but it seemed impossible to find these materials in India and ordering form US would be time consuming and expensive. Most of the material related to electronics were sourced from S.P. Road in Bangalore and in Old Delhi.


1.5 Learning electronics

Repairing fuse at home was the only thing I have done so far in electronics and I needed much more to learn to make prototypes in future. So starting with a beginner’s kit was not a bad idea.

I used a kit for control-less robots by using a combination of digital and analog electronic circuits. The kit contained all the necessary electro-mechanical components to start with. By using the same fundamental concepts of electronics, we could control behaviors for our robot. These behaviors can consist of path tracing, clap sensing, obstacle avoiding etc.

Later I explored the function of Arduino, a single-board micro controller and a software suite for programming. The hardware consists of a simple open hardware design for the controller with an Atmel AVR processor and on-board I/O support. The software consists of a standard programming language and the boot loader that runs on the board.

Arduino hardware is programmed using a Wiring based language (syntax + libraries), similar to C++ with some simplifications and modifications, and an Processing based IDE.


Starting from lighting up an LED on a bread board and learning basics simultaneously, I moved further with more complex circuits. In this process I learnt to read a circuit diagram very well, which initially I found very confusing.


Further the projects included things like capacitors, transistors, LDRs, DC motors etc.

Images: Top left - a circuit when triggered turns the LED on for sometime. Bottom left - A circuit for a robot which runs when there is light.


A clap activated LED circuit, which turns the LED on for sometime when clapped.


A clap activated robot, which runs forward when clapped. The role of IC is very important in the circuit for such project.


A robot with IR (infra red) sensor pair. The IR LED and IR photodiode help the robot to follow a path (black line / white line).


Arduino project began in Ivrea, Italy in 2005 to make a device for controlling student-built interaction design projects less expensively than other prototyping systems available at the time.

It is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments. Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators.

There are lots of reading material available on Internet for learning coding for Arduino and few open source projects.

As usual the first project was to say “hello world” by operating an flashing LED, using code.


Before starting with project, an Arduino requires to be installed on your computer and then some changes in settings. The projects done on Arduino are usually known as sketch.

Images: Top left - a sketch of pulsating LED on arduino.Bottom left - a sketch of a traffic light signals. The timing of the LEDs is controlled by the coding done on arduino software.


A sketch of interactive Traffic light signal, in which when the button is pressed, the arduino reacts by changing the state of the lights to make the cars stop and allow the pedestrian to cross safely.


A sketch to use a string of LEDʼs to make an LED chase effect, and on the using the concept of arrays in coding.


It is an extension of the earlier sketch of LED chase effect with addition of the potentiometer. By turning the knob of the potentiometer, we can change the value of ledDelay and speed up or slow down the effect.


A sketch where the LEDs’ colors slowly change from one to another, making your own mood lamp.


After gaining knowledge in basics of electronics, I was trying with incorporating SMDs in fabric, by weaving insulated thin wires to create a matrix. There were lots of trial and error in this project. The Idea was to have a flexible LED screen on fabric, on which display can be controlled by arduino. If conductive yarn/fiber were used, the final sample would be washable, and soft.

Image: Top left and bottom- a trial structure and working of LEDs for weaving the SMDs.


2-Computing for socio-economic development

2.1 Introduction to ICTD

Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) is a general term referring to the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) within the field of socioeconomic development or international development. ICT4D concerns itself with directly applying information technology approaches to poverty reduction. ICTs can be applied either in the direct sense, wherein their use directly benefits the disadvantaged population, or in an indirect sense, wherein the ICTs assist aid organizations or non-governmental organizations or governments or businesses in order to improve general socio-economic conditions. In many impoverished regions of the world, legislative and political measures are required to facilitate or enable application of ICTs, especially with respect to monopolistic communications structures and censorship laws.

The concept of ICT4D can be interpreted as dealing with disadvantaged populations anywhere in the world, but is more typically associated with applications in developing countries. The field is becoming recognized as an interdisciplinary research area as can be noted by the growing number of conferences, workshops and publications. Such research have been spurred on in part by the need for scientifically validated benchmarks and


2.2 About MSR Summer School

The Summer school on computing for Socio-economic Development was organized and financed by Microsoft Research India, especially the Technology for Emerging Markets (TEM) Group at the IISc. The school had lots of very interesting lectures and discussions from researchers in field of ICTD and had exciting group works which consisted of field work on the streets of Bangalore.

TEM MSR India:

The main goals of the TEM group are to understand existing and potential technology users, to design and evaluate systems and to collaborate with NGOs. Ed Cutrell is actually the manager of the group, he replaced Kentaro Toyama who went back to the U.S. to work on a book on global development.

results, which can be used to measure the efficacy of current projects. Many international development agencies recognize the importance of ICT4D.


1) Text-Free User Interfaces

The goal of this research is to understand, devise and implement design principles such that a non-literate person can, at first contact with a PC or phone, immediately realize useful interaction with minimal or no assistance.

2) Tools for K-12 Teachers

Like collage - The tool enables teachers to display digital scans of textbook pages along with digital multimedia in an interactive fashion. For example, an English teacher teaching a chapter called “Banyan Tree” can show pages from the text and in between the pages s/he can present images and videos of a real banyan tree.http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/india/projects/edulab/collage.html

2.3 ICTD projects by TEM MSR


3) Simultaneous Shared Access- Multipoint

They are working on a project where we provide each child with a mouse and cursor on screen, thus effectively multiplying the amount of interaction per student per PC, for the cost of a few extra mice.http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/india/projects/edulab/multipoint.htmlhttp://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/india/projects/edulab/cloze.htmlhttp://www.microsoft.com/multipoint/mouse-sdk/

4) Rural Microfinance and IT

They are conducting primary research on understanding the ways in which rural and urban low-income households access and use financial services from formal and informal providers.

5) DVDs for Education

A very interesting project! They are developing applications for interactive DVDs using the menu system from ordinary DVDs for content. So they put for example Schools

Wikipedia on a DVD, so you can access Wikipedia with just a DVD player + TV.http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/thies/ictd10-abstract.txt

6) Everyday mobile use in the developing world

Their project explores the diversity of mobile use in settings where the mobile is the primary ICT, while identifying generalizable patterns and trends.

7) ICTs in urban slums

This work explores the adoption of information & communication technologies in the context of urban slums in Mumbai. They are conducting ethnographic research amongst ICT-based business like mobile phone stores, cyber cafes, PC assembling units and computer training institutes to map the ecologies of mobile phones and PCs in these communities.


8) Digital Green

Digital Green is dedicated to improving the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of small farmer livelihoods. They aim to raise the livelihoods of smallholder farmers across the developing world through the targeted production and dissemination of agricultural information via participatory video and mediated instruction through grassroots-level partnerships.

9) Mobile-phone-enabled banking and payments

The project involves looking at a range of existing and proposed m-banking and m-payment solutions across countries, understanding the usability of m-banking systems by low-literate clients, as well as assessing the social and economic context and impact of the new channel on low-income households.


2.4 Projects

Through out the 15 days of this summer school we had very interesting talks by people who have been working in this field of ICTD, like:

Revi Sterling about ‘the history of development theory and practice’. Aishwarya Ratan about ‘the Mozambican cashew industry’ and ‘Portfolio of poor’ (Being poor is a triple “whammy” for these people, it’s not just their low income, it’s as well the uncertain timing of cash flows, the irregularity and unpredictability of income, which makes every days life hard for these people. An other problem is, that financial instruments don’t address these people.). Nimmi Rangaswamy was speaking about slum ecology.Revi Sterlings talk was about advancement through interactive radio (community based radio).Michael Best topic was “Rich digital media as a tool in post conflict trout and reconciliation.Jonathan Donner topic was “A review of the research on mobile use by micro and small enterprises”.Indrani Medhi talked about everyday life in rural village, and about her experiences on the field.Kentaro Toyama talked about “Ten myths of ICT4D”.Joyojeet Pal talked about “Disability in the Developing World”.


In the beginning we did small group discussions on the goals of development generally and why to use ICTs for development. We examined development practice through a paper/case study and discussion with faculties.

In our field work we went out in small groups of three, where we did quantitative as well as qualitative interviews with low income workers in Bangalore. Based on our one of qualitative interviews, we had to make a poster.

In a talk by Geeta Menon, she told us about the life in urban slums, to prepare us for our visit in a slum. In small groups we visited different slums and had the chance to speak with the people about their lives, their worries.


The school focused quite a lot on the research part of the ICTD. We had lectures by Isha Ray and Nimmi Rangaswamy about the essentials of qualitative methods for ICTD fieldwork. Nimmi Rangaswamy told us about qualitative data analysis and Aishwarya Ratan about working with quantitative data, statistical methods like Hypothesis testing and also about impact evaluation. Based on these talks we had group work of coming up with a methods we would use for this research, why and how we would design the research overall for a given research question and to come up with research proposal based on your prior work or the field work done at summer school.

We also had talks by people who were actually researchers, but have been contributing a lot in the development of the low-income group in developing countries.

Sean Blagsvedt talked about Babalife and Babajob. This is an social networking tool that connects job seekers from India’s large informal sector to middle- and upper-class Indians looking to hire maids, cooks, drivers, security guards, construction workers, and other wage laborers. It is employment-oriented networking with a social conscience and a practical function.


Rikin Gandhi told us more about the “The digital green story”.

Solomon Jaya Prakash told us about “Building infrastructure to support low-income workers”. It was mainly about LabourNet, a social enterprise which aims at improving earning opportunities, working conditions, skills and security for workers in the unorganized sector, who constitute over 90% of India’s workforce.


3-Conclusions

The exposure in the field of electronics has improved my skills and has developed confidence in me to try out new ideas.

The Summer school was a good learning about how people have and we can use the information & communication technology for development of our country people, making their lives better. It was a fantastic experience. I have learned a lot about ICTD generally and especially how to do research and case studies in that interdisciplinary field.


4-References

http://www.arduino.cc/

http://ict4d.at/

http://www.lessemf.com/

Mike McRoberts, http://earthshinedesign.co.uk/ASKManual/

http://www.talk2myshirt.com/blog/

http://www.plusea.at/

http://hlt.media.mit.edu/?p=5

http://we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2007/08/lenna-truncale.php

http://www.cutecircuit.com/

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