{"id":1214,"date":"2015-04-23T17:57:09","date_gmt":"2015-04-23T17:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.courses.tegabrain.com\/SS15\/?p=1214"},"modified":"2018-09-04T17:06:26","modified_gmt":"2018-09-04T17:06:26","slug":"noticry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.courses.tegabrain.com\/SS15\/?p=1214","title":{"rendered":"notiCRY"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the rise of the information age, the Internet and digital devices have been praised for their ability to easily connect us to others.\u00a0 <\/span>They have also been criticized for their role in disconnecting users from the “real” world and trapping them in the virtual.\u00a0 <\/span>This argument however is no longer a significant; we have began to simply accept technology as a fact of every day life.\u00a0 <\/span>Users spend most of their day connected in some way to a larger network.<\/p>\n

The questions are evolving into what ways we can use technology to help us physically, emotionally, and financially.\u00a0 <\/span>As our needs have grown with technology we no longer need to simply connect; we need to customize.\u00a0 <\/span>This reins especially true for our social networks.\u00a0 <\/span>Social media, once praised for helping to connect people, is starting to become accused of only increasing the feeling of “being alone in a crowded room”.<\/p>\n

notiCRY is a social prosthetic and speculative design piece that uses moister sensors to know when a user is crying, and then notifies a chosen contact that their friend\/family member is in distress, prompting them to provide emotional support.\u00a0 <\/span>At first glance, the piece offers a solution to a distinct problem;\u00a0 <\/span>the inability or fear of asking for emotional support.\u00a0 <\/span>When first coming up with the idea for the piece, we thought of how many times we have wanted to reach out for help but our fears of sounding needy or vulnerable held us back.\u00a0 <\/span>As you think deeper however, users will hopefully question how far they want their devices involved in their personal lives.<\/p>\n

The device was coded using the Python scripting language meant to interact with an Arduino board.\u00a0 <\/span>Firmatta, a protocol used by the computer, is called to communicate with the Arduino. In addition, the python library BreakfastSerial was installed to to make the Arduino more adaptable to communicate with the API library Twilio. \u00a0Twilio is what enables the Arduino to send an SMS to a mobile phone, therefore allowing for direct notification when the user is in distress.<\/p>\n

Technology is becoming increasingly involved in our biology.\u00a0 <\/span>There are applications and devices available to track your diet and health.\u00a0 <\/span>Fitbit is a bracelet designed to motivate users health by monitoring their exercise, daily activity, sleep, weight, etc.\u00a0 <\/span>If our devices can help us socially and physically, could they help us emotionally?\u00a0 <\/span>Most importantly, should they?\u00a0 <\/span>notiCRY addresses these issues of privacy by proposing that the choice to reach out could be taken away.\u00a0 <\/span>If you are wearing the device and it is activated, you do not have a choice of whether or not it will contact someone for you.\u00a0 <\/span>You do have to choose to be physically wearing the device, but what if you didn’t?\u00a0 <\/span>What if software like this was simply a fact of owning an iPhone?\u00a0 <\/span>We need to question just how comfortable users are with integration of devices and bodily functions now, or we won’t have any more choices as consumers.<\/p>\n

In “The Epic Struggle of the Internet of Things” Bruce Sterling talks about this threat to consumers more in depth. \u00a0Sterling argues that we no longer actually hold importance as consumers, because our choices are being taken away and we are no longer required to buy something to be contributing to corporate profit and greed. \u00a0This is important because it solidifies the idea that our personal information is now a form of currency. \u00a0Your information is just as valuable as your bank account, and needs to be guarded and considered just the same.<\/p>\n

Other projects that have touched on the same themes as notiCRY are Miranda July’s piece “Somebody”. \u00a0Somebody is a mobile application that allows users to pick a stranger to send a message a message to someone face to face. \u00a0Just like notiCRY, but with different intentions, we see this idea of filtering through social networks and the need for customized intimacy.<\/p>\n

Lauren McCarthy also works a lot in the realm of speculative design, especially with her application, PplKpr. \u00a0PplKpr plays on social medias aim to connect others but also emphasizes the need to disconnect with some. \u00a0Connected to a bracelet, or alternately a manual rating system through the app, the application rates your social interactions and let’s the user know whether certain people in their lives should be “unfriended”. \u00a0In both of these instances we see a growing need to consider what is right for us as individual device users, but also what is needed for the network.<\/p>\n

notiCRY is still early in development and we have future goals in mind for its progression. \u00a0Currently, notiCry needs to be connected to a computer to work, but this could change with a wireless device which would make the piece completely active for use in the physical world.<\/p>\n

The notiCry trailer is located here<\/a>. \u00a0We are also building on a second draft for the trailer that gives more insight into how and why the device can be used and some of the motives behind it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the rise of the information age, the Internet and digital devices have been praised for their ability to easily connect us to others.\u00a0 They have also been criticized for their role in disconnecting users from the “real” world and trapping them in the virtual.\u00a0 This argument however is no longer a significant; we have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.courses.tegabrain.com\/SS15\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.courses.tegabrain.com\/SS15\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.courses.tegabrain.com\/SS15\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.courses.tegabrain.com\/SS15\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.courses.tegabrain.com\/SS15\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.courses.tegabrain.com\/SS15\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1219,"href":"https:\/\/www.courses.tegabrain.com\/SS15\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214\/revisions\/1219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.courses.tegabrain.com\/SS15\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.courses.tegabrain.com\/SS15\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.courses.tegabrain.com\/SS15\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}