More important, with my master degree I can start a post-graduate at the University of Technology Eindhoven, in cooperation with the Stan Ackermans Institute. I will be pursuing a Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng) for the 2 coming years. I will start in October, so right now, I’m enjoying a short holiday, and enjoying it as we speak, so it’s a short one this time peeps

As for now, I am still developing my prototype. I have to say, the most difficult modules have been written. It’s all about tweaking, improving, optimizing and testing now. I will be exhibiting a setup with a 40″LCD-display, navigable with an infrared glove. This glove will either have IR-LEDS attached to it, or retro reflecting tape, depending on the lighting conditions of the exhibition room. I can’t wait to start building and testing my set-up. I’m sure I will meet our beloved friend Mr. Murphy at a given time, but I hope to show him the way out by Friday (although you never know how that rascal gets in). I know there still are some flaws in my prototype, and I kind of know how to avoid/eliminate them, but I have to see how far I’ll get in resolving them.

The good news is that I finished my presentation. I have given it a clean design, and I will rehearse it the coming days. I hope to get some peer reviews from my students, supervisors and other teachers, allowing me to give the best possible presentation on Friday.

I’m quite relaxed so far, the nervousness isn’t kicking in (yet), but I’m a bit worried though. I’m not sure if all my work will be sufficient. My supervisors weren’t sure about whether I should present on Friday or not. That’s not a good sign indeed, they can know, since they have enough experience with master dissertations and their defense. I hope they can give me some tips so I can turn the odds to my advantage in the best possible way. See you on the other side!

I do have a double feeling about it though. I have put a lot of effort in my text, which yielded an almost 100 page document, but I still feel there are missing elements. Too late to backtrack now though, I guess it’ll have to suffice.

The thing I’m concerned about the most is my prototype. I still have a significant amount of work, but that’s not the issue. I will be able to finish it in time, but I’m worried my prototype doesn’t reflect the right context and conclusion of my research. I do have arguments to justify its current design, but I also agree with the arguments dismissing the concept of my project. So, I’m curious how the external jury will evaluate it. I do hope they ask enough questions, so I can defend myself in a proper way.

I’m off to continue working on the project (it has face detection in Flash, ain’t that awesome? ^^). Another thing I am working on is my presentation, which could easily be the determining factor of success or failure. So I gotta make it count. Wish me luck peeps.

ps: financial contributions to my bribing funds can be transfered to 377-018…..oh wait…..

Another interesting point is the processing of secondary data to specify the content for a receiver. One of my interviewees mentioned Facebook applies intensive processing and analysis of the secondary data that is gathered through social links, likes, statuses, interests, etc. This helps establishing my hypotheses, assuming the Facebook platform is a good base for marketing campaigns in an ubiquitous environment.

So far for the ethnofuturism. The next phase was the paper prototyping. The first thing I did was ask them how a person buys clothes in a store. This would help them see the steps gone through when selecting a shirt in a physical shop. I already described those steps in Gone shopping for shirts. It took a while for them to distinguish the various steps, shopping has become such a natural process in our Western civilization.

I then observed how they used the interface, and thus I could identify usability flaws. I am happy I hosted this co-design session, since it proves to be an incredible help.

My paper prototype is still very rough, and needs to be tweaked by next Monday. But in designing and determining the components, I was already doubting how I would position some elements, and how to visualize actions. On second thoughts, that isn’t a bad thing though, since it just adds to my questionnaire for my users. There is one thing bothering me though. In my first research I established that color is a primary factor in the selection process of clothes, over model. In an array of clothes, the one with the most appealing color gets the attention of the customer. After that, he or she inspects the model of the product.
But what I have seen in nearly all the clothes configurators I came across, is that the user has to define the model of the product first, and then the color/fabric. This is something I should keep in mind, and it certainly is an interesting conclusion, worth a few paragraphs in my document.

The first draft of my paper prototype

So, while he was looking for some nice shirts, I observed him and other customers. The thing is, all of them seemed to know what they were looking for. One guy was looking for some pants, so he was browsing the pants. Another guy was looking for shirts, hence him browsing for shirts. So, we can define that as step 1 of the selection process: determining what the customer wants.
Of course, there are people just entering a shop and look around for something they might like, and then decide to buy that particular item. But that’s a mutual step in the selection process though. It all comes down to the visual aspect. Whether you know or don’t know what you want to buy, items that look appealing to you will always get your attention. So we could define that as the second step: find something aesthetically appealing.

When that item particular item has caught your attention, you’ll look into it in detail. You look at the size, fabric, small details, contrast with shirts, accessories (if applicable). I’m having trouble defining that process, since it involves multiple variables that are taken into consideration. But I’d say close inspection is a good way to describe step 3. So, when the item you chose matches your likes and requirements, you are ready to try it on, to see how it fits and looks on you. This is the 4th step: preview. This step shouldn’t be underestimated, because basically this step determines whether the customer will or won’t purchase the item. That’s a conclusion I made by talking to some people. Someone said to me: “this shirt can be as beautiful as possible, if it doesn’t fit me well, or it just doesn’t look or feel right on me, I won’t buy it”. Fair enough I’d say.

Then, the last process is the purchase. Not hard to define step 5: purchase. So, to summarize the whole selection process:

1. Determine what you’re looking for
2. Find something visually appealing
3. Inspect the details of the product
4. Try it on
5. Buy it

Like I said, I talked to some people browsing clothes. I could extract some mutual comments, the main issue not being able to customize some details of the piece of clothing. Comments like “yeah I like this shirt, but I wish the buttons were a bit different…” or “I like the model of this pants, but I can’t find it in a darker color…”. I’ll see what I can do for you peeps….

So, what is there left to do for me then? Quite a few things unfortunately. The most important thing for now, are my research and user tests. After I have completed those, I can continue working on my prototype. So, at the moment, I’m quite stuck here. Nevertheless, I’m taking a friend out shopping tomorrow. He wants to by some shirts, and thanks to my internship I know quite a bit about shirts. So I agreed to accompany him tomorrow, to give him advice, and analyze his shopping behavior and selection process. Analyze his shopping behavior? You’ve read it correct. It’s not that I don’t have clothes, I have bought my own clothes and kind of know how one buys clothes. But nevertheless, it’s interesting to spend some attention to the selection process, I might extract some information I would oversee when analyzing my own purchasing habits. Never harms to spend some time on it. I will use this information to determine the structure and information architecture of my thesis prototype, it’s gonna be something like a pre-usability test.

The real usability test will take place when I have processed the acquired data. On the one hand, I will use a technique called ‘ethnofuturism‘ (it’s a branch of ethnography, rather new and unknown, since my Firefox spelling checker plug-in doesn’t even recognize the word…). I will propose a futuristic scenario to my interviewees, and ask for their interpretation. On the other hand, I will prepare a paper version of the final project, and let my users use that paper prototype, as a usability test. I already did this during the development of a game in the school module “Play”. Below some pictures of the sessions:

So, now all I can do is wait? Heck no . Next to the thesis, we have to present our portfolio. So for me, that means, create a new portfolio in 14 days. I already have this blog and an old portfolio, but I don’t consider that old version as appropriate anymore. So, might as well build something new to present my work. The downside of that is, that I will design a site that has a different theme than this blog. Since I have never built my own WordPress template, I doubt I can finish a matching template by the 18th of June. If time allows me, I will look into it though…

Obviously, postponing my thesis presentation means spending my summer vacation on my thesis. Not exactly what I had in mind though, but I guess I have no choice now. Since I’m going on a 3 week holiday, I have to work as much as possible now, so I can make up for the lost time. And, as curious as you are, you are wondering where I’m going? I’ll tell you, on the 30th June I’m taking the plane in Düsseldorf to the Land of the Rising Sun. Indeed, I’m going to Japan, and it’s gonna be nothing less than awesome .

But to give you an update on how things are right now, I’m about to hear whether or not I should present my thesis in June. Of course, presenting in June has always been the target. But the decision is not entirely mine to take. My supervisors will give me the appropriate advice. But I’ll keep that info for another post.

To the point. I have been working on my thesis prototype now. I know what I want, what components I need, and how they work. Except for one: ID’ing people. I had the intention of using the Parallax RFID reader driven by Arduino. I have the setup, and I have it working….in Arduino though. But Arduino isn’t going to be the app’s core engine. Since I know Flash and Actionscript the best, I consider using those 2 a safe bet, in terms of time management and limitations.

But of course, if something can go wrong, it goes wrong (I’m excited to see how the thesis exhibition will work out…). So, I had to get Arduino working in Flash. or basically, read out the RFID tag’s data in Flash. I was intending to connect both Flash and Arduino to an OSC server, to have Arduino send the serial data, and have Flash read it out. But apparently, there was an easier way: have Flash read out serial data through an external library: AS3Glue. Things couldn’t get better. Flash reading serial data, without the need for an OSC server. Awesome!

But you can see it coming already…When I tried an example code, Flash gave me a big, fat NJET (or ‘false‘, in Flash terms)! I had to be doing something wrong. With a 3day workshop coming up, I thought some rest and incubation time would solve the problem. But at the workshop in Neerpelt, I talked to some fellow students, having the same issues. They could read out serial data, but not as intended. Or the data was corrupt, or Flash would only read that data out once. So, our conclusion, Flash isn’t ready for serial data yet.

I didn’t really mind though, since that wouldn’t oblige me to use Arduino anymore. Yes, I admit, I’m not a fan of Arduino. You can achieve some nice results with such a small and limited micro-controller, but mostly experimental. There is no pragmatical use, or I haven’t seen it yet. In Arduino’s defense, it’s a cheap microcontroller, so one shouldn’t raise too high expectations. It’s okay for those arty, experimental projects, which I don’t like by the way. Maybe that explains my aversion for Arduino (and Processing :p). Why is that, dear Glenn? Because it’s just Spielerei, just imagine the following conversation when applying for a job:

- HR-manager: “So Glenn, what have you done during your school career?”
- Glenn: “I’ve built dope stuff with Arduino! Some nice experiments, using LED’s, servo-engines and accelerometers. Really arty and so…”
- HR-manager: “Ardooienoh? Wait, isn’t that Augmented Reality or something?”
- Glenn: “ehm no….” (I do know how to create and use Augmented Reality…)
- HR-manager: “Oh, I see. So tell me, is there any way we can make money out of this Arduino thingy??”
- *awkward silence*

You see, that’s my whole point, how can anyone earn money with it? But enough Arduino ranting. In this case, it’s Flash failing. But I need to get it working anyhow. And that brings me with an alternative: QR tags! Yes, plain, simple, QR tags. These 2 dimensional barcodes also fit in the Internet of Things philosophy, and…I got them working in Flash ^^. I’m gonna spare you the technical details, just have a look at the video below, which demonstrates a working example:

Thesis FlashQRTag from Glenn Veugen on Vimeo.

Using SVN has some advantages. The most important is the on line storage. If my hard disk would ever fail, I’d still have my thesis files backed up online. Such a crash would be a drama nonetheless, but at least I can recover my thesis files. Another advantage is the change tracking. What SVN basically does, is track changes. The first file is the base file. Any updates afterwards only contain the changes compared with the previous version. It’s a great way to recover previous versions.

But anyway, rendering wasn’t the only thing to do. Post-production was as important. So after the long rendering, I had to process the image with Photoshop. All went well, and finally, the image is approved:

Hi-res version

I have to admit, designing this image wasn’t the hardest part for me. I had way more trouble coming up with a concept. Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence aren’t the easiest subjects to visualize. Adding the idea of a physical/virtual shop was even harder. In the end, I succeeded in doing so, even if I say so myself. I also added a reference to the Internet of Things, by adding multiple platforms and connecting then.
My first version got rejected by my advisors, but on second thought, I have to thank them for doing so. At first, I didn’t agree with their point of view. But during the years I have learned to consider the opinion of others, and reconsider my own opinion. So, while being in a more objective mood, I gave their criticism some thought, and started working. With result, if I may say so. So in the end, I have to thank them for pushing me, because I believe my second version is waaaaay better than the first. The first version, for your reference: