Prototyping Tinkerers

[Albert Chao]

Hello everyone,

We 3D printed an Egg prototype at Eyebeam in New York sometime in January (It's the green egg that is now safely guarded by Ed). Prototyping has stalled a little because we are still in the process of solidifying the user scenario. We have also been discussing and working out the role of the button and LED.

I have been working on the digital model a bit but thought it would be great to open the design up to any prototyping tinkerers. I have uploaded some more images, diagrams, and Rhino and stl files to the wiki: http://airqualityegg.wikispaces.com/Industrial+design

Let me know if you have any questions about the digital model. I'd love to see/hear your thoughts on the next iterations. Also, if you have suggestions with where and how to mass produce (relatively speaking) these things, let us know!

Cheers,

Albert

Albert Chao
Graduate of Media, Architecture & Computing (M.A.C.)
Dual Master's Degree in Architecture and Media Study
School of Architecture and Media Study
University at Buffalo
-----------------------------
chao....@gmail.com
www.albertchao.com

[Volkan Unsal]

I love the second iteration. I might help with the user scenarios. Have you come up with a thumbnail sketch for your primary user? We were initially discussing it would be a parent with a small child in the house. Are we still agreed on that? Any other user types we need to consider? 

From my perspective, the AirEgg could also be used as a smoke alarm, or a carbon monoxide detector, which is potentially a huge market. Here in New York, every home owner is required to have a smoke alarm in the house. These are very cheap devices that make a horrendous, screeching sound and are prone to false positives. That's why I disable my smoke detector. I can't stand the noise that they make.

And, that brings up another important considerations: we should also design the sound the egg makes! It should be at least tolerable enough to be an improvement on the screeching beep beep beep of the smoke detectors in the market. Think of the sounds that Apple computer makes, compared to the sounds of a Windows machine. The Apple sounds are designed to be informative, futuristic and pleasant. Windows machines just use ugly jingles. That would still sound better than a smoke alarm! The smoke alarms sound like firetrucks! And that's the last thing I want to hear in my house. 

[Axel Roest]

While a smoke alarm that Tweeted, emailed and warned in a pleasant voice would be very nice, I doubt it would pass the stringent Fire department rules. But it IS much more useful if, for example, you left something on the stove and left the house. A tweet from your egg that something is burning might make you turn around from your daily commute.

So definitely a feature I would endorse.

Axel Roest

Sent from the road, so beware of bumps in the text!

[Sergey Vlasov]

Well, especially if your egg's tweet is monitored by fire department
and in it can react on alert.
And may be your neibourgs as well like to monitor it just in case.

[Dirk Swart]

What Sergey said.

D//

PS: Volkan, I personally know someone whose life (or at least house) was saved by that loud noise in the middle of the night. Fire dept turned up and everything.




Follow me on Twitter now: dswart

[Volkan Unsal]

Dirk, I'm sure some noises can still save loud without being completely unpleasant. I don't understand why the consumers don't have the choice about what kind of noise they can put into a smoke alarm. I can put any kind of ringtone on my iPhone. Why can't I choose the loud noise in a smoke detector? It's still gonna be loud. It will still save lives. 

[Albert Chao]

Sounds could be interesting. Or, along the same lines, what about vibrations? The agitations of the Egg reflects the local collective data and serves as an alarm signal that way.

Albert Chao
Graduate of Media, Architecture & Computing (M.A.C.)
Dual Master's Degree in Architecture and Media Study
School of Architecture and Media Study
University at Buffalo
-----------------------------
chao....@gmail.com
www.albertchao.com

[Volkan Unsal]

Vibration is kind of a handheld device thing. I would sense a perception of vibration when I look at a flickering light though.