When I was reading the articles for this week I kept thinking about what kind of information I would like to have available in my surroundings, in a non-obtrusive way. Then, the first thought that came to mind was an issue that worried me (kind of) at the beginning of the semester. On August I moved to a new place, and for the first time in my life I was going to have roommates. Of course this was (and still is) a whole new experience for me because most of my life I lived with my family, and since I moved to the U.S. I lived by myself. Anyway, something I care a lot about is being respectful of other people’s space and comfort. Therefore, I would like to know when I could do things like playing the kind of music I like out loud in the living room, using the old squeaky dryer, or the super noisy blender without bothering other people. So, I think it would be awesome to have some sort of simple, yet elegant, information system (maybe a symbolic sculptural display, according to Pousman and Stasko) that would let us know who is home, and even maybe a simple status (“no bother”, “not my best day”, “sleeping”, “happy to talk”, “need human interaction”, “silence, studying” etc.)
Other ideas that came to mind are dynamic and aesthetically pleasing visualization of:
- The amount of electrical energy consumed by a specific space (room, office, house, building).
- The number of paper towels used in a specific public restroom
- The amount and speed of electrons flowing through a specific wire
- The amount of UV radiation
- Being a bit more futuristic, the “average mood” of a space, considering the general mood (although it might be very hard to classify human emotions, they are very complex) of the individuals that are in the space. Or the aggregated mood of the space but by visualizing the mood of each individual (in an anonymous way, obviously). I’m imagining some sort of 3D matrix of lights, and light representing a person, and each color a emotion.