Sara developed a speech bubble approach to annotating physical objects, so that they look like they are ‘saying’ the audio and haptic feedback.

The representation of sound and vibration uses waveforms, showing amplitude over time. Although this is quite limited, it seems to be a useful shorthand for communicating a small range of tangible feedback.

On this note, I’m getting increasingly interested in the use of speech bubbles in popular media.

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Sniff is first and foremost a high-quality physical toy dog, that can withstand the rough and tumble of everyday play and activities. But Sniff’s interactive elements add an extra dimension of experience and engagement. Through the use of Radio Frequency IDentification technology Sniff can identify objects that he comes close to, which trigger behaviours that are expressed through sound and vibration. In the Sniff video above you can see three of Sniff’s ‘activities’ in action, in real settings.

Sniff is designed as a companion in daily situations as well as in play and games, alone or together with other children, and including one or more Sniffs. Special attention has been devoted to the design of interaction between sound and vibration. Auditory feedback is important for the sociality of the toy, and makes it possible for a larger number of people to participate in play. Haptic feedback deepens the experience, support hands-on operation and creates a special bond between user and toy.

Sniff is a robust and fully working prototype that has been through several iterations it its physical design, interaction design and technology. This has happened as part of a long evaluation process where it has been tested with many kids and adults.

Book, website and paper

The Sniff website goes further into some of the design and conceptual issues, as well as background material and references.

Sara Johansson presented some of the background and research behind Sniff at The Interaction design and children conference in June 2009. Here is the paper that goes deeper into the design issues particularly issues of abstraction in character and interaction design.

Finally there is also a lovely book available to buy. The book is presented as a ‘day in the life of Sniff’ and details many of the interactive, playful concepts that have been designed.

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Previously Sniff won AHO’s prize for Design for all, and has been included as one of Dagbladet’s trends for 2008.

Here is the feedback from the jury, in Norwegian:

“Sniff er et veldig morsomt spill som inkluderer alle. Det er lett å forstå, og stiller krav til barna uten å kreve forkunnskaper eller stigmatisere. Bruk av RFID-teknologi, som sender ut et signal og skaper kommunikasjon mellom kosedyret og figurene, gjør spillet til en innovasjon på sitt område.

“Tilgang til forskjellige brikker med ulike lyder og funksjoner, gir spillet imponerende mange variasjonsmuligheter. Det fins også RFID-klistremerker, som man kan gjemme rundt i huset og lage enda en ny lek med. Sniff er rett og slett en kjempegod idé, som på en nyskapende måte tar i bruk ny og spennende teknologi.”

“Utformingen er tydelig rettet mot barn, men spillet kan utmerket godt brukes av alle mennesker i alle aldersgrupper. Det egner seg svært godt som en døråpner mellom mennesker når språkbarrierer eller fysiske begrensninger hindrer dem i å kommunisere.”

If you want to try out Sniff for yourself, the exhibition will be open from 27 March until 27 April at DogA in Oslo. The Bowl project will also be exhibited.

If you like Sniff you will be happy to hear that Sara Johansson and the Touch project are developing Sniff 2.0 that includes a revised physical design, new feedback and interactional possibilities.

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Sara Johansson is tipped at number 19 with her Sniff project also featured in Making Things Talk.

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NFC has been suggested as an enabling platform for universal design or design for all. Universal design can be summed up as: “the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.” (Source)

There are perhaps many reasons that NFC is seen as an enabling technology in this area:

• Touching an object with a mobile device is seen as a simple and intuitive gesture, and may be easier than interfacing through buttons
• Moving services and functions out into a physical interface may present opportunities that are not possible when navigating hierarchical menus
• An NFC device has multiple modes of input and feedback and can present information in a perceptible way across many senses

• An NFC mobile device can contain user-preferences and identification, which can present information or services relevant to the user’s needs

  So: how might NFC be used to create interfaces that are appropriate for the widest range of users?

  One of the most basic NFC interactions is using a physical object as a call or SMS request: touching an object creates a phonecall or an SMS. A common scenario is using a collection of photo frames to make phonecalls instead of accessing names through the phone menu. This can be easily achieved by attaching NFC tags behind photos or inside photo frames. But there is a distinct lack of research and testing in this area, and so far there is no proof that this is easier or more desirable for any group of users.

  In this project we would like you to create applications that use NFC in ways that makes mobile applications easier to use for a wide range of users. These applications should be designed and tested out in collaboration with a range of potential user-groups.

  References

  Access-ability A great document covering transport, ticketing, financial transactions, public access terminals, telecommunications, smart housing, smart media and biometrics, touchscreens, keypads, typefaces, pictograms, icons and symbols, audio input and output, wireless systems, training, instruction books and help facilities. 

  Universal Design – Clarifying the Concept “The principles of universal design are being applied in a growing number of spheres. In Norway, these principles have already been integrated into several acts of legislation and efforts are underway to incorporate them into even more of the statutory framework. To ensure that the principles remain operational, it is necessary to clarify the scope of the concept of universal design, and to specify more clearly the opportunities and ramifications this implies.”

  Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards Section 508 makes sure that federal employees with disabilities have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to the access and use by Federal employees who are not individuals with disabilities. This document covers the basics from software and web to telecommunications and media products.

  Accessibility Guidelines for Public Access Terminals Good information on accessibility for public access terminals like information kiosks, ticket vending machines, information displays, point of sale customer card payment systems and card door entry systems.

  SmartTouch project A pilot project in Oulu is using NFC as a basis for eldercare services: “The City’s elderly care department, its catering service Oulun Ateria and logistics firm Oulun Logistiikka have been engaged in a pilot project involving ordering meals for the elderly based on touch technology.”

  Seeing Eye Phone Mentioned briefly in the ‘Touching the future’ competition winners is the Seeing Eye Phone, an NFC-based service that converts product information into synthesised speech. While this is not strictly a universal design it’s an interesting example of the mobile phone acting as an intermediary between physically located information and other senses.

  Read more about these design briefs.

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  ]]> http://www.nearfield.org/2007/06/universal-design-with-nfc/feed 2 http://www.nearfield.org/2007/06/sniff-wins-prize-for-design-for-all http://www.nearfield.org/2007/06/sniff-wins-prize-for-design-for-all#comments Fri, 29 Jun 2007 12:07:12 +0000 Timo http://www.nearfield.org/2007/06/sniff-wins-prize-for-design-for-all Sara Johansson’s project ‘Sniff’ has won the IT Funk prize for best student project in Design for all at this year’s Oslo School of Architecture & Design prize giving.

  “Sniff is a toy dog that gives feedback through sounds and vibrations on tagged objects that comes close to his nose. The use can be in daily situations as well as in play, either alone, together with other kids or together with other Sniffs.”

  

  Her project is written up as a good case study here (in Norwegian), and there is much more details about the project in Sara’s own report (PDF, in English).

  

  Sara was working with the Playful RFID brief this spring. Her project will be documented further here alongside the other results from the course.

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