Smart Vehicles Interfaces
Our group designed a smart vehicle called The “Child FaceTime hover-board”. In order to design such a easy operated smart vehicle, there are mainly three steps to take. The first step is to think of an idea of what kind of innovational vehicle is going to be designed and for whom. The best way to do so is through brainstorming. Within our group, we first write down ideas of all the vehicles that we could think of, despite if it exists in real life or not. Then we match each of the specific vehicle with a user type.
After choosing the most popular kind of vehicle from many ideas among different groups, we initiated the second step, which is create a scenario of an activity for our user. Note that I did not work on the “Child FaceTime hover-board” project at this time, I was working on creating a Segway for mall cops. After brainstorming some ideas like direction controllers, speaker, robot hand, food holder, etc. We finally unanimously decided on laser taser for the Segway. Our scenario is the following: one day at the mall, a thief stole an expensive Gucci bag from the store. And the store manager immediately noticed the mall cops by radio. After receiving the message, all the mall cops rushed over to catch the thief. But the thief was running really fast so it’s difficult for the cops to catch him. Fortunately, one of the cops has Segway that we designed, and was able to use the laser taser to shock the thief to the ground.
The third step is to sketch out the user interface screens for the activity created in step 2. I did not get the chance to design the user interface for the Segway, but the Child FaceTime hover-board. It is also a really cool idea. After getting a brief explaining, I learned that the Child FaceTime hover-board gives the child an opportunity to talk to their parents whenever they want to in the hover-board. (It was improved with a ceiling for the child’s safety, also it’s design is similar to a car except the base which is a hover-board.) The user interface screens are the following: a touch screen with a speaker and camera would be installed on one side of the car, and the home screen is a picture of a cartoon character. When the child wants to contact the outside, he can do so by crying or shout at a high volume, the home screen would change to a option menu screen which contains three or more buttons. Each of the button has a picture of a person, like mom, dad or caretaker. The child can choose one by touch the screen or through voice command. After choosing a person, the screen would change to the call screen with the person’s picture in the middle, and a little call button on the bottom left of the screen. At this time, the touch function of the screen would be automatically turned off. If the call button turns to green, it means the call succeeded, if the person does not response after 30 seconds, the call button would turn red indicates call failed and the screen would change back to the option menu. The touch function would be automatically turned on again. The child has the ability to choose the same person or others on the screen, but if there are no responses for 1 minute, the screen goes back to the home screen.
