Bookhunt
Project 1: Way-Finding Through Speech
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A collaborative Javascript project by Faith Kaufman and Chris Perry. Our goal was to make a system for finding books in CMU’s Hunt Library using a speech-responsive interface that we named “Book Hunt.”
09.06.16 | Project Begins
We’ve been instructed to choose a site and create a speech-responsive interface for wayfinding through the space.
We created a google doc for brainstorming:
After much deliberation, four ideas really stood out to us:
- food tour (either restaurants or free food)
- Scavenger hunt (incorp of cultural probe ideas from last year)
- Whats going on (events through fb)
- Interactive guide to Phipps
After thinking through the four ideas, we had a moment of insight…
Our idea could be like a scavenger hunt, but within one space on campus. We settled on Hunt Library, thinking that it would be really fun for people to go on a Book Hunt adventure in moments like when they are bored while studying.
For our conversation with the user, we were inspired by the question of
“How are you feeling today?”
We were thinking a series of questions like this could give the interface a good idea of who the user is and what they are looking for in a book. We will then use a combination of absolute and relative directions to take them to the book.
Other ideas for questions were:
How much time do you have?
How much energy do you have?
What kind of books do you like?
We feel really excited about the direction this project is already going in.
09.08.16 | Building a Storyboard
We built our first narrative during class. This helped us to better flesh out the concept. Also, we came up with concepts for the interface such as the inclusion of a graphic compass that would allow for absolute directions like “North” and “South.”
We also started to see problems like — “Can you use a speech-operated interface in an environment like the library where you’re not allowed to talk?” We resolved this issue by making it so that most talking is done on the first floor, which at Hunt, is not a quiet floor.
Our story is as follows:
- They open the application and go to the first floor.
- They have a conversation with the app with headphones in.
- It instructs them to go to the fourth floor. (absolute)
- It instructs them to walk north. (absolute)
- It gives relative directions until they locate the book.
- It gives absolute directions of where the book is on the shelf
After meeting with our instructor, Q, he suggested that we reduce the conversation and stick with one question:
How are you feeling?
And he also recommended using the P5.js Rita speech library so that we can really showcase the power of speech as an interaction. Based off of their response to the question — ex) good, stressed, adventurous — we can locate a book that matches their mood.
We also thought it would be a good idea for the interface to use call numbers as a way of making sure that the user is on the right track to locating the book. And if they are lost, it can use the information of the call-number to figure out the location of the user. This is a really cool application of the class objectives of our class, “Information and Space.” We are literally locating the user using information that they provide.
We really want to use an android instead of LED display kiosks because we want the device to follow the user on their Book Hunt journey.
09.10.16 | Group Meeting
Book Information
We created a quick list of books and matched them with corresponding feelings:
- Julio Cortazar — Letters from a lady in paris — Anxious, excited, weird
- David Foster Wallace — Infinite Jest — bored, adventurous
- Franz Kafka — The Metamorphosis — angsty, mad, adventurous,
- Maya Angelou — I know why the caged bird sings — stuck, trapped, stressed, alone/lonely, frusturated
- Virginia Woolf — The Lady in the Looking Glass — Stuck, pent-up, anxious, happy, okay, fine
- Douglas Adams — The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — stressed, sad, happy
- Mitch Albom — The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto — curious, bored, happy
- Mary Oliver — New and Selected Poems — tired, frustrated, okay,
- George Orwell — 1984 — adventurous
- Aldous Huxley — Brave New World — adventurous
- Haruki Murakami — 1Q84 — bored
- Ray Bradbury — The Veldt — tired, bored, adventurous
- Don Norman — Design of Everyday Things — curious, disillusioned
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry — The Little Prince — Tired, scared, confused, sad, old, okay, fine
- Roald Dahl — revolting rhymes — stressed, sad, alone/lonely, weird, happy, okay, fine
- Madeleine L’Engle — A Wrinkle in Time — Happy, adventurous, tired
New Storyboard
We talked through our narrative and how to make it more compelling. We fleshed out a beginning and end to our story, and also made the scenario more specific.
To Do
- start coding tomorrow — applying Rita library
09.21.16 | Starting Visuals
We met to decide a few things about the visuals.
Primarily, we discussed whether we should do a compass or a scavenger hunt map. We decided on a scavenger hunt map, but later wondered if the compass could be an intro to the application.
09.22.16 | Code-Planning
We created a workflow of our code so that we have a better understanding of how all of the functions will work together.
We began by mapping out all of the functions:
The red color is a more in-depth view of the code we will be using.
Meeting With Q
We went over our ideas. Something notable was that the Wordnet dictionary will not work on Android. So, to demonstrate our idea, we will present a working prototype on a laptop. But, we will “wizard-of-oz” it onto mobile in the form of a video.
He wants us to take more of a focus on visuals
To-Do
- visuals (saturday)
09.24.2016–09.25.2016 | Visuals
Planning
Chris and I began by mapping out the visuals throughout the different stages of the application. We brought the compass back into our visuals as a transition until Book Hunt locates a book. It then becomes the grid of the map. Dots are a big part of our visual language.
Starting to Code the Visuals
We sourced the colors from one of our book covers. This gives the user a hint of the book that they will get to.
The ring that moves will become a compass with a line moving around, also constructed of dots. After the line spins, it will land on north, and the dots will fade out.
09/28/2016 | Visiting the Library
We took a trip to Hunt to see how the call numbers and path to book work.
We used a kiask to locate our book, The Metamorphosis.
It then creates a map. Ours follows this method but is more abstracted. We will use floor, row, and call number to navigate to the book.
We practiced finding our book.
10/1/2016 | An Update on Visuals
We’ve been working on using recursion to generate a random path through the dot grid.
It also draws itself in a more complex and randomized route based off of the following math:
This is how it ended up working out.
Here is a screengrab of how the interface will look:
10.02.2016 | Speech, Sound, & Visuals
Today, we worked on incorporating speech and sound into the interface. We have successfully gotten it to ask aloud, “Welcome to BookHunt. How are you feeling today?” What we are working on next is how to get it to recognize the “feelings” and match it to a book. We have included 3 books as arrays. The issue we are experiencing is that getDistance() is only for Java and not Javascript. This was essential to getting our code to work, so we will need to consult with Q on what to do next.
Also, after asking Q for feedback, he gave us a lot of suggestions on visuals which we have tried to fix in our code.
10.12.2016 | Final Works
Here are the final videos that show how the code works.
