A Stroll in the Hood

So I've been strolling through my neighbor the last few weeks looking for interesting sensors. Well, during my little walks I have only noticed atm card-readers, push buttons, and touch-screens along with cell phone touch-screens and buttons. I would occasionally see closing doors for storefronts that use a key that allows a button to be activated to bring up or down the large metal door. I also noticed building intercoms that typically have buttons, but I have seen the video intercoms before. No really interesting sensors to report. I'll still keep an eye-out for interesting sensors in the days to come. Still hoping for some interesting findings.

Notebook Light- Round 2

I took this original layout of my notebook light and reconfigured it so that the wires would not disrupt the use of the light.

To begin I twisted the wires to make just one adjustable "wire," solving the problem of two wires getting in the way. I then soldered the light, which I got from a mini-flashlight, to the ground and power wires. I then soldered the ground and the power wires to pins that are secured in plastic. I attached the pins to the back of the notebook with some tape.

I then attached a 4-AA batteries pack to the circuit. The power wiring runs straight to the pin on the back of the notebook. While the ground wire is ran to the light bulb. I taped some wire mesh on the front of the notebook so when the two covers meet in the open position the mesh will connect the circuit. As demonstrated in class, the power supply was too great for the light bulb, which originally only needed one AAA battery.

I did attempt to make the power supply be a AAA battery by soldering wire mesh to wires, then having the battery rest in-between the mesh. This however did not work, therefore I attempted to use the 4-AA battery pack that came in the Physical computing kit from the NYU bookstore.

Good Design vs. Bad Design

One bad design that I have noticed through the years are the entrance door card-readers for Bank atms. When the user walks up to enter the atm room, there is a slots to insert your atm card. This is awkward to use because the design itself does not indicate how to use it. The user can figure out to put the card into the slot, but one does not know how far to insert the card and what orientation the card should be in. I've seen many encounters of users, including myself, struggling to figure out the orientation. The design does clearly indicate that the card should be insert with the thinnest width and the shortest height. But even with this much information, there are still 4 optional positions of orientation. Typically there is a arrow pointing to the corner that the magnetic stripe should align with. However, at most atms the sticker has worn off the metal scanner. Therefore the user has to try all 4 options until the green light blinks and the door is unlocked.

I find this design to be annoying, especially during bad weather when it's hard to handle the card, insert properly, wait for green light, and then open the door before the unlocking times out.

A better option would be card scanners that one uses on cash-registers or even at Bobst library entrance gates. This design is better than the atm door reader, because there is only two options for swiping the card. The user knows that the card-reader needs to detect the magnetic stripe to get a reading thus clearance for entry. By have a swiping position, instead of inserting, the user knows that the magnetic strip needs to facing down to go through the reader. This leaves only left or right side of the card as a possible position. Thus it is easier for the user to have the card in hand with the magnetic strip on the bottom portion of the card, then swipe. If the reader didn't get a read simply flip the card so the magnetic strip is facing the other direction and swipe. Thus gaining access quickly by having only 2 options and having the two positions be a quick adjustment from a simple flip of the wrist.