Whereas people with normal sight may use visual maps to find their way in a building, blind and visually impaired people often have little means to get acquainted with the building. Wang addressed this problem in collaboration with Stichting Geluid in Zicht (Sound in Vision), initiated by Hannes Wallrafen.

Audigator was designed to explore if and how auditory cues can help in navigation. The concept consists of a 3D scale model, a webcam, and an array of speakers placed around the user. Running your finger from room to room, one will hear the sounds associated with each room coming from one or more speakers, just as if one was there. Compared to a silent scale model, a preliminary test showed that people need less time to navigate with Audigator, and navigation is more accurate.

The video below demonstrates the rationale and design of Audigator:

Graduation project – Audigator – Xiaowei Wang from Xiaowei Wang on Vimeo.

By Nynke Tromp – StudioLab member

From various perspectives (ranging from behavioral economics to persuasive technology) researchers have demonstrated how human behaviour is being influenced by the physical and social environment. Often without being aware of it, the actions people perform are obstructed, guided or steered by the products they use and the environment they are in.

Given this, could we demonstrate that design interventions are more effective in promoting prosocial behaviour than regular textual/symbolic interventions are?

In this Labtalk I invite you to actively and critically think with me about the set-up of an experiment to test this hypothesis. In her graduation project, Lysanne van de Voort is designing two products that are intended to discourage littering in the canteen. In a quasi-experimental set-up, Lysanne will test whether these designs are more effective in promoting prosocial behavior than signs are.

This LabTalk will be held in StudioSay, February 29th, at 16:00.

By Dr. Elif Özcan Vieira – StudioLab member

A product is a multi-sensorial object which can be experienced through our senses. When designing sounds for products, sound is often considered in isolation from its source (i.e., product). However, consistent product experience requires congruity between product properties. In the LabTalk, I will discuss how the auditory and visual product properties sometimes enhance a product experience and sometimes hinder a product experience. In detail, I will present three experimental studies based on audio-visual interactions in product experience. In the first study, the memory for product sounds and how visual and verbal labels influence the auditory memory is investigated. In the second study, the influence of context on product sound identification is investigated. In the final study, the influence of sound on pleasantness judgments of a product is investigated. The results will be discussed within a perceptual, cognitive and emotional framework for multi-sensory product experience.

This LabTalk will be held in StudioSay, February 15th, at 16:00.

By Reinier Jansen – StudioLab member

Visual, auditory, and tactile textures provide information about events and objects in our environment. Designers are considering more and more non-visual product experiences. Therefore, it is interesting to comprehend how sensory modalities can influence each other. In this labtalk, I will present an exploratory study on the use of an interactive sound synthesizer to describe visual textures. The study was recently presented at the Electronic Imaging conference in San Francisco, of which I will also give some highlights.

This LabTalk will be held in StudioSay, February 8th, at 16:00.

By Dr. Walter Aprile – StudioLab member

C and microcontrollers have been around for decades. There are many C programming toolkits that work just fine with engineers, but there is exactly ONE that designers want to use: Arduino.
In this labtalk will discuss programming toolkits for designers from the point of view of education and design. I have built a framework of traits to aid in comparing toolkits, pushing existing ones in a designerly direction and make sense of what can be a confusing landscape. I will present the framework for the first time and demonstrate a small tool I have written.

This LabTalk will be held in StudioSay, February 8th, at 16:00.

Designing computing systems for frontline firefighting is an open challenge. As of today, little computing support exists for such hazardous environments and designers struggle to build appropriate systems that fit the complex configuration on the frontline.
Following Christopher Alexander’s understanding, design is about producing living transformations of existing configurations, it requires a thorough understanding of the situation on-site. Alexander introduces pattern languages as a means to describe existing configurations and to make them accessible for design, to link ethnography and design. This thesis therefore develops a pattern language of firefighters’ activities at the frontline to transform the existing practice into a design space for computing support.

The public presentation and defense is on Tuesday December 13 at 12:00 in the Aula of the TUDelft.

Users can portrait themselves on a physical Delft Blue plate, making use of spatial augmented reality technology. They can choose to have their personalized plate fabricated in real Delft Blue at the factory.

The initial developments of Delft Blue by me took place in the ID-Studiolab and were part of the PhD research of Daniel Saakes. Bart van den Berg developed the prototypes.

Try it out for yourself in Delft.

By Cecile Cuijpers – StudioLab member

Since December 2011 I am working as a PhD research at the University of Delft. During my research I will explore the possibilities of 3D navigation aids for Intervention Radiologists. The navigation aids should help the physician to navigate through the liver of a patient and minimize the amount of navigation difficulties. In my first PhD year, I tried to assess the design needs and understand how I could help the physician. During the LabTalk, I will discuss the methods and outcomes of my first year, and present my plans for the coming years.

This LabTalk will be held in StudioSay, December 14th, at 16:00.

By Ruben Post – StudioLab member

The use of neuroscience to explore new possibilities in field such as cognitive and consumer psychology, economy and sociology has in recent decades resulted in interesting collaborations. In this talk I will explain some of the basic concepts of the brain, and how neuroscience research has given insights in how our brain perceives the world. By giving some examples of experiments performed in fields closely related to design, I would like to engage in an active discussion of how the field of neuroscience might help create better design principles.

This LabTalk will be held in StudioSay, December 7th, at 16:00.

By Ellis Bartholomeus – StudioLab member

Before starting at the TU delft 6 months ago, Ellis had been involved in developing a social puzzel community for eldery, called: “Vitamine P, a Puzzle a day keeps the doctor away”
The development involved a business model, user interface design, user testing, motivation, concept development, software development, project processes, dynamic difficulty management, persona, aesthetic design and… wrong decisions and errors to learn from. I hope te tell and show a lot about it, and am very eager to answer question about this great and divers experience.

This LabTalk will be held in StudioSay, November 30th, at 16:00.