Problem Scenarios

Possible Solutions

Opportunities and Proposed Solutions

Opportunity

- Generation Y are becoming mentally disconnected with their surroundings

- This causes their face to face interaction skills to deteriorate

- There are many examples of large group events where little or no communication takes place between people

- Organizing group events takes many messages or phone calls which can eat away at the user's cell phone plan

- It is hard to locate or contact friends when they are in a group setting, often with loud music

- People often communicate around a device such as a computer or cell phone, using the device to facilitate interactions

Measures of Success

- People will not miss out on social interactions and will be encouraged to interact with those around them

- Organizing a large group will be made more intuitive

- It will be easier to find friends in all types of environments, such as at parties, in transit and when it is inappropriate for them to respond in a text message or phone call

- Cell phone communication with friends will be made easier without the need for an expensive data plan

Proposed Solutions

- Wearable devices can make it easier to communicate with people without blocking out your surrounding environment

They can also monitor body systems and give emotional information to friends or to your device

- Different ways of mapping friends and possibly their emotional state can lead to communicating easier, without excluding you from your environment

- A public device that facilitates communication between strangers or with friends when in a group setting

General Project Description

The general goal of this project is to break down barriers that we as a society have created for ourselves through the use of our mobile devices. I will be looking into the behaviours of people as they set up group events and interact with one another in group settings. The result of my research will be a device that helps coordinate group events or will help facilitate interactions in group settings. I am also looking into sensory inputs that will give the device a sense of the emotional state of the user.

Technology has allowed Generation Y to communicate with each other in new ways. They keep in contact with many friends that they do not see on a regular basis. Internet sites like facebook and twitter allow people to keep track of their friends but many relationships are purely virtual with no face to face communication. These groups of friends that exist in cyberspace stay virtual because it takes a lot of effort to coordinate events between large groups of people. If communicating through text messages, it may take multiple messages (5-15) with each person to feel them out and convince them to take part in an event. It is also difficult to coordinate events that everyone will enjoy when dealing with a large group.

The goal of the device is to get people together in person with friends and other people that they may not know, but have a common interest with. The device could give real time feedback about how many people are at an event, what friends you have that are near or at the event, and give a reading of how excited or stimulated the people at the event are. It will attempt to simplify the process leading to a large group activity. Generation-Y is full of people who want to get more out of their time. I plan on exploring a solution that will eliminate the unnecessary tasks that go into planning an event and help maximize the amount of fun they have when they go out.

Currently the products on the market that that try to accommodate large group events are either cell phone applications or internet applications such as facebook. My product would incorporate groups from cell phones (ie BBM groups) and online groups (ie facebook groups or twitter followers). It would then add the aspect of real time positioning and feelings of the users to give information on current events that are taking place. Within generation-Y an outer circle of friends are commonly communicated with but hardly ever seen. This device would try to help the user get together with people outside their inner circle of friends more often. It would also help eliminate the fact that many relationships are strictly virtual, where people don’t ever see each other but keep in contact because they are interested in what these people are doing. For this device to be successful it will need to eliminate many of the small communications needed to coordinate events. It should also give a measure of how fun an event is or how people feel about the event as it is going on so that others can judge whether or not they want to join this event. There are environmental considerations that will need to be accounted for if I am going to propose a solution that will exist in a large group setting. Ambient noise can be a concern if the device needs to take in auditory inputs. Theft is an issue that will have to be considered due to the fact that the solution may be used in large, crowded group settings. The proposed solution could have an added element of functionality that is created when the devices are brought close to one another to signal that your friends are close by. The solution could come in a range of different forms from a wearable device to a public device, or even a device that stays in the user’s home. In any situation, the proposed solution would have communication with a mobile device, and they would work in cooperation.