Heikki Sjöman

Bridging Tangible and Virtual Interaction: Rapid Prototyping of a Gaming Idea

The Fibo Car is an example for a game interface that allows a user to modify a virtual car in a racing game through assembling tangible car parts. This paper describes the 6 week development journey towards a fully functional proof of concept prototype, reflections on the process as well as the technical details of the prototype.

A Simultaneous, Multidisciplinary Development and Design Journey – Reflections on Prototyping

This paper proposes a wayfaring approach for the early concept creation stage of development projects that have a very high degree of intended innovation and thus uncertainty. The method is supported by a concrete game design example involving the development of a tangible programming interface for virtual car racing games. We focus onto projects that not only have high degrees of freedom, for example in terms of reframing the problem or iterating the final project vision, but are also complex in nature. For example, these can be projects that allow for the exploration and exploitation of unknown unknowns and serendipity findings. Process wise we are primarily focusing onto the early stage that precedes the requirement fixation, which we see as more dynamic and evolutionary in nature. The core conceptual elements that we have derived from the development experiences are: simultaneous prototyping in multiple disciplines (such as computer science, electronics and mechanics and engineering in general, abductive learning based on the outcome of rapid cycles of designing, building and testing prototypes (probing), and the importance of includingall the involved disciplines (knowledge domains) from the beginning of the project on.

From the eyes of the patient: real time gaze control of medical training mannequins.

The eyes are a central point of interaction between humans in all sorts of situations - including clinical diagnosis. While modern medical training mannequins provide a high level of realism when it comes to e.g. Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) procedures, the overall fidelity of the training is strongly limited by dead eyes and the subsequent lack of interaction with the simulated patients. While actuated robotic eyes are available on the market the question remains on how to make them behave in a natural way, especially in a diagnosis context. In this article we present a solution based on head mounted device that not only gives an operator the live-view of the mannequin, but also tracks their eye movement which is directly translated into a movement of the robotic eyes.

Using Low-Cost Sensors to Develop a High Precision Lifting Controller Device for an Overhead Crane—Insights and Hypotheses from Prototyping a Heavy Industrial Internet Project

The subject of this study was the product development project creating a new innovative proof-of-concept (POC) prototype device that could control a connected industrial overhead crane in order to perform automatic or semi-automatic high precision lifts within a limited time frame. The development work focused on innovating a new measuring concept, which was parallel to finding suitable sensors for the application. Furthermore, the project resulted in a closed loop control system with Industrial Internet connected sensors and a user interface for factory workers. The prototyping journey is depicted to illustrate the decisions made during the product development project to contribute to both the pragmatic and the process discussion in the field of Industrial Internet. The purpose of this research was to explore and generate hypotheses for how new applications should be developed for heavy industry connected devices. The research question is: what are the implications of applying agile product development methods, such as Wayfaring, to heavy industrial machinery and Industrial Internet -based problems? The methodologies used in this paper, in addition to developing the device, are case study research and hypotheses generated from case studies. The hypotheses generated include that it is also possible to prototype large size connected machinery with low-cost and in a short time, and investment decisions for heavy Industrial Internet products become easier with concrete data from proof-of-concept prototypes by creating knowledge about the investment risk and the value proposition.