Testing - Different Thicknesses of Cardboard

I have experimented with different thicknesses of cardboard to see if there is any difference in the sound with the same material inside. From this test I found that the thicker cardboard has a louder, stronger sound.

Research - Hearing Sense

Hearing (or audition; adjectival form: "auditory" or "aural") is the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations through an organ such as the ear. It is one of the traditional five senses. The inability to hear is called deafness.

In humans and other vertebrates, hearing is performed primarily by the auditory system: vibrations are detected by the ear and transduced into nerve impulses that are perceived by the brain (primarily in the temporal lobe). Like touch, audition requires sensitivity to the movement of molecules in the world outside the organism. Both hearing and touch are types of mechanosensation.

The eardrum of an ear simplifies incoming air pressure waves to a single channel of amplitude. In the inner ear, the distribution of vibrations along the length of the basilar membrane is detected by hair cells. The location and intensity of vibrations in the basilar membrane is transmitted to the brain through the auditory nerve.
Hearing can be measured by behavioral tests using an audiometer. Electrophysiological tests of hearing can provide accurate measurements of hearing thresholds even in unconscious subjects. Such tests include auditory brainstem evoked potentials (ABR), otoacoustic emissions (OAE) and electrocochleography (EchoG). Technical advances in these tests have allowed hearing screening for infants to become widespread.

Research - Sound Definition

Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.
Sound is a sequence of waves of pressure that propagates through compressible media such as air or water. (Sound can propagate through solids as well, but there are additional modes of propagation). During propagation, waves can be reflected, refracted, or attenuated by the medium.

The behavior of sound propagation is generally affected by three things:

• A relationship between density and pressure. This relationship, affected by temperature, determines the speed of sound within the medium.
• The propagation is also affected by the motion of the medium itself. For example, sound moving through wind. Independent of the motion of sound through the medium, if the medium is moving, the sound is further transported.
• The viscosity of the medium also affects the motion of sound waves. It determines the rate at which sound is attenuated. For many media, such as air or water, attenuation due to viscosity is negligible.

When sound is moving through a medium that does not have constant physical properties, it may be refracted (either dispersed or focused).

Concept Research

After some testing of different thicknesses of cardboard for my final design, I decided to research different forms of box templates. 

This first image is similar to the one that I have used for my testing of cardboard but it has less glue tabs which is better for me, as I found that once I came to put my box together, I had too many tabs which made it harder to stay and fit in together properly.

I decided to research these two images in-case I wanted to replace the axle that I had in mind with a handle on the box instead.

Final Story Board

Lauren Humphrey
300221920
DSDN 112
Project 1 – Part A

Interaction Design Project One; Explanation

For this project I have created an object that engages the user’s touch and hearing senses. The user needs to engage in these senses to complete the task of guessing what the materials are inside the cubes. I am going to make the cubes out of cardboard using a box pattern and glue. The user needs to rotate the cubes using the axles on the cubes and by rotating and shaking the cubes that do not have axles. The user needs to engage in their touch sense to feel the weight of the materials and cubes to help them guess what materials are inside the cubes. Their hearing senses will help the user to listen carefully to the sounds that each material produces while being shaken around and their touch sense will help them justify their guess by feeling the weight of the material in the cube and also match it up to the sounds sense. The idea of these cubes is to help the user realise that just because of the weight or the sound that a material makes, doesn’t mean that it is what it sounds or feel like.

Planning

3x Concept Storyboard

Project Research

I decided to research some objects that my concept related to so that I could either move away from objects that have already been made or get more ideas from these already made object.
I decided to research baby rattles as my boxes filled with different substances resemble baby rattles as they make similar sounds but don't necessarily look like rattles at all.

 I also decided to search up filled boxes and found the image of a box filled with bits of polystyrene as I was thinking of use polystyrene as one of my substances for my final design.

Testing Concepts

For my first test I made some boxes out of thin card and filled them with 3 different substances. Screws, Keys and Drawing pins. I thought that this test was benificial for me because I then found ways of moving forward in this project in a different direction than I thought i was moving before.

Refined Concept

Three Concepts