Paths of desire

Introduction

My final project is to do with invisible architecture. I had to make a model that was an example of invisible architecture. Before I could do this I had to understand what invisible architecture actually was. Invisible architecture are tracks that are left behind without realising that they are there. Example of this are: the most commonly walked routes in the shopping mall, the different temperature in a building caused by where people are most, where phone signal are strongest and weakest, or where people walk in the park. All of these are paths people leave behind and for my final project I had to choose one of these paths and bring it to life.

Idea

For my final project I choose to do my first idea. I decided I would map out the paths of a Park. Once I have mapped out the main paths, I will then map out the desired paths. The path people want to take. I will map the main paths in red and then the desired paths in blue. I will use GPS drawing to map out the paths. This will show what the paths should look like to best fit the desired path.

The park I originally choose was central park however as I started tracking the park I noticed that the signal was very weak and I also kept losing it from time to time. Down in the lower part of the park I could not pick up a signal at all. This caused me great problems, without being able to get a signal I could not complete my track of the park. Also I soon realised that this park was too large for me to show the detail I wished. So I decided to change to St Jude’s park. This park was a lot smaller and would allow me to show the details I wanted to show. Using this park would also give me the opportunity to be more precise with my mapping and make sure it is tracking me correctly.

The process

I started by walking around the park, I walked all the normal paths in the park. These paths were well laid out and you could tell that the person who designed the paths had really thought about the best place to put them. After I walk all the paths in the park I then walked all the paths of desire these were the faint paths on the grass (where people had worn it down from walking) and following where people were walking in the park. Once I got home and uploaded these paths onto my computer I realised that the tracking was off, it did not show which paths I had walked. So I decided to go back to the park and do both the walks again. I decided to walk slower and make sure it was picking up where I was. The paths of desire track came out much the same with only with a few differences. But the normal paths were a great improvement. My tracks match the paths I had walked.

The technology

I used a hand held computer with the Pathway software to track my walk. The equipment was not very clear and I wasn’t sure if it was actually mapping where I was walking. I could see that it was counting the amount of time I was walking and that the direction I was walking in (north, south, east or west) was showing up. When I changed direction so did the arrow.

The longitude and latitude was also changing, and this indicated that the GPS was registering me. However, there was no indication as to whether or not it was drawing my route. I was only able to tell this when I upload the routes to the computer. I uploaded the route and it had tracked me walking, however, the track was not where I had walked. This may have been caused by a number of factors such as the signal strength dropping and losing of the signal altogether. When I did the tracking again I kept a close eye on the signal strength and it stayed the same all the way around. This tracking was a lot more reliable. I have very mixed feeling about the equipment. When the equipment works it is a very good, however you need to leave enough time to complete the tracking more than once to make sure it is precise and that it follows the paths.

The images produced

First attempt at tracking

As you can see from looking at this track it does not match the paths very well. Even though I walked them exactly.

This has pretty much tracked where I have walked. Even if not correct it would not stand out very much because it isn’t something you can see on the map.

Second attempted at tracking

As you can see this track follows the paths a lot more accurately. There are still some mistakes with the tracking but this is a lot clearer then my first tracking.

As you can see this second tracking for the paths of desires are pretty much the same as the first one. The only difference is that I have tracked more paths this time by observing where people were walking and the most popular routes.

Paths Compared

This image shows the two paths on top of each other over the map. As you see the blues lines and the red lines do cross at certain points. From looking at the picture most of the paths of desire cut from one exit of the park to the other. This indicates that is park could be used as a cut though, to try and make a journey shorter.

Wire Frames

Paths


Paths of desire


Paths Compared

These are call wire frames because you can only see the outlines. These are my tracking of the park. From looking at them from this view you can notice patterns start to form. You also get a better idea where the paths cross over when they are places on top of each other.

Conclusion

My conclusion is that the paths in this park are well designed. Most people walking thought the park stick to the main paths, so it is clear someone put a lot of thought into where to put the paths. However there are still a number of path of desire. There are improvements that could be made to the paths. They could follow the pattern of my paths of desires more. Also there are lots of paths that circle small parts the grass. This seems a bit pointless as both paths lead to exactly the same point and run alongside each other. It would make more sense if they just had one path and made use of the extra grass that this would make available.

Background design

Below is the background I have designed. I have used the colours from my digital signature so that the colours still represent me. I think it also give the web page more of a design element. I am going to try repeating the image all the way across to see what it looks like.

(My background on the left hand side)

I think the background looks so much better when repeated across my whole website. Make the website look a lot brighter and more artist. The only thing I am worried about is having writing over the back ground. Because the background is so busy and bright it might make seeing text difficult. I want my text to stand out. So I might have to put the text onto a different colour background.

(My background repeated across the whole screen)

My writting got lost when I wrote on the background. It was not very easy to read. So I decided to to put all the text onto a different colour background. The logical choice for me was the background colour of the document with a lilic boreder. This is because these are the two main colours for my website. Below you can see how it looks.

(Text over my background)

Form design

I started my form by using the basic code. You can see how it tured out from the picture below. I want to put the form in the middle of the page. Also I want to see what the boxes look like when they are lilac. I also think that I looks a bit lost on my page. So I want to find a way to make this look better.

(My form aligned to the left)

So I decided to start with trying to to change the background of the text boxes using css. I used the code below to see what it would do. It changed the whole section of my background lilac. So I need to work out how to get the text box colour to just change. I am not sure how to do this using css.

(My form, attempted to change the box colour)

I finally got the code working to change the background of the text boxes to lilac. I decided that I do not like how it looks. Looks so much better in white. I also had a issue with my text on the form. I originally made it lilac (same colour as the border) but this wasn't very easy to see with my background. So I decided to see what the writing looked like in white.

(My form, text box colour background)

Even though the writing did look better in white it still wasn't very easy to read. So I decided that I needed to put some kind of background on the writing or on the form. It might of looked a bit funny if I just put a background on the writing. So I went with the background around the whole form. With a lilac border. This turned out a lot better then I thought it would. I think it gives it that more professional appeal I was going for.

(Finished form)

Header

I put my digital signature into the header of my website to see if I liked it with my colours I have picked for my website and I really do. I think it looks really good. The contrast between the black, the purple and all the bright colours are really good. I am temped to make headers like these for the pages as well. I think when I've got the bright coloured flowed design up the side of the page it will look really good.

(My Digital Signature in my website background colour)

I like my digital signature as a header so much I decided to do the other pages with the same headers. So below are the header for 'My Hobbies' and 'My Form'. I think these look really good.

(My hobbies header)

(My form header)

I decided that on my second page (that I named 'My Hobbies') I wanted to display some of the cards I have made. So I thought that the title 'My Hobbies' wasn't really relevant. So I decided to change it to my cards. I believe this is a better title because it explains what is on the page.

(My card header)

Design ideas

When you access my website I want it to be very me. I want people to be able to look at it and tell something about me from it.

Also I think the background is really plain. I want to put something up the left hand side of the page. I want like to put a animated flower that grows up the page but I don't really think I have to skills to be able to do this. So I will just have the picture on my background page. Hopefully this is something I can design. Below are some examples of the design I like. What I want is a mixture of all of them. I love the colours in the top picture these are very similar to my website.

(http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/8819234/2/istockphoto_8819234-floral-design.jpg)

(http://images2.layoutsparks.com/1/120344/pink-abstract-flower-design.jpg)

(http://www.layoutsparks.com/1/39357/phantom-opera-flower-design.html)

I would also like to put my digital signature on the website. I think it would be a good idea because it was made to represent me and the person I am. I will make the background colour transparent. The only issue is that it might clash with the colours I have chosen. I am thinking that maybe I should change the colours I have chosen to compliment my digital signature. I am going to put my digital signature into the website and see what it looks like then decide.

(My Digital Signature)

Implemention/Realisation

The building process (jobs and activities undertaken)
When we got to our space, we picked out a spot we thought would be good to start the Rube Goldburg machine and started building a ramp for the ball to roll down. From there on we placed the rest of the machine down and ran a few test runs. Once happy that it would work, we set the PC up with the arduino boards and placed the light sensor in the right place. Ignoring the relay switch for the time being, we placed the other parts of the machine and ran a test run using a normal desk fan instead of the fan being used on the relay switch.

One we were happy with the in and out contraptions, we did a quick test of the computer system. Covering up the light switch with a spare cup to get it started, followed it through to the relay switch turning on the fan. Once that was OK'd, and we tried a few test runs, we got ready to film the whole thing.


Problems encountered
There were a few issues with the computer based part of the design. The email wasn't getting sent to being with, but this was an error within the code that was fixed easily. Another problem that we encountered was the computer itself; we had to put it on a slightly unbalanced surface that was enough to disconnect the power cable, therefore turning it off. We fixed this by propping it up with some cardboard we had left over. Everything else wasn't nearly as much of a hassle

The real world part was a nightmare at some points. One of the DVD cases got broken when it got kicked by accident, causing us to go hunt for another. We had a few cases of balls going in the wrong direction and getting lost under furniture, and the most annoying part has to be setting everything back up when the starting ball would get knocked, causing the rest of the unbuilt machine to activate.

Parts we did not implement (and why)
We had quite a lot of leftover parts we brought along for the real world part of the whole thing. Some of the things we ended up leaving out include:

• Sellotape - We found it wasn't strong enough, so used duct tape
• Half a box of dominoes - We couldn't squeeze the rest of them in somewhere
• Wind up kids toys - We had a few of these, some of them just not needed
• Playing cards - We did not have the skills to keep a house made of these up

Screenshots and walkthroughs of what has been built so far (or any mock-ups you have created)
So far, we have these mock-ups made by members of the group...

Storyboard
This storyboard shows our project, including the platforms we will use. The final project is very similar to what the storyboard shows, with major changes to the real world part.

Descriptions of how it works

The whole thing works by using real world objects to move in a certain formation that causes other objects to move, much like the effect that dominoes have when lined up on their smaller edge and pushed but with a bit more ingenuity. This would then cause the virtual part of the machine to activate with a similar effect to it's real world counterpart, displaying webpages, showing animations and sending data to other sites. Once the right condition is met, the computer activates the rest of the real world objects. At the end, a roll of kitchen towels gets knocked and unrolls, revealing some written text.

Actual timetable

Put up Time
9:50am - Get to house.
10:20am - Start setting up Rube Goldberg machine (input)
11:30pm - set up PC
12:30pm - Start setting up Rube Goldberg machine (output)
2pm - Dry runs (Making adjustments where needed)
3:30pm - Film and editing

Pull Down Time
5:30pm - Tidy equipment
6:10pm - Load up car
6:30pm - Return PC
6:35pm - Leave

Content

When I first heard I had to do a website about myself, I had no idea what to do it on. So I decided to use a mind map about myself. Ive always been told this is a good way to sort information and pick out the best bits.



I have decided that I will put a bit of information about all four points on my home page. Then I will expends and the information on my hobbies on my page 2. The thing I don't want though is to just end up with a lot of text on my home page.