January 20, 2017
Teams Hard at Work for Two Versions of EMAR this Quarter
With the start of the quarter, the team spent this week ramping up plans for the upcoming weeks of high school testing, reinforcing EMAR V2, and implementing V3.
We have been in contact with high schools in the area to set up research sessions with the plan to bring in two fully-functioning V2’s. While the research team conducts testing with V2 in high schools this quarter, the tech team will be hard at work constructing V3.
Technology Team
The tech team is currently in the midst of deciding on V3’s platform — RaspberryPi or tablet (Android/iOS). There are a number of feasibility, design, and UX factors, among others, that play a role in this decision. So, the tech team is taking some time to list out the pros and cons of each to help with the decision process. There was some discussion about whether we should make a complete shift to the tablet and even replace EMAR’s NeoPixel eyes with a touch screen tablet for a face, but we decided that for now, we will stick with EMAR’s blue, more tangible eyes and think about making the shift to a tablet face down the road.
To prepare V2 for testing, the tech team is also currently working on drilling a hole in EMAR to fill with a camera phone. This would allow us to discreetly record (with participant’s permission) the user’s facial expressions, movements, and responses during his/her interaction with EMAR. Video recordings of users’ interactions will be extremely useful for the team in analyzing data and the quality of interactions to help improve future iterations of EMAR.
Research Team
This week, the research team is working on finding and analyzing a collection of literature pertaining to robot identity, adolescent interactions with technology, and methods for analysis in drawings/designs. Once the team spends the next week reading and sorting through the articles, the group will report back to the team with a summary of findings. This information will help the team in making design decisions going forward.
The team is excited about getting all things EMAR rolling again with the start of a new year! Thanks for checking in, and stay tuned for updates about this quarter’s user test sessions and newest version of EMAR!
