I´m at a point in my project (the semester for that matter) were I feel a heavy need to evolve from concept to interaction, so i have started to produce more actual material to discuss. let me try to explain were I´m at…

It has been pointed out to me that my earlier mapping of the different conceptual directions I can take this project are still undefined and abstract. And indeed as I said, the groupings are crude. So I thought  I´ll try to explain what I want to do, and my motives behind them:

My main objective with this project is to work with the act of using the bike-sharing system itself. This, because I think the system is of benefit for Oslo (in fact most cities I can think of) because it reduces car traffic, increases health, and enhances the relationship between the people and the city.  Needless to say, there are certain points of concern and issues to critique  when letting a commercial actor loose in the public domain (as part of a discussion on “branded utility” as coined by Johnny Vulkan of ad agency Anomaly), but, for arguments sake, I support any such intervention with the resulting potential Oslo Bysykkel has.

My idea has been to put cameras on the bike to:

  • Have an alternative view point of Oslo
  • Give users of the bicycles a tool for expression
  • To enhance the “bike sharing community” and thereby increase a social awareness about the effect of using the bicycle.

To quote Dan Hill on his article on transportation and information: “People can engage further with the city, seeing it through the prism of transport, building stronger civic relationships.”

Three references for combining information technology, visualisation and transport, from right to left: cabspotting, visualizing Barcelona city bikes, and Helsinki realtime public transportation map.

An early draft of the web-end of the service. 

However, I have an intention to work away from web based services, and into physical, tangible interactions. So then the problem arises: camera minus a screen to show the image from said camera… 

So what I´m doing is:

  • Never the less looking at the web-end of a service.
  • Trying out different feedback’s when interacting with a bicycle.
  • Working on the feedback-loop, the user-experience, investigating sound.
What kind of sound do you expect when interacting with a bicycle?