the likable alarm clock

Project: Smart Sleep

Student: Martijn Veenstra s087671

B32

Coach: Peter van de Graaf

SLEEP 1The sleeping cycle 2

Processes that regulate sleep 4

Sleep inertia 7

Waking up 7

solution 9Three pillars 10

Tackling sleep inertia 11

Finding a motivation to get up 12

Getting somebody out of bed 13

Creating a positive association 13

In short 14

Contents

Robots 17The questions 18

The questionnaire 19

The reponses 20

Results 23

Correlations 24

In short 27

Blub 29Body 31

Eyes 35

Behaviour 43

Brains 46

Conclusion 49

Future possibilities 49

References 50

This report will describe the process and the result of a project with the aim to design a new alarm clock. An alarm clock that actually gets you out of bed and will enable you to start your day without feeling annoyed by your alarm clock, but actually enjoying the experience.

The drive to create such a product comes from my personal experience. I always have and had difficulties getting up in the morning. The project ‘Smart Sleep’ gave me the opportunity to understand why it’s so hard to get up in the morning and to develop a product that helps with this.

The question that this report tries to answer is:

‘How can a product support the user to get out of bed when the user needs to while creating a positive association with the product.’

The answer to this question came in the shape of Blub, Blub is a robotic pet alarm clock that should make going through your morning ritual easier and more fun.

So, time to meet Blub!

Enjoy reading, Martijn

introduction

Al

Al

1

____

SLEEP

Although the focus of this project is on waking up, it all starts with this chapter. Because after all, you need to sleep before you can wake up.

This chapter will explain the different phases of a night of sleep and introduce the different processes that create the need for sleep.

Sleep | 2

1 | sleepSleep is something magical.

Although every person spends about one thirds of their lives sleeping

- making it about the most practiced universal hobby of mankind -

there is surprisingly little knowledge about sleep.

Only with the arrival of the electroencephalogram (EEG), hardly a

100 years ago, humanity began to understand what actually happens

during our sleep.

the Sleeping cycle

Sleep is usually divided into two different types of sleep, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Together these two form a cycle of about 90 - 100 minutes which a person goes through about four or five times a night.

NREM sleep During NREM sleep, brain waves differ significantly from the brainwaves that are measured during wakefulness. NREM sleep can be subdivided into four different stages based on the difference in brain waves. Stage one can be described as drowsy sleep, the stage in which a sudden twitch or a

Sleep | 3

awake

REM

1

2

3(sws)

4(sws)

stage the cycles for one complete night of sleep

time spent in each stage

jerk of a limb can occur. During stage two the muscular activity decreases whilst the conscious awareness of the environment completely disappears.

Stages three and four are often called slow wave sleep (SWS) because of the slower brainwaves with big amplitudes. The amount of SWS is correlated with the amount of sleep deprivation.

REM sleep The brain waves during REM sleep are almost identically to the ones present in a fully awake individual.

The proportion of NREM sleep and REM sleep in the different cycles changes throughout the night, with a bigger amount of SWS during the earlier cycles and an increasing amount of REM sleep in the cycles at the end of the night. Image 1 shows the sleep cycle for one complete night.

1

Sleep | 4

2

Processes that regulate sleep

Not every night of sleep is exactly the same, there are several factors that influence process of sleeping. Below you can find all the factors explained in picture 2.

The term social time is used to describe the elements in your day that do not occur naturally but are product of you social life, such as meal times or forced awakening.

Together with process C this is the main regulator of the sleep cycle. The hourglass oscillator, also called the homeostat, functions as an hourglass that counts the time that you have been awake. The longer you have been awake, the greater the pressure for sleep from process S will be. The hourglass will be reset after getting a good night’s sleep.

hourglass oscillator(process S)

social time

sleep/

wake

Sleep | 5

Light plays a key role in regulating the sleep wake cycle, it synchronizes the circadian pacemaker everyday. Next to this it also initiates the synthesis of melatonin, which tells the body that it is getting dark. Plus, it helps us wake up in the morning.

The circadian pacemaker is our internal 24-hour clock, it is synchronized with other internally times processes (such as melatonin excretion) and with the light/dark cycle. A normally synchronized circadian pacemaker will create the biggest drive for sleep during nighttime.

The excretion of melatonin is synchronized with the fall of darkness at night. Because of this relation it also helps in synchronizing and resetting the circadian pacemaker every night.

light/dark cycle

circadean pacemaker(process C)

melatonin

cycle

Sleep | 6

On the previous pages, the general processes that regulate your sleeping time and cycle were explained. Normally, process C creates a sleep gate during night time and when the sleep pressure from process S is big enough during the time the sleep gate is open, you will fall asleep. This process is illustrated in image 3. This happens as long as this system is not disturbed by other factors that were mentioned in image 2.

This all seems pretty logical. There is however one question that can be raised.

‘Why does one feel sleepy when waking up?’

According to image 3 this does not make sense, because the sleep pressure should be at a minimum after waking up.

slee

p dr

ive

slee

p pr

essu

re

sleep sleep

wakefulness wakefulness

sleep sleepwakefulness wakefulness

sleep gate sleep gate

circadean (c)

Homeostat (s)

23:00 23:00 07:0007:00

3

Sleep | 7

Sleep inertia

The feeling of sleepiness in the morning that is accompanied by fogginess of the brain is called sleep inertia. Although there is not yet one clear explanation for this effect, it is assumed that this happens because of the phase shift from sleep to wakefulness and the accompanying transition in brain waves.1

Sleep inertia mostly influences cognitive processing, which means that it is harder to perform tasks that require thinking while under the influence of sleep inertia.2

Waking up

Sleep inertia can help explain why some people have a harder time getting out of bed in the morning than others. People who have conditioned them selves to get out of bed immediately when their alarm clock goes off, do not have to think about it.

And that is where the problem lies for a lot of people, when you have not conditioned your self to do so, getting up every morning is a conscious

decision every morning, a cognitive task. The ones that were most handicapped by sleep inertia.

The problem of snoozing

The amount of sleep inertia can differ from morning to morning, this is influenced by the sleep deprivation before sleeping, the amount of time slept and the sleep stage that you’re in before waking up. When you wake up naturally this would be stage 2, resulting in a minimum amount of sleep inertia. When you are woken during SWS or REM sleep, sleep inertia will be more severe. 3,4

Now the problem with snoozing is that you get 9 minutes of sleep extra at the end of your sleep cycle, when the amount of REM sleep is relatively large. So taking 9 minutes of snooze-sleep will enlarge the chance of waking during REM sleep resulting in more sleep inertia. Next to this, you also reduce the amount of time between waking up actually starting you day, which means you have less time to get out of your sleep inertia and might be taking it to your work.

Al

Al

____

As mentioned in the previous chapter, the biggest problem with getting out of bed can be found in sleep inertia.

The question is, how can this problem be solved to make getting out of bed easier. And then there’s the second question, is it even possible to turn getting up into a positive experience?

2 solution

Solution | 10

Three pillars

The knowledge from chapter 1, combined with the objective set out in the introduction leads to three pillars to form a base for the product to be.

Sleep inertia One pillar is the problem of sleep inertia which makes it harder for people to get out of bed

Getting out of bed immediately The second pillar is the fact that it is better to get out of bed when you wake up instead of snoozing

Creating a positive association The third pillar is derived from the objective set out in the introduction. Nowadays, alarm clock usually have a negative association to their name. The objective in this project is to change this into a positive association.

The research that is described in the previous chapter presents a few

starting points to make a start with designing a product to help

people actually getting out of bed.

A little closer to a design, but now comes the real challenge, finding

solutions for the proposed problems.

2 | solution

4

solution | 11

Tackling all these problems at once will be very hard. But starting with one and including the other along the way will be easier.

Tackling sleep inertia

So, starting with the biggest hurdle to tackle; how can people be motivated enough to get out of bed even though they are ‘handicapped’ by sleep inertia.

The most logical step is to see if it is possible to get rid of sleep inertia completely.

Until now there has been on product that has been slightly successful at doing so is the Philips Wake-up Light.5,6

An although this is clinically proven, it is not yet explained and Philips itself does not know exactly why this happens.5,6

Seeing that the knowledge about reducing sleep inertia is very scarce and even a company such as Philips is not able to find an explained solution for it, the decision was made to try to find a another solution for dealing with sleep inertia.

taking care of sleep inertia

creaing a positiv

e as

soci

atio

ngetting out of bed immediately

?

solution | 12

Finding a motivation to get up

Looking at the current situation for people having difficulties with getting out of bed; most people dó get out of bed, but only until the risk of getting late to work is becoming clear. So, to get out of bed, a very clear and big motivation is needed.

What if you would be reminded of this motivation in the morning? Kind of like a coach - or your mom - telling you that it is really better to get out of bed.

To test this, a small experiment was done in which a computer voice would talk to the user, telling him to get out of bed and the consequences of not getting up. This was tested on myself and this gave two results:

But the solution for dealing with sleep inertia has to be found in another direction.

During conversations with other people about this subject, a trend emerged within the different motivations that were named when talking about getting out of bed.

A social responsibility is very often the motivation for people to get up, sometimes a more distant motivation such as getting to work or meeting a friend, which is less pressing. But what was often named as a very big motivator is the social responsibility to take care of a child or a pet. Beings that depend on you to take care of them because they cannot do so themselves.

Would it be possible to give people the same feeling of responsibility for a product? Could it be a solution to create a robotic being that act like a pet, waking up when you want it to? The idea of synthesizing such a bond between a human and a product is not new.

1

2

Having somebody talk to you and tell you what to do is very annoying when you have just awoken.

The idea of having a big motivation to get you out of bed works, because the first time, I did get out of bed because of my fear to fail my experiment.

Solution | 13

Childrens toys such as Tamagotchi and Furby have proven that it is indeed possible to synthesize such a bond.7

This effect is called the ‘Tamagotchi’-effect and is also found in other occurrences with robots that are not aimed at creating such a relation.8

So the basis of this product will be a robotic pet that is aimed at creating a bond with the user that simulates the bond between a human and a pet.

This means the robot should be on one hand as lively as possible and on the other hand dependent on the user

Actually getting somebody

out of bed

Then the next challenge; how can a robotic pet make sure that you actually get out of bed without becoming annoying, the problem with most alarm clocks. What if you have an alarm clock that won’t turn of until you have started you morning ritual? This means the negative feeling of having to get out of bed will flow over into a feeling of accomplishment, plus it will leave no time to contemplate the

decision of getting out of bed. Your alarm clock makes the decision for you.

According to a small survey9, the majority starts their morning ritual with a refreshing shower. If your alarm clock won’t turn off unless you are under the shower. There is hardly any chance that you will dose in again, unless you do so under a stream of water.

Creating a positive association

However, having an alarm clock that is this demanding can get a negative association.

Fixing this can be done twofold. By creating a bond with the device the negative association will be in the form of a feeling of guilt, since you are not taking care of your robotic pet. This feeling will be released whenever you get out of bed, because than your robotic pet will be happy again.

This positive effect can be amplified by getting a reward for getting out of bed.

solution | 14

In short

The solution that fits in the question this project started with: ‘How can a product support the user to get out of bed when the user needs to while creating a positive association with the product?‘, can be found in a robotic pet as a basis for motivating to get out of bed.

By building a bond between the user and the product, the product can use the feeling of social responsibility and guilt to make you get out of bed.

By making you already start you morning ritual before being able to turn of you alarm clock, getting out of bed becomes an automatic response instead of a conscious decision. And coming back on this decision is not really a possibility when you are already in the shower.

By rewarding you with a musical shower session for getting up in time the product will help you end your waking ritual with a positive feeling.

For this reward it’s interesting to take a look at another kind of alarm clock, radio alarm clocks. These alarm clock are popular because it adds a positive association to the alarm clock and makes waking up a little more pleasant.

But if you have difficulties getting up, this will not help you. Getting up might even be harder, because the situation in bed has gotten more pleasant.

However, when this positive association is moved to a phase later on in the process; after the negative feeling of having to get out of bed. Then it will feel like a reward and the positive feeling will stay with you throughout the morning.

5

solution | 15

taking care of sleep inertia

creaing a positiv

e as

soci

atio

ngetting out of bed immediately

Al

Al

____

Now, it seems that a robotic pet could prove to be the solution for the problem a lot of people have with getting out of bed.

But how do you design a robot, how do you create a (living) being?

There is no better way to learn this than to draw inspiration from an industry that has been producing robots for decennia, the movie industry.

Robots3

robots | 18

The questionsIn the questionnaire, several robots that are famous from roles in popular movies have to be rated on several aspects of their personality and likability.

The following questions have to be answered for every robot:

“In hoeverre vind jij de volgende begrippen van toepassing op de persoonlijkheid van -ROBOT- ?”

“Welke eigenschap denk jij dat de grootste invloed heeft op jouw perceptie van de persoonlijkheid van -ROBOT-?”

The most important factor in the concept of a pet robot that has to

persuade the user to get out of bed is the likability of the product.

If the product is perceived as being annoying, it will have no positive

effect on the user.

So to get a feeling for designing the likability in a product and more

specifically, the likability of robots, a questionnaire was performed in

which the different factors that define the likability of a robot were

explored.

3 | robots

1

2

robots | 19

The first question is based on the Big Five, a way to divide a personality into five markers. The words used to describe the five markers in this questionnaire are based on research that aims to develop a way of using the Big Five to describe a personality as efficient as possible; using the least questions and still getting a representative result.10

The second question is included to get insight into which aspects of

the design of the robot influence the perception of this robot. The last question shows how the imagined interaction with the robot is rated.

the questionnaire

In the questionnaire every robot is first briefly introduced through a short video clip that shows several defining actions for that robots personality. Every page is custom styled to fit the robots appearance. The questionnaire as a whole is custom built and styled to make sure respondent will not quit the questionnaire because of the bad user interface. Screenshots of the questionnaire can be found in image 6.

3

In het geval dat je -ROBOT- in het echte leven zou meemaken, hoe zou je verwachten dat de interactie tussen jou en -ROBOT- zou verlopen?

6

7

Robots | 20

The responses

The questionnaire was spread over internet and eventually 31 people responded to the questionnaire. The results can be found below.

The results are presented separately for every robot, using three different graphs. The first two are based on the answers of the open questions. The third one shows the outcome of the personality test.

Graph 1 shows the verdict that was given about the expected interaction with the robot, whether this would be positive, negative of neutral. Graph 2 shows how the robot is expected to act in relation to humans; dominant, equal or dependent. Graph 3 shows the score for the five markers of the big five.

The legend on the right (image 7) explains which colour corresponds with which value. Next to the graphs, the colour of the name of the robot also has a function, this shows whether the robot was rated positive, negative or neutral in general.

EXTRAVERTEDENTHUSIASTIC

AGREEABLEKIND

DEPENDABLEORGANIZED

EMOTIONALLY STABLECALM

OPEN TO EXPERIENCEIMAGINATIVE

LEGEND

POSITVE

NEUTRAL

NEGA

TIVE

DEPENDENT

EQUAL

DOM

INAN

T

8

9

10

11

robots | 21

interaction

interaction

interaction

interaction

relation

relation

relation

relation

personality

personality

personality

personality

r2d2

hal 9000

Eve

wall-e

12

13

14

15

interaction

interaction

interaction

interaction

relation

relation

relation

relation

personality

personality

personality

personality

Mo

C3PO

gerty

Marvin

robots | 22

16

17

robots | 23

interaction

interaction

relation

relation

personality

personality

weebo

auto

Anthropomorphism The degree in which the robot resembles a human being,

Smooth design The extent to which the robot is ‘designed’, Wall-E is more practically designed, EVE is designed with aesthetics in mind

Results

To give more meaning to the results they have to be linked to objective data about each robot to see which factors influence the perception of the user.

To achieve this, all the robots were rated on a scale from 1 to 10 for each of the following properties.

Robots | 24

Mechanical appearance How mechanical the robot looks, or how well it can be seen that it is in fact a robot and not a living being.

Movement How fluently the robot moves and whether it moves at all.

Expression The amount of expression that can be perceived from the robot, most notably through the eyes.

Complexity of communication The complexity of the robots communication, can it talk like humans, or does it just utter animal like sounds.

Liveliness of communication The liveliness of the communication, very monotone or with a lot of intonation.

By dividing the robots into three groups, positive, neutral and negative, correlations between the perception of the robots and their characteristics can be made. Image 18 shows the average scores for these three groups.

Correlations

These graphs present a few emerging correlations.

A positive rating correlates with a more fluent movement of the robot (for

positive neutral negative

18

anthropomorphism

smooth design

Mechnical appearance

smooth movement

expression

complexity of communication

livelines ommunications of c

Sleep | 25

example Weebo and EVE). This also means that a more negative rating corresponds with a more staccato movement or no movement at all.

Robots that are rated neutral have a more mechanical appearance. This seems logical, as they are more perceived like robots which makes them less emotionally relatable.

It seems that for the positive perception of a robot, the expression plays a part, the expressiveness is higher with positively rated robots.

Communication also seems to play an important in the perception of the robot. While liveliness in the communication is higher

with positively rated robots, the opposite is true for the complexity of communication. This means that a simple and lively communication evokes the most positive response. This would resemble the communication of a pet or a baby, which fits perfectly with the concept.

Other patterns

Of course there are also conclusions that can be drawn from the results of the questionnaire directly.

One thing that is striking is the apparent correlation between the relation graphs and the interaction graphs on the previous page. It seems that dominance corresponds

positive neutral negative

19

relation

robots | 26

with negative and dependance with positive. Looking at the graph in image 19, this seems to be a correct assumption.

Together with the fact that complex communication has a negative association, this supports the idea that the robot should not be to intelligent and independent, to achieve a positive interaction.

Based on the personality test, two pointers, extraverted and imaginative, clearly contribute two a positive experience, two other pointers, dependable and calm, clearly contribute to a neutral experience. A general low score indicates a negative interaction.

To the question which factor had the greatest influence on the personality, the responses showed two main trends. One was that the robots with a negative interaction often got the remarks that the voice (when present) was the biggest factor in shaping this personality.

The other trend was that for a significant part of the positive rated robots, their movement was important in displaying their personality. Other important factors that were noted in general were: communication in general, expression, and appearance.

robots | 27

In short

So what do all these results actually mean?

As is quite clear from image 19, there is a strong correlation between the dominance and the negative association with the robot. Because the experience needs to positive and the concept relies on the subject being dependent on the user to take care of it, dependency will be the main pillar of designing the robot.

The questionnaire also shows that both communication and expression play a very important role in communicating the personality of the robot. The communication needs to be simple and very lively, to create a positive interaction.

Another factor that is important in presenting a positive appearance is the smooth movement of the robot. However, if the robot would be able to move itself, the whole idea of having to take it to the shower would be useless. That is why this factor will not be included in the design of the robot.

Al

Al

____

This chapter will describe the actual design process of the robotic pet called ‘Blub’.

It will incorporate the knowledge presented in the previous chapter combined with new research to justify the design decisions that are made.

4 Blub

blub | 30

Creating blubBased on the knowledge of previous chapter, the robot that is being designed should be a dependent robot. The most important tools that can be used to achieve this are the expression of the robot and its communication.

To keep this a feasible project, the robot has to be kept a simple as possible, that is why it will contain eyes and a means of communication, the

two most powerful characteristics to achieve the right personality.

On the next pages you will find the design process of Blub. This is split up in four sub chapters: Body (aesthetics), Eyes (mechanics), Behaviour (interaction) and Brains (technology).

Having a lot of knowledge is nice, but what you do with it is what

counts. So after gathering all this knowledge in the previous chapter,

this chapter will show the result of it all.

It will show the slow creation process of a product that slowly

comes to live, read and feel the bond between you and blub grow.

4 | Blub

blub | 31

Shape

Although the influence of shape on the perception of the robot was evaluated in the questionnaire, the results do not show a clear correlation between the shape of the robot and the perception of the robot that was relevant for the design of this product. The only relevant outcome is the fact that the

more mechanical a robot looks, the more often the expected relation is rated neutral. As this product needs to provoke a very positive association, the decision was made to create a more organic shape for Blub. This also helps in mimicking a real life pet.

To determine the shape for the robot,

body20

blub | 32

several explorations were made out of clay, which were then evaluated in a small user evaluation. The starting point for these exploration were random shapes, not necessarily existing shapes in animals or other living creatures.

In total, 10 different shapes were made which were brought to live with the use of wobbly eyes.

User evaluation

The user evaluation consisted of rating the 10 different shapes on three properties on a scale from 1 to 10. The different properties are described below. The shape that scores best on the three properties will be the definitive shape.

Dependency Just like the robots in the questionnaire, the imagined relation with the little being is evaluated, except this time the subject has already been put in context of being submissive. So the extent in which it acts dependent in that context has to be rated

Positive/negative interaction

The second property is also taken from the robot questionnaire, namely how the user imagines the interaction to be with the being, ranging from negative to positive.

Liveliness A third property that is not taken directly from the questionnaire is liveliness. The result of the questionnaire shows that this is an important keyword when trying to create a positive interaction with a robot.

Results

The evaluation showed one clear winner with three close follow-ups (image 27-30).

The other shapes (image 21-26) followed track at a distance with a considerable smaller amount of points received.

blub | 33

21

27 28 29

22 23 24 25 26

The top row shows the shapes that did not have the right appearance for Blub.

Among the feedback that was given on the different shapes was that the round and bulgy shapes were generally cuter. The tail was noted as adding playfulness to the character.

The final design is kind of a combination of these two, a bulgy blob with a cute little tail. Kind of like the top 4 shapes merged into one.

30

Color

Blubs color is based upon a paper that describes research considering the influence of color on emotions. In this paper, the influence of hue, saturation and brightness is evaluated. The outcome is that a bright, saturated blue creates the most positive association.11

Skin

The exterior of Blub is covered in silicon. The idea behind this is that it recreates the feeling of an actual skin that a wateranimal also could have,. This would not only be practical underneath the shower, but also add to the realistic aspect of Blub.

Tail

The definitive shape from the user exploration includes a tail. When an animal has a tail, it always moves around. That is why Blubs tail is also made to be movable. Using a servo motor, the tail can wiggle left and right to give his ‘happy’ emotion more power.

blub | 34

blub | 35

Observing eyes

The questionnaire shows that the expression of the robot is one key factor in achieving a positive association with the robot.

The first step in designing the eyes was to analyse expressions of two of the robots that were rated positive and

of whom a lot of their personality was attributes to the eyes; Wall-E and EVE.

To get a feeling for creating these expressions four main expressions (neutral, sad, angry, happy) were analysed and recreated in the styles of these two robots. These can be found in images 32 & 33.

Eyes31

Blub | 36

While doing so different notions were made would be relevant in designing the eyes.

In a human face the expressions are formed by the entire face (including mouth, eyes, eyelids, eyebrows and a lot of muscles to move them), in animated characters this is usually simplified to only a few factors.

To still achieve a broad set of emotions these factors usually mimic several other aspects of an expression.

For example, the shape of the eyes mimics the shape of the mouth, or the eyelids are positioned like the eyebrows normally would be.

Based on this knowledge one can extract several shapes that clearly represent one emotion.

Exploring eyes

Starting with this knowledge several explorations were made to further investigate in how eyes can be shapes

33

Eve

32

neutral

neutral

angry

angry

sad

sad

happy

happy

wall-e

whilst still be able to show different emotions. Next to this, ways of manipulating one set of eyes to display different emotions were also explored,

While making these explorations, the technology that would be able to display the different positions of the eyes was also considered, because eventually the eyes actually have to be made.

Feasible technologies

For this technology there is a choice of two main technologies that both have their pros and cons. Either using

an LCD or OLED display to display the eyes or creating a mechanical solution using servo motors.

A comparison can be found below.

The eventual choice for one of the technologies is based upon the outcome of the eye exploration, the most lively set of eyes will be the deciding factor.

The eye exploration can be found on the next pages (image 34).

Using an LCD or OLED display

Versatile way of displaying very different shapes and animations

Easy to implement

Expensive

Using screens as eyes decreases the liveliness of the character

Create a mechanical solution using servo motors

More realistic solution.

Quickly becomes very complex to build

Is not very versatile

+

-

Blub | 38

1

2

3

4

5

7

6

neutral

neutral

ANGRY

ANGRY

SAD

SAD

HAPPY

HAPPY

blub | 39

Choosing the final eyes

The final eyes are based on exploration #8

The positions of these eyes can all be produced by just rotating the eyes and moving two eyelids, which results in 3 servo motors per eye, a relatively simple way of mimicking a broad array of expressions.

Based on exploration #4 the decision was made to give the eyes relatively big pupils as this adds to the cuteness and the appeal of the robot. This exploration also influenced the colours of the eyes. The white eyeball combined with a black pupil creates

a realistic, quite humanly appearance, adding to the relatableness and the liveliness.

What is interesting to see and also supports the notion from the previous paragraphs is when you look at the silhouettes of exploration #7 and the final eyes. The shapes are almost identical, but formed by completely different objects.

The colour of the eyelids were chosen to complement the colours of the rest of the body.

The final design of the eyes can be found on the next page (image 35).

8

9

neutral ANGRY SAD HAPPY

34

neutral

Angry

Sad

Happy

35

Blub | 41

Making eyes

A first exploration of the eyes was made to find out if the concepted technology to move the eyes and eyelids.

This exploration indicated one very important point of attention. In this exploration the difference between the radius of the eyelid and the eye was about 5 mm which resulted in a gap between the eyelid en the eye. The exploration showed that this gap, which creates a shadow on the eyeball gives the eyes a very eerie look, which is very undesirable.

Having to minimize the space between the eyeball and the eye lid means that the all the parts have to be perfectly aligned and that the eyelid has to turn exactly around the centre axis.

3d modelling and printing eyes

As the exploration showed that this could not be achieved with existing materials the decision was made to use 3D-printing technology to achieve the necessary amount of detail and precision.

The 3D-printed eyes consist of 4 parts each, one eyeball with servo-motors secured on the inside, 2 eyelids which are secured on one side of the eyeball to the servo inside and one piece that connects the eyeball to a third servo.

The next pages shows the result of the 3D-printed eyes, after they were sanded, painted and put together (image 36).

blub | 42

36

blub | 43

Although appearance might be an important part in shaping Blubs personality, his actions are really what define him.

Morning ritual

Blub has a morning ritual he goes through every morning, just like you do. This ritual is described in image 38.

Personality

According to the questionnaire, the 2 personality markers that are most often associated with a positive interaction were ‘Extraverted and enthusiastic’ and ‘Open to experiences and imaginative’. The first marker can be achieved by creating the right set of sounds for Blub, by making the sounds

behaviour37

blub | 44

Wake up

Wait to get to the shower

get emotional if it takes too long

be happy in the shower and

play music

wake owner

yoohoo

38

Blub | 45

lively, Blub will immediately sound more enthusiastic.

The second marker can be achieved by making Blub a little curious, again this can be achieved by the set of sounds. By making Blub respond to input from his surroundings, in a certain way, he will get a more open, adventurous personality, which are keywords also corresponding with that personality marker.

Sounds

As mentioned before, sounds are an important factor in delivering the personality. They can also be used to give an extra dimension to a character depending on the amount of variation in sounds produced.

To get a little help with designing the sounds, a meeting with Berry Eggen was arranged. During this meeting a few important point were raised:

Synchronize movement and sound When humans talk, most of the information is communicated by nonverbal communication. Our expressions add a lot to our

communication, this effect can be used with robots to add more depth to their communication.

Use movies as inspiration Sound design is a very time consuming process, that can takes ages even for just one character. To achieve the best result in this short amount of time, it’s best to take a look a the masters and use that as inspiration. In this context, taking a look at the sounds design for Wall-E would be a good idea.

Quality over quantity It’s better to have a few very convincing sounds that fit well together, than just create as much sounds as possible.

With this meeting in mind, the sounds were recorded. Blub has a small amount of different sounds he can produce. These slightly resemble Wall-E his way of communicating. Every sound is recorded multiple times, to create a more random and lively feeling to the sounds.

1 | sleep

blub | 46

Just like living beings, robots need brains to be able to do anything at all. Blub is no difference. To process the information from his surroundings and to control his expression and communication, Blub relies on an Arduino that act as his brain. Image 40 shows what goes into the brains and what comes out.

Code

Of course there is also something that happens within the brain, which is described in the Arduino code, this bridges the gap between the technology and the behaviour of Blub.

This code normally involves monitoring of the data coming from the humidity

brains39

blub | 47

in

Outmovement sound

ARDUINO

processing

time soundwater

Humidity sensor

A humidity sensor notices the change in humidity when Blub enters the shower.

Internal clock

An internal clock in the Arduino will tell Blub when it is time to wake up.

Microphone

A microphone enables Blub to perceive his surroundings and react to events that happen around him.

Arduino

The Arduino acts as Blubs brain, to see what happens inside the Arduino, take a look at the next page.

Speaker

The sound that Blub produces comes from a speaker connected to a PC with MSP/MAX.

Servo motors

When Blub moves his eyelids or tail this is done by the use of servo, these are small motors that can be set to a position ranging from 0˚ to 180˚.

40

blub | 48

sensor and the microphone. However, the prototype at the exhibition did not make use of these two sensor, because the circumstances were not right.

This is why the code explained here only incorporates the input of time an switches between different states only on basis of time.

There are two main functions in the code. One is the function that switches between different stages (waking up, asking attention, getting angry). And one that triggers a random action at a random moment.

Image 41 describes what happens in every function

Cycling through stages Triggering random action

wakeUp();

getAttention();

sad();

annoyed();

angry();

happy();

if (randomInterval){ randomAction();}

moveEyes(currentStage);

playSound(currentStage);

Send a command to MAX/MSP to play a random sound matching the current stage.

Move the eyes together with the sound, to make an expression.

41

blub | 49

Conclusion

So now that the complete product has been discussed, does this answer the question as it was proposed in the introduction?

‘How can a product support the user to get out of bed when the user needs to while creating a positive association with the product.’

Well, this project clearly showed a promising possibility to help people with getting out of bed. Also, a lot of effort has been put into creating a positive experience while doing so.

By putting the emphasis on actually making this experience and using a lot of explorations and user input while doing so, there was no time to completely test the product in context. So the final success of Blub remains a question.

However, the reactions that Blub got at the exhibition were very promising. A lot of people actually wanted to take him home and you could feel the bonding happening at the stand.

So although the actual working of the product has not been completely tested. This project did provide two very interesting directions that together form a very special product.

These 2 directions are on one hand the way of bonding with a product and using this relation to motivate the user to perform a certain action.

On the other hand the idea of making the user start his morning ritual before being able to turn of his alarm clock.

Future possibilities

Even though I’m very happy with the way in which these two idea work together in Blub, I think they can also be pursued individually.

Especially using the relation with a product as a motivation for it’s user. This can be a powerful tool, especially for children and I think Blub is a start to continue that direction with.

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References

During the research phase of this project, a lot of information was gathered from several books, papers and website. This was used to write chapter one and two, because these chapter were written from mind, there are not exact references for every fact. That is why below you can find a list of general sources combined with a list of references.

Reading list Sleep, Russel G. Forster, 2012

Electroencephalographic sleep inertia of the awakening brain, C. Marzano et al, 2011

Sleep inertia review article, Patricia Tassi and Alain Muzet, 2000

http://www.healthcommunities.com/sleep-stages/overview-sleep-cycle.shtml

References 1 Electroencephalographic sleep inertia of the awakening brain, C. Marzano et al, 2011

2 Sleep inertia review article, Patricia Tassi and Alain Muzet, 2000

3 EEG spectral power and cognitive performance during sleep inertia: The effect of normal sleep duration and partial sleep deprivation, Patricia Tassi, 2006

4 Electroencephalographic sleep inertia of the awakening brain, C. Marzano et al, 2011

5 Effects of artificial dawn on subjective ratings of sleep inertia and dim light melatonin onset, Marina C. Giménez et al, 2010

6 Effects of artificial dawn on sleep inertia, skin temperature, and the

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awakening cortisol response, Maan van de Werken et al., 2009

7 http://mimitchi.com/,

8 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/05/ AR2007050501009_pf.html

9 https://www.facebook.com/questions/500963169928246/

10 A very brief measure of the Big-Five personality domains, Samuel D. Gosling et al, 2003

11 Effects of color on emotions, Valdez, 1994

Image declaration

All photos, images and graphics were selfmade, unless they are referenced below.

1 Selfmade infographic, based on illustration 3 and 4 from Sleep, 2012

2 Selfmade infographic, based on illustration 5 from Sleep, 2012

3 Selfmade infographic, based on illustration 6 from Sleep, 2012

8 http://www.thatfilmguy.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/wall.jpg

9 http://www.wallpaperpimper.com/wallpaper/Movies/Starwars/R2-D2- Droid-Factory-1-1024x768.jpg

10 http://aussieexotics.com/forum/dlattach/attach,47562/image/SA- Number-Plates/hal9000-2561.0.html.jpg

11 http://th03.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2011/345/6/e/eve_vector_by_ mangotangofox-d4irua7.png

12 http://www.virginmedia.com/images/marvin.jpg

13 http://images.allmoviephoto.com/2008_Wall-E/2008_wall_e_016.jpg

14 http://0.tqn.com/d/scifi/1/0/y/4/0/-/C-3PO_EP4-KEY-117_R_8x10.jpg

15 http://www.imgbase.info/images/safe-wallpapers/tv_movies/moon/12668_ moon.jpg

16 http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100711214515/disneyvillains/ images/a/aa/AUTO,_AUTOPILOT_OF_THE_AXIOM.png

17 http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxirh6eM2a1qa1dubo1_500.jp

32 Selfmade illustration, based on artwork from Pixars Wall-E

33 Selfmade illustration, based on artwork from Pixars Wall-E