Finishing of the HoveBub

HoveBub

We finished creating the prototype of our hovebub. (Images of the making below)

The Hover Bubble, or HoveBub is a 5-foot diameter spherical, man-sized, personal air vehicle, which serves as a means of aviation. It's features include a comfortable seat with a safety belt, controls on the arms of the chair, speakers on the side, a screen displaying map, camera live feeds from various angles outside, ventilation mechanism, storage unit, engines (nitrogen-cooled super conducting magnets perhaps), highly mechanized motion sensors, voice navigation GPS and auto pilot. (engineer drawing in image below)

We then exhibited our prototype and got some great and useful feedback.

This project taught us so many things especially even if the idea seems highly advanced and over-hopeful at first, almost insane, sometimes these great ideas start with the smallest of steps. Perhaps it may be a reality in the future.

Kite Runner

Kite Runner

  Kite Runner is a beautiful film we watched in class about a boy named Amir from Kabul. His best friend was Hassan, his fathers servants son. Hassan is a successful "kite runner" for Amir who wins a kite flying tournament. The movie is based on the guilt that Amir feels when he fails to prevent an act of violence against Hassan. He then later redeems himself when he learns that Hassan died and he was his own brother by attempts to rescue Hassans son, Sohrab from Assef who previously violated Hassan.

 Through the movie we recognised how we respect the people we fear. Violence is seen as one of the only ways to contain the human body. It shows us the connections between the body and mind. We are not always in control of what happens to our bodies. We must respect others bodies to get respect ourselves. It taught me how everything in the universe is centered around our bodies.

Context & Cognitive and conceptual mapping of imagination

Context

 There are many types of experiences like emotional, intellectual, experiential, spiritual, sensorial, and contextual.  We live in todays world for context.  For example the 4 factors of religion : education, birth death and marriage control us by context.

  Why do we use squares to denote context? Because humans prefer squares in comparison to circles for many reasons:

·      They are rigid

·      They have defined edges and corners

·      Because humans are so used to boxes from the time we were born. Eg: We were born in rooms aka squares

·      We humans prefer defined than flowing like all the natural forms around us

·      We humans created squares 

Squares and lines help us formulate our designs. In design everything is creating an experience. It all has to have an intellectual edge. It has to have an emotional flow an it must be in context. This is a reflective practice. The real form of design is based on assumptions.

Cognitive and conceptual mapping of imagination

  After a discussion we learnt how to use these tools. Any design has a process and to bring out all our ideas is part of this process. We broke down our thoughts into simpler ones to help us understand our own ideas better.   

  Cognitive and conceptual mapping of imagination involves plotting a graph with conceptual elements on the y axis and cognitive elements on the x axis. We then plotted ever single word that came to our minds when we thought about our project (in my case the hovebub). After this connections are made for every word on the graph. The number of connections between the words are listed down and some words turn out to have more connections than the others.  Then the first 5-15 words with the most connections are used to articulate a hypothesis about the design. This hypothesis should be in context to the design.

Eg : with body as my context love, death, appeal, machine and frame were the words with the most connections. The hypothesis – My body is an appealing machine that loves unconditionally but is ultimately framed by death.   

I then made a cognitive map based on all my ideas of the hovebub.

A product must satisfy the main aspects of – Experiences, Context, Intellect and Emotion. The drawing below justifies this balance. 

If you use this tool of  Cognitive and conceptual mapping of imagination and are able to map effectively your idea can be put into effective action.

HoveBub in the making

HoveBub

 We furthered our idea of the air bubble that can hover and fly in the air as a mode of transportation for the blind, Physically challenged, children and elderly. We designed it in such a way that it can contract, squeeze and expand through buildings and trees. It will have an advanced GPS system and it can be put on autopilot mode for the blind and handicapped people. These bubbles get launched into the air by an technologically advanced gigantic catapult.

  We took our idea to the next level by then sketching it out . We then did some research on various things like the newly invented hover boards, the giant inflatable ball, aerodynamics and other things that related to our project. We then made a rough model of the hovebub with chart paper and a balloon as in the picture below.

  We then decided to scale it up and make a prototype of the hovebub. We explored and thought of various materials to use for this prototype.

Materials used & cost:

Rexine- one and a half meters=Rs.300 (@ Rs. 200 per meter)

Araldite- Rs. 170 for 180ml

Bamboo strips- Scrap

Other stationary – Rs. 250

Total cost = Rs. 720

For the chair inside the bubble we decided to use rexine as we wanted to fill it with air to make it light. We made markings on the rexine where the folds of the chair were supposed to come and then we sealed the rexine with araldite. This was left overnight under heavy weights to dry.  We then inserted a nozzles  into each compartment of the chair to fill the air.

For the framework we explored the pros and cons of wire, paper mâché, rope and bamboo. We decided used split bamboo strips, tape and string to make a spherical framework of the bubble.

                                    

 Each bamboo strip (16ft approximately) was bent into circular rings and taped. Four such rings were made. Then we used string and tape to intertwine the rings and make a spherical structure.

We will insert and fix the inflated chair into the bamboo structure and then make an outer covering of the bubble with transparent paper and leave space to attach a door. The GPS system and joystick will be inserted within the bubble and the engine will be fixed to the bottom of the structure.

The finishing of the prototype is still in progress and will be updated as soon as it is finished.

Reflections:

Teamwork is an integral part of any project. Co-operation and co-ordination is an absolute necessary part for a project to be pulled off. Even though sometimes your idea may be the best you may have to sacrifice it. From this project I learned that small insane ideas help make a massive product that can bring change to the world. It was interesting to learn how much we could stretch our minds and explore new possibilities that we never thought we could achieve. This experience has taught me many valuable things. Mainly think insane to create something amazing!

Train of Life & Insane Solutions for the Future

Train of Life

  We watched Train of life which is a tragic comedy in French. It is about a man named Schlomo who claims he has seen the Nazis in the next town and he runs to inform the others. He informs the Rabbi who holds a meeting with some others. They then try to come up with ideas to escape and Schlomo suggests they build a train. They find an old broken down train, which they fix up to deport themselves. Some of their people pretended to be Nazis who were taking them to concentration camp, but in reality they were trying to escape to Palestine through Russia.  This is how the Train of Life was born.

  They have real close encounters with the Nazis but manage to make very close escapes. They finally arrive at the frontlines between Germany and Soviet Union. Schlomo tells the us where all his companions go off to on arrival of the train in the Soviet Union. The movie ends with him smiling in prisoners clothes behind the barbed wire of a concentration camp. This leaves you wondering if his story was true or made up or if he became mad having watched all his companions exterminated in concentration camp.

Wild Imagination to help in the Future

  After watching The Train of Life we mapped out the 4^th and 5^th phase of Yelahanka and came up with insane solutions to help the blind, Physically challenged, children and elderly.  We came up with:

• ·      A flying car with a highly advanced GPS system that works on voce recognition to help the blind, physically challenged and elderly people move around.
• ·      A separate bus for the blind & handicapped which has a distinct special horn to make it recognisable.
• ·      A gadget that helps kids over come difficulties they face when using public services eg: foldable steps to climb onto a bus.
• ·      An air walk with special embossed patterns on the railings to help the blind move around especially in busy areas.
• ·      An air bubble that can hover and fly in the air as a mode of transportation for the blind, Physically challenged, children and elderly. It will be designed in such a way that it can contract, squeeze and expand through buildings and trees. It will have an advanced GPS system and it can be put on autopilot mode for the blind and handicapped people. These bubbles get launched into the air by an technologically advanced gigantic catapult.