There were no formal tasks. We were introduced to troubleshooting techniques, books and app creating methods. Additional libraries for a variety of purposes were mentioned. Once it ended, we sought feedback in regards to our project in a few lengths, such as: questionnaire construction and device-related matters such as the usefulness of specific nature sounds and technical execution of particular features we had in mind.
One of the main challenges was to establish whether the sounds coming from the street would either combine together with the nature sounds and assemble into a major mess or would they sort of cancel each other out due to some reasons. We also had to establish which nature sounds would actually work well with the people and which would not, which we would try to establish with a proper questionnaire shared.
The prototype seems quite complete so far and only in requisition of some final tweaks and polishing. Processing for Android also works quite nicely, although java-related errors can be a nuisance.
Nothing quite went wrong on this day, we just need to finish up the remaining details and make sure all the modules work. I think we're on a good track to user-testing and iterating our prototype.
Nothing quite in need of sharing today. We just worked further on polishing the code. In addition, I bought a multimeter to test the load sensors, which sort of worked and the amplifier did pick up signals once some voltage was supplied. However, I did not quite manage to get the sensors to work properly at this time. I was scheduled to borrow a FlexiForce pressure sensor from a friend, which after some tests and code refining eventually turned up with quite satisfactory results. The code attached is a modified example code from SparkFun website.
I would most definitely have proceeded with the pressure sensors straightaway instead of spending hours trying to get the load sensors up and running. Making attempts to solder the modules took too much time, which could have been spent on polishing the working modules, tweaking the code, working on all the other parts of the project, especially considering the timeframe.
We were advised to look into testing the sounds more effectively and dropping the bird sounds, as these apparently are found by people as (surprisingly) annoying. We have further tested the sounds ourselves on another day and based on preliminary findings, the bird sounds are indeed quite uncanny, especially if played during and throughout an evening.
On the other hand, water-related sounds are quite promising in terms of their ambience and potential to soothe peoples' feelings and predisposition.