Brief: Re-design the acoustic properties of a physical space.
Team: Cat, Qendresa, Zhaolu, Binru.
Based on the feedback and self-reflection we received last week, our group tried to make the sound experience better and more realistic this week. We planned to improve the whole experience in two ways: sound and multi-sensory experience.
Real Sounds
Because the micro space our group chose was the dining table, we required some sounds related to the dining table. After some discussion, our group decided to go to the university canteen and record some real sounds. These sounds included the sounds of people eating and the environmental sounds of the canteen. We recorded the sounds of two different groups of students eating and their conversations while they were eating. One group was six girls who spoke in English. The other group was four boys who spoke in Chinese. It is important to note that we obtained their permission before recording the sounds. We also recorded the sound of the process of buying food. This was done to ensure the reality of the voices.
Multi-sensory experience
We have designed a multi-sensory experience in order to increase the sense of immersive for users. In addition to realistic sounds, we designed some visual effects. We used a projector to project scenes of people eating on the table and simulate a realistic dining environment. This was a scene of three people eating while the sound of people talking was also present.
Whole experience
Finally, we designed a sound journey. Users could hear different sounds in different areas of the micro space, each with a specific soundscape.
Speed dating
Feedback & Reflection
This week was still about presenting our ideas to other groups through Speed Dating. We received a lot of helpful feedback and suggestions during the Speed Dating process. Our tutors and classmates thought our ideas were very creative and provided an immersive experience to a certain extent. However, the experience still had a few areas that needed to be improved. Firstly, they suggested adding some interaction and more sensory experiences in the experience, such as smells. Then our tutors suggested that we improve the sense of immersion of the whole scenario in details, such as making the visuals more realistic and hiding the speakers.
After getting this feedback, our group had a discussion. We thought that adding smells was not a good idea because overpowering smells can disturb the experience of people’s other senses. Our group will continue to improve our experience in the next week based on this feedback. Also, our group will do more research on immersive experiences and improve the immersion during the experience.
