Swarm Intelligence!

The idea…
With iterative methods of updating the kind of collaborative work which could have more impact on the physical and social environment than the digital media itself, we realized that there could only be a desperate need of information and support when one does not feel “at home”.

What better than to let the user go travelling with a bunch of friends to a foreign land allowing the user to rely not only on information provided on the internet but also instant updates by their travel-mates who’ve decided to explore the place  based on their likes and dislikes.

Various reasons to travel….

We explored the various reasons for travel which included holidays along with conference meetings, business trips, educational excursions, internships etc. In every case no matter how well the user is pre-prepared the very idea of being in an unknown land brings in a sense on uneasiness.

General use
Cloud computing along with smart phones and mobile devices is precisely the technology of interest in such circumstances where using advance methodologies like image processing and augmented reality could help the user instantly capture and upload the image of a nearby location which could allow him/her to not only locate himself/herself but also to differentiate between a cultural, resident or eatery spot!

Speaking in terms of the kind of traveller

1.       Tourists could get the places to visit along with the reviews of other tourists from their land as well as others. These could also be prioritized according to the areas of interests.

2.       The professors and students attending conferences in foreign land could get a dynamic update of the other members of the conference acquiring information like their arrival, accommodation, research interest etc.

3.       The business groups could get information about other competitions in the market, country wise hits etc.

4.       The students on foreign internships could get information about other interns from their own country and from other places. These interns could collaborate to reduce the sense of loneliness experienced by interns with no company.

5.       Inter-disciplinary excursions where each department students would have their own places of interest could update their experience to others rating the place as a must visit or not.

Further applications
The dispersed groups could also decide a common meeting point with cloud computing service allowing finding the commonplace nearest to all. In future if face recognition technique allows the system to identify a user, their experiences, reviews, likes and dislikes could be downloaded to subjectively and vicariously make an informed decision. The means of commuting along with the nearby restaurants could be additional help not only by the system but by close by users. 

The crux of the concept is
To bridge those unnoticed gaps in a group conversation and reach the efficiency of collaboration  as seen in bees and ants i.e Swarm Intelligence!

After struggling for almost 30 mins to get the video uploaded we're finally done! Feels amazing to expect a new beginning with an amazing end!

Team Vision!! \m/



References...

staff.washington.edu/paymana/swarm/krink_01.pdf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYIkgG1nX4Ehttp://online.wsj.com/ad/article/cloudcomputing-changelives
http://www.speechfxinc.com/pdf/SFX_NN_and_SIRI_Review.pdf

J Kennedy - Handbook of nature-inspired and innovative computing, 2006 - Springer

A survey of augmented reality

RT Azuma - Presence-Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 1997 - nzdis.otago.ac.nz

Persona

The following persona we used to empathize with the user.

Punicha Chanu

Background-

A 19 year old fun loving girl, doing her engineering in Chemical Science and Technology at IIT Guwahati. Highly entusiastic and active all the time. Loves dramatics, music, talking and her phone! Fond of hanging out with her friends and family

Goal-

To seek innovative methods of information seeking without much effort!

Final Mind Map!

After heated discussions and cool ideas we finally condensed to focus on a particular system design idea!

The final Mind Map

The User Interview

Based on the principles of contextual interview we surveyed a broad spectrum of users given the versatility of cloud computing. Beginning with a general insight of the users we asked them questions on collaborative working environment and as to what would be their system of working in a group including idea exchange and work update and then introduced them to cloud computing based application. We concluded that the users had a mental model about the system but were not well versed with the implementation of the model. We also realized that users understood the impact on optimization and were hesitant to upload all the information and preferred selective uploads. We then condensed our questions based on the user where questions incase of user as a professor gave insights into data acquisition of foreign places for conferences and exchange of culture between student and professor. On the other hand students (mostly teenagers) were more into Gaming, Media Files exchange and entertainment. Conditional interview with a student given the situation of travelling with a group of friends to a picnic spot revealed that the group could be concerned about a common gathering point, places to visit and food they like. Interview with a foreign intern revealed an excitement of a new place with a pinch of nostalgia where the user expressed desire to find places having her country’s culture and food as well. The intern wished for more advanced Google map help. We thus realized that user satisfaction could be easily achieved by development of such applications which ultimately targeted speed and optimization.

Gearing up for user interview....

To substantiate and concretize our idea we had to bind our questions relevant to a particular line of thought without loss of generality. Thus we decided to maintain a broad spectrum of users as well as maintain the quality of conditional interview.  The particular users of interest were students, professors and interns out of which few of them could be foreigners.

Idea Processing.... Dichotomous!!

Given the vastness and versatility of cloud computing several ideas were conceived but for one reason or the other they were collectively rejected..The team was dichotomous with Apurva and Satyan on one side and Sameer, Neha and me on the other.

Syncing music….!
Apurva and Satyan came up with the idea of using mobiles and laptops as synced devices to act as savior in situations like an unplanned party where lack of speakers wouldn’t be much of a problem as we just need 2 or more mobile phones synced with the cloud to play the same music at the same time giving a surround sound or speaker system effect. The laptops could also be synced to form a huge screen incase of a lack of projector system for a movie etc.

Why not?

It concentrated more on the digital media than the physical environment. There was no collaboration or information sharing and it limited the exploitation of cloud computing.

Food delivery!

Given that you’re a passenger travelling via train from Amsterdam to Munich. Given that it’s a 10 hour journey you wouldn't mind having a bite or two from your favorite fast food chain which is not available in the boring pantry. Using cloud you could estimate the arrival to next stop and see if it’s possible to make an order which could simply be delivered to the next station!

Why not?

It involved collaborative work but not amongst peer groups and involved more of a geographically dispersed group. The challenge specified working together with colleagues and friends we interact with everyday.

United we stand!

Ultimately both these ideas were dropped and we came back a full circle but hey! It was more of a spiral where we were more confident than anything else. At least we knew what not to work on!

modularization is imperative!

Back from the much needed tea break! Ideas have solidified as time "dawns" upon us............

Subject Matter Expert.....!

With all our realizations it was imperative to test the waters and keep a check with correctness of our base understanding as our idea construct was soon going to transform into pillars. On this note, we approached Dr. June a Computer Science department professor having years of expertise on Smart technology and Cloud Computing.

She is also currently a user of a smart phone which helped us get more insight about real time usage of such devices.

This is what she had to say….

“What according to you is the well-established method of communication and networking in contemporary times?”

Communication as such depends on the channel used and the style implemented. In terms of technological advent obviously computers and mobile phones are there which have been upgraded to laptops and smart phones coagulating digital media which not only allows communication but also helps in networking and information transfer.

"Could you elaborate more on “smart” aspect of smart phones?"

Smart as in the system is becoming more and more self-sustaining with the dependency switching over from the user to the system. Basically our outlook towards data has become more than just packets of information.

"Talking about this transition from user to system what is your opinion about Cloud Computing?"

Ah! Cloud computing is a highly debatable topic with the major concerns over security of information. Leaving that aside, its impact will definitely match to the levels of introduction to the internet as such.

"Could you please elaborate?"

Think of it this way that if I require a book which might be very costly or having such other constraints then I could very well rent it from a nearby library at much lower cost. Cloud computing is something like that. It avails information at the user end without the user end server having to go through all the processing. This enhances speed as well.

"Do you mean to say it optimizes?"

Yes definitely. Actually optimization including cost as well is one of the major advantages of cloud computing.

"Do you think everyone will be comfortable with this?"

Like I said, there are major concerns over security and reliability of cloud computing so big companies might hesitate in using such technology.

"And the user end?"

Talking about the users they would definitely benefit from this like in the fields of education, healthcare, social networking or even be it travelling to a foreign land…

After these fruitful insights we realized we hit the nail on the head with optimization. We even got to know about the drawbacks but we continued to focus on our idea......

Professor June was not comfortable with videography so we could only take photographs...

Batman and Cloud Computing?!!?!?

With a clear head (metaphorically :P ) we began our basic Mind  mapping about the relation of collaborative work with cloud computing.

We from our hunter gatherer times had been collaborative as such…So how does cloud computing come into the picture?
The answer was already with us….OPTIMIZATION!!

So in the contemporary times be it meetings, gatherings, conferences, lectures, outings or any form of social interaction (which is a two way process) involves a joint effort implies it’s a collaboration. With advent of internet we became “informavores” craving for information using tools likes mobile devices, touch pads, Laptops/PCs and other gadgets with the link established by data cables, wireless devices like Bluetooth, wifi, infrared, near field  communication, telecom services or all-in-all cloud computing.

Team Vision....at desk!

 So what’s the connection with the cloud? We could relate to the implications of cloud computing by recollecting the scene from the movie ”The Dark Knight” where Batman uses mobile phones of all the citizens to make a virtual map tracking the Joker.

Although for now this is fiction, cloud computing enables us to strengthen our already existing network technically called as its Infrastructure (virtual memory). Its remaining other two aspects being sharing and synchronizing which from our analogy is self-explanatory.

Advantages!?
Obviously speed, scalability, optimization and is economical.

Collaborative work necessitates interaction, which could be one to one or many and vice versa. It could also be direct or indirect in the sense of physically involving actions like talking, touch, gestures and vision or indirect through the internet. This could involve sharing and exchange of information like pictures, media files, documents, ebooks etc. via email, blogging, social networks, Bluetooth etc or all-in-all through cloud computing networks.

Initial Mind Map 

Its the optimization that matters.....

As Steven Pinker has rightly said we as humans have replaced our ecological niche as a species with a cognitive one. With the advent of computing technology we have definitely expanded our cognition to the next level. With this note our technology expands beyond the realms of infinity by introducing a new concept called Cloud Computing.

All computer users have come across cloud computing knowingly or unknowingly. The best example being of web based email services which help us store information online as well as interact with known/unknown users.

With these ideas in mind we realized that cloud computing was not only innovation but an optimization which was imperative in our idea…. 

Time and tide waits for none...but its better late than never

It was a “cloudy” and hazy start but as designers firstly the most important task was to comprehend the concept of cloud computing in the form of a block diagram understanding its basic principle. 

What's different???

We thereafter read and re-read the challenge as to what has been done and what new is being expected from us to ultimately understand what’s the challenge all about.

Brainstorming!!

With the Thinking Caps on...
disusing, debating , "Producing" ideas
anxiously awaiting that..
EUREKA moment!!

Lost in thoughts...

Brainstorming !!

Ah! The most interesting and confusing part of the job. :D

Random thoughts being worked upon right now:

- what is cloud computing?
- how it is being used ?
- What are interactions/ collaborative work users engage in ?

Mindmaps, Sketches......a lot is yet to be done!!

Team Vision : Online

We are all geared up and excited for the competition.

Good luck to all the participating teams :)

Team Vision \m/

TEAM VISION \m/

Team Members:

Abdul Sameer Ashraf
B.Des 3rd year
IIT Guwahati
email: abdul.sameer.ashraf@gmail.com

Apurva Gupta
B.Des 3rd year
IIT Guwahati
email: gupta.apurva.92@gmail.com

Murtuza Shergadwala
B.Tech 3rd year, Mechnical
IIT Guwahati
email: ceaselesschat@gmail.com

Neha KumarB.Des 3rd year
IIT Guwahati
email:  nehakumar286@gmail.com

Satyan Chawla
B.Des 3rd year
IIT Guwahati
email: satyan1009@gmail.com