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Overview
This project was completed as part of Cornell University’s DEA 5210, Interaction Design Studio.
This project aims to address astronauts' challenges with time perception and physical orientation in space through the development of a small interactive physical device.
EHOURA is an innovative device that uses visual lighting cues to help astronauts regain a sense of time and emotional balance. By displaying a colored glow that shifts direction like a compass, EHOURA allows astronauts to visualize their emotions and understand their daily routines. The device provides clarity during periods of disorientation and emotional distress, enhancing overall well-being by helping astronauts regulate their emotions and better cope with the unique outer space environment.
Highlights & Innovations
Visual Lighting Cues:
EHOURA uses visual lighting cues to help astronauts regain a sense of time and emotional balance to enhance their overall well-being in outer space.
Dynamic Orientation Assistance:
The device simulates natural light changes and provides visual indicators of the sun and moon's positions, which offers a critical context for time perception and physical orientation.
Vibration Feedback Mechanism:
EHOURA incorporates a minute-long vibration feedback system to help astronauts recalibrate their sense of time and promote emotional regulation during periods of disorientation.
User-Centered Design:
The project was guided by extensive user research with astronauts, ensuring that the design addresses their unique challenges related to time perception and emotional stability.
Human-Center Design Methods
Mind mapping
Cultural probes
Prototyping
Interviews
Mood boards
Morphological chart
Storyboards
Tools and Software
Arduino Programming
Autodesk Fusion
3D Printer
Duration
8 weeks: March 2024 - May 2024
My Role and Responsibilities
As the Interaction Designer in a group of three, I was responsible for conducting user research with various human-centered design methods, generating ideas, creating prototypes, programming interactions, and assembling the final product. My role also involved selecting materials and completing 3D printing to enhance our design solutions.
Persona
Arnold
Occupation
Astronaut
Age
45
Location
Los Angeles, CA
Persona
Arnold
Age
45
Occupation
Astronaut
Location
Los Angeles
Persona
Arnold
Age
45
Occupation
Astronaut
Location
Los Angeles
Background & Challenges
When astronauts live and work on the International Space Station, they experience a completely different environment from Earth. With 16 sunrises and sunsets every day, studies show astronauts often perceive time differently in space. They tend to underestimate short time intervals, like a minute, by about 20% - making it seem like time slows down. Moreover, the zero-gravity conditions mess with their sense of direction and spatial orientation, leaving them feeling somewhat disoriented.
Goals
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Improved Orientation: To feel more oriented and less disoriented while floating.
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Emotional Stability: To maintain emotional balance and manage stress effectively.
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Routine Clarity: To clearly understand and follow his daily schedule, aligning with the position of the sun and other time markers.
Desires
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Visual Cues: A system that provides clear visual indicators of time and orientation to help him stay grounded.
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Emotional Visualization: A tool that allows him to track and visualize his emotions, aiding in emotional regulation.
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Routine Understanding: Assistance in understanding and maintaining his 24-hour routine despite the lack of natural time markers in space.
Ideation 1: Mood Boards
We created moodboards to generate a representation of the intended before and after experiences of interacting with our design.
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Ideation II: Morphological Chart
We created morphological charts to explore the design space, forms & means of achieving our desired effects from our moodboard.
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Design I: Conceptual Sketches
Created conceptual sketches to visualize the chosen morphological chart system.
The ring shape is easily held and displays lights representing the sun and moon’s position to provide psychological assurance pertaining to the astronaut’s spatial orientation.
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Feedback
The GIF was presented during an in-class critique session, where feedback indicated that while the interaction itself was clear, the meaning or underlying story behind the interaction was difficult for viewers to understand just by watching it.
Design II: Storyboard
In times of temporal and orientation-related distress, Ehoura helps to assure them of their current time and spatial orientation, and to better understand their mood patterns and effectively regulate their emotional well being during their stay in the ISS.
Human-Center Design Methods
Mind mapping
Cultural probes
Prototyping
Interviews
Mood boards
Morphological chart
Storyboards
Tools and Software
Arduino Programming
Autodesk Fusion
3D Printer
My Role and Responsibilities
As the Interaction Designer in a group of three, I was responsible for conducting user research with various human-centered design methods, generating ideas, creating prototypes, programming interactions, and assembling the final product. My role also involved selecting materials and completing 3D printing to enhance our design solutions.
Duration
8 weeks: March 2024 - May 2024
User Research
Our user research involved online studies to understand the unique challenges astronauts face during space missions. Key findings revealed significant issues with time perception, physical orientation, and emotional regulation due to the zero-gravity environment and isolation. Astronauts expressed a need for tools that provide clear visual cues to maintain their daily routines and emotional well-being. Insights from this research guided the development of EHOURA, a device designed to address these specific challenges.
Design III: Rapid Prototyping
We rapidly prototyped the device using aluminum to determine its dimensions and form for optimal grip and component storage, followed by 3D modeling and component purchasing based on the finalized dimensions and the electronic requirements of the Design II concept.
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Accelerometer/Gyroscope Sensor: Used for detecting the device's orientation and movement, ensuring the device can detect whether it is parallel to the Earth's surface and adjust the vibration feedback accordingly. This aids astronauts in locating and calibrating their sense of direction.
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Vibration Motor (Vibration Sensor): Used to provide vibration feedback, especially when astronauts need to grip the device tightly for time perception calibration. It can be set to vibrate once every second for a minute, helping astronauts rebuild their sense of time.
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LED Lights (possibly RGB LEDs): Used to adjust the device's illuminated area based on the positions of the sun and the moon, simulating natural light changes such as sunrise and sunset. RGB LEDs can provide more color options, more accurately mimicking the sky's color at different times.
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Real-Time Clock (RTC) Module with Sun and Moon Position Calculation: Essential for maintaining accurate real-time date and time, even through Arduino resets or power losses. Importantly, it incorporates algorithms for calculating the positions of the sun and the moon, providing critical data for simulating earthly time and celestial events.
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Display Screen (such as OLED or LCD display): Used to show the current Earth time and possibly other relevant information, like the simulated positions of the sun and the moon.
Assembling
We brought our vision to life by creating a functional device, which involved 3D printing, wiring, soldering, and fitting the electronics into the 3D model.
EHOURA’s shell is made of a 3D printed torus casing of plastic translucent filament, sliced in half and extruded in the sliced section such that the halves fit as a case. All electronic parts are soldered and fit hidden in this casing, except a button and potentiometer which are exposed through two holes drilled on the side of the shell.
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To address astronauts' challenges, the end product we devised involved a circular ring device designed to enhance astronauts' sense of time and orientation in space, and to aid in managing their emotional well-being. This device can identify the positions of the sun and the moon, adjusting its illuminated sections to reflect the natural light changes from sunrise to sunset and offering a visual sense of time's passage. It also displays Earth's current time, aiding astronauts in aligning their biological clocks with the terrestrial day-night cycle.
If astronauts sense their perception of time is off, they can firmly grip this ring device to help them readjust their sense of time. The device will verify if it is aligned with the Earth's surface to guide astronauts in finding their direction via the lights on the outer circle, and a new color light will show on the inner circle to help the astronauts track their usage and emotions accordingly.
Ultimately, this device intends to help astronauts overcome the challenges of altered time perception and the disorientation caused by zero gravity. It provides support for their tasks and daily life on the space station to enhance their connection with Earth's temporal and spatial dimensions.
Reflection and Future Work
The main technological challenges in implementing the EHOURA prototype included that the GPS module’s reception of satellite signals can vary based on location (higher reception outdoors than indoors). Future research should explore alternative positioning systems or enhancements that can improve signal reliability, particularly in enclosed environments, to ensure consistent performance in the EHOURA prototype.
The 3D printing process involved several reprints as the error margin was inconsistent across printed halves of the model in such a way that they could not fit together. In the future, we can optimize print orientation and settings—such as layer height and infill density—to minimize warping and misalignment. Implementing post-processing techniques like sanding and heat treatment could refine the fit of printed components, while adjusting tolerances in the design phase will help account for material shrinkage. Conducting iterative prototyping with smaller sections can quickly identify fitting issues, and collaboration with 3D printing experts may provide valuable insights.
One potential improvement in the future could be to explore replacing the current button for powering the device with either a pressure sensor and softer material for the shell or a button with a portion of the shell casing the button. Currently, the button module is quite small but protrudes through the shell’s side in a way that may visually interrupt the outer light sequence. Both suggestions would retain the same purpose as the current while improving the visual appeal of the prototype, discovering the button, and stress-reductive qualities (squeezing the device vs. pinpointing the button to power on). A similar improvement could also be applied to the potentiometer.
Final Product & Mechanisms
EHOURA consists of a curiously minimalistic torus form which displays a variety of meaningful light effects.
The current state of the EHOURA prototype records user input and produces output as intended. This includes:
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producing consistent lighting angles on the outer ring based on solar positioning regardless of shifts in the direction the GPS faces when the user moves while holding EHOURA,
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setting a new mood tracking light with 30 seconds of non-activity after turning the potentiometer, and
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powering the device on/off by pressing the button.
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Press the button to power the device.
The GPS module takes 30s to power on. An animated display of lights will show along the LED strip during this time.
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Rotate Ehoura to find the sun/moon.
Yellow/blue lights on the outer LED strip show the sun/moon’s azimuth from the user, based on current GPS data, when the compass senses prod-uct movement.
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Turn the knob to record an emotion.
A new light on the inner ring’s LED strip will change color as the potentiometer (“knob”) is turned, and its color set after 30s of non-activity.
Human-Center Design Methods
Mind mapping
Cultural probes
Prototyping
Interviews
Mood boards
Morphological chart
Storyboards
Tools and Software
Arduino Programming
Autodesk Fusion
3D Printer
My Role and Responsibilities
As the Interaction Designer in a group of three, I was responsible for conducting user research with various human-centered design methods, generating ideas, creating prototypes, programming interactions, and assembling the final product. My role also involved selecting materials and completing 3D printing to enhance our design solutions.
Duration
8 weeks: March 2024 - May 2024