During the first week of this class, we were asked to build something that would make a digital sense perceptible to humans, or alternatively make a human-perceivable sense understandable to a computer.
As an exercise, our group decided to focus on making something invisible visible specifically, air quality.
With the support of Arduino and several specialised sensors, we planned to build a device that could be attached to the back of a mobile phone. In this way, with the help of a dedicated application, users would be able to take photographs of the surrounding space, which would appear visually distorted based on the local air quality.
In addition, we wanted to offer people a more “human” way of reading this data, going beyond a simple set of numbers and labels. Our goal was to help users understand how to dress or protect themselves based on air quality, temperature, and other environmental values.
The limited time available was certainly challenging, especially given the technological complexity of the task. However, we managed to achieve the intended outcome, even though the product never reached a fully realised physical form.
