A Study of Interactive Accessory Design Based on Sensory Experience

Abstract

The experience economy era opens up the sensory channel to communicate between users and products, which takes expanding multisensory experience and emotional connection of users as its main value, and encourages users to act as a common participant and creator of self-worth in the process of value creation. In this context, there is a sharp increase in the demand for value creation by shaping sensory experience in various industries, and more and more sensory and emotional elements have been transformed and applied progressively. In the various design fields, the human experience becomes an important Keyword. And with digital technology, applied interactive technology for design has been studied in many aspects. In the field of accessory design, the wearers are not only satisfied with the inherent decorative properties, but also expect to get personalized design and diversified experience. Therefore, sight, hearing, touch, and other sensory elements are gradually integrated into the accessory to attract the participation and interaction of the wearers. However, most of the current interactive accessory only use single sensory element and simple physical interaction. In this context, to conform to the design trend under the development of digital technology, this study proposed the necessity of research on digital interactive accessories based on multisensory experience. This study aimed to explore the concept of multisensory interaction related to human senses, and then develop the novel image of interactive accessory - interactive accessories based on the two-way communication of multisensory experience by combining with the aesthetic quality of digital technology and 3D printing technology. By creating user-interaction scenes and natural user interfaces, the combination of multisensory elements and interactive accessory design became possible. In this way, user participation value and sensory experience could be realized. The methodology used in this study included literature study, case study, and experimental study. In the literature study, through professional books and prior research, the theories of human multisensory systems and interactive design were sorted out and classified. In the case study, collected and investigated 50 sensory-based interactive accessory cases from design magazines and design websites from 2000 to 2009. The experimental study was based on understanding and applying vision, hearing, touch, and synesthesia. Through the utilization of interactive technology, sensing technology, 3D printing technology, and Python language, the appearance and interactive mode of accessories were designed and developed. In this way, the accessories were realized in terms of tactile visualization, tactile auralization, and auditory visualization. Moreover, the Grasshopper in 3D software Rhino 6.0 was used to carry out parametric modeling of accessories and finally produced by 3D printing technology. The contents and construction of this study present as follows. Under the background of the symbiotic development of the experience economy and digital technology, the design trend was discussed, and the research background, purpose, and method were proposed. In Chapter Ⅱ, the theoretical information of the human sensory system, sensory experience, and sensory interactive design cases was sorted out. Further, the types of interactive design cases using sensory experience elements to expand human sensory experience in various fields were summarized and analyzed. Then the interactive sensory material, trigger factor, conversion process, interactive experience of the cases were sorted out. In chapter Ⅲ, the development status and application cases of interactive accessory that using sensory elements were classified and analyzed to obtained sensory characteristics and interactive effects of modern interactive accessory. In chapter Ⅳ, based on chapter Ⅱ and Ⅲ，the design benchmark of multisensory interactive accessory was proposed. Further, the design and experiment of four groups of accessories were carried out. The appearance and interactive mode of the four groups of works took animals' shape and color changeability in nature as the design resource. On the basis of the input experiment, communication experiment, and output experiment, the tactile visualization, tactile auralization, and auditory visualization of the accessories were realized. The Group I works realized the tactile visualization of accessory. The works are designed based on the shape of the chameleon as a design element. The accessory's interaction simulates how chameleon responds the environment by changing its color. In this group, the proximity sensor, gesture sensor, and LED module are installed in the accessory and through Python language to achieve the visual and tactile interaction between the user, viewer, accessory, and environment. Users can select the color for the accessory by touching any object with color in the surrounding environment. Meanwhile, users can choose and match the colors of the accessory at different body positions according to their preferences. Besides, the accessory's lighting effects will flow in different directions according to the user's gesture instructions. The design provide users the visual experience based on the sense of touch and also expanded the color selection function of accessory. The Group II works realized the tactile visualization and sound visualization of accessory. The appearance and interaction of works take betta fish and its color-change ability in the environment as the design elements. In this study, the proximity sensor, color sensor, sound sensor, and LED module are installed in accessory and Python language to realize the visual interaction and tactile interaction between the user, viewer, accessory, and environment. Users can wear accessories to simulate the color of the environment through touch. Meanwhile, the accessory can obtain sound data from the environment so that the lights of the accessories present different visual effects according to the rhythm of the sound. The works provided users a rich visual experience and also expands the dynamic visual effects of accessory. The Group III works realized the tactile visualization and auralization of the accessory. The appearance and interaction of works take Anna's Hummingbird and its color-change ability under the light refraction as the design elements. In this study, the proximity sensor, color sensor, LED and MP3 module are installed in accessory and use Python language to achieved the visual, auditory, and tactile interaction between the user, accessory, and environment. Based on the understanding of synesthesia, this study conducted experiments on the conversion relationship between color and sound, and selected three pieces of natural sound information to be incorporated into the accessories. The accessories will emit a synesthetic sound according to the selected color. This group of accessories realizes the user's multisensory experience and expands the visual and audio functions of the accessory. The Group IV works realized the tactile visualization and auralization of the accessory. The works takes the form of Anna's Hummingbird and its color-change feathers and voice to response the environment. In this study, the proximity sensor, color sensor, LED and sound module are installed in accessory and Python language to realize the tactile, visual, and auditory interaction between the user, accessory, and environment. At the same time, the accessory lights will present corresponding visual effects like pulsation, flowing, and flicker according to the recognized sound rhythm. The chapter Ⅴ is the research conclusions and recommendations, which put forward the necessity, limitations, and recommendation of this research and the significance and prospects of developing digital sensory interactive accessory. The limitations of this study are as follow: Firstly, this study mainly focuses on the design research of accessories by based on the vision, hearing, touch, and synesthesia, but the interactive design of stimulating sense of smell and taste has not been involved yet. Therefore, it is expected that more scholars will carry out further theoretical research on the aspects of smell, taste, and multisensory fusion of interactive accessories. Secondly, in the experiment process, due to the lack of a unified reference basis and conversion standard, the rigorousness of the transformation mode between senses needs to be improved. It is expected that researchers in related disciplines can build the data system of multisensory cooperation and sensory information transformation. On the other hand, the accessories are affected by the light and noise in the environment, so there is a certain error in collecting color and sound data, the accurately simulate the actual state of the environmental objects needs to improve. Thirdly, as for hardware, the size and function of the hardware cannot well match the small accessories. Therefore, more miniaturized and lightweight hardware needs to be developed. Fourthly, as for the wearability of accessories, due to the hardness of 3D printing materials, the convenience and comfort of wearing accessories need to be improved. Fifthly, there are relatively limited designs and applications of interactive accessories at present, so this study is insufficient in analyzing the accessories application cases by combining with the accessories market situation. Therefore, the user's wearing experience needs to be further investigated and verified. For the unsolved issues mentioned above, it is essential to implement a follow-up study to improve. The author shared the programming code and related data of the works on the online platform CSDN (https: //www.csdn.net) to support researcher accessibility and reference ability. It is expected that seek an opportunity to cooperate with different fields of researchers, such as electronic information engineering and digital engineering, so that a more comprehensive and in-depth study can be conducted on the diversified, intelligent, lightweight, and emotional interactive accessory. Accordingly, to providing high-quality design prototype reference for the future accessory market.