Week 16 - User Testing #2
After last week's results we were very exited to continue with our user test on various people and see the effects shared music has on people who have never met each other before.
This week we matched the participants playlists and chose to play them a 'First Aid Kit' song, based on their favourite artists and songs. The general atmosphere in the car was a bit awkward at first - they were not making eye contact most of the time and were looking mostly Forward and sideways. We realised that moments of silence creates bigger awkwardness. But as the song kept on playing we noticed that the interaction between our participants became more calm, less awkward and pleasant - They Talked about the song and the band, which brought up a common topic - Sweden (one of the participants is Swedish and the other participant likes the band which is from Sweden).
Week 16 - User Testing #2
After last week's results we were very exited to continue with our user test on various people and see the effects shared music has on people who have never met each other before.
This week we matched the participants playlists and chose to play them a 'First Aid Kit' song, based on their favourite artists and songs. The general atmosphere in the car was a bit awkward at first - they were not making eye contact most of the time and were looking mostly Forward and sideways. We realised that moments of silence creates bigger awkwardness. But as the song kept on playing we noticed that the interaction between our participants became more calm, less awkward and pleasant - They Talked about the song and the band, which brought up a common topic - Sweden (one of the participants is Swedish and the other participant likes the band which is from Sweden).
COOPER
A Musical Companion for Shared Rides
Shared playlist
Cooper's algorithm matches between driver and passenger music via Spotify to create a playlist with songs they both love.
Moves with beat
Cooper dances with the beat of the music to encourage a light and more comfortable atmosphere in the car.
Decreases awkwardness
Cooper's goal is to decrease awkwardness between driver and passenger.
How Does It Work?
When a ride is set, a link is sent to the driver and passenger using Spotify api that gives us authorization to read and write to their accounts. Using an algorithm that finds liked shared tracks/albums/artist/genres a playlist is created and is written to the driver Spotify account.
Cooper Arduino unit is connected to a distance sensor that starts Cooper when a passenger enters the car, and two motors that enable horizontal and orthogonal movements.
The driver phone is connected to the car speakers via bluetooth. A Rasberry pi is connected to the Arduino that sends it an event when the passenger enters so it can start playing the playlist from the driver's Spotify account on his phone.
Cooper is a technological prototype that was created by students of the Media Innovation Lab of the School of Communication of IDC Herzliya in collaboration with the School of Computer Science and Psychology.
Visit us at: http://milab.idc.ac.il
Collaboration with
