Monday, November 07, 2005

Teresa Matheson's idea: "The Heart Monitor" memory project

Hello!
This is my idea so far. I am not a computer programmer so I cannot yet directly build my program, but I know my artist skills can come into play here somewhere along the line.

What most interested me after reading all the material, were the difficulties that amnesiacs have in remembering emotions of events, people or their day in general. I am interested in designing the concept of a program that could function within a PDA deceive or memory aid. The program will have the pilot name “Heart Monitor” and would be a reactionary program to the information that is entered into the device.
So for example, if one were to add an entry for the profile of a new friend, after the information was entered, the program would prompt you to add your own personal emotional impressions of this person. This data would be stored with in the profile as well and would be available when ever the profile was opened*. In a similar case, if an event were added to the system, the program would prompt for ‘heart’ details-emotional perceptions and feelings. So people like Ben in the article “Marooned in the Moment”, who speaks of Hadassah Bazaar, would have all his own personal impressions of the event logged for future viewing.
This program could be set to open at a specific time, maybe daily like a journal
-how do I feel at breakfast every morning?-or in the evening when one is likely to be spending time with ones family or friends. The program too would give the option to rate these events. Dinner with the in-laws-1* or first time meeting Marty-4*****--I have a great impression of Marty.
I am not sure I how useful a program like this would be to someone suffering from memory loss until I deal with the details more, however its goal is to help an amnesiac have more control over ones emotions in relation to others and events. It must be terrifying to not know if one is among enemies or friends, a place that is safe in which one can relax or the opposite. There may be some control gained in having a digital memory of emotional perceptions. If the program is prompted by key words in entries, the need to remember to add such data is not left to the user.
Because I am a drawing and painting student and am influenced by the digital and graphic arts, I am also very interested in the visual design of the programs interface.

*Each time the information was modified or added to, it would be date stamped

1 Comments:

Blogger Judith Doyle said...

Your idea of the "heart monitor" is very interesting and evocative. I think it fits well with this weeks' assignment, which is to make artifacts (pictures, sounds, emoticons) that can be used to note emotional responses. I look forward to how you develop this part of your research.

I am also interested in the problem of keeping track of emotions. How do we do it in our everyday lives?

4:15 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home