Pascal Quimper is an apparel designer based in Montreal. With self-produced projects such as healthwealthlove and Muff under his belt, he aims at implementing new technology into the apparel industry. Presently studying computation arts at Concordia University, he hopes to further his knowledge of design fundamentals and the potential of electronic arts. With over 50 shirts sold in the Montreal region, healthwealthlove goes on to represent what truly matters in life, this being health, wealth and love. Post Graduation, his brand aims at becoming a charity to not only raise awareness of suicide in the Montreal area, but to aid young adults by hosting events.

Project summary

Muff’s intentions are to shelter skiers and snowboarders from harsh winter conditions and to remove their vulnerability as they travel around the mountain. Wanting to stand on its own and away from failed location-based services, Muff categorizes itself as a marketable location-based product. Muff is a bandana containing a GPS locator enabling users to track friends or family to assure safety in numbers at a distance. Equipped with a Garmin Rino 110 and user-friendly programming, you can easily communicate with active users in your network. It provides assurance, time-management, on-track information and prevention against unwanted risk.

Artist statement

I Have them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I feed off reactions. From peculiar smirks to corky expressions, I capture them and learn what aesthetically reveals different emotions in people. I strive to figure out the elements that bring feelings ranging from joy, comfort, surprise to awkward, strain and disgust. My goal as an artist is to gather this knowledge and engage it continually into my practice in the apparel industry. I also strive on implementing ‘new technology’ in hopes of finding a place for it in a marketing fashion. I continue my research of how to event emotions from a person using visual and physical elements. I have found to be a lack of all the great experimentation going on in the market place. I envision space for interactive technology in stores nation wide. My latest project, entitled Muff, reaches out to skiers and snowboarders across Canada. Muff is there to scratch the vulnerability they have to the mountain conditions. Greatly influenced by mobile technology pioneer Tomi Ahonen and worked off of similar projects, Muff is given birth in the locative media church. It grasps winning ideas from locative projects used at ski resorts and meshes them into one. Projects that it feeds off of are Snocator, GPSnow, SnowRanger and StoneMaps.

Microcontroller – Lilypad

Zigbee Radio – XBee

GPS Locator

+ GPS locatos recieve global coordinates

+Gets processed through microcontroller. If change from previous location is worth sending. Transfers information through Zigbee radio which is than sent to central station.

+ Central station than decides what to display on all connected screens

+ This creates a control on the brand and network.

GPS similar idea..removes fear blah…..

http://ski.intermaps.com/skiarlberg/en_ost.html

Friendly User Interface showing

-         time

-         trail difficulty

-         battery life

-         chairlift & Cable car locations

-         location of programmed users

-         Ability to show rest area/food area (chalet/restaurant)

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.fahad.com/pics/sony_gps.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.fahad.com/2006_08_01_fahadinc_archive.html&h=350&w=323&sz=25&hl=en&start=1&um=1&usg=__2rWP10K2_VNaZtiRuFe5dpkS-6Q=&tbnid=LSFJfrAopLhxzM:&tbnh=120&tbnw=111&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlittle%2Bsony%2Bgps%2Bbox%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN

http://liftlab.com/think/nova/category/locative-media/

http://www.vodafone.com/flash/receiver/16/articles/index01.html

ChEcK

http://tecfa.unige.ch/~nova/headmap-manifesto.PDF

Accordin to Headmap Manifesto

Real space can be marked and demarcated invisibly.

Geography becomes interesting.

By overlaying everything with a whole new invisible layer of annotation we are able to attach textual, visual and audible information available when in need

By linking location aware devices with handheld computer, we are able to not only demarcate spaces, but we can choose who is allowed to view specific information.

Headmap Manifesto brings up a good point when it states that with LBS, we are now capable of augmenting, reorganizing and colonizing real spaces without altering what is already there. But the reality is that the law, politics and ownership of a specific space can often limit permissions for site mapping. (headmap, 6)

http://www.worldwidegolfshops.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=001381&Category_Code=golfbud&Product_Count=1

http://www.andicom.org.co/brief_2008/Mobile%20as%20the%207thMassMedia.pdf

http://vanelsas.wordpress.com/2007/10/05/toni-ahonenmobile-the-7th-mass-media/

http://www.wherify.com/wherifone/safety.html

http://www.kidzworld.com/article/7117-wherify-gps-locator-phone

http://www.snocator.com/how.html

Muff

Muff

+ Figure a more precise analysis of technical difficulties I could face when building. (20% complete)

+ Draw out display screen templates to show what the friendly-user interface will look like. (40% complete)

+ Programming language: C++. Although general idea is understood. (I know what needs to be done, just a matter of writing it in code) The more it is understood now, the less work i will have later on.

+ improve ‘product’ concept attached to Muff because it is an important idea.

+possibly create advertising poster to emphasize on marketing ability of a product

+create timetable

———————————–

Little Jimmy is fourteen years old and he’s been skiing for quite some time now. Since the age of six, his family has brought him along on weekly ski trips. A family passion. He even brags about being born with ski boots on, or how he learned to ski before walking, but that’s just Little Jimmy being cocky. His family has been skiing as a group ever since Jimmy began to ski. But as a fourteen year old adventurer, he wanted to go faster and truly feel the thrill of ‘riding’ down the mountain. Following his parents became dull as they slalomed down Circle runs. Trails with a green circle meant ‘easy and slow’, which isn’t the excitement Jimmy was searching. So he asked his mother is he could possibly go on his own for a few runs. His mother definitely trusted little Jimmy to be on his own, but fear of losing her son to the harsh mountain conditions resulted in rejecting her sons request.

Jimmy’s mother truly did want to let her son on his own, so like everyone else, when questions need answers, turn to Google. So she began her research and quickly found exactly what she was looking. She discovered that all of the major ski resorts across Canada contained Muff, a location based service which allows tracking on other individuals. The simplicity and snapshots of the Friendly User Interface instantly appealed to Little Jimmy’s Mother. She was also quite attracted to the trendy bandana that came with the service, she knew Jimmy would enjoy the comfort and shelter from the cold.

Now when the family goes skiing, Jimmy can invite his friends and doesn’t have to fear dull moments of waiting on novice skiers such as his parents. He can Zoom down the mountain and adventure into the tough trails. His mother no longer fears for his sons life because she can spot where he is located and communicate with him when needed.

———————–

Quick ideas and Thoughts:

–

+ Narrated as me being Jimmy and so on…

+ showed visually with polaroid photos

+ very important, should be evident even in interaction scenario:

 a ’comfortable’, ‘fresh’, ‘positive’, ‘safe’ feel to it. My Product emphasizes on these qualities and it should be evident in not only the story but its representation

+ programs used: Flash, possibly AfterEffects

—

Images will come soon.

More to come.

In present times, Muff is a research project that challenges the idea of failure in Location Based Services (LBS). In the future, Muff will be a product available at all major Canadian ski resorts to assure safety of friends and family members.

I firmly believe that one of the big mistakes location based services have been continually doing is producing nothing in line with tangibility. It is proven that a big part of the population, nationwide, do not trust what they cannot feel and touch. People also have a tendancy to not bother with online applications.

Muff is a LBP, location based product.

Not only is it tangible, but it assures the consumer quality, security and your money’s worth.

—————————

Muff consists of two units: a trendy bandana, and a small screen. Inside the bandana is a gps locator and a zigbee radio. You would also have a screen with keypad in-hand.

Muff allows surveillance of chosen members to assure safety against the harsh mountain conditions. It provides the user with:

• real-time knowledge of where activated users are located
• simple icons used to demonstrate users location on mountain
• user friendly interface, simple and straight to its purpose
• clearly displays trails, as well as, trail difficulty (circle, square, diamon, double-diamond, etc…)
• displays time
• (possibly inserted into proposal, but not sure) ability to communicate through walkie-talkie format
• (possibly inserted into proposal, but not sure) ability to communicate through messaging

Images will come shortly

Analyzing:

Meetro – www.meetro.com

Loopt –
http://www.looptblog.com/

Fireeagle –

http://fireeagle.yahoo.net/gallery

Snowranger -
http://gps.about.com/od/onlineservices/gr/snowranger.htm

StoneMaps –

http://www.stonemaps.com/case_ski.php

Mobile phone applications – Six M’s Theory – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone

Jason Levitt/ former LBS owner - 

http://venturebeat.com/2008/06/14/iphone-3g-heralds-new-day-for-location-based-services/

Nicolas Nova: Location-based applications, failures and a second wave of applications to be expected

Gerhard Navratil and Eva Grum: What Makes Location-Based Services Fail? (pdf)

Paul Bragiel: Anatomy Of A Failure: Lessons Learned

David Williams: Why LBS applications fail

especially**Tomi T Ahonen & Alan Moore: Elusive pot of gold beyond reach of location-based services and GPS now on iPhone 3G

+physical obstacles

• Many of the obstacles found on ski slopes end up being natural: trees, rocks, wind, cold, ice.
• Other riders, whether it be skiers or snowboarders, can be considered an obstacle.

+exits/entrances

• Naturally, these can be found all around the mountain. Technically you can exit the mountain at any location ground level.

 

• Considering it is a ski resort, there is a specific entrance/exit where people park their car and get ready to go boarding.

+Time Slots

- 8:30am to 10:30pm

+How people move through it

• On a ski hill, people move downhill. Every rider has their own style and speed. People will also move differently depending on the difficulty of the run. The level of skill of a rider will also alter speed and style. Many aspects of riding downhill will alter how people move through the space.

+Notes

• Sometimes, skiing in groups can result in losing some of your friends. Level of skills in a group can range from beginner to expert which can cause inequality in speed and distance.

+What people do

- People at ski resorts tend to ski or snowboard. They may also relax outside in the fresh air and socialize. There are chalets where warmth can be found. People gather inside to warm their body temperature, usually with hot chocolate.