Thursday, 19 January 2012

Mapping your stress levels?

So how about this bike idea?
What if the link between stress levels on a bike could be recorded on a map for other users to reference and interact with?

How about rather than messing with pulse readings etc for stress levels the user is actually asked?
If there was a slider that the user used to show their happiness/stress level which was recorded against their location.

The Mappiness app asked people at random times what level their happiness was and recorded it against their location. They also asked other questions such as whether they were indoor, outdoors or in a car and who they were with.
Mappiness Website
After a few uses, the user can see a pattern of where they are most happiest e.g. in a car, outdoors or indoors, as well as whether it depends on who they're with and the time of use.

So maybe I could use this idea to let people know which cycle routes will leave them the least stress-free according to user feedback.

Christian Nold created the "emotion map", a type of biomapping which involved 50 local residents."From a common starting point the participants would walk for up to an 
hour wherever they wanted in the local area. On returning to the workshop base, they could see their walk represented visually as a personal ‘emotion map’." The personal maps were then combined to make an overall stress map for Greenwich.
Greenwich emotion Map by Christian Nold: www.emotionmap.net
http://www.opencyclemap.org is a collection of cycle routes all over the UK for people to look at.

So, what if I made an iPhone app to record people's stress levels on their routes, then cyclists could look for a route between two points and be shown a few alternative routes according to fastest, least stressful and one inbetween.
The roads or routes could be colour coded according to how stressful it is, and as more users data is added, it will be clearer as to how stressful a particular place is e.g. main roundabouts and junctions to avoid at all costs.

But this arises a few questions:
  • How would the user interact with the slider? 
    • Handlebar arduino slider device?
    • iPhone screen? -->Timeout fail?
  • Would it be best to make an iPhone app which shows results on a map, or processing/arduino ?





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