<p>The idea for the thesis “Construction and implementation of a mobile prototype; The Lovebomb” originates from doctoral candidates Rebecca Hansson and Tobias Skog from PLAY Research Group at the Interactive Institute in Gothenburg. The object of the master thesis is to construct two working LoveBomb prototypes, one mother console belonging to the LoveBomb and blueprints for both. The LoveBomb (the picture to the right shows a possible design) is intended to encourage people to express themselves emotionally when situated amongst strangers in public spaces. Two buttons control the device, which contains a radio transceiver. By pushing the buttons the user can either send a happy message or a sad message. The LoveBombs in the vicinity receive the sent message and lets its user know which message that has been received by vibrating either a sad irregular pulse or a happy continuous pulse. While vibrating the LoveBomb send out a confirm message. The confirm message can only be received by a LoveBomb which has recently sent out a message. After receiving a confirm message the LoveBomb conveys this to the user by turning on a red LED (light emitting diode) and letting the LED shine for about half a minute. During this time the LoveBomb can only receive messages. If it receives a message, during these 30 seconds, the LED is turned off and the prototype starts vibrating according to the received message. Should a LoveBomb which has sent a message fail to receive a confirm message it conveys this to the user by turning on and off the LED three times. After this the prototype is ready to send another message. The picture below shows a state diagram of the LoveBomb. The mother console registers all the communication between the LoveBomb, by pushing a button the user can see how many happy respectively sad messages that has been sent. Our workstarted with the doctoral candidates communicating their thoughts and wishes concerning the prototype to us. We organized this information into a requirement specification. We started the development of the Lovebomb and the belonging mother console by selecting a suitable micro controller. We choose PIC16C84 from Microchip but changed later to its successor PIC16F84, because the latter was easier to get a hold of. The micro controller controls all the other components. When we knew how to program the micro controller, we started working with a transceiver, suggested by the doctoral candidates, DR3001 from RFM. After establishing a meaningful communication between two micro controllers connected with on transceiver each, this was the hardest and most important part, we began working with not so vital component such as diodes, vibrators and buttons. When we were finished with the implementation and construction we examined the prototype and compared it to the requirement specification. To our satisfaction the prototype did not differ a lot from the requirements and the existing differences were improvements from the original idea. During the development process both of us learned a lot about assembler programming, electrical engineering and radio communication.</p>

The idea for the thesis “Construction and implementation of a mobile prototype; The Lovebomb” originates from doctoral candidates Rebecca Hansson and Tobias Skog from PLAY Research Group at the Interactive Institute in Gothenburg. The object of the master thesis is to construct two working LoveBomb prototypes, one mother console belonging to the LoveBomb and blueprints for both. The LoveBomb (the picture to the right shows a possible design) is intended to encourage people to express themselves emotionally when situated amongst strangers in public spaces. Two buttons control the device, which contains a radio transceiver. By pushing the buttons the user can either send a happy message or a sad message. The LoveBombs in the vicinity receive the sent message and lets its user know which message that has been received by vibrating either a sad irregular pulse or a happy continuous pulse. While vibrating the LoveBomb send out a confirm message. The confirm message can only be received by a LoveBomb which has recently sent out a message. After receiving a confirm message the LoveBomb conveys this to the user by turning on a red LED (light emitting diode) and letting the LED shine for about half a minute. During this time the LoveBomb can only receive messages. If it receives a message, during these 30 seconds, the LED is turned off and the prototype starts vibrating according to the received message. Should a LoveBomb which has sent a message fail to receive a confirm message it conveys this to the user by turning on and off the LED three times. After this the prototype is ready to send another message. The picture below shows a state diagram of the LoveBomb. The mother console registers all the communication between the LoveBomb, by pushing a button the user can see how many happy respectively sad messages that has been sent. Our workstarted with the doctoral candidates communicating their thoughts and wishes concerning the prototype to us. We organized this information into a requirement specification. We started the development of the Lovebomb and the belonging mother console by selecting a suitable micro controller. We choose PIC16C84 from Microchip but changed later to its successor PIC16F84, because the latter was easier to get a hold of. The micro controller controls all the other components. When we knew how to program the micro controller, we started working with a transceiver, suggested by the doctoral candidates, DR3001 from RFM. After establishing a meaningful communication between two micro controllers connected with on transceiver each, this was the hardest and most important part, we began working with not so vital component such as diodes, vibrators and buttons. When we were finished with the implementation and construction we examined the prototype and compared it to the requirement specification. To our satisfaction the prototype did not differ a lot from the requirements and the existing differences were improvements from the original idea. During the development process both of us learned a lot about assembler programming, electrical engineering and radio communication.