Week 10 - IP2 testing

The prototype was finally tested this week and it was interesting to see how people interacted with the prototype. There were some issues with the foil making contact with the zipper, however people seemed to understand the concept and provided me with some feedback.

In conducting the testing, I had slipped a $5 note into the pencil case - it was the testing person’s job to unzip the bag and take the $5 without setting off the alarm. By having a physical item to grab inside the pencil case, it better recreates the circumstances of pickpocketing. Unzipping, opening, inserting the hand and grabbing the item are all physical interactions that impact how the prototype responds. The purpose of testing is to see how different sensitivities affect the thief’s ability to take items from inside a bag. A stronger sensitivity would make it more difficult for a thief to unzip, insert their hand and take out items without setting off the alarm, particularly if the ‘active point’ on the zipper rail creates a gap too small for a human hand. In reality, the sensitivity of this kind of concept would always be set to high. The reason for multiple sensitivity levels is to test the threshold - at which point on the zipper rail would it be impossible to steal anything.

After observing people testing the prototype, several things were noted. Firstly, there were a lot of issues with the zipper making contact with the foil covered wires. This meant users were not able to experience the different levels of security, or had to purposefully hold the foil together the zipper. This does not represent the real-life physical interactions of unzipping, however this was necessary. It was also noted that people were actually quite skilled in retrieving the note through just a small gap. This meant that in order for this prototype to be improved, it should be taken into account that people can still pull things out with their fingers (smaller than hands), provided the item being pulled out is not as big. In summary, stealing things from a backpack involves a variety of physical interactions that need to be taken into account, and cannot all be classified/defined into a certain set of interactions.

The questions asked were:

• How do you find the physical interface overall?
• Did you find it more difficult to retrieve the money as sensitivity increased?

Most of the people who tested the prototype indicated that it is intuitive and easy to understand. Unfortunately due to the physical connections being volatile this aspect had not been tested as desired, however overall people could grasp the idea as they were made to force the alarm to set off (through vigorous zipping). Some also offered suggestions on how to improve the prototype. One suggestion in particular that helped improve the prototype: by having a ‘thumb-pad’ made of foil on the outside of the bag, so the user won’t need to be clipped with another wire to be grounded. This also better replicates the human interaction with a bag: one hand to pull the zipper, the other to pinch the side.

This week was also spent brainstorming ideas for the final prototype. It might be worth trying to implement a facial recognition system, however I’m not sure how difficult this will be to implement. Facial recognition will test another aspect of the interactivity of ZipperBan - the detection process.