Written+Report

= WRITTEN REPORT =

//Inspiration/ Article//: Isabella //Science behind it//: Roshni //Exhibit walkthrough//: Rejy //Technology used in exhibit//: Yi //Purpose of exhibit//: Natasha //Our experiment/ Pilo//t: Monette
 * Tasks:**


 * Research:**

__Inspiration/Article - Isabella__
 * Main Points:**

In hopes of trying to think of ideas, our group collectively decided to spend a whole innovation period brainstorming through interesting books and objects which we were able to find around our house. We had old toys and knickknacks, books, and magazines. Although we were able to come up with many ideas, there was one specific idea which stood out to all of us. This was the idea to design an exhibit inspired by a short, one-page article we found in this September’s issue of National Geographic. The article entitled “Shake it Off” outlines the research done by an engineering student at Georgia Tech named Andrew Dickerson on the mechanism furry animals use to dry themselves off – shaking! Dickerson used slow motion videos of different animals to measure their oscillations as they shook water off their fur and found that the smaller the animal is, the faster it shakes. Excited with this fascinating idea, our next steps as a group would be to investigate the physics behind this mechanism and to determine exactly how we would like to incorporate this information into an innovative exhibit.

__Science Behind It - Roshni__


 * The idea of "shaking" may seem like something fun to laugh at for people, but for many animals it is a means of survival, and the need to stay dry.
 * Animals, such as dogs, shake at frequencies as high as 27 Hz for smaller animals
 * 4 Hz for larger animals
 * The calculation for the oscillation is R 0.75 ,
 * When the radius is larger, a greater force is exerted


 * A greater force can be exerted on the fur when the radius is larger
 * the skin moves at the same frequency as the body, but (especially with very furry animals) when the skin is looser, it will movefaster than the body, therefore it has a greater force and can remove water faster
 * Another factor affecting how quick ly water can be removed is the type of fur: Some fur retains a lot of water, while others are densely packed on purpose, not allowing water to penetrate through it to the skin

__Exhibit Walkthrough and Technology - Yi and Rejy__
 * The “Shake It” exhibit is a giant touch screen which, when not in use, will be playing a video montage of different animals and people shaking. This aims to attract visitors, as well as spark interest and curiosity in them. As they then come up to the exhibit, instructions will prompt them to shake, and upbeat music will start playing. Motion sensors will be recording their oscillation or shaking frequency and graph it on the screen. The visitor will then be matched to a specific animal with the corresponding oscillation frequency. Simultaneously, fast facts explaining the science behind the exhibit will be flashed on the screen.
 * In order to make the “Shake It” exhibit more innovative, visitors can opt to do a challenge after the science behind it has been explained to them. There will be two types of challenges available for the visitors, a group challenge and an individual challenge. For the group challenge, visitors, along with their family or friends will be shaking together such that their overall oscillation pattern will match the pattern graphed on the screen. This challenge requires accuracy, control and greatly encourages collaboration. As for the individual challenge, the goal of the visitor is to get a wet animal dry through shaking. A wet animal of the visitor’s choice will be projected on the screen and the visitor will shake until they get it to completely dry. The animal will shake according to the rate by which the visitor shakes. Therefore, the faster, the better. For both challenges, there will be a //Hall of Fame// for the top 10 visitors who accomplish the challenge exceptionally well. For the group challenge, it will be based on how close they match the pattern required, and for the individual challenge, it will be based on the time it took to get the wet animal dry. //The Hall of Fame// serves to add in an element of competition in order to get visitors more engaged in the exhibit. This will people motivate people to a try just a little bit harder and push just a little bit more. Thus, another innovative quality of seeing things through to the end gets added into the equation.
 * As all the shaking is taking place, it is being recorded by a video camera incorporated in the touch screen. The visitor(s) will then be asked if they would like it to be saved to the exhibit database. If the visitor permits, their video will be added to the video montage, as mentioned earlier, being played when the exhibit is not in use.
 * As a bonus, the visitors could also download a smartphone app from the exhibit. It will give them access of their video shaking, along with trivias about the animal they were matched to. It would also get into more detail about the scientific aspect of the animal’s drying mechanism.This app also will be able to detect oscillation frequencies of different objects. This way, not only does smartphone technology get incorporated into the exhibit, but the visitor(s) will also be taking home with them something that would remind them of the great time they had in the “Shake It” exhibit, as well as the whole of the Ontario Science Centre

__Purpose of Exhibit - Natasha__

__Our Experiment/ Pilot - Monette__
 * To check whether the exhibit will be an attraction that people would want to use, our group wanted to find out if people would be willing to shake in public. To do this, we plan to perform an unbiased survey to ask OSC visitors of different ages whether they would shake if the exhibit were to be built.
 * After the experiment, the results show that…. //(to be finished after survey)//