Always check your email.

I say this because you never know when a 45hr SLAM might kick off. Heck, it could happen at 6 pm on some idle Wednesday, when you already have hard plans with your bed to get together for some sleep. Well, wake up buttercup, you’re at VFS, and you’re in Digital Design. I admit that I needed reminding.

Immediately following the ‘Futurists’ Digital Design Talk, students were gathered into teams to develop a conceptual prototype for a product that would be used in the “world of tomorrow.” As it was for the future, the opportunities were seemingly endless: augmented reality, holograms, teleportation — and even sharks with lasers — were examples of possible avenues to take in this open ended brief.

Team Popped Collars was comprised of members from each of the Digital Design classes, most of whom had never worked together before. We immediately started brainstorming for the future. After a couple hours of discussion, we decided to focus on the future of socializing.

Our team realized the difficulty involved in approaching strangers and establishing new relationships, and so we began to ask some questions:

• What if you could see a person’s mood based off of their social media feeds?
• What if you could tell their mood from the connections you share across different social media platforms?
• If you knew what someone’s favourite movie was, would it be easier to approach them?

These questions were the basis for what we called, SocialEYES.

SocialEYES is a computerized contact lens that would allow users to see three different modes:

1. Mood is the visualization of what type of mood the person is in (red being angry and green being happy).
2. Six Degrees lets the user know if they have any shared connections with the stranger they are targeting.
3. Recent Picks showcases the stranger’s favourite book, movie, song and location.

SocialEYES is meant to provide it’s user with information to make for an easier introduction, as well as to maintain and improve existing relationships.

Within 45 hours, the Digital Design students produced some incredible work. It was a great opportunity for students in different classes to get together and share in some sufferi… ahem… learning. I said learning right? As much as everyone cursed the dreaded 45 hour assignment, by the end of it, not one person would have changed it. It was an amazing experience and allowed students to see the quality of work that can be produced in such a short period of time. I am so impressed with the level of talent at this school and cannot wait to collaborate with my classmates for the next SLAM.