By using these products they can satisfy their needs for transportation, hearing, seeing, etc. But this only applies for the lower needs in the hierarchy of needs.
What about the higher needs? On the current market there are already products to satisfy the need for Esteem and Self-actualization, but most of these products are hard to use and use a strategy that can not be applied for older adults.

This is exactly where our project was placed. We searched for a solution to give back the quality of life. Our goal is to make people feel useful at the end of the day, to make them feel proud of what they have done and to improve their quality of life.

The best thing to do, to satisfy these needs is to get out there and do something. The problem is that a lot of information about where to find good activities/events is spread all around us and one person simply isn’t able to gather all this information.

For now our work will remain unpublished, but we are looking forward to share our project in public.

This project is designed by me (Coen Claassen) and Matthias Werner. We share all the design credit and we are both the founders of this service/product.

Our project will be presented at the Lebensräume 2010 organized from 23 till 25 March 2010 in Hanover (Germany). At this fair we will present our service and our product(s) with a video and functional prototypes.
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The last couple of days me and Matthias worked day and night on our project. Together we decided to make a video that explains our service/product. We build a studio, drew and cut out our characters and last night we shot the movie.

We didn’t sleep very much but the end result is going to be amazing!
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In this course I explored the possibilities of visual communication while examining solutions that enable objects to communicate with their potential users by using light.

In this course I experimented with Arduino and physical computing. Since I already graduated as Mechanical Engineer I have some experience with programming and electronic components but always in more advanced systems such as Programmable logic controllers. This course brought controlling down to the level of Micro controllers which are often used in mass produced products since they are cheap and small.

In this course I experimented a lot with electronics to finally came up with one mayor installation. By using light sources, mirror and semi transparent mirrors I created an interesting concept of the illusion of infinity.
Afterwards I experimented with on and of switching of lights and only showing them in one reflection to create the illusion of motion. Foam was added between the mirror and Led layers to allow bending the reflection and creating the illusion of controlling the virtual space/tunnel.

To see how my device works check out the pdf.
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For the first time I feel rather sad to go home…

At the end of January I will leave Weimar and everything will end. It is possible to go back, but it will never be as it is today. This may sound very sad but this is the way of Erasmus and you should take it an other way.

January will be my last month in Weimar, and lets make it the best one!
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A couple of weeks ago Weimar transformed, the whole town got a magical atmosphere and everything is beautifully decorated. Historical markets are build-up at Markt-squar, Schillerstrasse and Theaterplatz.
Artisans and glass blowers, hand-made toys and Thuringian specialities to taste invite you to look around.

Close to Weimar lays a town called Erfurt, it was an important trading town during the Middle Ages.
Erfurt’s medieval town is centred on the Domplatz which is a perfect setting for a romantic and unique Christmas Market atmosphere. Erfurt’s Christmas market is the largest in Thuringia and known as one of the best in the whole of Germany.
At Erfurt Christmas Market we were surrounded by wooden huts and the aroma of Glühwein and spicy Thuringian bratwurst.

It is currently -20ºC outside and snow is everywhere, Christmas in Germany is just awesome and I’m looking forward to spend my Christmas time in Weimar.
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After one basketball training I got asked by Siükh (from Mongolia) to join his team. He told me about his plan to play at a tournament on the 17th of December. All my team members where Asian and I had a hard time remembering their names. We practised together and prepared some strategies/tactics.

At the tournament we were in good shape and won the two first matches. After some Glühwein (which is literally everywhere with Christmas) we continued our winning streak and got ourselves a place in the finals!!!

The final match was a close call and till the last second the score was 16 – 16. Moments before the buzzer Siükh made the money shot and he scored. We thought we won the tournament but the referee rejected the buzzer score because “the ball was released just to late”.
Since the final score was equal, the entire tournament score of bought teams was counted and we lost the tournament by only 4 points…

With more Glühwein and champaign we celebrated our 2nd place in the tournament!
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