Final Prototype Showcase

Here are some pictures of our final prototype from the showcase today!

 

Front View

 

Back View

Our solar panel now unfolds so that it has a much larger surface to capture solar energy!

Unfolded Mobile Studio Mode

This large pouch is big enough to fit the drone!

Makeshift tripod-type legs so that the bag can stand and act as a tripod for the camera.

 Our up and running miniature wind turbine!

Our makeshift red LED antenna that transmits video footage wirelessly. (And our classmate Vashon using our wind turbine as a mini-fan.)

Last but not least, here is a bonus video of Wonkru's Jia Yi explaining our updated storyworld at the showcase today:

We'd like to give a big thank you to our professor, Andrew Quitmeyer, our classmates, and everybody who came down to support the event!

Building the Final Prototype

We've begun building our final prototype!

On a side note, here is our brand new Wonkru Designs logo:

Our final prototype will be showcased here:

November 12, 2018 (2:00PM)
NUS University Town Foyer (Stephen Riady Center)

Be sure to come down and check it out!

Designing the Final Prototype

We've settled on the following dimensions for our final prototype:

In the meantime, we've also implemented some of the changes we intended for our second prototype to our first prototype for demonstrative purposes!

Since one of the comments we received during our first prototype showcase was that our small solar panel wouldn't be able to power the whole set-up, we've added a wind turbine to generate electricity via wind energy! We've also added an antenna so that the bag's user can web transfer his video footage to the cloud from remote locations.

Back to the Drawing Board

Unfortunately, midway into building our second prototype, we've realised that the bag is way too big and unwieldy, making it extremely difficult to carry.

We're going to need to go back to the drawing board and reduce the dimensions of the bag while making sure it can still carry everything we need it to.

Building the 2nd Prototype

We've begun building our second prototype!

Our first bag turned out rather small, so the dimensions of the bag have been greatly increased so we can put a professional video camera with all the additional equipment in it.

Cutting out pockets and the reinforcing cardboard walls.

Most of our bag were made using recycled parts from the large vinyl banners in the Makerspace Lab.

Using this for our bag straps!

Showcasing Our First Prototype

Here is our completed first prototype that we showed during class today:

Unfolded Mode

 

Backpack Mode

We received some valuable feedback from our professor, Andrew Quitmeyer, and our classmates during the showcase today. Taking everything into consideration, we'll be looking into making some changes to our design for the next prototype!

Production has Begun on Our First Prototype!

We've begun building our first prototype! It will be showcased during class next Monday (22 Oct).

Designing the Prototype - Pt. 5 How to Use

 How to use the Wonkru video camera bag:

1. Attach tripod to the tripod holder.

2. Once you have the tripod securely attached, then you can extend your
tripod legs and unfold the backpack.

3. Mount your camera on the tripod base plate at the top. You now have the ultimate portable video studio with every videography tool you need!

Designing the Prototype - Pt. 4 Functionality

We added pockets into the upper-middle flap so that the user would be able to store additional camera lenses, external microphones, and/or portable lights.

 

Finally, we added tripod attachment hooks at the back of the backpack. This not only allows the user to attach their tripod to the backpack, but when the backpack is unfolded while attached to the tripod, it would finally become the ultimate portable video studio that we had envisioned.

Designing the Prototype - Pt. 3 Solar Power

When shooting live events, the last thing you want is for your camera battery to run out of power at a critical moment, so we designed our portable video studio to have a solar panel that could charge our camera via wireless inductive charging. The solar panel is located at the back of the top flap, so when the flap is folded forward, the solar panel will be revealed.

Designing the Prototype - Pt. 2 Securing the Bag

In order to give the camera a rigid body, the walls would have to be reinforced with cardboard, and zips would have to be added to the sides:

Then, we decided to add a 2” wide flap at the top of the bag and it would have a Velcro strip so that it would be able to secure the top of the bag while simultaneously be fast and easy to open.

Designing the Prototype - Pt. 1 Shape & Dimensions

First, we came up with the shape and dimensions of the bag. The size of the backpack would have to be able to fit a professional video camera, and it would look like a rectangular backpack that would be able to unfold completely like this:

This is how the camera would be orientated when it sits in the camera bag:

Initial Design Process - Pt. 2 Storyworld

We thought about how this new portable video studio would be useful in the future not just for live event videographers, but also for regular people, and thus we created a storyworld that would warrant such a tool:

Storyworld:

In the year 20XX, traditional news outlets have become universally banned in the global effort to combat fake news. As a result, citizen journalism has become the main source of news, and individuals now sell their self-recorded news footage directly to broadcast stations that are willing to pay lucrative amounts of money for footage of a high standard. In this video-quality-competitive world, gone are the days of blur and shaky videos recorded on mobile phones being shared on social media, as stable top-grade Ultra HD video footage has become the expected standard across all digital platforms.

In the wake of this newfound universal demand for professional videography, Wonkru Designs has created an innovative camera bag that has the storage space to hold a 12K UHD camcorder while simultaneously having the function to unfold itself into a sturdy tripod.

Note: We also created two microfictions based on this storyworld we had created, which you can view here: http://www.wearablestudio.org/2018/10/15/share-your-world-boo-shangyou-low-jia-yi/

After coming up with this storyworld, we then began designing and building our prototype.

Initial Design Process - Pt. 1 Beginnings

Welcome to the Wonkru Designs production blog! 

This blog has been created to document our progress for our NM4225 Design Fiction final assignment, where we will be creating a cool new futuristic wearable studio for a practitioner of our choice.

The practitioner that we initially chose to observe and develop a new wearable tool for was the professional live events videographer.

After following a freelance events videographer around for a day, we observed the tools that he used and came up with a list of must-have tools for any videographer:

1)    Video Camera

2)    Portable Light

3)    XLR Microphone w/ Wind Shield

4)    External Microphone

5)    Extra Camera Lenses

When it comes to live event videography, the speed at which it takes to set up your camera, lights, and sound, are of utmost importance, as it can mean getting the shot or not, as there are no second takes when you’re shooting live

However, we noticed that it typically takes around 5~10 minutes for a videographer to get all the equipment he needs out of the multiple bags that he’s carrying and set everything up (even longer if he requires a tripod set-up).

Most video camera bags only hold the camera (with lens and microphone attached), and have little to no space for the light, external microphone, and extra lenses.

Thus, we decided that it would be a nifty idea to design a futuristic camera bag that not just carries all of those tools in one single bag, but also eliminates the need for the user to carry a tripod and additional camera batteries. In a nutshell, the main purpose of our new camera bag was to create a complete videography studio that could be set up in within a minute and had everything a live videographer would need to start and continue shooting over an extended period of time.