Final Project: Social Interactions and Proximity

Final Project: Social Interactions and Proximity

The group have finally came up with a decision to create a project through the subjects of social interaction and personal proximity using Arduino, Flash and Projection technologies. We have initially realised that by using Arduino tools such as the boards and attachments, we will be able to create various equipment which will be vital in helping us with social interacting with the people of Stonehouse along with testing their personal spaces and their proximity limits.

The reasoning for our decision to conduct a project based on social interactions is mainly because of the fact that we didn't feel too welcome in the area. In our chosen location (Royal Williams Yard) we will try and convert this area of living into a social area which will improve social interactivities in this part of Stonehouse. This will hopefully transform this part of Stonehouse into a busy, social and lively place. It may even draw all three social groups Wealthy, Working and Lower classes together to become more of a social unit than what it is now.

Information

Chosen Location: Royal Williams Yard

This project will explore the ideas of social interaction through processes of projection and proximity.

Required Software/Hardware:

Arduino Board
(Wireless) Webcam
Infrared Sensor
Laptop
Projector
(Capture Card)
Flash Processing

To make the social interactions work, we will need to use these tools to increase the adaptability in this subject area. An infrared sensor will be used to track who comes into contact with the equipment. When someone walks past the sensor, it will pick them up. The information is sent to a laptop which will, in turn make a sound. The sound will be recorded from one of us with a perky quote or word which will basically grab peoples attention. The sound will be produced by a loudspeaker, just like a propaganda tower in China. From the WiFi data we collected we found various wireless network names, these will also be mentioned in a subtle voice to increase the attention across the chosen location. This may make people pay more attention. If a person does respond to this and approach where the sound was coming from, a projection of the person will appear through a camera which is linked to the laptop. From the projection, it will show the person interacting with our equipment.

By using Flash processing, we will be able to create a projection that detects movement of the interacting people. A box which appears on the projection will identify moving parts of the person. This will then transform into a circular radius of circles surrounding the person to display personal space. More sounds will be produced from the speakers, interacting quotes which will intend to be friendly and positive. When the person has continued on with their day, the systems will continue back to normal, the projection will turn off until the next person arrives to interact.

Visual Concept
The image created by the group (below) displays an idea of what we want our project to become. As you can see, we have sets of speakers higher up the building which produces audio such as the SSID's and WiFi data sounds and the lower speakers will be used to produce the social interactions introducing communication through a digital medium. The projector and arduino proximity sensor will then be used to track movement in the area and will project the visual display of social proximity rings around a passer by. The closer the person gets the proximity sensor, more audiolisations increase.



Background
The idea behind our social interaction using the web camera and the image projection of the social rings surrounding the passer by is based on Augmented Reality. By having the overlay tracking the persons movement with social rings displaying personal proximity, social interactions increase as the intimate distance decreases (measured by arduino proximity sensor), more social audio will be produced from our 'propaganda speaker tower'.



Development of the Motion Tracker

The example code below is produced in Flash and is designed to create the motion tracker on a webcam. It declares motion tracking through the webcam and uses X and Y axis to create a box or an image perimeter which will output onto the webcam to track passers by. The Prototype video in my recent post shows the capability of the usage of webcam and the image/box perimeter which tracks the person moving around in the projected area. Whenever movement is detected, the image perimeter will move towards that area and in the prototype this works very successfully.

package {

import flash.display.*;
import flash.events.*;
import flash.media.*;
import flash.filters.ColorMatrixFilter;

import com.gskinner.geom.ColorMatrix;
import uk.co.soulwire.cv.MotionTracker;

public class motionTrack extends MovieClip {

private var targetPoint:Shape;
private var boundsBox:Shape;
private var output:Bitmap;
private var source:Bitmap;
private var video:BitmapData;
private var matrix:ColorMatrix;
private var motionTracker:MotionTracker;


private var inputW:int = 320;
private var inputH:int = 240;

private var outputW:int = 640;
private var outputH:int = 480;


public function motionTrack() {
addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, init);
}

private function init(e:Event) {
var cameraInput:Camera = Camera.getCamera();
cameraInput.setMode(inputW, inputH, stage.frameRate);

var videoInput:Video = new Video(outputW, outputH);
videoInput.attachCamera(cameraInput);

motionTracker = new MotionTracker(videoInput);
//`motionTracker.flipInput = true;

matrix = new ColorMatrix();
matrix.brightness = motionTracker.brightness;
matrix.contrast = motionTracker.contrast;

video = new BitmapData(outputW, outputH, false, 0);
source = new Bitmap(video);
source.scaleX = -1;
source.x = 0;
source.y = 0;
source.filters = [new ColorMatrixFilter(matrix.toArray())];
//addChild(source);

output = new Bitmap(motionTracker.trackingImage);
output.x = 0;
output.y = 0;
//addChild(output);
addChildAt(videoInput, 0);

targetPoint = new Shape();
targetPoint.graphics.lineStyle(0, 0xFFFFFF);
targetPoint.graphics.drawCircle(0, 0, 10);
//addChild(targetPoint);

boundsBox = new Shape();
boundsBox.x = output.x;
boundsBox.y = output.y;
//addChild(boundsBox);

addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, step);
}

private function step(e:Event) {
motionTracker.track();

targetPoint.x += ((motionTracker.x + boundsBox.x) - targetPoint.x) / 10;
targetPoint.y += ((motionTracker.y + boundsBox.y) - targetPoint.y) / 10;

video.draw(motionTracker.input);

if ( !motionTracker.hasMovement ) return;

socialRing.x += ((motionTracker.x + boundsBox.x) - socialRing.x)/2;
socialRing.y += ((boundsBox.y) - socialRing.y + boundsBox.height)/2;

socialRing.width = 50 * (socialRing.y / 100);
socialRing.height = socialRing.width / 2;

boundsBox.graphics.clear();
boundsBox.graphics.lineStyle(0, 0xFFFFFF);
boundsBox.graphics.drawRect(motionTracker.motionArea.x, motionTracker.motionArea.y, motionTracker.motionArea.width, motionTracker.motionArea.height);
}
}
}

Sounds and Interaction
Below are twenty different sounds which the group have decided to use for our project. They are designed to intrigue passers by to wonder where the sound is coming from and to eventually persuade the person(s) to approach where they will then appear on our laptop screen with a personal space aurora surrounding them. The sounds are positive sayings to compliment passers by and there are some which sound like the computer is thinking (such as I'm not sure about this.). Along with these 20 voices, there will also be a form of 'Propaganda' theme which will produce sounds such as the names of every WiFi connection we found in the Hertizan Space exercise. Each name will be called out as background sounds, maybe passers by in the area may know what it's saying and may interact sooner.

1. “Smile at a stranger. See what happens.”
2. “What’s the worse that could happen?”
3. “I’m not sure about this.”
4. “Now I’m sure!”
5. “I wonder where you’re going to.”
6. “Do you know where you’re coming from?”
7. “Keep up the good work!”
8. “Hi I am ----- If you don't mind, I would like to hear your opinion about this...”
9. “Looking great today!”
10. “Hello, would you like some help?”
11. “Kinda chilly today isn’t it?”
12. “Nice tie sir.”
13. “I like your shoes”
14. "What a nice sunny day!"
15. "Shame it's raining today..forgot my umbrella."
16. "Hey, hows it going guys?"
17. "Hey, over here!"
18. "Have a nice day! (Sir/Madam)"
19. "Take it easy"
20. "Would you like some company?"

Propaganda Tower Voice Recording. by youarenotoriginal

Wifi SSID Recording. by youarenotoriginal




Personal Interaction Device (With Arduino)

A Personal Interactive Device has been created by the group to assist passers by within the area of Royal Williams Yard. This will hopefully increase social patterns in this deprived area! The Arduino Board (labelled B) is the central brain of this device which takes the signals from the other components and relays to a laptop which will read the incoming information. Without this board, we couldn't program anything for the other components to work. The motion sensor (C) detects the proximity of people passing by and this will send the data back to the board. This can then trigger the sound and audio clips from an mp3 source such as a laptop to relay to the speakers.



This processing/arduino code snippet shows how the arduino board detects the infra-red sensors state as being on or off (high or low) and then sets off the buzzer(A) will be exchanged with an instrument which sends data to the arduino board back to the laptop which will then play the sounds and audio clips.



Saul Hardman (Group Member) mentioned that if we had an .mp3 sensor shield (they unfortunately cost above £50) .mp3 files stored on an SD card would be played through a speaker, instead of just a buzzer making a sound.

Update 24/03/2010
Prototype (Motion)

Here are fully working prototypes of our Motion tracking equipment, as you can see they are fully quite responsive to sudden movements and will track the moving person/object with swift recognition. A few bugs have been noticed but this is really what we have been looking for to try out in Stonehouses Royal Williams Yard.








The Conversation Maker

By group contribution, we have come up with a helpful idea to add a selling point to our idea using 1980's propaganda advertisement. A poster designed by one of our group members shows visual style of advertising dating back to the 80's to advertise our 'Conversation instigation tool'. By using the Arduino tools we have, it can be created into a button that can clip around clothing like a poppy. This would be an ideal conversation tool which can bring people closer in damaged societies and will bring all working and wealthy classes closer together.



Overall

Summing everything up, our group has created a social interaction project which will help transform Stonehouse's social interactions in the area of Royal William's Yard. By using our Propaganda Tower to gain attention to the surrounding environment, people wearing Personal Social Devices would engage in conversation and begin better social interactions with one-another. The whole area will be projected to a website as a live feed with the Social Rings Visualisation overlay so curious onlookers of the project can examine and excite about the project.

The Wonders of GPS (Global Positioning Satelites)

Global Positioning

The use of GPS devices has exploded with brand new ideas within the past 5-10 years, some are very handy and incredibly accurate, whilst others are not. Recent breakthrough in technology has given us some amazing mobile phones which carry GPS tracking capabilities such as the Google Android. With various applications, the phone can be wirelessly connected to a local satelite in the Earths upper atmosphere ready for usage. After a journey is complete, the data can be tracked using the google site (Google Latitude) which draws the map where you have been. Useful, but how useful is it for our Transforming Stonehouse Visit?

When conducting the task of GPS Mapping, we had to stick to certain rules which include:

-Turn left at blue signs.
-Turn right at red signs.
-Turn back at black signs.

These rules were not to difficult to follow as Plymouth is plastered with signs everywhere, so moving in different directions really helped the changes in data instead of just walking in a straight line constantly. There were slight inconsistencies with the results from the map (displayed below) which initially put the group off of using GPS Mapping in the final project, but it was worth testing.



Another example of a great piece of technology for similar jobs is this:
Clarion H.M.I. Clarion have designed this epic tool which acts as your normal GPS device for your car, but it is also designed to be taken out and can be used whilst walking around the town trying to find various hard to find destinations. Using the same idea as Google Android, it tracks where the user is going, but actually lets the user see where he/she is actually walking to. Not only this, it can be used as a media device to play music, video whilst on the go. In my opinion only three words describe this: I WANT ONE!

Collaborated Map

Collaborated Map - Group Effort.

This map is the collaborated effort from the group. Combining all of the groups efforts into one single map. By layering the maps together, we have created a super map which is designed to drag everything together to share our ideas in the strategy to find out our main project.

Identifying Key Areas

Today I have created a map displaying the areas of my key thoughts when entering the Stonehouse area. From my initial point of view I have keyed areas from Dangerous/Cautious areas, to the calmer areas where little activity (criminal, social) occur in everyday life.

My initial plot is similar to the older maps that I have created using spray paint ideas to identify quality of buildings and street areas. However in this map I have targetted social/political change and this mainly helps identify which areas are more 'dangerous' to be in as others will not be so bad in terms to social climate and crime rates.

Key in more detail:

Naval = Blue - Peaceful, not so much social climate, richer area and contains the Social club.
Cremyll Street, Durnford Street, Strand St. etc = Green - Cautious, has a mixture of upper and working class.
Union Street and surrounding areas = Red - Dangerous, especially at night. Lower classes, higher crime rates.

I am currently planning on creating a crime level map which can identify key areas of the whole of Stonehouse which has the highest and lowest crime levels.

Postcard Logo Idea's

The group has been given the task of making a Postcard to send to Shaun Murray as a kind of "Wish You Were Here" gesture. Stonehouse may not a bearable place to be in, but we've forced ourselves to try and find the best picture from our data collecting.
Meanwhile I have been sneaky and have made some logos. All of them titled: "WELCOME TO STONEHOUSE" using offset path methods I've learnt using Adobe Illustrator CS4, I have came up with a range of ideas which may help in the development of our Postcard.

Enjoy :)

Stonehouse Visit Part 2

Now the group have visited Stonehouse, we have been able to come up with many ideas concerning the improvement of Stonehouse, Plymouth, United Kingdom. Meanwhile I have been identifying areas of Stonehouse using maps to establish contrasts between rich and poor areas (residential and council homes), identifying transportation routes and finding areas of businesses and facilities. All of these clash and combine, making Stonehouse as we see it today. I decided to draw the map of Stonehouse to easily pinpoint the exact areas the group visited and took data from. I then started to look at Google Earth and Google Maps (even a local map) to basically track where the group has been and to decide if streets had residential or council flats; or if other streets had more businesses or green spaces etc. Using a colour key was useful in helping identifying each area for others to observe.

(Postcard Logo Idea's will be uploaded in a minute!)

Stonehouse Visit 14th October 2009 Part 1

Today the group visited areas of Stonehouse, Plymouth, United Kingdom.

We focussed in the Southern area, near Stonehouse Pool and the Army Barracks. (We also quested through areas of Union Street.)

The streets where we mainly collected data were: Cremyll Street and Durnford Street.

We then continued South to North heading up to Union Street through Edgecumbe Street.

Whilst we collected the data, we specifically took photos of certain street objects and buildings to find contrasts and temperatures between the different areas.

Some of the ideas we focussed on collected data from were:

• Bins



• Walls



• Pavements



• Protected Areas (Such as garages, compounds)



• Population Density (Numbers of pedestrians spotted)



• Segregated Areas (Posh Buildings covered with trees and fences)



• Open Areas (Fields, Playgrounds, Car Parks)



• Building Quality

• Building Circumstances

• Noise



• Pollution (Litter, Traffic)



• Graffiti


• Refurbishing

• Shipping (In Stonehouse Pool)
  

We found that going to the coastal end of Stonehouse was very diverse in quality of buildings and pavements. There are view points set up for local people and tourists to visit the area to take in the glorious views of Plymouth Sound. Turns out that within these view points there are benches, so everyone can relax and enjoy the view. However, the quality was very poor.

It seems that the area is out of control, especially when alot of criminal activity occurs at night. You can basically see last nights aftermath thrown all into the place. Graffiti, Blood Stains, Rubbish, Burnt Plastic.. Even human fowl......

Not all of this area has gone to waste. The pavements seem to be untouched from the nights of 'criminal activity' and Fortress Walls have kept their strong shape over the years. It shows that the Plymouth City Councils funds are going to a good cause.

On the other hand, the view points need to be cleaned up and renovated to attract higher numbers of people during the day, and how about some security down there during the night. I swear theres a hobo living down there at nights.

Cremyll Street was a very interesting place to visit because it had a strong contrast of social circumstances and building quality. As we were travelling from south to north of the street we noticed that the south was very well developed and looked after, building quality was much higher and well maintained and the pavements looked like they have never been touched before. The bus stops were made from glass, which made it look posh and superior compared to the bus stops north of the street. Theres a roundabout situated south of the street, covered in greenery with fancy stone and marble. Near this roundabout was a huge building, facing the coast with a brilliant view. The building was very symmetric and looked after very well. I'm guessing that it was built way before the war, untouched by the Blitz and refurbished to keep it in shape.

Beyond the roundabout at Cremyll Street.. The group started to notice discrepencies between well maintained and run down buildings, quality started to decrease dramatically as pavements were crumbling and graffiti on garage doors started to pop up frequently. It seems that the City Council hasn't been able to keep the north of this street free from crime and grime. However, some parts of the northern area of the street weren't too bad. Some garages were built in segregated compounds, well run and the build quality was kept up to date with repainting and structural work which may have happened recently. In conclusion to this I feel that the north of this street has been freckled and mixed with rich and poor living together in a social contrast. This may conclude with conflicts which is evident with graffiti and damaged garage doors but may not escalate higher than this.

Durnford Street is a very posh area. Very well maintained and built up perfectly for richer citizens to live in. The houses are beautiful and thriving with colour just like in the southern areas in Cremyll Street; it's perfect building quality and maintenance with help from the Plymouth City Council has really helped this street thrive. (Bins were also clean and maintained, even the Postal Boxes looked brand new!). The main reason it is more attractive than Cremyll is because the area is situated next to the Royal Marine Barracks. The main Barracks has been standing since 1867 (originally established in 1781) and has held an important part in Plymouth's long standing history. Both military, social and political factors have swayed the usage of the Barracks and has been on the balance of keeping the place maintained. To this day the building is well maintained and is the 'poshest' building in the street, despite being drab with colour compared to the homes south to it. The Plymouth City Council takes good care of this building and makes sure it is in top shape and will continue doing so for many years to come.. But this really affects the homes around the area which are going to waste.

Going down Durnford Street was like taking a trip to a residential estate in old London (but better!), the houses are dated before the War, seemingly untouched by warfare, and the colours are dazzling and different compared to 21st century brick houses. It looks very well looked after mainly by the rich population that lives there. Today I noticed alot of scaffolding on a couple of buildings and small road works going on. This shows that the street is improving day by day, becoming a high class residential area. On the other hand there were one or two houses that looked a bit drab still, lower class citizens cannot afford to renovate the fronts of these homes and normally focus on the inside, fooling the beauty on the outside. It seems again that in this area, the upper and lower classes are forced to coincide with each other and live side by side. It seems to be common like this in places like Plymouth and London. Examples of this could be something like the dockyard, the upper class maybe the managers whilst the lower class could be the workers living by one-another to make it easier to get to work everyday.

When walking through Cremyll Street; I noticed that the houses with garage compounds belonged to the people of Durnford Street. This shows how close these two different classes of citizens coincide with each other in daily life, they could be allies or enemies.. who knows what happens in this part of Stonehouse. I wouldn't want to risk it at night.

We encountered a little street named Strand Street. This place was very similar to Cremyll Street but mainly drabbed in building quality. It was slap bang next to the harbour/marina. It had a local Newsagents and Cafe which seemed to be maintained well (due to private funding) but the local pub had looked like it had been bombed just last night. I noticed again another contrast between both directions of the street. The west end of the street towards the harbour/marina was very run down, no efforts of renovation or refurbishment has ever been made in many years there. However as the group was travelling through to the east end I noticed quality of buildings, pavement and scenery began to improve. Concluding that upper class citizens maybe situated closer at this end compared to the lower classes living to the west. However the east end of Strand St. is very close to the Royal Marine Barracks in Durnford Street. Hence the high quality in buildings, pavements, walls and scenery.

Travelling up to Union Street was very daunting. The area contrasted instantly to the mixed upper and lower social classes to just the lower classes living in the area. Council flat, upon Council flat can basically be seen running throughout the whole area of Union Street. The majority of this is very run down, pavements broken and crumbled and overused; graffiti covering walls, garage doors, council flat walls and road signs. Union Street could be described as hectic? Traffic flowing through from one end to the other is on the constant, noise combined with this makes it an unhospitable place to be in for long periods of time. The place is falling to pieces in my opinion. Even the group felt that the place needs to be renovated and needs heavy concentration of Plymouth City Council funds to try and turn the place around...

From West to East I can see another contrast in social and building quality aspects. In the West we have all of the council homes and flats, all bundled in a cluster. The majority of them built seem to have been standing for more than 20-30 years. With the occasional spotting of modernised multi-story flats and neighbourhoods (such as Kings Street as we went towards the centre of the street). I also noticed that there is alot of Ethnic mixing in the area, many foreigners such as Polish workers can be spotted living in this area. Finding a living in this area must be very hard for them and rough to live in. There maybe conflicts during nights with the local Plymothians and this is were social conflicts begin (or have been going for some time). This leads to vandalism, graffiti, damage to property, smashed windows and structural damage to many buildings. The Council may say that they are trying to improve these areas.. but where are the improvements?

As the group travelled to the East of Union Street, there was still alot of traffic, alot of noise and activity on the roads. But on the paths, it was a quiet scenery. This area is renouned for its social night scenes, clubbing and social businesses have set up in these areas so locals from Union Street and the surrounding areas of Plymouth come together for a pint and a dance. During the day the place seems like a ghost street. The clubs and bars seem to be well maintained and looked after (normally private schemes to keep building quality perfect). The pavements are run down due to the constant night activities and lack of Council attention towards this area. Graffiti can be found on back doors to these buildings and areas can be dark and creepy. Other than that, this area seems more organised than its western counterpart. There is one building of interest that gets the group going. It's the Dance Academy.

The Dance Academy, Union Street is one of the greatest structurally built icons in Plymouth. It's classic symmetrical style with pillars, posh arch windows and art paintings really makes this an historical building in Plymouth. There is so much history that made this building a listed building which is protected from being knocked down. The building is privately owned, but problems with its re-opening hasn't been clear and may remain closed for a while. In this time, the building is starting to loose it's colour. It used to be a proper theatre (even my mother remembers this and she used to tap dance there for competitions) until it was converted into a disco club. Since then it was still thriving until present issues with private owning and a drugs raid has made the building cease to thrive again. I really hope this building gets renovated and re-opened soon. The building is incredible and can't be left to waste, slowly being dissolved by environmental conditions.

Overall, I feel that the condition of Union Street is worsening. The place hasn't been focussed on with projects to improve the quality of buildings and living in the area. Whenever the council puts money into areas like this, the area stays the same and never improves to a certain degree. West Union Street continues to become a dump, full of crime, grime and time seems to stop in this place. The area hasn't been improved in many years and rebuilding and refurbishing projects seem to finish half way or not even exist. The colour of the area is dying, if not already dead.

Social and Political factors are preventing progress to Union Street and some of the surrounding areas, which is ruining it for the majority of the city that is still evolving. Plymouth may be 20 years behind in building quality and design compared to other cities in the United Kingdom, but the Council tries it's best to maintain the city with the available funds it has. Maybe the Council isn't spending enough to accommodate the needs of the social classes? I know for sure that Social factors are spoiling the evolution of the Stonehouse area. Vandalism is really ruining everything. I keep noticing that quality of buildings and scenery decrease as the population density increases in certain areas and that is really seen in Union Street and the surrounding areas with Council flats. With vandalism on the increase, the costs of maintaining buildings with value and streets such as pavements are becoming not only more expensive, but harder to notice. I feel that the Council is being put off helping these areas because whenever they establish something like a post box, the next minute it's either gone, or damaged. It's a drain of resources at the end of the day. It's a never ending cycle for Stonehouse. The Council wants to improve it but is too afraid that the people of Stonehouse will abuse it to a level that its beyond repair...

More info on the Stonehouse trip coming soon!

The First Meeting: IDAT106

Met the IDAT106 group today. Pretty good experience :).

Looks like we will be studying the area of Stonehouse in Plymouth, taking photos of different buildings and views from different perspectives to see what we want to improve about this part of the city.

We had a little brainstorming session... we came up with these ideas:

• Contrasting between rich and poor communities.



• Exploring areas within Stonehouse and compare well maintained buildings with poor redundant buildings.

Map of proposed route (Data collection area)





Here are two maps of the researching area. I have used spray painting to display the areas that the group has discovered. Each colour basically indicates the streets and their boundaries. Each area/street have different aspects. Blue = Durnford Street. Durnford Street is well looked after, there is minimal damage to the buildings, they are all renovated and maintained. Red = Cremyll Street. Cremyll Street is fairly run down, the buildings are not well looked after (in the northern areas of the street). Yellow = The coastal areas and the fortress walls are moderately looked after. There are still problems with graffiti, litter, grime and crime but it's on a lower extent compared to Cremyll Street. Black = Union Street. Union Street is indicated by the 'black cloud' this area of Stonehouse is mixed with crime, grime, unhappy, unclean streets, buildings, quality and full of council flats with different ethnic groups in complete conflict.

More plans coming up! (If any other group copies then we will KNOW)...

Stonehouse

I'm a Devon local, I live in Ivybridge and travel to Plymouth alot for University and for the shopping areas but I've never truly seen what Stonehouse is like. I know quite a bit of history about this area during the 1800's and 1900's (mainly the war years) but recently I have lost touch with this area of Plymouth and it's barely heard of by word of mouth and through the local media. I hear the odd update once in a while but its normally about crime in the area which has increased since Council flats and housing has been put in place. The fact that Military usage in the area is basically non-existant anymore due to the de-establishment of the Dockyard and the movement of the Navy which is now in Portsmouth. However, the local barracks for the Army and Naval personnel still exists and has been standing for hundreds of years.

Location

Above is a Google Map of the central area of Plymouth. I have edited it to display the general area of Stonehouse. My first impression of this area is that it is a fairly large part of Plymouth. Mainly consisting of housing for the working class and some council housing and flats for ones who are struggling. The infamous street: Union Street is also within this area which is known not only for its night life, but for the troubles it has caused over the years with crime and class struggles which happen everyday. From another impression I have found that the Southern parts of Stonehouse seem to be more tidy on the map than whats happening in the north.. This could identify that the richer population of Stonehouse is protected in their own secluded area from the outside, as the middle and lower classes are surrounding them with not 'protection' (walls, fences).

Another thing I have noticed is that the area has two sides which are surrounded by the sea which is ideal for access for shipping and transport. There is a marina to the west of Stonehouse which looks very busy, meaning that local people enjoy boating during the summer seasons and fishing maybe population off the British coast.

Next week the group will be visiting Stonehouse to find out what the area is like. We will be collecting data such as Photographs to help establish the ideas we need to help create a concept of what Stonehouse should be like in the Future.