{"id":650,"date":"2018-10-10T17:21:08","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T17:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commtech.nyuadim.com\/homework\/?p=650"},"modified":"2018-10-10T17:22:56","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T17:22:56","slug":"phoney-dabby-the-hani-raitis-semaphore-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commtech.nyuadim.com\/homework\/2018\/10\/10\/phoney-dabby-the-hani-raitis-semaphore-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Phoney Dabby – The Hani-Raitis Semaphore System"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With our entry in the semaphore competition, we tried to\nsolve the global issue of young people not communicating with each other in\nperson. We hypothesized that one reason why nobody has managed to solve this is\nthat adults are trying to press their means of communication upon the kids.\nMeaning, adults want kids to talk using words. However, we believe that\nutilizing the technique dabbing is the way to proceed. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our semaphore system did not start out with the arbitrary idea\nof dabbing, but it was more of a natural progression of ideas. We first wanted\nan intuitive framework upon which we can build our final system. We had\nconversations about avoiding one-to-one correspondence between a code and the letter\nit represents, whether we want to sacrifice creativity for efficiency, and the significance\nof mental associations to make things easier. From the start, we did not want our\ncode to rely on a piece of paper for deciphering, but rather on the receiver\u2019s visual\/mental\nintuition. Our first few ideas involved utilizing a mirror\/light combination, acting\nout scenarios corresponding to each letter, and using the four corners of the sender\nbox to signify a different \u2018mode\u2019 of sending. All of these did not meet our\ncriteria so we scrapped them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We ended up using an already-established character grouping system, the old phone keypad. It was perfect for our purposes, as it allows both the sender and the receiver to have a mental map of the system they\u2019re using without a piece of paper to guide them. We then moved on to the challenge of physically representing this code. We had many ideas that would utilize objects, but ultimately we decided that our system would become too obvious. Instead, we decided to use our bodies. We went through many iterations before settling on dabbing, not only because it\u2019s a fad but because it, like the phone keypad, represents a popular concept that is recognizable and was once cool (but now really isn\u2019t), suitable for the receiver\u2019s ease of mental recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n