Heads up

What would life look like if it were a video game? Would there still be a heads up display? What would this heads up display look like?  These were all of the questions that I have been asking myself all semester, and that is why I chose to create my portable, personal, analog heads up display.  The idea came from my first project when I explored the idea of combining real life pictures with the heads up displays from video games.  This project made my mind start to think of the possibilities of someone incorporating more gaming aspects into their everyday lives. 

I started drawing up designs for possible heads up displays and then narrowed down my options to what I believe are three of the most important pieces of information needed while playing a game, player’s health, their personal inventory and some form of currency.  And so began my quest in producing this never before seen analog heads up display!

My first attempt was surprisingly short lived.  I constructed it entirely out of wood, which made it extremely heavy and difficult to move around with.  Now I don’t even mean a humorous amount of heavy, I mean this thing wasn’t even fun to wear around and that was a very important aspect of the project for me.  If I’m going to request that someone put this unnatural object on their chest, they should at least be able to enjoy themselves while wearing it.  Version 2.0 was also another quick failure because I decided to take the opposite route and construct the whole thing out of foam board, thinking that this would give me better results. Wrong. It was way too weak to support the weight of itself.  And finally I reached the perfect equilibrium of light and sturdy, with the frame being made from the foam and the supports from wood.  I am currently in the process of making a few patches to the heads up display, being that it needs to be able to be worn without sagging, like it is doing now.  I am working on a new design that is supported behind the shoulders and comes up over the head and down right in front of them, this way the supporting pieces are not interfering with anything the person is doing at the time.  With this design, I hope to maximize the users ability to go about doing exactly what they would be doing, if it were not attached to them.  I am also in the process of shooting and editing a series of stop motion videos of the portable heads up display in action, which will be posted to the blog just as soon as they are presentable.

I hope to continue on with this project in the future and make a series of these personal heads up displays that people could potentially use in their everyday lives (y’know, if they feel like walking around with a wooden structure attached to them and the glances of confused people following them wherever they go).  The idea is simple…give people a place to put all of their most important information so they may refer back to it whenever they are in need.  And what better way to accomplish this than to put it directly in front of their face?? My thoughts exactly.  My most recent heads up display under construction is the art school heads up display, which will come fully equipped with a small bag filled with everything from Tylenol to 5 hour energy drinks, a shelf where one can store the supplies that they are in need of, a notebook used for either sketching or keeping track of project deadlines and of course a health bar.  I’ve also thought about the Holiday Collection which would have wrapping paper, tape, a holiday countdown bar…these sorts of things.  All in all, I am really pleased with how this project turned out and I’m really looking forward to seeing where it can go in the future.  I think it has a lot of potential and is something that needs to be explored more.  So in the future keep an eye out for the portable, personal, analog heads up display…coming to a store ne