The assignment this week was to come up with a prototype or proposal that functions on the level of a building (windows, doors, walls. etc.). The assignment is very open ended so first I thought of what is significant about a building. The obvious answer is that it usually involves the idea of being home. Being home, or arriving home, especially in a city, can be a very specific entry into personal space. So then i began to consider the reprucussions of that space being violated in some way, something having entered through the door or windows that would obstruct one's enjoyment of home. So far I have came up with one potential idea:

1) A system that can track if there are children in a building and what apartment they are in.

Purpose: To inform emergency workers (firemen, EMS) where a child is located in the event of an emergency such as a fire, hurricane, flooding, etc. (depending on the city).

Operation: Parents can download an application to their mobile phone and enter in their address, apartment number and the age and names of their children. This information could then be saved in a secure database system that is controlled by a central emergency agency. When a parent walks in their door the application could run automatically and ask the parent to list which of their children are home and which aren't. Perhaps older children with their own phones could also have a non-administrative version of the application that could automatically list them as being home when they walk in the door. (wearable devices that could list the children at home???) If their is an emergency at a particular address the application could automatically download to an emergency worker's phone how many children are located in which apartments and have an option to download the children's names and the mobile phone numbers of their parent's in the even that the parent themselves are not home (helpful for children who have babysitters or older children that spend time at home while their parent's are at work).

Still thinking....