interesting concept for the squid attack. i think it might be more realistic if the tentacles never enter the submarine, however, given that any breach of the submarine wall would imply immediate flooding. good exploration of the various alternatives. i would have liked to see a little more integration of the various elements.

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Overall, you have some really nice sketch model concepts. I really like the photograph of the octopus in the room. It gives me a good idea of what the effect is that you’re trying to accomplish. I’m not entirely sure that I agree with the need to have a Plexiglas partition. It seems to me that you’re not gaining a lot if you separate users from the arms. It would be better to design the arms so that people can touch them (but of course, they need to be safe for this to work). It was a good idea to test out various materials. It’s too bad that latex is such a bad allergen for people. Have you looked into the materials that they use for non-latex gloves? Or how about the material that they use for the gloves that you wear when you wash dishes. It’s a good idea to look to gloves for inspiration, as they’re designed to mimic/protect skin, which is what you’re trying to emulate. As for the arm mechanism, I’m not entirely sure how it’s supposed to work mechanically. It wasn’t clear from the presentation if you were just working on the skin material, or if you were also aiming to do the mechanical design. Since your website doesn’t have a photo of your arm prototype, I’m going to assume that you were only working on the covering material. There are a few things missing from your website. You presented a full-scale mockup of the Plexiglas partition and your arm prototype, but both of these are missing from your website documentation. They would both be nice to have added. The Solidworks model is nice, but there’s something to be said for photos of the actual prototype. It would also have been nice to have links back to the pertinent part of the storyboard, as well as to other people in your group. Overall, very nice job.

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I think it was smart to break down the needs of the squid into Aesthetics and mechanical compatibility. It allowed you to focus on each task more. Did you consider other materials besides an inner tube material and latex? If you did, you should list them. If not, you may want to consider other materials, or even composites which make the best use of the strengths of multiple materials. It's possible that you don't need a "rubbery" material if the participants are not going to be able to touch the tentacles. From this webpage, it is not clear to me what purpose the room sketch model serves. The class period made it clear, but for the purposes of this assignment, you should probably explain the model's purpose. If the curved ceiling is an important feature, you may want to simulate that somehow in a sketch model. Perhaps you could make a smaller version, and put a video camera inside? You could watch the feed from the camera to get the feeling of walking in.

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Where is your squid arm model? Your web page would have been much more impressive if you had included it, especially because you discuss the selection of materials and you showed the model to the class. Also, you could have included why you opted for the latex, especially because it's expensive and you have to paint it (maybe mention why you preferred one material's set of cons over another's). The human-squid interface section included nice graphics, though I would have liked to see a physical model for this assignment (I think this would have been more appropriate for the next assignment). I know you fulfilled the requirements for the assignment because you showed the sketch model of your squid arm to the class, though it isn't apparent that you had done so by looking at your webpage.

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