Arcaid

How can charitable organisations receive support from people without disposable income? How can they remove the significant administrative costs involved in attracting contributions? The Arcaid Project tried to answer these and other questions. It is both a model for designing charitable interactions and a prototype of this concept. The prototype plays classic video games in the manner they were intended to be played and for only 20c. All money collected goes directly to charity.

Date: 2004- Present
Collaborators: John Bradley, Steven Nolan
Deliverables: Arcade Cabinet, Novel Charity Model

Rationale

Young people typically do not give money to charity - the main reason is obvious - most do not have a regular income. Many charities collect money from people by stopping them on the street. This practice can be confrontational, oftn makes people feel guilty and requires a significant financial commitment to pay the street representatives. The idea behind Arcaid is to provide a voluntary guilt-free way for young people to contribute to charitable causes and if possible to remove the administrative costs of collecting the money

Design Process

I came up with the idea for Arcaid with Steven Nolan. However, it took longer than I wished to go from concept to prototype - due mostly to the fact that it was a side project during my PhD. I discussed potential models with John Bradley and we eventually decided upon a hybrid model from a selection of classic cabinet plans. The cabinet was constructed from mdf. Other materials used were perspex for the screen, a standard television, classic arcade button wired to a usb input board and all the other typical arcade cabinet ingredients. Once the cabinet was nearly finished, I was able to get working on the GUI. Finally, Steven designed the side panel and we sprayed the design on using a masking process.

Outputs

A Prototype: A prototype model which includes a classic cabinet made from mdf and perspex, spray-painted and an onboard computer with a intuitive graphical interface that can be operated by a video game joystick and button.

Design Model:The arcaid prototype is the first in what I hope to be a line of models to support charitable causes by providing people with an opt-in worthwhile service at a low and sustainable cost. This project is part of a larger concept, the 'Human Cycles Project' where the goal of design is to improve efficiency by taking advantage of activities that humans are already engaged in and maximise positive outcomes for society. One example of a human cycles concept is the idea of harnessing energy from gyms.

Availability

In Trinity College Dublin's campus. If you are interested in an arcaid machine, please contact me.