Looking Outwards 11: A Focus on Women Practitioners

Emily Gobeille is a designer who specializes in merging technology and design to create an immersive design experience. She spent her years studying many disciplines, including web, prints, motion graphics, games, and installations. She also is one of the founders of Designer I/O, which specializes in the design and development of interactive installations. The company’s clients and partners usually include children museums.

I decided to look at one of her Designer I/O projects called Mimic. It is an “interactive installation that allows visitors to engage in a dialogue with a robot arm through gesture.” The robot can track the people’s movements and also has the ability to react to individuals actions accordingly. The robot can break down its impressions into three feelings: trust, curiosity, and interest, which will affect the robot’s responses. Depending on the individual’s movement and emotions, Mimic will react to many people simultaneously, changing its behavior. I personally find this interactive robot interesting for its skill to acknowledge the viewer’s reactions.