The living room tables have rich stories behind it – conversation with family, studying for a homework, eating dinner, kids playing with LEGO, and so on. What if these tables in a living room could provide us interactive and engaging contents such as weather forecasting and entertainment for kids? What would it be like to feel realistic vibrations and temperature changes about digital information from these tables? This project allows the user to engage with the AR information and artifacts that are coupled to a physical desk through a haptic interface that consists of an array of small vibrators and a heat pad. The goal is to design text-less and immersive AR interaction techniques that enrich everyday living room table experience.
The first stage of experience is the selection of a content. This experience uniquely occurs on a living room table, so it triggers when the table is recognized through a mobile device. There are 2 categories of content – a weather forecasting and an interactive animation for kids. In weather forecasting mode, imagine the animated 3D sun and cloud appearing on the table and the user feels the vibration of rain or the warmness through the haptic device. This allows text-less and intuitive form of transmitting information. The second scenario is an interactive animation for kids which the user can interact with a simulated dinosaur or a character on the table and being able to interact with it. As the user approaches the device closer to the character, it makes larger vibrations of a walking dinosaur, and when it is very close, the character starts acting toward the device. This would be a perfect interaction to play Pokemon on a table.
