Design for Dreaming:
In Design for Dreaming, there is a large focus on technology that will make our lives more luxurious and efficient like cars and smart kitchens. The MCU focuses on efficiency as well but more so in the sense of militaristic efficiency. A lot of the advancements that drive the storylines like Iron Man’s suit and the super soldier technology from Captain America were created to make fighting battles easier, not to make baking a cake less of a hassle. Another major difference I noticed was that the machines from Design for Dreaming were a lot more practical than what is presented in the MCU. A car or kitchen gadget sounds a lot more realistic than a hammer that is sentient enough to tell if you’re worthy of holding it. Some of the futuristic things that Marvel presents are more fantastical than science fiction.
Useful interaction:
Thinking about what a smarter doorbell could look like beyond just having a camera, I came upon the idea for a doorbell that acts kind of like a doorman or front desk at an apartment complex. I think having a doorbell that communicates with anyone who stops at a door and relays their purpose to whoever they are there to see would be really useful, especially to the visually impaired who might have a harder time navigating to the doorbell (let alone the right one if there are multiple buttons for different tenants).
This design requires arduinos capable of connecting to the internet, a proximity sensor, some speakers, a microphone, and a display.
When the person approaches the door and waits there, the proximity sensor wakes up the device and produces a sound to ask the person who they are there to see. The device would record the name and both send it to the resident as a text and relay the name through speakers in the house. The resident can let the person in remotely or physically go to the door to open it.