Things I’ve considered when approaching the prompt of building an internet connected smart object.
Inspiration:
LCD issue: as cellphone screens increase in resolution year by year, the thermostat becomes less and less aesthetically attractive in comparison.
| Tile – Never Lose Your, Keys, Wallet Or Anything Again
Tile- out of mind, does nothing negative besides take up physical space in users life.
Pitfalls:
1. The idea that you need an app and an entire personal system to tell you when you’re thirsty, when you have the innate ability to do so on your own.
2. The idea that you need a personal water bottle to verify that a public water source is safe to drink! A band-aid to an overarching systematic issue. So only concerned affluent people that can spend upwards of 120 dollars to “be safe” rather than address the issue.
3. The bracelet water bottle combo adds overall complexity to a situation that doesn’t need it.
4. The idea of buying a combo activity tracker and water-bottle is a complete and total disaster for many reasons that could be elaborated (individual quality, interdependence, form of wristband dependent on form of bottle)
5. The fact that you have to CHARGE YOUR WATER BOTTLE.
6. The fact that the lithium battery that charges your water bottle (ridiculous in the first place) burns out after 400 recharges ultimately means that the water bottle is meant to be discarded or replaced.
7. The fact that the “fitness tracker” end up needing to be replaced because of its lithium battery
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Datatium gives users rich information according to their context they are currently in. The author believes that the amount of information people have shapes their responsiveness. People will interact with the world and the others in a different way if they are provided with rich data around them.
See more at:
Datatium: material for contextually responsive design
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RoboPet is a connected Robot for interacting with Pets remotely. It has a laser point on it and connects to a phone via Wifi. So people can control the motion of the robot to play with their pets even when they are not at home simply by their phone.
See more at:
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Helmet is a multi-purpose home camera. It has laser that can play with pets. It senses and reports air quality at home. It allows users to capture certain moment and share with the others. Helmet connects home, family and friends in a new way.
Learn more at:
Helmet: Your eye, your playmate, and your friend
http://www.collaborativecooking.net/
A mechanized cooking apparatus.
One of the classic internet-controlled vibrators, although this has an additional aspect that none of the others have – the shape allows it to be used during penetrative sex, allowing two people to share the experience of the vibrator.
I like this because it goes further than just thinking of the IoT – sure, internet-controlled vibrations are cool, but to think about the product itself and how it fits into the world, and how interesting it would be without any internet connectivity, pushes it a step further for me.
Procul.io
PROCUL.IO
This is a piece that sits on your bedside table and allows you to speak a goodnight message to your partner every night. It prints out the message by the morning on your partner’s identical machine, and prints whatever your partner said to you on your own.
I love the mix of digital and physical – I feel that the printed notes give a sense of reality and permanence that so many other such projects lack.
Mnemograph
Mnemograph – Rebecca Lieberman
“Mnemograph is a participatory installation that connects two people via the language of their memories. Sitting at a one-person writing desk, the participant is invited to choose a prompt and anonymously contribute a handwritten memory in response. The participant inserts their memory into a slot in the desk, and, through a process of automation, they get back a print of someone else’s similar memory.”