The design studios at the Faculty of Industrial Design and Engineering had 60 prototypes on display on June 29, 2015. Helpful students demonstrated their products.
The students of the Design for Interaction master’s programme presented the products they had developed over the last four months for the subject Interactive Technology Design. The designs all included some clever electronics in a human-friendly packaging that makes technology more accessible, friendly and fun to handle.
The Buy on Board Flight Assistant, for example, replaces the traditional call button and reading light in an aircraft cabin with a large bean-shaped device that you can turn and press at will. One side of the luxury gadget lights up in whatever colour you fancy while the other side serves as an interface for your personal information screen. Their design is an attempt to revive on-board duty-free shopping as an ‘enriching flight experience’.
Distributing PowerDistributing Power
Distributing Power
The Volt may look as an odd-shaped power strip, but it does more than distributing electricity. It brings people together. The students designed the Volt for public working places where freelancers gather to work, drink coffee and have a chat. A new user can plug into the Volt, but she’ll have to ask the users for power to come her way. Once the others oblige, they simply pick up the device and tilt it towards her. The electricity, like water, then flows to the lowest point.
Work for waterWork for water
Work for water
The Tactio aims to make people aware of the value of water. They think just opening up the tap and have plenty of hot and cold water streaming out is just too easy. The Tactio makes you work for your water. Swiping over the right side of the basin will start water trickling and the streaming down the faucet. To get hot water, the users needs to rub the left side of the basin. Built-in blue and red LEDs indicate the water temperature. ‘This interaction makes one aware of water usage’, the students wrote.
Hug and relaxHug and relax
Hug and relax
The pillow-shaped Duco helps people relax. The team developed it for COPD patients (a lung disease) who may feel smothered and have a panic attack. Enter Duco with a green flashing light and quick paced modulated vibrations. Once hugged, however, the rhythm of the vibrations goes down from one to four seconds. Taking the patient along in the slowing rhythm, Duco effectively calms the patient while the light turns from the emergency green into a soothing amber colour. Once Duco gets plugged into the grid for recharging, it will send data on its use to the doctor or caretaker.
Keep movingKeep moving
Keep moving
The TAGG may seem like a Christmas-like window decoration, but in fact it is a therapeutic tool designed for people with the early signs of dementia. The students began with the conclusion from an epidemiological study stating that physical activity stimulates cognition. So, the TAGG keeps people moving. Some blinking cone-shaped objects will attract one’s attention and lure the user from his chair. When he succeeds in tapping the one bulb that flashes, the user is rewarded with the sound of a chirping bird or with other natural sounds. Pace, patterns and even the height of the bulbs can be automatically varied to keep the game challenging and interesting. This way, the user won’t even have time to stare out of the window.
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