Projects

Concept: Tangible Printerface

Printerface is a Tangible Printer interface designed during the course Tangible and Embodied Interaction. The design changes the workflow of a printer operator. As the printer operator is on different locations, the design is fit for these different locations, resulting in two devices: a carryable and a tangible checklist.

The carryable looks like a fan on one side and is a compass on the other. The fan indicates how urgent the most urgent printer-need is, the compass points at the printer with this need. This allows the printer operator to check whether they need to go to the magazine if a need is urgent and to which printer to bring the item from the magazine.

The tangible checklist is located in the magazine and shows the needs of the printer (ink, input medium and output roll) and displays how urgent the need is from different printers (in the picture there are 6 printers). The further the disc is from the slot, the closer it is to falling, making the need more urgent to take care off. When the printer operator leaves the magazine, they can push back the needs, checking whether they have brought everything.

Concept: Climbing buddy

To help the company SmartGoals, we were asked to develop a concept using their technology for a different target audience. SmartGoals is an interactive training system that helps different kind of sporters to think on their feet and train their sport as well as their reflexes. We redesigned the SmartGoal to fit the bouldering environment, to challenge boulderers to solve the climbing problems on the wall and train endurance.

It works by placing multiple Goals to the wall while the climber wears different color bracelets around their wrists and ankles. A Goal will light up in one of the different colors and the climber is challenged to bring the matching limb to the Goal. When they succeed, a new Goal with a new color will light up, until the climber gives up.

BODY LANGUAGE IN A SMART HOME ASSISTANT

In the third year of my studies, I did a research project to the possibilities to add body language in a Smart Home Assistant. For this, we build four possible new bodies for an Amazon Echo, that moved in the space. By doing small tests, we researched how the different bodies would interact in a multi-user scenario. The result of this project was a report that can be used to develop more tangible Smart Home Assistants to create a richer interaction.

SIBE: SIT BETTER

A big problem for people who are permanently in a wheelchair is that they do not move around enough in the chair. This can result in serious problems, like decubitus (better known as bedsores) or growths of the spine. For this, Sibe was developed. Sibe is an addition that can be used with a wheelchair. Four sensors are placed underneath the wheelchair pillow. These measure how the user is sitting in the chair and can show this live in an specially developed app. This app also shows a summary of the different days and gives tips on how to improve your sitting behavior. Finally, a reminder can be added for when the user is sitting still for a too long period. This can be done with vibration in the back as shown on the image, on a different location or even by giving auditory feedback.

NUNKI

During the toddler years of a child, some children have trouble sleeping and staying in bed. For this problem, we designed Nunki. Nunki is an interactive cuddly toy that can measure the heart rate of the child. This data is used to change the speed and brightness of a moving projection of the wall of ceiling, so the child is distracted and will stay in their bed. Furthermore, every time the heart rate goes down, the music will adjust to a slower beats per minute, encouraging the heart rate to go down even more. After half an hour, the program will slow down and gradually shut off, to make sure it does not wake up the child anymore.

CONCEPT: DIGITAL PAYMENTS FOR ELDERLY

In our changing society, we are becoming more digital. Most people are used to paying with their cards and more and more places have a card-only policy. However, for elderly people this change can be challenging when they have trouble remembering all their pincodes and do not trust NFC payments. For this problem, a concept was developed.

The idea was a payment device of the size of a card holder. A wave on the screen indicated how much of the total monthly budget is still left and by scanning their finger they can see the exact amount left. Furthermore, the device can be used as NFC payment device, but the finger has to be scanned again before the payment will be completed, making the transaction more secure than current systems.

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