IoT Presence Table
Human Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
This spring, I had an opportunity to join CMU’s HCII to collaborate on an IoT Presence Table project. As a team, we aimed to create a coffee table that is sensible to the environment around it that also informs the people around the table that they are being “observed” or “sensed” by the table. The coffee table will gather inputs from the people–voice, volume, location, and distance.
The video below is a complication of my ideation process. For the purpose of creating prototypes with voice interactions, we decided to use voice footage from the TV show, “Friends”.
For most of my prototypes, I worked with After Effects and Processing (p5js). Using Processing allowed access to microphone and mouse input.
Iteration 1
Inspired from ping-pong movement;
Displays distance vs. microphone input showing the location of where the conversation is happening.
Iteration 2
Imagery of wave is used as a metaphor to convey the flow of conversation. The location of the ripples convey the distance and the location of where the conversation is happening. Change in stroke weight of the ripples represent the volume of the conversation.
Iteration 3
Abstracted version of iteration 2 with addition of color as another element. Colour represents different people in the conversation. The ripples follow the movement of the people (ex. seat changes, walking towards/away from the table)
Iteration 4
Using a 6 x 7 grid of circles. When a person is speaking, the adjacent circles light up and pulsates. When the person is not speaking, the dot stays stagnant without any movement. Different colour represents different people in the conversation.
Iteration 5
Size and the location of the circle is mapped to microphone input. The colour of the circle changes if the volume is above a certain threshold.
