Inspiration from Bill Gaver and Heather Martin - Alternatives

"Exploring Information Appliances through Conceptual Design Proposals"

We aim to utilize Impressionistic Displays - the soft aesthetics of these sorts of displays seem well-suited for domestic environments. Less demanding than more precise information, they permit a degree of ambiguity that might encourage imagination and speculation just like our Lullaby toy inflating/deflating as a display of their current emotional state.

A prototype 'works' when it successfully captures the experience of using a given device. However, in science fiction concepts which rely on technological effects that can or do not exist. Therefore the concept proposals are intended to be technologically plausible, in the sense that it seem likely that they can be realised even if the exact means are unknown or unspecified. In order for our team to achieve plausibility, we will be largely depending on our designers' knowledge and judgment, while an evaluation of the results may depend on discussions with technical experts.

Worry Stone - a device that allows people to externalise their cares so that they need not dwell on them. Speaking into the device would offload a task to a small database via a speech convertor. The user could scroll through the list, delete obsolete entries, or print out a 'to do' list.

But the primary function of the Worry Stone would be to take over the user's anxious fretting. To show that the device had truly internalised the user's concerns, its processing power would be dedicated to displaying the list of worries in random order, as quickly as possible. The user could let go of the problem for the moment, knowing that it was safely held in the Worry Stone's memory.

Our Lullaby toy demonstrates such potential - not to offload a user's worries but to stimulate user's emotions and allowing them to externalize their emotions. For instance, the user could display their true emotions in front of the Lullaby toy and the toy would respond accordingly. The user would obtain feed back as to their attitude was too strong or too emotion - then they would be able to readjust their emotions before they encounter another human being. This also helps the user to pertain their anger when they have to enter an important meeting.