How might appliances and our interaction with them change as they get smarter & have personalities?
INSPIRATION
The field of robotics within our domestic spaces opened up new kinds of interactions between users and man-made objects. As a researcher, I was inspired by the way people form an emotional bond with their Roombas: naming them, dressing them up in pet costumes and excusing their inefficiencies more than they would towards other appliances. The simple design decision to give autonomous movement had created a new metaphor for the vacuum cleaner: the household pet.
Looking at current technologies, I explored strengthening the metaphor of household-pets in order to evoke stronger emotional bonds and create a smarter household appliances that trained over time. The exploration yielded in a concept called RoboPet, using emotional design and increased efficiency.
STRENGTHENING THE PET METAPHOR
To enhance the development of bonds between RoboPet and the owner, the user experience mimics the acquisition and training of a puppy. The user activates the device by giving it a name and is encouraged to give it positive feedback through the training process.
The behaviors of a dog, like wagging its tail when happy or rushing to its owner when called, are mapped onto RoboPet to enhance the pet metaphor. The visual design of the UI reflects a cute and personable brand identity.
The ultimate goal of RoboPet is to create a vacuum cleaner that is efficient and smart. Robopet responds to being called and certain gestures to clean specific locations. As it is trained by the family, it also learns patterns of household activities, by matching location with time. And, like a household pet, it can be programmed to not to enter rooms when guest are around.
This project focused on exploring few scenarios specific to the mobile vacuum cleaner. However, as devices become more synced with the home smart systems they will become smarter and more efficient. And in terms of personality, what would it look like if we started buying our appliances according to certain personality traits? Like, a robocat or a robodog as a vacuum cleaner that portrayed different behaviors?