challenge

How might we speculate on future interactions and their impact on social norms? 

Outcome

This design fiction explores three near future technologies; wireless EEG recordings, epidermal electronics and virtual reality. The narration proposes an extension of Skype into the material world. Instead of having to arrange a Skype date, this ring lights up when your loved one or dear friend simply thinks of you, creating a user experience that is much more personal. The user can choose to simply enjoy the shared moment, or take the call, upon which the ring's micro-projector can light up an entire wall. Suddenly, you share the space with your friend at a distance. This enables an enriched experience where you are able to simply hang out with your friends wherever you are, cooking food, reading, sleeping - whatever it may be.

Bringing this technology further into context, you would also be able to feel your friends touch through epidermal electronics that aim to mimic the biological functionality, sensibility and form factor of human skin. Removing the big clunky semiconductor material of the past, the interface is only on point contact of the skin thanks to different types of silicon or carbon nanotubes. We are currently able to mount flexible circuit boards and wires, but chips and chip capacitors still need to be made more bendable. 

We propose this could be one of the many ways in which the Internet removes the distance between us without reality confusion. However, one day virtual reality might allow us to simply step into an interactive door and be with our friends. Who knows? The importance here is to speculate on the humanitarian aspects of these technologies, and design fictions are a great medium to do so. 

Materials 

After Affects, Premiere, SLR Camera, Props. 

User experience 

Speculative, informative, contemplative, imaginative. 

Roles 

Narrative storytelling, futures studies, motion graphics, art direction. 

Design process

A project done in collaboration with Kassahun Elia Villa and Enrica Beccalli. 

1- Identify Areas of Opportunity: How might we envision different use cases of these technologies? What are the social implications? 
2- Research: Upcoming technological advances and hurdles. 
3- Envision: Sketch out user scenarios, task analysis, storyboards. 
7- Record and prepare: Record scenes designed for postproduction and CGI. 
8- Ideate: Motion graphics, editing and post production. 
9- Test: Where the desired takeaways experienced by the viewer? 
10- Iterate: Evaluate feedback and iterate accordingly.