ambient interfaces
externalizing intimacy
year
2023
materials
aluminum, arduino, vellum, IR sensor, servo motor
description
Eye contact triggers the armature on one of the headpieces to swing open, revealing the person’s mouth. By changing headpieces, the wearers can experiment with experiencing their own mouth covered vs viewing the mouth covering.
My mom has 20% hearing in her left ear and 10% hearing in her right ear. It's been like that her whole life.
Most of the time, she relies on a combination of hearing aids and skillful lip reading to hear. Her hearing aids are so inconspicuous, many don't know she is hearing impaired.
But still there are moments of confusion-- of lost communication. At the beach or early in the morning when she hasn't put on her hearing aids. In crowded restaraunts where all the amplified sound becomes garbled. Between the front and back seat of the car, or across multiple room, where lips aren't visible and there's not visual cue that someone is talking. The limiting of lip reading because of masking during the pandemic made these moments more frequent.
mapping missed moments
between rooms / floors
front <--> back seat of the car
I've always been sensitive to how others are speaking around my mom-- can she hear them? Are they facing her? Are they speaking loudly, clearly enough? Often prompting someone to speak louder or turn towards her.
At the same time, we experience moments of frustration still. For example, when I think she can hear me and I rattle on, only to realize that she didn't realize I was speaking.
For one, for me, it's a moment of feeling unheard, however unintentional. For her, it's a moment of missed communication-- a hole.
There is a subtle dance of positioning oneself so your voices are directionally optimal and your mouths visible.
How might this movement, this dance, this exchange be externalized?
How could an object allow playful interchange of roles, and allow you to explore being both speaker and the listener?
exploring IR sensors mounted on the forehead to sense eye contact
testing arm and headband materials and configurations
final set of two
Eye contact triggers the armature on one of the headpieces to swing open, revealing the person’s mouth.
By changing headpieces, the wearers can experiment with experiencing their own mouth covered vs viewing the mouth covering.
First Person Point of View
