Excitable
Excitable is a smart table which observes and responds to your eating habits. It motivates the user to try new foods, and to have an adventurous and varied diet. The table communicates with the user through its surface, which can display animated visuals and gently lift objects. The Excitable consists of two main parts. A tabletop that displays animated visuals and a central section where three platforms can slightly move up.
Project Type : Group Project
Contribution: I participated at every step of the design process whilst stepping up at important moments to ensure the group progressed in an effective and timely manner.
Date: Feb/2022 – June/2022
1st Iteration – Physical Models
After a quick paper brainstorming we decided to build physical lo-fi prototypes. Working simultaneously meant we shared our thoughts as we were working and that we could quickly adopt and elaborate on each other’s ideas. During this session we also created a few ‘anti-designs’ to explore what the ‘opposite’ of what we wanted to make would look like.
Being able to not only view, but hold and touch these items, meant that we could discuss our designs in much more concrete terms. We held the models to demonstrate their intended use and were able to interact with them while demonstrating, instead of just describing how they would be used.
Excitable V1
The Excitable is a table that gets excited and curious when you try new recipes, ingredients, and dishes. The tabletop is covered with illuminated, rounded pins that move up and down to create animated patterns. It shows its excitement by emanating colorful light from its pins and moving them up and down in playful patterns. It can also express preference for one of the dishes on the table by accentuating it with light and movement. This way the table helps you to get excited for and to fully appreciate the new eating experience you’re about to have.
It also keeps track of your eating habits over a longer period, and reflects these in the colour and luminescence of the lights on the bottom. It specifically reflects how varied and adventurous your eating habits are.
Final Concept: Excitable
The colours and shapes of the visuals are based on the ingredients in the dishes that are placed on the table. The intensity, size, and activity of the visuals depends on how new they are to the user. When ingredients are taken out and prepared in the kitchen, visuals appear on the edges of the table representing these ingredients. This serves to introduce the visual theme each ingredient will have during the dinner, as well as to show that the table is ‘waking up’.
The three individual platforms in the middle of the table move synchronously with the visuals. When a dish on one of the platforms is being highlighted with the visuals on the screen, the table will slightly lift that platform up to also create a physical change. The platforms are connected to pistons of pneumatic actuators, which are attached to a compartment below the table.
To read more about the concept and my positioning in the ‘Rich Interaction’ methodology read more in this reflective paper: