The Global Grad Show at Dubai Design Week, 26-31 October, is set to bring the best of emerging design from 10 of the world’s leading design universities, and with it, insight into the technology and innovations of the future.
The Global Grad Show at Dubai Design Week, 26-31 October, is set to bring the best of emerging design from 10 of the world’s leading design universities, and with it, insight into the technology and innovations of the future.
Involuntary Pleasures by Ted Wiles of the esteemed Royal College of Art, is one project that explores technology as a way to not only make life simpler but to also positively boost human emotions.
The series of day-to-day electronic products require physical interaction from the user to engage with them; bringing touch, emotion and humanity back to a human-centred technology.
The series aims to bring enchantment to the use of seemingly mundane home products, with the physical interactions creating chemical changes within a user’s brain, which trigger feelings of delight and happiness. The project consists of four parts:
Victory Alarm Clock
Taking a confident boosting victory pose is the only way to turn off the alarm on the Victory Alarm Clock - users must hold two actuators on the clock and adopt the victory pose for two minutes. Enclosed within the hand-held actuators, accelerometers send their position via bluetooth back to the base, causing the alarm to stop the prescribed time. This posture increases levels of testosterone and reduces levels of cortisol, making the user feel more confident and less stressed.
Hugging Toaster
An engaging concept, this toaster loves to be squeezed, requiring users to embrace it with a hug for the duration of cooking. This activates pressure sensors in the body of the object. The act of hugging increases levels of dopamine and serotonin in a user’s brain, while reducing heart rate. This increases feelings of comfort and happiness.
Smile Telephone
The Smile Telephone uses a camera and facial metrics scanning to determine a user’s facial expression. Users are required to smile at their reflection in order to make and receive calls - no smile, no call! The telephone forces the user to engage with a positive self image and causes an increase in levels of serotonin in the brain.
Reflective Mirror
The amplified and distorted reflection presented to the user of the Reflective Mirror offers a moment of meditative contemplation. It is a moment to consider one’s self-projected image and reminds the user that everything we experience is from a subjective perspective.
The Global Grad Show will take place in Building 6, Dubai Design District from 26 - 31 October. Open to public from 9am - 10pm.