Project

Ambient Furniture

Groups

Furniture is the infrastructure for human activity. Every day we open cabinets and drawers, pull up to desks, recline in recliners, and fall into bed. How can technology augment these everyday rituals in elegant and useful ways? The Ambient Furniture project mixes apps with the IKEA catalog to make couches more relaxing, tables more conversational, desks more productive, lamps more enlightening, and beds more restful. With input from Vitra and Steelcase, we are prototyping a line of furniture to explore ideas about peripheral awareness (Google Latitude doorbell), incidental gestures (Amazon restocking trash can and the Pandora lounge chair), pre-attentive processing (energy clock), and eavesdropping interfaces (Facebook photo coffee table).