SwitchU (Chien et al. 2017)

SwitchU is designed for couples in long-distance relationships. The device is a pair of robot arms. One guides the arm to operate a home appliance once and the arm will be able to repeat the task. When each one of the couple have set up their SwitchU, the device will always be activated synchronously - although different tasks are assigned. For example, couples may both set up SwitchU for operating water cattle. When one cooks water for her-/himself, she/he also activates the remote robot arm to cook water for the partner.

Reference: W.-C. Chien & M. Hassenzahl. 2017. Technology-Mediated Relationship
Maintenance in Romantic Long-Distance Relationships: An Autoethnographical Research through
Design. Human–Computer Interaction.

Performance Apron & Talking Bottle (Chai et al., 2017)

Performance Apron and Talking Bottle are two designed for a joint cooking experience over distance. The Talking Bottle is connected to internet and works as a information display. The Performance Apron is its remote control. The artifacts allows families in different locations to have communication (exchanging messages) during the cooking process. The Talking Bottle has different layers of light that indicate whether a voice message is recording, recorded or received. To send, to play a message or to inform the remote partner about the local situation, users operate the buttons on the apron.


Reference: M.Z. Chai, A. Soro, P. Roe & M. Brereton. 2017. In CHI EA 2017 Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

Ritual Machine I - Drinking together whilst apart (Kirk et al. 2016)

This drink device allows couples o have a drink together whist apart. The system contains two parts: the drink dispenser and a bottle opener connecting to couples' smartphones. When one opens her/his bottle with the opener, the drink dispenser in the remote place pours drink, wine for example, into the glass.

Reference: Kirk et al. 2016. Ritual Machines I & II: Making Technology at Home. CHI' 2016.

Telematic Dinner Party (Barden et al 2012)

 

The Telematic Dinner Party is a serious prototypes, installations and exploration to create experience of joint dinner. All prototypes are based on teleconferencing technology.

Reference:
Telematic Dinner Party: Designing for Tegetherness through Play and Performance. 2012 Barden P. et al. In DIS '12.
http://www.pabadesigns.com/2012/research/telematic-dinner-party-tdp/

4 Photos (by O'Hara et al. 2012)

4 Photos is a table device for sharing personal stories with each other. The device is designed for a dinner scenario. When the host invites her/his guests for dinner, she/he also invites them to join a Facebook group. The system then collects the group members' photos, which are already shared on their Facebook in the past. During the meal the photos are displayed and rotates in a proper rate on and around the device. One may be interested in one photo displaying in front of her/him. She/he can reach out her/his hand to the device and ask the device to display the photo on all its four sides. This opens the topic about the story and memory of this picture in the dinner conversation.


Resource: Keton O'Hara, John Helmes, Abigail Sellen, Richard Harper, Martijn ten Bhömer, and Elise van den Hoven. 2013. Food for Talk: Phototalk in the context of Sharing a Meal. Human-Computer Interaction.

Food Media | Food Teleportation (Wei et al 2011)

"The Food Teleportation system enables users to share their emotions and feelings by designing, and teleporting different food messages globally through the proposed network. Furthermore, the communication architecture is designed as an interoperable platform to attach any system which uses food as the medium by designing standardized protocol. The food messages can either be designed layer by layer to convey a story to the recipient or the properties of designed food message like taste, facilitate recipients to experience the meaning by consuming it. Thus this research may further fertilize several domains such as digital storytelling, communication, as well as social networking."


Reference: Jun Wei, Roshan Lalintha Peiris, Jeffrey Tzu Kwan Valino Koh et al. (2011) Food Media: exploring interactive entertainment over telepresent dinner
26:1--26:8. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology.
http://137.132.145.178/page/food-media

CU-Later (Tsujita et al 2010)

"CU-Later is a system which allows synchronizing activities across time zones by displaying recorded video of a remote activity after a time shift. As one example of its use, the system connects two remote dining tables and lets users see and hear each other having dinner despite actually having done so at different times. We discuss the design of this system and a preliminary field test of time-shifted video."

Reference:
Hitomi Tsujita, Svetlana Yarosh, Gregory D. Abowd, CU-Later: A Communication System Considering Time Difference, In Proceedings of the 12th ACM international Conference Adjunct Papers on Ubiquitous Computing (Ubicomp2010), pp.435–436, Copenhagen, Denmark, September 26 – 29, 2010.
http://tsujita.org/projects/cu-later/

Net Pot (Foley-Fisher et al., 2010)

Net Pot allows people to dine (a hot pot) together over distance. The pot is divided into two parts, like the Chinese traditional "Yuan Yang Guo." One half is used for cooking. The other half is a white plate. The tableware are captured by a camera and projected onto the white plate of the remote pot. This allows users to get awareness information from their remote dining partners and to enjoy their hot pot together.


Reference: Foley-Fisher, Z., Tsao, V., Wang, J., & Fels, S. 2010. NetPot: Easy meal enjoyment for distant diners. In H.S. Yang et al. (eds.) ICEC 2010, LNCS 6243, pp. 446-448, 2010.

Lover’s Cup (by Chung et al, 2006)

Two cups are wirelessly connected with each other. If the user holds one cup, it triggers soft glowing processes for the remote cup. When a person is drinking, the rim of the other cup begins to glow. Additionally, the cup displays the level of the liquid inside of the paired cup. If both owners take a sip at the same time, both cups are glowing at its maximum illumination. If a person shakes the cup, the other will vibrate. When used for social events, toasting two cups together activates them into a pair of Lover’s Cup.

Reference: Chung, H., Lee, C.-H. J., and Selker, T. 2006. Lover’s cups: Drinking Interfaces as New Communication Channels. In Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’06). ACM Press, 375–380.
http://web.media.mit.edu/~jackylee/cups.htm