Gustbowl: technology supporting affective communication through routine ritual interactions
From ThesisWiki
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Authors
Wouter van der Hoog, Ianus Keller, Pieter Jan Stappers
Overview
The Gustbowl was designed as a way for mothers to keep in touch with their sons who no longer live at home. It is a bowl that the son can throw keys and things into when they come home -- announcing their presence to say "I'm home Mom!". On the mother's end there is another Gustbowl that shakes in response and shows images of what is in the son's bowl.
The idea is phone calls are great for sharing information but that "new digital technologies are too intense for just 'keeping in touch'". The Gustbowl seeks to create a "loose, non-obligatory form of keeping in touch" that doesn't require the user's full attention.
The Gustbowl was tested in a real setting for a good length of time to see how it work. People ended up adapting it to new uses such as "collecting things to show Mom".
Reflection
The photos being sent are profoundly different from the motion of the bowl. I like the idea of something that announces presence through movement but I'm not sure the two functionalities are complimentary. Gustbowl seems well designed target group but couples at a distance might need more of an emotional connection then just "I'm home".
This project is somewhat explicit and somewhat synchronous -- nearly in the middle of my 2x2 model.
