Wishlamp - An Interactive Lamp Design

•

W i s h l a m p ｜願燈

视频无法观看？请戳优酷>

What inspired me to start this project?

The Chinese New Year family gathering as one of the most important events in traditional Chinese culture pays much attention to the building of the new year's atmosphere which we called it "年味 (nian wei)" in Chinese. Playing fireworks and firecrackers at home used to be the key to triggering those emotional moments during a family gathering.

However, since the implement of fireworks ban policy in many urban areas of main cities in China, families are no longer able to celebrate with fireworks freely today. This project is inspired by the missing of family fireworks display during the Spring Festival in recent years and aims to find another playful and cultural way to enrich Chinese family gathering experience through interaction design.

- A picture of my family gathering moment during our home fireworks display in the 1990s

Joys, laughters, excitements, and communications were always happening during this traditional gathering event.

What did I learn from the target audience?

The target audience of the project are those Chinese nuclear and linear families who live separately from each other in everyday living and usually gather together during traditional festivals. To have a better understanding of people and the event, two family interviews, two diary studies, and a field trip had been done during the Dragon Boat Festival celebration.

Family interviews aimed to learn about people's attitudes and past experience of a traditional family gathering. Diary studies looked into people's one day experience of today's family gathering event. Field observation was taken at 2016 Sha Tin Dragon Boat Racing Game to see how families were engaged in that traditional celebrating activity.

Four key patterns for family gathering experience were found through the primary research which is the expectation, participation, communication, and connection. To achieve the family gathering experience enrichment, a conceptual framework has been concluded to help generate design concepts.

In the framework (showing below), during a family gathering, every family member will participate in creating something together, and the creation will later continuously influence them after gathering day by day which somehow connects one with the others.

The focal point of the framework is the process of co-creating which is in a similar comparison with the way of family interaction during a fireworks display. All the emotions and communications will be arose through the process of creating together. The afterward connection phase concentrates on both the instant effect and the long-term effect that the design may have on a family to firm the complete cycle of family gathering experience.

Why a lamp?

Followed the conceptual framework and inspired by the Chinese traditional "Kong Ming Lantern" which is also called sky lantern that people usually write and draw on it for expressing wishes, Wishlamp is designed to provide a moment for a family to create together and to illustrate their wishes together.

Ideation sketches explored the appearance and structure of the lamp. Absorbed inspirations from the Sky Lantern, the cultural awareness, and an upward tendency is what I want to present in the design of the Wishlamp.

" Wishes fade into the light " - Creation

When a family gathered around the Wishlamp, they can write and draw repeatedly on 4 sides of it. A special kind of material called water writing cloth is used which can maintain your writing for only a few minutes. Users can write on the lamp with water, watch it dries out to be disappeared and then write again. Wishlamp will capture each writing before it disappears and stores it into a server as a “Family Creation Library”.

" Memories appear in the light " - Connection

After gathering, when users go back to their own living environment, Wishlamp will play the role of connecting them with other family members. Sitting by their own Wishlamp at home for a few minutes will trigger the appearing of images on the lamp. Swiping to go through the images that Wishlamp grabs from the “Family Creation Library”, users will be pulled back to the moment of their family gathering and creating. Users can also update their family library by writing and drawing new wishes on Wishlamp in everyday living

How is the system running within a big family?

The diagram below explains how all the lamps work as a networking system in a gathered-regathered cycle within a big family. In the system, every single lamp can play the role of a capturing device and also a displaying device.

There are 3 main scenarios in the interaction.

A. Gather & Create

During the family gathering period, Wishlamp will automatically be switched into the creation mode. When users gather as a big family and create with the Wishlamp together, their creations will be captured and imported into the "Family Creation Library" on the server.

B. Part & Review

When the big family comes apart, users can sit by their own Wishlamps and review their family creations by swiping in front of it. Each time when the interaction is triggered, Wishlamp will ask a random image from the server and display it on the surface of the lamp.

C. Part & Create

Users are also allowed to create in everyday using. Directly write on the Wishlamp will trigger the capturing function. Each new creation will be imported into the "Family Creation Library" instantly, and would be able to be shared on other family members' Wishlamp as well.

How did I demostrate the concept?

To demonstrate the concept, two prototypes were made to communicate with each other. The diagram below explains how the system runs to realise the connection.

List of elements

· MDF boards

· Water writing paper

· Traditional special paper

· Writing brushes

· 2 Light bulbs

· 1 Webcam

· 1 Leap Motion

· 1 Projector

· 2 MacBooks

Used tools

· Laser cutting machine

· Processing

· Adobe Illustrator

On the one side, the Processing on the Macbook was used to control the capturing of the writings from the Wishlamp through a webcam. Each writing would be processed into a B&W image and be saved into a shared public folder on the LAN.

On the other side, the Processing on the other Macbook was used to receive the signal from the Leap Motion and to display images on the screen. Each time when a swiping gesture was sensed, a new random image from the public folder would appear on the screen and be projected onto the Wishlamp through a projector at the same time.