Etto
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Interactive table Etto is the result of the MMM2030 project, commissioned by Brazilian furniture company Meu Móvel de Madeira.
The question that moved the initiative was: "How will the furniture of the future look like?"
To answer that, I joined forces with Marcio Lan, from Studio Lan, and, for 3 months we analyzed trends and each stakeholder of the furniture and housing markets to try and understand the impact Design can have in our homes and how can we think these changes to make our lives better.
We realized that, despite the promises and advantages that each new technology brings, the detachment between people has become a huge issue. Phenomena like the "cocooning" movement make clear that kind of behavior.
To offer a resistance to that problem, we defined 4 pillars from where to start our furniture design (all of them having 'integration' as the subject matter).
We decided, then, to design an object that caused the effect of approximation between people. Something that could become a catalyzer for meetings and moments. Something that brought people together and created conversations, arguments, human heat.
And that's how Etto was born.
At first glance, Etto is a common dinner table, around which friends and family can eat, drink and chat.
However, a under the thin tabletop sheet, a huge screen allows it to become an interactive touch-sensitive board.
We understood that, different from what some brands are already offering, the technology should be unobtrusive, organically embedded in our day-to-day. And without the need for dozens of cables and brighty screens.
A button located under the battery status bar allows the "screen" to turn on and off.
Besides the user movements and touches, Etto can recognize and communicate with objects left on top of it. From the manufacturers side, that allows the separate sale of more products, like "extensions" and the opportunity to continually create new possibilities inside a universe the client is already familiar with.
From the client's point-of-view, it is the perfect balance between the practicality and adaptability of the digital world with the tangibility and "human heat" of the physical world, so necessary to the human being.
