by Andrew Ringler
Blob, in its resting state, looks like a tiny toy rubber ball. Blob, however, is an internet connected ball capable of deforming its shape, bouncing, rolling, pulsing at a variety of colors, and making noises. Blob is designed to be a general purpose friendly robotic notifier that we carry with us at all times.
It is the year 2015. Not only do most of us lead very busy lives, but our friends and family expect to be able to reach us anytime of day. In order to offload the mental effort of planning out our lives we store digital calendars on our phones and wait to be notified when an important event needs our attention. In order to remotely communicate we allow our friends to reach us via email, text messages, cell phone calls, Facebook messaging, etc…, each medium carrying its own expectations (from both parties) of time sensitivity, emotional quality, and more.
Despite the varying reasons we want to be notified our devices seek our attention in a very limited number of ways. Our cell phones can vibrate (at limited frequencies) or make noise, and our Apple Watches can tap us on the wrist.
Blob seeks to offer a diversity of personalized ways in which our devices may seek out our attention allowing us to create notification methods that match content, importance, and urgency as well as match our personal style, aesthetic, and needs. Blob is a programmable notifier. Blob lets the user customize its deformations, bouncing, rolling, flashing and noisemaking. Users can create new notifications by setting Blob to record mode. In record mode, Blob acts as a sensor recording actions the users performs on it. For example, if the user squeezes Blob twice, Blob will sense this action and play it back as a notification (or optionally the inverse of the user action). A companion app lets users compose kinetic, light, and sound actions using Blob, as well as their keyboard and mouse.
Blob consists of a solid spherical core with pneumatic cylinders and pistons jutting out of it like the spikes of a blowfish. A semi-transparent flexible membrane covers the pistons forming a sphere. Each piston is attached to the membrane allowing Blob to deform its shape by extending and collapsing selected pistons. Blob can bounce and roll through the coordinated rapid movement of pistons. Internal LEDs allow Blob to glow or pulse at various colors and rates. Internal speakers allow Blob to make sounds.
Hey! Looking cool. Check this out, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouba/kiki_effect
Before you read anything, ask yourself which on is Kiki and which one is Bouba 🙂