Solid Message
Solid message reflects on how we receive and send messages, retrieves the old-fashioned way of sending messages and finds alternatives for the fast-paced message sending and receiving in social media. By allowing the end user to send only one message a day and physically prints the message out, we seek more deliberate, mindful ways of communicating.
The topic of opposition and unity of new and old has always been discussed. With the rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology, people are constantly chasing new things and trying to make products more and more intelligent, which makes the product industry boost rapidly. More and more people pay attention on the new smart products, while those classic products may be outdated gradually and fade out of people's minds. How to make the classic products of the past still infuse the soul of intelligence to give off a unique brilliance? A good example of the design with old outdated devices is the project "The Typewriter Symphony" by Chris Gregg. In the project, the designers reused an outdated typewriter and implemented new smart technology into it. With the aims of modern technology, the typewriter can work normally as a modern printer to print out documents!
A typewriter was introduced in 1874 and it is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. After it has been invented, the efficiency of typing was quickly enhanced. The typewriter was a useful machine for people to make self publications, writings, and even mails. However, after 1970s, typewriters began to reach their end of the line, because of the new electroclinic memory typewriters and computers coming up.
Our project attempts to use the typewriter as one of the mediums through which people convey love and care. The project is composed of two terminals, one is located on one side (sender) and the other is located on the other location (receiver). For the sender side, we reused and redesigned the typewriter with the Raspberry PI as a executor, and for the receiver side, we set a thermal printer with the Particle to receive and process data that sends out from the sender side. Unlike modern popular communication devices, this device is used to complement communication with silent "soft communication" and share our physical and emotional information together. The redesign can not only re-inject traditional equipment with a fresh intelligent soul, but also effectively avoid the stress caused by sound and image communication with others. This is a harbor where we can feel love and tranquility in the hustle and bustle of the city. After getting off work, people just sit in front of the "Smart Typewriter" with a cup of tea, and sending a loving note to their loved ones would be a wonderful thing to enjoy. Then, the receiver would immediately receive the loving note from the thermal printer. This delicate soft communication can create a tacit interaction between senders and receivers.
Besides, we continued to explore making the typewriter a way to interact with people. For example, how the device responds when people take different actions, like sending multiple notes. How the device can have reactions when it finishes one line and needs to shift a new line. Also, we considered technical connections between the device and the terminals.
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