Intention

People often work better when they’re with their peers, rather than when they’re alone, so our device is meant to passively indicate and simulate doing work alongside someone, motivating the user knowing that their peers are also working hard. It consists of a set of mechanical flowers with a sonar sensor that detects the user’s presence. As time passes and the user continues to be at their desk, one of the flowers will bloom and glow. The other flower shows the behavior of a partner who also has set of flowers paired with this one, blooming and glowing so that the user’s behavior can be observed elsewhere by them. A button will allow minimalist interaction with their partner through their flower, such as blinking their paired flower’s lights and opening/closing the petals. Two people both possessing a flower set paired to each other would allow them to see when each other are working, and have minimal interactions of encouragement without distracting them too much from their work. When users leave their work area and are no longer detected by the sonar sensor, their flower will gradually close up and their light fade, with the same reflected in the flower representing them in the paired set.