Cognitive Flowers

Team: Jaskirat Randhawa, Grace Jun

Cognitive Flowers explores physical computing and wearable technology. Our research was based on the concepts of Tangible User Interfaces, Zero UI (Theory that rejects the use of GUI & touch interfaces) and the concept of Ubiquitous Technology coined by Mark Weiser. The project sought to look into future interactions between a wearable head mount and physical artifacts to create an experience without interfaces. Could we go beyond Graphical User Interfaces?

The kinetics of the artificial objects are dictated by the calmness and attention of the user. We used Neurosky Mindwave Mobile to obtain Alpha brain wave values of the user. The flowers would behave erratically when the user is not mentally focused. But, when they are focusing, the flowers would relax, representing a state of tranquility.

The mechanism is simple. The case on which the flowers are mounted consists of micro servos. The servos pull the invisible string to close the shape of the flower and release to relax the shape. The angle of rotation which generated the pull is directly proportional to the user’s focus and attention. These values came from the Neurosky headset the user wore, as shown in the video above.