First Contact

The Idea for the project "First Contact" is based on a meeting with a Sony AiBO. As an adult, you definitely know that this thing is a piece of electronics and mechanics. But a lot of people interacting with this "thing" will agree that there are several moments loaded with emotions.

Exactly these situations are interesting for "First Contact". The central point that produces that "spark of live" is based on the interaction between the "user" and the AiBO. The "emotion" would not be this strong, if the "dog" would just move and act by itself.

Of course the AiBO simulates a lot of "animal-like" gestures and movement patterns. But emotions could also be created just by interaction based on movements.

This is the main aim of the project:

Interacting with a "thing" just by changing positions and movements (both parts: the user and the object). To factor out the visual appearance and any possible connotations, the object should have the simplest and reduced shape. A white ball would be closely to that requirement. A globe is completely symmetric. There is no front, back, top, bottom... etc.

One principle of interaction could play with the "courage" of the object. When getting in contact with a new/ unknown user, the object could be frightened and could move to a position with maximum distance to the user.

After a while the object regains confidence if the user moves very slowly an calm and puts his arm/ hand towards the object. So the object is encouraged again and gets interested in the user. It moves slowly to the hand of the user.

Hectic movements e.g. of the hand would distroy the gained confidence immediately...

The next step is to take a group of these objects together (at least three). So these things could act as an individium or / and as part of a group. Each object could have it's own character regarding its courage and its status in the group (e.g. alpha male)...