Someday soon, you may be able to reach out and hug someone through your telephone.
“The Hug” is a plush-toy kind of device that mimics human interaction through warmth, light and sounds. Using sensory technology and telephony, it’s designed to facilitate richer interaction between distant family members.
Designed specifically for the elderly, it is an example of the Human-Centered Design approach being championed at Carnegie Mellon’s School of Design.
“We start by asking questions that help us understand people’s needs and desires, as well as the context of use,” said Dan Boyarski, head of the School of Design. “This focus on the human dimension of the problem—as opposed to technical constraints—leads to answers that directly serve people’s needs.”
“The Hug,” developed by Jodi Forlizzi, the principal investigator and assistant professor of design and human-computer interaction, Carl DiSalvo, School of Design doctoral student, and Francine Gemperle, recent master of interaction design graduate, is an example of the university’s interdisciplinary approach to problem solving.
This fall, the School of Design students and professors presented their work to the international design community at the Design Research Society’s International Conference at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
DiSalvo and Gemperle presented their paper “Imitating the Human Form: Four Kinds of Anthropomorphic Form,” which extends their research from product design to a theoretical approach to identifying and classifying the use of human form in design. Shelley Evenson, associate professor of design, and John Zimmerman, assistant professor of design, presented a paper about the relationship between the fields of design and human-computer interaction. Richard Buchanan, professor of design, also gave a plenary talk.
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