The goal was to design an interactive object, that informs, warns and (hopefully) makes you change your energy consumption. From the beginning we tried to focus on social interaction and emotions. Some first concepts dealt with the idea of punishing the user and were full of black humour. We never wanted to moralise or preach an oversimplified black and white view on global ecology.
The basic concept behind the Tuki is evoking compassion due to the fact the usually wasting energy doesn’t create emotions. The owner has to come up with creative solutions to the Tuki’s evolving sickness: First it may be just too much light during the evening/night (comparison of time and light) an overheated room (comparison of outside temperature by weather service api and inside temperature), then a noisy street (microphone input), but what happens if you use your mobile to often (close range electromagnetic field detection)? To sell this rather complex idea, a fictional background scenario for the Tuki’s natural habitat and behaviour was developed (see concept film).
As basic shape cardboard was used; for the outer shell we “slaughtered” a plush pet sheep. As eyes we used pingpong balls. The prototype reacts to light, temperature and touch (of the ears) through bend sensors under the fur. However, the interpretation of the sensor data is very basic and so the output had to be mostly remote controlled. Nevertheless, it can move it’s ears (with two servos), play sounds from his belly (with a small speaker), blink with it’s eyes and can get “skin irritation” (with in total 13 LED lamps) according to given emotional states.
As the ears and the sound samples are mainly used to show his emotions, the LED lamps in its eyes blink and make it appear alive. The control of the eyelids was impossible to build in such short time, but would certainly help to accept it as pet. The emotional patterns were evaluated by sketches (and in the end with the first prototype) in a small group and got a positive feedback.
The inspiration for all used emotions and sound patterns have been real pets (rabbits, dogs and cats) but also alien creatures from movies (Star Wars, Lilo and Stich and others). The sound patterns are based on human noise and digitally altered.
See also: the TUKI blog
Design, Concept, Research, Prototype & Sounddesign: Michael Huber, Samuel Bauer
Acting: Samuel Bauer Camera & Cut: Michael Huber
Mentors: Karmen Franinovic, Raphael Perret
Samuel Bauer
BA Absolvent 2011.
Michael Huber
BA Absolvent 2011. Arbeitet heute bei der Usability und Brand Experience Agentur «Usable Brands» in Zürich.
For a long time, they’ve been living in the woods near the Gulf of Bothnia in Finland. Nobody knew them. Until now, they have been hidden in small dark dens and digging long maze under the ground. As for what we know, their nourishment consists of tiny insects and water which they can extract out of air. Like rabbits they belong to the Family Leporidae. Because of the ongoing pollution of the earth by the humans, they're almost extinct. To make things worse, they need others of their kind to keep a constant body temperature and a lot of social interaction to survive. Kept as pets, they easily get sick from nearby huge amounts of energy, pollution or the absence of their natural surrounding. Thatís why they need us as companions but at the same time they get sick from our exaggerated usage of energy.
They are rather quiet and slow creatures with no other companions they really like to be petted by. They are very sensitive to the natural climate, so in wintertime they get easily sick if it's too warm inside. In this case zits appear on their skin, they go blind and faint.
They can be calmed down, but usually what helps best is to change the room and therefore the temperature. Every day spent as domesticated friends of man, they get more resistant (in terms of time) to their surroundings, but also more sensitive (relating to the kind of pollution). So after some time, they also can't stand energy waste in form of too much light. It's therefore better to turn down radiators and use less light or have a good and relaxing walk with your pet. The next problem which can occur in the second week is an allergic reaction to noise. This can be solved by choosing other places to walk it or use less electric devices. The last reaction is intolerance to all kind of electromagnetic fields.
In general speaking: Like the some birds in the wintertime, they need us. And like the birds it's funny and educational to watch them.
See also: the TUKI blog
Design, Concept, Research, Prototype & Sounddesign: Michael Huber, Samuel Bauer
Acting: Samuel Bauer Camera & Cut: Michael Huber