The goal of this 2nd year Bachelor project was to design a universal remote control within an ambient intelligence environment where all devices are integrated. We performed a user-centered iterative design process with user involvement in all phases. This started with ethnography-inspired sessions at users’ homes. Quick prototyping and Wizard of Oz techniques were instrumental in idea generation and concept development. The project resulted with product models and a working interactive prototype.
The final concept has the shape of a pillow that can be used to control the devices in your living room. The main elements are a display for feedback, a camera to select a device, buttons in every corner to control the camera, and ribbons to control the parameters in the display. The window in the middle has a display that shows the last taken picture of a device. The background starts to look for a new picture when one of the buttons is pressed and saves the last taken image on the background when the button is released. When a device is selected the virtual trails in the display show the possible changes. By pulling the ribbons the user can change the parameters until a wanted value is reached.