Contextual Interactions

In this lab-week workshop, we explored sensor-based interactions using machine learning - hands-on and through simple and accessible tools. Machine learning enables us to recognize contexts or events from images, sound, motion, and other sensor data, which can serve as an interface to systems or objects. The potential for design, however, goes far beyond these technical possibilities: it enables us to create new, diverse qualities of interaction. Guided by experimentation, we approached exciting or unusual forms of interaction with objects and explored different qualities of interaction. The aim of this workshop was to gain an insight into the basics of machine learning and to explore the potential of the technology for sensor-based interactions.

The concepts were prototyped by the students using the teachable machine web service and webcams. The prototypes demonstrate various interaction modalities.