Timo Arnall runs a research project called Touch at The Oslo School of Architecture and Design and is quite happy to jump on an Internet of Things bandwagon: “We are looking at ways in which we can participate in digital environments without being in front of a screen. For us, the Internet of Things is not a future scenario, but something we are actively designing with our pragmatic and actionable research.” For Timo there are three main levels of user experience with the Internet of Things: Tangible and embodied objects, connectivity and sharing, visualization and reflection.
RFID technology is one of the fundamental building blocks: “We’ve been collecting RFID objects from around the world for the last couple of years. Tiny wireless chips that can be embedded inside clothes - really ubiquitous and relatively mundane. There are about two billion RFID chips in use daily in the world. RFID becomes so entrenched in everyday life, it’s not interesting technically anymore but it’s interesting what the cultural and social consequences might be” finds Timo and adds “of course, there’s more to tangible interaction than just RFID – the objects that we carry with us are beginning to sense a lot more about the world than they previously did.”
With their interaction industrial design, the people from Touch are looking at ways in which interaction takes place outside the traditional context and are trying to find playful uses of both objects and media – a tangible toy dog that accompanies children in everyday situations or an RFID reader for the iPhone.
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