Context
Speed dating events are becoming popular all over the world. Not only do they provide a chance to find love, but they are also great for breaking the ice helping in turn in socializing and making new friends, and they can be very fun, too.
Our project is set in the scenario of a speed dating. The physical space would be a large room that is split into smaller dating booths, and each person who wants to find their compatible partner will be equipped with a personalized wine glass.
The tangible elements of the system are the wine glass, booth tables, background music and lighting
The Glass
The long stem of the wine glass will be fitted with LED lights. The stem will help diffuse the light wil give a nice glowing effect. Appropriate interactions and patterns of the lights will be depicted within the stem. We plan to conduct user research to evaluate the best use of light patterns and LED options to product the best design.
Personality
When people arrive at the venue, they will be asked to share basic information (name, hobbies, contact information etc.) and they will be asked a few survey questions. The responses to these questions will be used to encode their wine glasses.
Their next step will be to pick up their personal wine glass and head toward the dating booths. Initially when they hold the wine glass in their hand, the stem of the glass will glow smoothly. The color of the glowing light will depict their basic personality (e.g. blue - calm, pink - shy, green - social, purple - bubbly etc)
Initial Spark
As a user moves closer to the dating booths and pass through them, the wine glasses will show sparks if anyone in a particular booth is similar to them (similarity based on their answers to the initial questionnaire). Once a user sees a spark, they can choose to enter the booth to interact with the person whose answers caused the spark.
The next element in this interaction is the table.
The Table
We plan to use tables for some ice breaking interactions. It could be used to play musical notes, simple & quick board games to help break the ice. Table will be fitted with sensors which will act as inputs to carry out these interactions. This will help draw people out of their shells and begin conversing.
During the conversation, their emotional reactions could be gauged and depicted through the ripple effect of the LED lights in the glass, the more the ripples the more fast the heart beats (this could be manipulated in a similar way to the Theremin).
Expressing Interest
As the conversation continues in the dating booth, if the two individuals like each other, they will be able to exchange personal information through clinking of their glass. The glass will be fitted with a tiny button and when the button will be pressed (through the clinking action) that will automatically send each other’s information to their mobile phone.
Once the glasses are clinked together, the LED patterns will combine. So if user A had a red pattern, and user B has a blue pattern, both their glasses will reflect a purple pattern combination as an indicator that they are validating the match.
They will then be able to access each others contact information and see the combination pattern on a website post the event.
The Music
We will also use music as an ambient element in this interaction. The music will be played based on the body language ofthe two people, it can change from being soft romantic to a little more lively. It will help create the right ambience for the scenario and facilitate matchmaking.
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