industrial design engineering, royal college of art david sweeney ...

industrial design engineering, royal college of art david sweeney 2007
life full of variety. So what about a device that helps us stay in a routine when we are
stressed and helps us break out of it when we are relaxed? Routine is a loose word here, I
mean it as a set of procedural tasks that we find ourselves doing day in, day out, like
checking email, having lunch, cleaning up, etc.
How does it do this? The device has a camera and a microphone to observe our physical
behaviour and a Bluetooth transceiver to discover our web based activities. From these
inputs, this device can calculate patterns in our daily behaviour that is compiled from deviations
from our average behaviour. From this, an event-based snapshot of our day can
be calculated. The device then uses this to create an olfactory track list, which parallels the
list of events over time. Each of the tracks is denoted by a particular smell or blend of
smells and is played each day at that time to focus the person’s attention on that event. As
the lunch smell is turned on, the body pays little attention to the odour until that odour
overpowers the previous late morning work smell, and a desire to take a break is reached.
On the other hand, when we are not stressed or busy, the device deviates from the routine
track list; it then plays different odours that were reserved for these relaxing periods.
These odours become associated with these feelings of being on holiday, being free and
enjoying life, and of exploration. Once they become associated with these feelings, they
will evoke them in the future. Essentially, the device now inspires and provides ideas for a
change from the norm.
27