Midterm project - Restaurant attention lamp
I had some further discussion with my midterm group for Physical Computing, and we have converged on something that works.
Initially, we wanted to do a "mood indicator" for people working with laptops. However, this did not have a clearcut application, or interaction with the user. Frankly, it didn't resonate with any of the team members.
The new idea is much better: a gesture controlled lamp that is used to send messages to wait staff at a restaurant, such as wanting to order, pay the bill, etc.
We've noticed that in the US there is no clear way to get the attention of wait staff at restaurants that isn't interpreted as rude. Yelling is not well regarded (unlike Japan & Korea), and gestures are often not seen, or ignored. An intelligent lamp will be able to get attention in a polite way, and "escalate" the request automatically on behalf of the customer.
Input will be by making a sweeping gesture in front of sensors embedded in the vertical lamp. An upward sweep to order, a downward sweep to pay. Up and down sweeps would cancel each other, ie when showing "order" state a downward sweep would cancel the state. (Alternatively, we may include a dedicated "cancel" button. When signalling a state, and too much time passes, the lamp will signal urgency by starting to flash. There may also be light sensors to read overall light levels, and perhaps modify behaviour of the sensors in the lamp.
Our design concept is of a vertical paper lantern with three or four segments, each segment casting light in a different color. The sensors will be embedded in the side.
We will carry out observations this weekend, of how customers in restaurants attract attention, and we will also work out the state table that describes the behaviors.