Potato glasses

Manxue Wang

Potato Glasses are a wearable device designed to ease anxiety during public speaking. Biosensor feedback triggers the device, which shows humorous visualizations. While a set of digital eyes maintain visual connection with the audience.

http://www.manxuew.com/blog/

Description

Social behavior is a very important part in our daily lives. For example, conversation connects us with others. In ITP, two areas I'm interested in are helping people to create better social interactions and visualizing people's personal data. I'm interested in these topics because I'd like to know how conversations shape ourselves and affect the audience.

Potato Glasses is a headset worn by a speaker, which contains a mobile phone, microcontroller, and two battery-operated OLED screens. It’s connected to a pulse sensor, which collects heart rate data. A high pulse, associated with nervousness, activates the device.

Inside the headset, an augmented reality application detects the audience’s faces and replaces them with potatoes. It also displays the scripted presentation. The exterior OLED screens show a pair of digital eyes that reflect the users.
The device enhances the speaker’s and audience’s experience – the speaker is able to ease their communication anxiety by avoiding direct eye contact and focusing on their script. And the audience gets a better presentation.

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