selv

Selv is a natural and personal smart device which helps to encourage productive work life by offering a focused way for self-management and self-reflexion. Our concept takes place in a connected environment within the Internet of Things. In our case, natural interactions are defined as usual or rather obvious actions. As an adaptive and intelligent interface Selv changes its interactions in order to fit into the user's everyday routine. It can be used in any kind of desk-work environment and makes progress and targeted aims visible.

The user gets encouraged to take time for planning and think about himself. Our approach for natural interactions is using a pen on a projected interface. Modern society learns handwriting from early ages. Furthermore, writing with pen and paper supports motoric memory in comparison with writing on a keyboard, which leads to reinforced memories. By getting to know the user and analysing his behaviour during working hours, with Selv as a guidance we have the opportunity to work more productive to reach our goals.

Our proposed stand-alone device is transportable and therefore hand-sized and robust. It offers a clear form language, which refers to a harmonious and stable, but also slightly irregular shape. The overall appearance is not too technical and courteous. Its shape resulted from characteristics. Selv is actively directed to he user, can be turned off by facing it down to the direction of the table. By touching the physical shape, the projection interface turns on. Apart from haptic gestures, Selv gives audiovisual feedback while interacting.

This project was showcased at the ThingsCon conference in Amsterdam (2017), at the seecon in Wiesbaden and at the Future Convention in Frankfurt, Langen (2017). Furthermore, it was presented at the HCII 2018 conference in Las Vegas and published as a paper later on.

In order to guarantee natural interaction, Selv has the ability to learn habits in terms of writing gestures as marking or confirming text. In our interviews we found out, that people use diverse symbols when they use pen and paper. There were basically three different functions of used symbols: Erasing / deleting a task, marking as done (confirm) and selecting. As a result, we define that Selv has to save individual gestures for every user. Those gestures will be recognized using machine learning. Instead of recognizing the finished image, it has to be the movement of the pen, which will be recognized. Thereby, all kind of gestures can be used.