By Royal Appointment is a set of responsive chairs by Moritz Waldemeyer. As a person sits in the chair, an RGB colour sensor in the back reads the colour of their clothing. The colour LEDs on the back of the chair then gradually fade into the colour of the sitter. “This gives the individual sitting on it their own halo of light, or personal aura, evoking images of religious icons and kings”
GPS Table
This table has a global positioning sensor inside it. It can only display its position in the world when it has a clear view of the satellites, the rest of the time it is lost and indicates this fact. The ideal owner will need a conservatory or large window, or a garden so that they can at least bring the table outdoors from time to time so it can connect with a satellite and fulfill its potential. We like the idea that people might feel a little cruel keeping it indoors.
1) Pupa Lamp, by Progetto25zero
One must caress this lamp to turn it on and off – this creates a more emotive interaction.
http://cubeme.com/blog/2006/11/29/pupa-lamp-by-progetto25zero1/
http://www.progetto25zero1.com/sito2501/eng/high.html
2) PainStation – by Volker Morawe and Tilman Reiff
Gaming is becoming increasingly interactive, but there are certain boundaries that one doesn’t expect to be crossed. In this interactive artwork, as you win at the game the machine inflicts pain upon your opponent.
http://www.painstation.de/new/index.html
3) Pixenotes by Duncan Wilson
A simple idea that creates an interesting relationship between the user going about their work with the space they inhabit. Also crosses the boundaries between stationary and architecture.
http://www.duncan-wilson.com/duncan_wilson_work_pixelnotes.htm
The Pong table is a dining table that doubles as a LED Pong game. This is like a tabletop version of a videogame version of table tennis. The table works by integrating 2500 LEDs into the table top that shine through the corian surface. Touchpad lets you move your virtual paddle back and forth to bounce the virtual ball. When the game is switched off, the integrated technology disappears, leaving a clean table behind.
The roulette table shown below also follows the same principle.
What is interactive Furniture?
“iBar is a system for the interactive design of any bar-counter. Integrated video-projectors can project any content on the milky bar-surface. The intelligent tracking system of iBar detects all objects touching the surface. This input is used to let the projected content interact dynamically with the movements on the counter. Objects can be illuminated at their position or virtual objects can be “touched” with the fingers.” from iBar
comment What I find interesting about this piece is how the context of the place influences the design, how objects used in the space for example glasses are used as part of the interaction and how the design enhances interaction between people in that space and provides a new and possibly less scary way to make social connections with strangers in that space.
“The four FRONT members have developed a method to materialise free hand sketches. They make it possible by using a unique method where two advanced techniques are combined.
Pen strokes made in the air are recorded with Motion Capture and become 3D digital files; these are then materialised through Rapid Prototyping into real pieces of furniture.” from frontdesign
comment Is this interactive furniture? I find it interesting that in this design your interaction with a environment directly influences the furniture it’s self. In this design the interaction is intentional and you directly sketch the furnitures form, but could this process be more abstract where a interaction with a environment or piece of furniture only influences the furnitures form or influences the design of a piece of furniture that is fabricated later.
“designed by nina farkache, 2001 for droog design. wanting to have people get closer, the ‘come a little closer’ bench was designed so that when you sit on it, you cannot avoid making contact with another person. the discs slide over the rolling marbles, which allows people to play, which in turn can bring them closer together. made of steel, glass and MDF, ‘come a little closer’ comes in a 3 seater and a 5 seater.”
“come a little bit closer”
Interesting collection of interactive tables, including a noise sensitive table: Using light patterns reacting from the noise level to provide a feed-back of the conversation dynamic.
Chit chat club
This is a project done by people at the sociable media group at MIT. It allows people to embody furniture in a cafe to interact with the people sitting there. more info
Rocking Chair
The rocking of the chair itself might be seen as interactve. There is some behavior that a person is doing, and the chair responds my rocking back and forth. There is also a built in light.
In exploring existing models, I became interested in passively interactive furniture. These pieces are not made interactive through mechanical or electronic systems, rather they are responsive through physical form. In some cases they are not interactive and are only objects of interest.
Universal toilet by Changduk Kim and Youngki Hong reconsiders the accessibility of disabled toilet. The unit does not require the user to twist or turn in order to move from wheel chair to toilet. The full text can be found here.
The second piece of interest is one of Zaha Hadid’s recent forays into furniture design exhibited in NYC. The full text can be found here
Tony Dunne and Fiona Raby design artifacts to question the role of technology in society. The Pillow project consists of an inflated pillow embedded with an LCD screen that reacts to electromagnetic waves passing through it–cellphones, television and telephone signals, pages, etc. Patterns change according to location and placement, making sensual what the human senses cannot perceive. While not a specific piece of furniture per se, the pillow is very much an intimate and domestic object in the home, and when crossed with the invisible complexities of technology, is an animated, fascinating object. Dunne and Raby value projects like these because the resulting interactions that humans have with them begin to say much about the role of design in our lives.
In the same way the “Pillow” makes electromagnetic waves visible, Sound Modulated #1 was featured here in Pittsburgh at the Wood Street Galleries. Participants carried around light sensing boxes connected to headphones. Walking around a series of spaces with different light qualities, the sensors turned light waves into various types of noise. While this is less furniture and more space/environment designing, it provokes and fulfills different types of interactivity from previously static components, making lamps sources of dynamic noise and creating different experiences constantly through one’s movement.
Making Furniture Interactive 
