}}:: Sensing Beds ::{{
Together Elizabeth
Goodman and I teamed up to build the Sensing Beds.
The Sensing Beds domesticate communications devices
by placing them in the bedroom. The beds mediate between
two romantic partners who are not co-located by sensing
body position in each bed and using a grid of small
heating pads to warm the congruent points in the other
bed. As an experiment in telepresence, they bridge the
physical distance between two people who would normally
share a bed, but find themselves sleeping apart. As
an experiment in slow technology and emotional communication,
they articulate usersí existing concerns about intimacy,
trust and knowledge.
The Sensing Beds applies this concept to the ever-more-common
phenomenon of the long-distance relationship through
the emotionally meaningful site of the bed. The bed,
which usually unites a couple, here displays the presence
of a distant loved one through heat. Sensors located
in one mattress pad track the position of its occupant.
The position data is transmitted every five minutes
through the internet to the other bed where heating
pads are activated at the same coordinates. Each sleeper
thus synchronously feels the ghostly warmth of the absent
partner.
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::Further
Web Documentation::
::Abstract
PDF::
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