PhilaU SPRINT 2014 - Award Winner, 2nd Place
The SPRINT Project is an annual week long collaborative design challenge sponsored by industry leaders. Students from each year of the industrial design program are split into teams - 3rd year students are appointed Team Lead, responsible for the team’s time management, design direction, and delegating tasks to teammates.
During my 3rd year, Comcast Labs tasked us with imagining the future of the remote. The xFinity Slate is a gestural input device inspired by our everyday interactions with touchscreen phones. A minimalist, comfortable form paired with an unobtrusive onscreen menu keeps the viewer immersed in their entertainment.
Final Prototype - 3D Printed, sanded and painted. Weights hidden inside simulate the feel of the real thing.
With such a short timeframe, it was important to ideate quickly. Initial research and concept generation took place over the first two days of the project, then we moved to form exploration in blue foam to experiment with a few of our favorite concepts, before converging on a minimalist, modern shape. We also explored multiple input options, though decided to focus on touch gestural input as it felt the most futuristic. Our final model was 3D printed, sanded, and painted, and weights added inside the print give a realistic feel while holding the remote. We also explored an Arduino setup to simulate a light tracing gestural input on the remote.
An on-screen menu pops up when the remote is picked up, prompting the user with the most relevant commands, informed by the content on screen.
