Oyster is a tangible interface designed to dispense goodwill and a sense of belonging. Users input their hope and receive a related fortune based on the hopes of other Oyster users.
Oyster is a tangible interface designed to dispense goodwill and a sense of belonging. Users input their hope and receive a related fortune based on the hopes of other Oyster users.
To make our vision possible, we mocked up a tangible interface using a HDtv, acrylic sheet, and ping pong balls cut in half. This interface allowed us to experiment with a number of novel interactions not possible on a 2D screen.
When a user shares their hope, Oyster moves that hope to a database. That database stores the entirety of the hopes shared with Oyster. Oyster then uses machine learning to analyze that hope and match it up with a hope that could could address the user's initial hope. For example, if a user hoped that they could be confident in navigating their freshman year. The machine would focus on keywords like confident and navigating and return another user's hope that includes similar keywords (with first person articles reconfigured to second person). For example, "You will gain confidence in navigating your future."