Closer

My Role
Product Designer
Creative Technologist

Tools
Arduino
Esp 32
LCD Screen

Team Size
2

Duration
2 weeks

Design Process

Background

Closer is a cutting-edge interactive project that my colleague, Lily, and I developed. The project was born from a universal problem we all face - forgetting the names of people we know. As reported by Time magazine, face blindness affects one in fifty individuals, resulting in embarrassing situations where they are unable to recall the names or relationships of familiar people. But even if you don't suffer from face blindness, forgetting someone's name can still cause social discomfort.

Problem

"How might we help individuals avoid embarrassing and uncomfortable situations caused by forgetting the names of people they know?"
Challenge

Solution

To enhance the user experience and eliminate these awkward moments, we created a wearable device that leverages face recognition technology. The device works by recognizing a person and then discreetly displaying their name on a connected watch for the user to see. With this tool, users can easily and quickly recall the names of those they meet, reducing social discomfort and enhancing their overall experience.

Working Process

Our idea is to put the camera into the phone case, which can reasonably dis-play the camera, avoid people’s fear of seeing the camera, and make it easy for the device to recognize the face of the person the user meets.

In addition, the watch is also a good choice that can easily disguise and show the name. We have made the watch with a circu-lar LCD screen, which is convenient for users to see each other’s name without embarrassment.

Material

Esp 32, long cable cam, USB to TTF, LCD, phone case, small bag, watch band, etc.