{NEST}: An intelligent bed that senses your location

2011 | Touch Sensors, Projections, Java

Made in collaboration with Holly Schmidt , Bryan Rite & Morgan Rausche

{nest} is a collaborative, interactive installation submitted to the 211 SIGGRAPH Conference and Exhibition on computer graphics and interactive techniques in Vancouver, Canada.

The theme “home” is explored by creating a nest around a person on a bed. As you grow still and drop off to sleep, a visualization projected onto the surface of the bed starts to take shape. Slowly, strand-by-strand, a digital image of a nest is formed around the shape of your body. When you stir and shift position, the nest comes apart, only to form again as you grow still.

The system uses touch sensors embedded in the mattress to detect the placement of a person or persons in the bed.

Java and Processing code construct and deconstruct the nest which is projected onto the bed from above.

This form of interaction is counter to many interactive works that reward kinesthetic movement or social interaction; rather the results are a product from stillness and solitude.