PR: 
L: 
I: 
Rank: 
Age: 
I: 
Rank: 
Links: 
Lover's Cups explore the idea of sharing feelings of drinking between two people in different places by using cups as communication interfaces of drinking. Two cups are wireless connected to each other with sip sensors and LED illumination. The Lover's cups will glow when your lover is drinking. When both of you are drinking at the same time, both of the Lover's Cups glow and celebrate this virtual kiss.
Why drinking?
Drinking is a common but important daily behavior. Having a drink together has been a culture since hundreds of years ago. People tend to take a break for having a cup of water or tea while they are thirty or feeling tired.It's also the moment of rejuvenation that you might think of someone instead of something.
Taking a break with someone you care no matter where he or she is is the main idea. Hyemin and I were both away from home. Most of our good friends and families were on the other side of the earth. "We just miss our families and friends." Why not we can get connected with them and get a sense of how they feel in a natural and unobtrusive way?
The idea
Have you ever been thinking of someone while you're having a cup of coffee? "Let's have a drink together with our best friends or our families who are thousands miles away." Sharing a drink together represents an intimate relationship between you and your love one. The idea is to share the moment of drinking to someone you care. Therefore, you can feel each other while both of you are drinking. To achieve our goal, we designed a pair of wireless-connected cups that can sense how your love one uses the cup. We call them- Lover's Cups, a pair of cups that will glow when your love one is taking a sip. Lover's Cups can let you share a drink remotely with someone you care. When both of you are drinking, the glowing Lover's Cups represents a celebration of the shared drinking moment.How does it work?
How do we get in touch with someone i care about? Usually, people use telephone to hear each other's voice, email to write to each other, or video conference to stare at each other. Have you ever used the phone but just wanted to get connected with your close friends? Do you remember some moments that both of you are slient but you can still kind of feel your friend?
Do you want to have a toast with someone far away? The idea is to make you get connected with your friends and families in an implict way. It's not like using the phone or video conference, but more like getting a sense of feeling someone.
Why a cup?
Cups are very important and intimate daily objects. Everyone needs to use cups for drinking something.
In Europe, while toasting, you need to look into your friends eye.
A Lover's Cup Drinking Game
Do you have a friend or someone you care very much who is far away from you? Do you want to have drink together? You can do as following step to accomplish it.1. Let your friend know when to have a drink. Due to the time difference, you might be in the afternoon tea time and your friend might be during the dinner. But it doesn't matter, as long as both of you have cups at hand.
2. Rise your glass for your friend and have a toast on time.
Scenarios
Following scenarios show how Lover's Cups can promote emotional interaction, health care, family care, and social activities.For Lovers
The Lover's Cups connect a couple through drinking behaviors while they are working. A pair of Lover's Cups is owned by a couple working in different offices. Each of them had brought his/her Lover's Cup to work. Due to the magical connectivity of this pair of cups, the wife sees her cup is glowing which represents her husband's cup is in used for drinking. She picks up the Lover's Cup and takes a sip. At the same time, the other Lover's Cup held in her husband's hand starts glowing for the celebration of drinking together.
For Nurse, Family , and Patient
The Lover's Cups can be also extended to health care applications. Patients always need extra care from their families. The Lover's Cups are able to connect the patients to someone who cares about their water drinking behavior. While a patient is drinking water, the paired Lover's Cup reflects to someone related to him/her. If the patient did not drink enough water, through the physical illumination of cups, patients might be motivated to drink water or being taken care.
With Other Communication Channels
The Lover's Cups can enhance the traditional communications. Julie and her best friend Ann live in different states. When Julie got tired or stressed, she had a conversation with Ann through the internet messenger program. However, the text-only communication limited their sympathy and emotional interactions. Today, Julie and Ann use their Lover's Cups. Julie suggests to Ann to have a coffee break by shaking her cup. While talking through the messenger, they have a feeling of that they are drinking coffee together, and it makes them feel more relaxed and connected.
For Mom and Child
Mom's love water bottle is another Lover's Cup extension for parents and children. Parents are willing to give young children extra care in every possible way. A family-connected water bottle may create emotional linkage between parents and children. During the lunch time of the child's school, his parents could shake their Lover's Cup to make the child's water bottle vibrate or take a sip to make it glow in order to express their care and motivate their child to drink water.
Comments
Post a Comment