The
Phone detox
project.

We are on our phones all day, and we stopped seeing the world around us. The challenge is to create an immersive experience that will raise awareness of the negative effects of phones in our lives.

My part.

‘The Phone Detox Project’ is an individual project of 8 weeks, so I had full responsibility for the entire workflow, from conceptualization through to the creation of a working prototype in TouchDesigner for an exhibition. I received some feedback from teachers to help me further.

Visual interface design.

How it works.

The user enters the immersive room with projections on the walls. The animation that is playing is very overstimulating. Once the user places a phone on a box, the projection changes to a peaceful interactive installation where the user can ‘play’ with body movements and the interactive projections. This experience shows how overstimulating a phone can be and how peaceful it can feel to put the phone away.

Animation.

I made the animation with Adobe Premiere Pro by placing many images and looping the animation. I added this animation to TouchDesigner.

Visual interface design.

Phone box.

I used an Arduino kit and a distance sensor within a specially designed box to create a ‘phone box.’ Once the user places a phone on this box, the distance sensor sends the code to TouchDesigner, and the data is used as a switch between the two animations.

Interactive Animation.

I used a RealSense depth camera to track body movementand create this interactive projection. When the user moves, the projection reflects that. I also added audio to the two animations and used the same data input with a switch to trigger the audio.

Visual interface design.
Visual interface design.

I designed an immersive experience and made a working prototype in TouchDesigner to test the concept.

The Exhibition

Since I did not have an immersive lab to showcase my prototype, I used a monitor with walls to create a similar experience. I printed posters with the RISO printer to experiment with a different printing technique. With headphones, users could also hear theaudio.