Desktop Mate

A mate to work along side with.

Creator:

Ole Andreas Stavå

Development

I started out with a regular stressball. My first thought were to create a ball that lights up when you squish it. After some itereations, I concluded that I wanted the ball to have a personality, something that a user can place in a personal workspace to perhaps interact with when the work is stressful or during brainstorming.

Interaction:

• It can be placed in it’s cup, which is its home.
• If tweaked the right way the head will light up.
• Or like in the video beneath: Try to drop it in the cup from the air and make a game of trying to switch the light on.
• You are more than welcome to pet its fluffy head and ears.
• It can squished like a regular stressball
• When you brainstorm and you feel silly talking to yourself, talk to the desktop mate! It is a good listener.

Video of prototype

Technical Sketch

The conductive thread is sown into the Desktop Mate from LED and battery to conecting point, but seperated. External conduction is needed to form a circuit and those are sown into the cup which the Desktop Mate is dropped into. The LED and the battery is also implanted into the ball.

Textural Sketch

The electrical tape is placed all over exept the two points that need conection from the cup. Initially this was ment to highlight those points, making them easier to interact with.