Chamber of Memories

Explore the adventures of memories

Creators:

Adele Ness, Camilla Carlsen, Aleksander Carlsen and Katerina Kolbu

Collaborators:

NTNU: Norwegian University of Science and Technology, department of design
Nordre Follo kommune: Dementia coordinators and “Informal caregivers school” (Pårørende skole)

Category:

#design #concept #healthpromoting #nextofkin #arduino #family #sketch

Project description:

The Chamber of Memories is a device to explore the adventures of memories and engage in activities with your loved ones.

Every person is unique – so is the Chamber of Memories. The device is customizable to suit every person’s needs and interests regarding memories, activities and design.

Elevator pitch:

Problem space:

The Chamber of Memories makes it possible for you to explore the adventure of memories with your loved ones, which you have experienced in the past. The idea is that when you and your loved ones are doing activities, talking about the memories, and looking back on pictures, will contribute to the recall of old and creating new memories.

Unique solution:

The Chamber of Memories has a unique solution because the contained categories can be individualized to fit your needs. All the categories, the look of the box, the questions, activities, and skin of the button can be made to fit your individual needs. When ordering the box, you can customize it, both with the engraving pattern and your own name so that it will look and feel exactly like you want.

The goal of the box is that you can explore, talk about and do activities with your loved ones, also contributing to a meaningful relational time together. You can push the button and the box will choose a random category for which you can read. The idea is that you and the next of kin will together find different elements to put into the box, such as a building set, a cooking recipe and pictures of people close to you and that the different categories will reflect on these elements.

Further the activity and experience cards that are inside the box are connected to the Chamber of Memories application, where you and your next of kin can save songs that you like to listen to. So when you interact with the box, the category displayed in the activity card will send information to the application, to make it possible for the application to read the card out loud and to play a song that will help you re-experiencing memories from the past. And maybe even create new memories.

With the Chamber of Memories you can explore memories and have a meaningful time with your loved one. Try it out today.

Interaction:

The interaction with the Chamber of Memories is done with a big, orange button clothed in knitted yarn. This gives the users an affordance as it is soft and is in both a different material and colour, and is desirable for users in pushing. When pushing the button, there will be lights randomly choosing a category from the category cards which are made to be fastened on the inside of the box, the users then pick an activity card and can choose to do the activity on the card or they can push the button again for a different outcome. The box itself is made of MDF wood panels which are quite smooth to the touch, the same is the cards for activities and categories. The Chamber of Memories box also includes a drawer, which inside contains all the activity- and category cards.

As for the place of usage of The Chamber of Memories, the best spot must be around a kitchen- or coffee table. This is because of activities such as building- or making something. It is therefore ideal that the user has a comfortable space for doing this. The same goes for the number of users, you need more space if you are to engage the whole family. The cards inside the box should be easy to recognize with the icon of the activity from the lighting wheel displayed on top of the card.

The Chamber of Memories application is also a part of the interaction that the person with dementia and the next of kin can do together, the idea is that the application will be attached to the box with bluetooth and be able to play music on the speaker inside the box. Further the application will also be able to read the questions and activities inside the box using similar technology as airtag from Apple.

Technology:

As for the technology inside of The Chamber of Memories, the project group has used an Arduino UNO motherboard with a circuit of 4 led lights and a button attached to a breadboard. Each side of the led lights are connected with a ground side and a plus side. This is hidden inside the thick lid of the box. There is also an accompanying speaker with an Aux wire so that the users can choose their own music when picking a music card from The Chamber of Memories.

The button is attached with electric steel wires that have been soldered together with the Arduino button. The button is made of laser cut MDF circles and as earlier stated, soft knitted material to give a feeling of the button being pushed down.

In the prototype, the Arduino UNO is connected through a computer with a wire which goes out of the box on the side. The final product is supposed to use a 9 volt battery.

See the circuit board model beneath.

Material:

The box is laser cutted using MDF materials, this to make it look like a box, and to make it easy to wash and keep clean. The box is engraved with a pattern inspired by the norwegian and traditional Marius sweater. To get another experience when interacting with the box, the material of the button is soft and knitted in yarn. This gives a combination between the hard and the soft surfaces, which can be a nice experience for the user.

Process:

The project group has used the double diamond design method for the process. Inside this method there has been used multiple gamestorming methods such as brainstorming to help the group come up with ideas and inspiration.