Artificial Companion
Appreciation for our future
By Natalie Kohler, Matthijs Hoogendoorn, Steffen Moll & Lisa Jäger
The feeling of appreciation will become increasingly important for us in the future. Increasing pressure to perform, fear of failure, but also increasing mental illness will shape our future world view. Society as a whole will grow closer together, making it increasingly difficult for outliers. If you can't keep up, social isolation or depression
will be the consequences. That's why it is important to make people feel a part of society again. But in order to get that feeling of appreciation, we will need support in the future. For this purpose, the concept "Artificial Companion" was developed.
Innovation
The "Artificial Companion" is a tool that is able to subtly support our behavior and stimulate interpersonal interaction. It is mainly aimed at people who are going through a difficult phase and is supporting them to overcome it. Often the affected person has the motivation to do something, but fails to overcome the threshold to
really implement it. This is where the "Artificial Companion" comes into play. By stimulating various hormones, it can reinforce existing motivational impulses and thus ensure that the user really gets into action and does what he wants to do deep down inside.
Nudging principle
With the Artificial Companion System, the user is given a little nudge in certain situations to help overcome the motivation threshold. He consciously feels the increased impulse of motivation and can still decide whether he wants to act or not.
System
The system has different levels of action - mental, physical and social. These are reflected in the product design, allowing the "Artificial Companion" to communicate with the user via light signals. This way, the user knows when and on which level the system intervenes and retains control. In addition, the "Artificial Companion" can
switch between two levels of efficiency. Normal state is the external efficiency level, where it is free-floating and openly visible. If the user wants more unobtrusive communication, the "Artificial Companion" can switch to internal efficiency, where it is attached to a wrist strap.
With the "Artificial Companion", we want to achieve that living together becomes more considerate and everyone is able to contribute their part in society.
