We
The Design Research Lab is a network of people, organisations, and non-human agents engaged at the intersection of technologies, materials, and social practices. Our aim is to design socially and ecologically sustainable tools, spaces, and knowledge that support people’s participation in a digital society – based on common principles of inclusiveness and respect for the planet. This puts the basic democratic right to take part in the digital sphere into practice. We start our research from individual lifeworlds and the needs of minoritized groups, beyond consumer majorities.
We are an interdisciplinary team of designers, researchers, tech-enthusiasts and critical thinkers from Berlin University of the Arts, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, as well as Einsteincenter Digital Future (ECDF).
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Interactive Curtain
We designed and implemented two versions of an interactive light curtain as part of the project UHCI (Universal Home Control Interface). The first version is installed in the Serviceplan WeShop in Munich, a showroom for a smart shopping environment. The second version is part of the smart home showroom at DAI in Berlin.
The first curtain, which was designed specifically for the context of a changing room, has a sensor to recognize if the curtain is drawn open or closed. It carries embroidered LEDs on the outside that light up and start to pulsate when the curtain is drawn closed. This signalizes to other customers in a subtle and pleasant way that the changing room is occupied.
The second curtain also has a sensor to recognize its state, but in addition also has an embroidered slider on the front. The slider consists of three large patterns made from copper thread that serve as capacitive antennas. In the DAI showroom, the slider can be used to control either the lighting pattern of the curtain itself, or to control the lowering of the blinds.
Both curtains have the LEDs sewn onto five embroidered copper traces that vertically run along the front of the curtain. The two contact poles of the conductive lines are on the front and back to avoid shortcuts when the curtain is moved. The five sections can be controlled individually, each group being controlled by a different pin on the micro controller which is placed on the upper part of the curtain, together with the small battery or a power connector.