Alternative AI interaction prototype for Swarovski

Our director and creative technologist Yosuke Ushigome was chosen for Designers of the Future Award, an annual award and commission by Swarovski for emerging talents in design. Together with Swarovski, we created a prototype using crystal and presented the work at Design Miami/ Basel. Home Shrine is a project that explores our relationship with virtual assistants that have grown rapidly in the past years. In comparison to the current design of virtual assistant interaction where you command the assistant to serve as a machine that can tell you objective information and predicted future, it proposes a more spiritual and subjective interaction by using the mysterious yet familiar aesthetic that crystals have. The prototype exhibited at Design Miami/ Basel was equipped with a feature that predicts the weather for you through the discourse you have with it. When a hand is placed over the mystically gleaming crystal, the crystal retrieves online weather forecast data and announces the forecast as if it is an oracle, such as “When you shine, the sun will appear and light your way.” By giving a sense of ownership and responsibility for the future to the user, we may be able to have a richer interaction with this new inhabitant in our home environment.