Move

A robot printer that autonomously navigates its environment to scan and print the surfaces it travels over. This could offer creative and practical possibilities for people working in everything from fabric/pattern cutting, interior design to construction and surveying through to just plain printing fun with the your kids.

In a world with a module market place this product could be more easily created from existing processor, battery and bluetooth  modules with the development of two unique models to enable the product, a printer head and a motor/wheel module. By allowing easier product development this allows ideas such as the robot printer to reach the market and allow users to find compelling uses for the product. The development of the motor/wheel module might for instance prove a "killer module" that enables other product developers to create products that the original hardware developers never dreamed of.

Ambient intelligence levels

The Ambient Monitor user interface is a physical device that visually communicates the nature of a room’s ambient intelligence and capabilities by rotating to one of three positions. Observing the technology monitoring you and your space, moment by moment, it detects the active technologies and gives you, your family, and guests a sense awareness of the changing levels of observance and intelligence. To understand what activities are possible, the etiquette to adopt and behaviours they might be comfortable with. 

I see the ambient intelligence of our future domestic spaces framed in a similar way to levels of autonomous driving in cars. Whilst cars will possibly undergo a gradual progression to full autonomy, our shared domestic spaces will need to manage variable levels of intelligence and autonomy based on the technology installed and the individuals, family groups and guests present at any one time.

Level 0 : Connected smart devices

Certain products in the room are embedded with processors, sensors, software with the ability to connect to cloud services and other devices. Examples include a smart TV, thermostat or smart light.

Level 1: User assistance

A single automated system for individual control in the room. For example, smart speakers with voice assistance to allow individual control of lighting, temperature and utilising automatic speech recognition.

Level 2: Partial intelligence

The system has a greater awareness of the surroundings and people in it and performs more complex functions through computer vision enabled by RGB and infrared cameras, radar, and Wi-Fi sensing. For instance, you might point at a particular light and asking Alexa to "dim that light" or start a fitness session automatically just by warming up and a service like Peloton would understand what you are wearing, the activity you are starting and provide a guided yoga session based on your exact real-time poses. Giving feedback to improve your practice.

Level 3: Conditional intelligence

The system has an even greater understanding of the surroundings, the objects in them and your biological condition and intentions. It will be able to make informed decisions for itself without the need for constant direct human commands or intervention and understand what you might be reading, writing or how you are feeling. As a result, the room’s environment might automatically adjust to provide you with the perfect environmental conditions. Another option is taking part in a live metaverse experience through the autonomous orchestration of our physical world with the digital world to deliver convincing immersive participatory experiences.

Thinking back from the future

The speculative design of the Ambient Monitor helps us to think back from a possible future world where we can imagine new opportunities and anticipate new challenges of our shared relationships with increasingly ambient, sentient, and invisible technology. We need to make sure we remain in control, giving us a sense of agency over our future intelligent domestic spaces as they become the location for a more radical and profound set of activities beyond screens.