Living interfaces: the impatient toaster

This paper introduces the Impatient Toaster, a kitchen appliance designed to motivate its owners to eat more often and in regular intervals: After not using it for a while, it signalizes hunger through nervous movements. This project sought to explore life-like behaviour as a means of increasing user’s sympathy for everyday objects. We present a prototype that was informally tested with six participants in a situated user test. The results indicate that sympathy and perceived cuteness can arise from life-like movements that, as we propose, represent an object’s will of its own. This work is part of a larger series of experiments in the Living Interfaces project, exploring ways in which reduced life-like movements can be beneficial for Human-Machine Interaction. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.5.2 [User Interfaces]: Haptic I/O, Prototyping General Terms Design, Human Factors Keywords Interface Design, Living Interfaces, Emotional Interaction, Kitchen Appliance

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: TEI
• Authors: Eva Burneleit, Fabian Hemmert, Reto Wettach
• Keywords: Hardware, Kitchen Appliance, Life-like Behaviour, Life-like Movements, TEI 2009