GAKU - The Interactive Digital Picture Frame That Talks
Gaku is a stand-alone device that connects grandparents and grandchildren allowing them to share photos, video and recorded messages through an intimate and personal device.
Gaku is a stand-alone device that connects grandparents and grandchildren allowing them to share photos, video and recorded messages through an intimate and personal device.
Gaku digitally unites grandparents and grandchildren with meaningful,
real life connection.
In 2008, I accepted a post-graduate scholarship to attend the Canadian Film Centre's Interactive Art & Entertainment Program. It was a 5 month intensive residency that exposed our small class of 6 hand picked students to a huge palate of interactive new media forms. Based on a challenging theoretical and practical curriculum, we were privileged to learn from a faculty of top notch media experts, all geared toward the completion of an interactive prototype within a team dynamic.
Gaku was the result of our teams resonance around the idea of "remote presence" and our desire to provide a solution to the problem of being separated from your loved ones, and root relationships. We wanted to augment an authentic experience of feeling close to a loved one who is separated by distance. With the stringent limitations of a 10 week production period and an $800 budget, we achieved far beyond these barriers, creating a device which continues to garner the primary reaction of, "Where do I buy it? How much does it cost?"
Gaku is a stand-alone device that connects grandparents and grandchildren allowing them to share photos, video and recorded messages through an intimate and personal device. With substantial user testing and demographic/ market research we created an intuitive, easy-to-use, and aesthetically pleasing device that highlighted the relationship over the blandness and complexity of technology. From both an artistic and emotional vein as well as a market and business analysis, Gaku was and is a success as an original, compelling, and totally functional solution to this emotionally charged problem.
A big tip of the hat to Howard Suissa of Suissa Computers for his assistance in realizing our unique design for this wood encased digital picture frame that invites touch.
The intellecis a stand-alone device that connects grandparents and grandchildren allowing them to share photos, video and recorded messages through an intimate and personal device.
real life connection.
In 2008, I accepted a post-graduate scholarship to attend the Canadian Film Centre's Interactive Art & Entertainment Program. It was a 5 month intensive residency that exposed our small class of 6 hand picked students to a huge palate of interactive new media forms. Based on a challenging theoretical and practical curriculum, we were privileged to learn from a faculty of top notch media experts, all geared toward the completion of an interactive prototype within a team dynamic.
Gaku was the result of our teams resonance around the idea of "remote presence" and our desire to provide a solution to the problem of being separated from your loved ones, and root relationships. We wanted to augment an authentic experience of feeling close to a loved one who is separated by distance. With the stringent limitations of a 10 week production period and an $800 budget, we achieved far beyond these barriers, creating a device which continues to garner the primary reaction of, "Where do I buy it? How much does it cost?"
Gaku is a stand-alone device that connects grandparents and grandchildren allowing them to share photos, video and recorded messages through an intimate and personal device. With substantial user testing and demographic/ market research we created an intuitive, easy-to-use, and aesthetically pleasing device that highlighted the relationship over the blandness and complexity of technology. From both an artistic and emotional vein as well as a market and business analysis, Gaku was and is a success as an original, compelling, and totally functional solution to this emotionally charged problem.
A big tip of the hat to Howard Suissa of Suissa Computers for his assistance in realizing our unique design for this wood encased digital picture frame that invites touch.
The intellecis a stand-alone device that connects grandparents and grandchildren allowing them to share photos, video and recorded messages through an intimate and personal device.
SCREEN CAPTURES
