Coaster to coaster: Jack Weedon demonstrates his communicative beer coasters with Sara Smith, another student from Newcastle University’s Culture Lab.
Credit: Newcastle UniversityCommunications
Let Your Coaster Do the Talking
An interactive surface encourages conversation by letting coasters communicate.
- Tuesday, December 7, 2010
- By Duncan Graham-Rowe
Once the hallmark of lonely barflies, playing with your beer coaster could actually help you socialize, thanks to a smart bar surface that brings ordinary coasters to life.
The coasters communicate by sending messages across the surface. The messages are meant to act as icebreakers between bar patrons, says Tom Bartindale, who invented the coasters with fellow postgraduate student Jack Weeden at Newcastle University's Culture Lab. "It's a starting point for an actual conversation," Bartindale says.
Great thinking in this prototype around embedding smarts into specific context. Check out the full article at http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/26833/?nlid=3855&a=f
