Buttons & Dials

Personal-touchscreen devices (phones/tablets) are increasingly used to control connected devices in the home. These are versatile but limited and shallow in their interaction capabilities — especially in a shared space like the home or office. Why must someone be authenticated to change the volume of the stereo?

These devices were an exploration in physical interface elements for cloud services. Each is a wifi-connected UI element with a RESTful API. The turn of a dial is configured to dim the lights or decrease the volume of Spotify streaming to wireless speakers.

The buttons contain RGB LEDs to help identify the function of the buttons. For example, in my home the buttons change color to show the next 4 trains arriving at nearby stations. A touch of the button sends the train details to my phone.