SiftTV

SiftTV

SiftTV is a supplementary remote control that filters the enormous number of TV channels down to a more manageable collection, using the familiar objects users have at their side while watching TV. The project was completed, in collaboration with Liza Stark and Nicolas Cinquegrani, as part of the Lazy Bytes Remote Redesign (sponsored by EPFL+ECAL Lab in partnership with ENSCI-Les Ateliers, Royal College of Art, and Parsons The New School for Design) and was selected for exhibition and commercialization in 2012.

Our research and prototypes began with the user. A vast majority of users, especially elderly users, are often at an extreme disadvantage in operating both the remote control and the screen interface it manipulates. A multitude of buttons with small type, an unintuitive arrangement, and unknown functionality makes the act of television watching a strenuous activity. This is in direct opposition to the entertainment value users seek. By analyzing the watching habits of specific users according to time of day, associated activities and the objects related to those activities, we designed a remote that would reduce cognitive load by connecting content to a specific object.


password: simple

Inspiration & Implementation

The act of watching television has become unnecessarily crowded as content providers seek to offer more options to their users. The growth of highly customizable digitized TV content has transformed the act of watching television from a simple up/ down click into an exhaustive decision making process controlled by an increasingly cluttered user interface, manifested in both the remote control and the screen it manipulates.

In general, individual users already know the content they want to watch. Increased frustration emerges as users try to navigate toward their desired content. SIFT seeks to filter the enormous number of channels down to a more manageable collection, using the familiar objects users have at their side while watching TV.

User Scenario

SiftTV User Scenario
Users attach RFID tags as stickers or rings/ clips to their most used objects and associate them with a specified set of channels through a simple on screen interface. An RFID reader embedded in SIFT reads the object and filters content by channel. SIFT serves as a comfortable docking station for users’ objects while also managing the TV content that is available to the user at that time. The emergence of networked objects will only make it easier for users to navigate the cumbersome amount of TV channels that exist today and in the future.

Press

Featured in Wallpaper* Magazine, FastCo.Design, Bustler, NYC Media Lab, Azure Magazine, InteriorDesign.net

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