Khushiyon Ka Ghar: Virtual domestic space to connect immediate families in India

Population ageing is one of the most significant trends of the 21st century. As the current trend of young adults deciding to live in their own nuclear families continues, the underlying structures of Indian society which ensured a safe and inclusive ageing is disappearing. Through this project, we are trying to connect senior citizens with their loved ones. Khushiyon ka Ghar is a project exploring interactions in a virtual domestic space modeled on real living spaces, where grand- parents and grandkids can explore, play, organize, share content and store it for ever. This ongoing project explores different approaches towards creating a virtual environment , sharing and building the experience.

Food waste is a chronic problem in India, amounting to a loss of ₹58,000 crores worth of resources per year. This project is an attempt to persuade people to not waste food without being paternalistic or bringing about policy level changes, a coercive approach that often fails to persuade people and bring about a change in their way of thinking. A more non intrusive approach would be to ‘nudge’ people in a way as non-intrusive as possible, thereby raising awareness and trying to achieve a transition from habitual behaviour to a well defined conscious action. Effect of two types of interactive installations, performative and incidental, were studied on students of IIT Bombay and the amount of individual and total food waste was recorded before and after the installation was put up at the mess. The results of the survey and the qualitative feedback reinforce the possibility of using interactive installations in achieving target behaviour.

‘An.’ is an interactive full body exercise experience platform while addressing issues such as accessibility, affordability and motivation issues for patients affected with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS). The project had two dimensions : An exercise regime with a virtual instructor and Games based on exercises. The virtual instructor demonstrated exercises, followed by the patient performing these exercises with a sensor tracking their movements and giving them necessary feedback. The system also allows patients to play games specially designed to embed exercises important for AS patients.

The project that initially started with the aim of visualizing the street sounds of Kolkata turned into the creation of an immersive exploration of the city by means of Virtual Reality. This was done through a series of ideas and design decisions based on the experience, scalability, replicability and in many cases the cost, time and constraints of current technology.  The creators went on 15 day journey of collecting data for various aspects of the city which included ambient and characteristic sounds, images, textual information and 360 degree views. The creators wanted to bring out a feeling of nostalgia for the ones who live or have lived before in Kolkata; even experience parts of the city before visiting them for ‘real’. The creators believe that VR as a medium is yet to develop a lot more before it gives a ‘real experience’ of the real. Yet it is great to give one a partial experience of the place. This experience was created through a Virtual Reality application that enables one to experience certain parts of the city from the comfort of their locale.

Mumbai’s history offers many heritage structures and historical precincts. Mumbai has 591 Heritage structures & two World Heritage sites. This project aims to offer information on these important buildings in a visually appealing way. These diverse architectural styles need to be known and appreciated by the locals. This project, targeted at the youth and at enthusiasts of Mumbai touches upon the brief history, styles and locations of the structures. It aspires to educate and to promote through a crowdsourced platform curated by experts. It also attempts to nudge locals to visit these sites and appreciate their history.  without holding cultural biases.

Ajanta is famous for its history, architecture, art, and scenic beauty. It is well-known and heavily touristed. The project aims to cater to the enthusiasts who want access to diverse information in a virtual environment from anywhere. A framework for content distribution and interaction mapping has been designed that can help in creating VR experience of the Ajanta caves. Cave no. 23 has been chosen to implement this framework and create a sample immersive VR experience.

Crawford market is one of the busiest, most densely populated and chaotic markets of Mumbai. The activities within it and the surrounding areas, such as mosques, streets, and the railway station contribute to the number and variety of sounds produced and lost in this chaos. This project focuses on bringing out the noisy essence of this market through the variety of sounds encountered within and around it. The motive was to showcase both sounds and emotions that define this space.

This is a DIY platform for motor skills rehabilitation through games, using a smartphone as game controller and a web portal to collect feedback. By gamifying the rehabilitation experience, participants are motivated to continue routines and benefit from them. The system can be assembled without investing and/or acquiring any dedicated devices, enabling accessibility and affordability. Participant data such as length of each gameplay session, frequency of session through a week, and range of motion can be/ is made available to the therapist through a web portal, where the participant’s progress can be reviewed to make informed decisions.

Socialization is the process through which humans learn to become functioning members of society. Cities foster public spaces in an attempt to meet the growing need for social interaction. But now, public spaces compete with technology to sustain face-to-face interaction. Technologies such as mobile phones and their connectivity shifts the human-human interaction into the virtual world, which lacks personal feel and distances emotions. This project establishes the need for people to interact, and ponders why they hold back due to various socio-cultural constraints. The focus of the project is to translate the capability of games to transfer conversations from online to offline modes, and thereby encourage social interaction.

“Alive!” attempts to bring a new perspective to motion comics by proposing the design of a persistent comic world. Readers have complete freedom regarding the content they wish to follow. This is different from the current scenario where only such characters as can take a title forward are constantly in the limelight. A sand-box comic world can bring diversity in content as well as create an immersive experience. Readers can live inside the fiction and experience the details of the world, its characters and how they evolved to what they are now.

PhonBk  – Design of a smarter context-based phone book visualization for mobile devices

Visual Ethnography on Tai Phake Tribe in Namphake village, Assam

Surprise travel planner

Designing Vaccination Monitoring Service

Productivity Application for Food Stalls

A Visual Ethnography on Tai Phake Tribe in Namphake village, Assam