Briefing
Design and develop an Absurd Device/Gadget/SmartObject for the first "Absurd Hotel" to be opened in Japan.This will be a partnership between Kenya Hara (原 研哉) and Kenji Kawakami (川上 賢司).The hotel will also have a Gift Shop where some of the absurd inventions can be purchased by the guests.
Ideation
Since the hotel is set to open in Japan, we drew inspiration from the Japanese custom of bowing, a gesture deeply rooted in Japanese culture as a polite form of greeting—much like handshakes in China or cheek kisses in Western cultures. This led us to brainstorm ways to incorporate the essence of this gesture into our project. We focused on the ubiquitous table lamp often found in hotel rooms, an object people interact with almost immediately upon entering. We envisioned a lamp that responds to a guest’s respectful bow—a symbolic act of gratitude for its role in illuminating the room. This interaction would not only echo the bowing tradition but also create a warm and personalized experience. From this, the concept of "The Bowing Lamp" was born, which blends cultural significance with functional design.
Mechanism Design
To establish communication between the human's bowing gesture and the lamp's responsive bow, we utilized two Arduino boards. One board detects and transmits the bowing gesture signal, while the other receives the signal and triggers the lamp’s bowing motion. For wireless communication between the boards, we selected Bluetooth as the medium. Since bowing involves bending the upper body, we incorporated a gyroscope to measure the angle of the human head during the gesture. When a full bow is detected, the signal is transmitted to the lamp.
We used the Arduino Nano 33 BLE and leveraged its embedded gyroscope as the sensor for detecting the bowing angle. On the lamp side, another Arduino Nano 33 BLE was employed. This second board controlled both the bowing motion of the lamp via a servo motor and the activation of the light with an LED. This integration ensured that the lamp not only bowed in response to the user but also illuminated as a gesture of reciprocation.