Funder: Gateshead Council

Team: Sam Nemeth, Lars Erik Holmquist (Northumbria University); PROTO Emerging Technologies Centre; Northern Design Centre.

Timeframe: 2018-2020

To evaluate the use of embodied tangible interfaces we designed a bespoke telepresence system for the reception desk of the new PROTO emerging technology lab in Gateshead, UK. This system facilitates the monitoring and servicing of the PROTO reception desk from another location, at the moment an adjacent office building, the Baltimore House. The PROTO lab is an incubator for the creative industry with a variety of activities. This implies that the reception desk is a vital part of the organisation with a number of typical user scenarios.

This setup allows us to study an embodied tangible interface in a real-life context over a longer period of time, in these user scenarios, assessing the added value of tangibles in a simple bespoke system.