Omi
2025/9- 2025/12
A PAIRED DEVICE THAT TRANSLATES TOUCH INTO GENTLE MOVEMENTS AND LIGHT PATTERNS, LETTING PARTNERS SHARE SMALL MOMENTS OF CLOSENESS ACROSS DISTANCE.
Product Design · System Design · Prototyping
Overview
This project explores how physical interaction can support emotional connection in long-distance relationships. The device translates touch into gentle movement and soft light, allowing partners to share small moments of presence even when they are far apart.
The system includes two paired devices connected over Wi-Fi. When one person touches their device, the other responds in real time with synchronized light and ferrofluid movement. Through subtle gestures and ambient feedback, the design creates a quiet sense of closeness across distance.
Type
Interaction Design
Product Design
SUMMARY
Problem — Long-distance relationships lack subtle, everyday ways to feel each other’s presence.
Approach — Designed a pair of connected devices that translate touch into synchronized light and movement.
Outcome — Creates a quiet, ambient sense of closeness across distance.
Problem
Long-distance relationships challenge emotional presence.
Research suggests that millions of couples worldwide maintain long-distance relationships, relying primarily on messaging and video calls. While these tools enable communication, they demand attention and can feel effortful over time. Physical objects, on the other hand, provide only one-sided comfort.
The real issue is not a lack of communication, but the absence of subtle, continuous ways to feel connected without effort.
PROCESS
Exploration
We explored how emotional connection could be expressed through form, material, and movement.
Early studies referenced natural forms such as stones and clouds, focusing on soft, familiar qualities that evoke care, warmth, and closeness.
We then introduced ferrofluid to amplify motion and responsiveness, testing how it could be integrated within different forms. A web-based simulation was also developed to explore gesture-based interaction and evaluate how movement could convey a sense of presence.
Guided by these explorations, we defined the object as a paired system—two independent forms that naturally fit together, creating a shared and meaningful representation of connection.
Prototyping
3D modeling and printed prototypes helped us test shapes and textures that support simple movement and feel natural in the hand.
Testing
We invited 18 users to shape clay to the curve that felt most comfortable in their hand, documenting each preferred gesture and contour. We then overlayed all these curves together to get a shared, universal arc that defines our product’s form.
Iteration
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System
Through iterative prototyping, we evaluated network stability, pin availability, power delivery, and cable management within the enclosure. We ultimately selected the UNO R4 for its 5V support, increased pin capacity, and improved hardware integration, enabling a more stable and scalable system.
outcome
The final system enables two users in different locations to interact through paired devices connected over Wi-Fi. Touch input triggers synchronized light behavior and ferrofluid movement, allowing actions on one device to be reflected on the other in real time. Through subtle gestures, dynamic fluid motion, and ambient feedback, the prototype creates a shared, tactile sense of presence and emotional connection across distance.