PillowTalk: can we afford intimacy?

This paper describes the move.me interaction prototype developed in conjunction with V2_lab in Rotterdam. move.me proposes a scenario for social interaction and the notion of social intimacy. Interaction with sensory--enhanced, soft, pliable, tactile, throw-able cushions afford new approaches to pleasure, movement and play. A somatics approach to touch and kinaesthesia provides an underlying design framework. The technology developed for move.me uses the surface of the cushion as an intelligent tactile interface. Making use of a movement analysis system called Laban Effort-Shape, we have developed a model that provides a high-level interpretation of varying qualities of touch and motion trajectory. We describe the notion of social intimacy, and how we model it through techniques in somatics and performance practice. We describe the underlying concepts of move.me and its motivations. We illustrate the structural layers of interaction and related technical detail. Finally, we discuss the related body of work in the context of evaluating our approach and conclude with plans for future work