Protobject: A Sensing Tool for the Rapid Prototyping of UbiComp Systems

The early stages of design of novel products in the fields of smart home and internet of things are usually carried out doing trials and errors. Accordingly, design tools should be flexible and quickly adaptable to any unexpected change of context or environment. With the aim to make the early design stages of prototyping easier and more flexible, we introduce Protobject, a rapid prototyping tool able to sense interactivity with existing stationary objects letting users reinvent their usage. Protobject works as a multipurpose camera-based sensor able to recognize any visually observable properties of stationary objects around us (e.g. white goods, lights, windows, curtains). In particular, Protobject can sense their state (e.g., lights on/off) and users' interactions with them (e.g. when turning on a light).