A Versatile Mechanical Hijacking Device for Creating Internet of Old Things

ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS '21)

Co-Author

Mechanical hijacking of physical interfaces is a cost-effective method for providing an Internet of Things (IoT) experience. However, existing mechanical hijacking devices (MHD) have limited applicability and usability. This pictorial introduces a research through design project on IoTIZER, which is easy to use and versatile MHD. We report on a design process from identifying a design space, conducting an iterative design and prototyping. We present the final design’s hardware, software, and usage scenario and implementation details. We also share lessons from a user study with eight households. The potential value of IoTIZER were appreciated as a versatile MHD. We discuss improvement areas of IoTIZER and implications for creating an IoT environment while preserving the existing conventions.

Internet of Things (IoT), Internet of Old Things, Mechanical Hijacking, Product Augmentation, Technology Probes, Research through Design