Experiencing the Future of IoT at the V&A

As part of the House Training the Internet of Things (HTIoT) project from Lancaster University  Joe Lindley, Adrian Gradinar, and Paul Coulton provided a unique experience in the form of the Living Room of the Future (LRofTF) for visitors attending the Digital Design Weekend at the V&A in London.

The LRoTF platfrom was developed with PETRAS partners BBC R&D as part of the AHRC Objects of Immersion research project which explored how media broadcasters could utilise Object-Based Media (OBM) to deliver more immersive experiences to audiences in home environments. The LRoTF utilises OBM to dynamically customise radio and television content based on audiences’ personal, contextual and derived data. OBM delivers personalised viewing experiences by breaking media into smaller parts (known as ‘objects’), describing how they relate to each other semantically, and then reassembling them into many possible personalised programmes. In addition to the media-delivery aspects, the LRoTF explores data protection issues associated with OBM’s use of data, by integrating with the privacy-enhancing Databox system. Further the LRofTF extends OBM by including off the shelf and bespoke Internet of Internet of Things objects as part of the media performance in order to co-produce, with an audience, a ‘lived’ experience of the future as a form of ‘Experiential Design Fiction’.

With the support of PETRAS a new experience was created and a version of the LRofTF installed at the V&A which was designed to highlight potential futures of IoT involving Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Edge Computing. Additionally the experience highlighted research from PETRAS HTIoT project relating to designing IoT products and services that foregroud IoT data flows and algorithms and the often transactional nature of personal data production in the home.

Alongside highlighting the research of PETRAS to some of the 22,000 visitors who attended the design weekend at the V&A nearly 100 were able to experience the LRofTF installation directly and engaged in many interesting discussions around the potential adoption IoT products and in the Home.

As part of the IoT Home demonstrator a new version of the LRofTF will be installed at BRE in Watford.