Playful Home is an ecosystem that utilizes domestic space as a site for creative engagement. Rather than replacing existing infrastructure, Playful Home acts as an interaction layer that leverages standard smart home systems. While contemporary smart homes focus on utility through automated thermostats and functional lighting, this project challenges the functionality paradigm by prioritizing the playfulness of interaction over the efficiency of the outcome.

Wobbles serve as the primary tool for developing the Playful Home. They constitute a collection of wireless tangible interfaces that convert physical gestures, such as tilting, spinning, or moving, into expressive digital data streams. Designed as seemingly unassuming objects for domestic spaces, they utilize Wi-Fi and Open Sound Control (OSC) protocols to bridge the gap between physical input and the digital response. This allows the user to affect their ambient media by controlling generative soundscapes in VCV Rack and adjusting environmental lighting via OpenHue and Philips Hue bulbs.

The research follows a Research through Design (RtD) methodology, employing iterative prototyping through circuitry, code, 3D-printed objects and systems design to refine the relationship between tactile input and environmental feedback. Drawing inspiration from the fields of Tangible User Interfaces (TUI), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and creative Internet of Things (IoT) projects, the project moves away from the remote-control nature of standard IoT devices. The result is a playfully engaging environment where Wobbles co-exist within the home as expressive tools that encourage an open-ended, exploratory relationship with the space we inhabit.

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