Blackberry Empathy

BlackBerry Empathy

For their sponsored project held by RIM Blackberry at the Art Center College of Design, designers Kiki and Daniel had to incorporate an interface that integrates human emotions with the concept of social networking. The result of this exercise was the Empathy concept. The phone is used in conjunction with a biometrics ring that is worn by the user to collect “emotional data”. Spec-wise it features a transparent OLED screen that becomes transparent when not in use and opaque during interaction. The front is all touch surface, while on the back there is a physical keyboard.

The concept includes a high-tech mood ring which shares biometrics data with social networks. Not only can contacts see what kind of mood you’re in based information like blood pressure, body temperature, and heart rate, but message notifications on the Empathy would colour the whole surface of the phone reflective of the mood of their sender. That same device surface colour idea would allow the phone to go clear when idle and opaque when active.

There’s also a new navigation mechanism based on a radial wheel surrounding contacts, and pinch-zooming to finding bundled people within certain subgroups, which you can see in action in the video below. A neat idea, so long as a more straightforward interface was also available. The phone looks like it has a screen on both sides (one with a stud-style keyboard), which would likely be a massive battery hog, but hey, we can skip logic for a cool idea.