Snap-a-tron Ultra 2000 Deluxe

Context

During my time at Kaliber, I had the opportunity to design and develop a redesign for their interactive installation, the Snap-a-tron Ultra 2000 Deluxe. 

Their building houses an antique telephone exchange that has been converted into an AI art machine which uses plugs and Polaroids to transfer AI from your screen to your hand. The physical AI machine turns your photo into a digital work of art by ‘prompting’ the AI using the plugs on the control unit.

Read more about it on the casepage.

Design

I examined the current functionality of the Snap-a-tron, its design and its interactions.

For the redesign, I decided to build on the original challenge: how to let people experience AI through touch and feel rather than on a screen.

Research was conducted into the original operation of the telephone exchange and the timeline of interactions linked to the Snap-a-tron. On top of this, a synthwave style was chosen, which fits well with the combination of retro and futuristic elements.

Development

To develop the design for the Snap-a-tron, the existing tech stack was used, so that only a new design needs to be implemented on the Arduino connections.

The tech stack consists of the Kaliber build with React and Express as frameworks. I also used Rive to animate interactive graphics. This is reflected in the grid that serves as feedback for the user, who can use it to gauge how far along they are in the process.