Winner Young Creatives
MonkeyBots
Small IoT Robots turn digital events physical.
Designed by Georg Kloeck and Mohammad Moradi
About the project.
Smartphones are amazing. Their notifications, reminders and nudges create the rhythm of modern life - yet each push-notification tears us from the physical world back behind the screen, where our attention gets hijacked and we lose time and energy.
MonkeyBots are small IoT Robots that free your digital events from your phone and turn them into movement in the physical world. MonkeyBots can click analog switches, rattle pills or hit the Gong in order to poetically remind you of important things or automate your daily routines. MonkeyBots come with an array of sustainably 3D printed add-ons to grip, push, hit or click almost anything.
MonkeyBots are not another creepy IoT product that steals your attention and sells your data. MonkeyBots enhance the human experience by adding a digital layer into the physical world: Retrofitting your beloved coffee-maker from the 1970s to your sleep-cycle app or connecting Grandmas picture to your call history – turning away, when you forget to call.
MonkeyBots are only connected to your phone by Bluetooth-Low-Energy and have no microphones, no cameras - making it impossible to spy on you. Your phone can access the internet‘s rich selection of useful APIs, automations and events, but with BLE connection MonkeyBots only move if you (and your phone) are close by.
Good design is unobtrusive: An off-white square can stand on 5 sides with a LEGO compatible side on the bottom and a big plus on top to add different tools. Each tool is 3D printed in one extrusion, leveraging compliant mechanisms to work without moving parts. Printed from organic PLA or recycled PET MonkeyBots tools can be manufactured in unique colors to fit different living environments. Life is richer when your phone’s blue light fades and metallic pings silence. Get MonkeyBots and let the phone stay in your pocket.
Let’s-get-physical
Jury statement.
"The jury really liked how MonkeyBots is bringing the physical and the virtual world together in our everyday lives – it’s very emotional, funny, and sometimes very serious. These simple movements of physical things around you can connect you with others or can remind you of something – and depending on how you program this – it can really bring the virtual in your life to life differently. Not just on your smart phone, or on your computer or your TVs. I find it’s a brilliant idea, a playful concept – it created a lot of laughs in the jury. It’s a tool for your creativity with endless possibilities.“ – Prof. Oliver Grabes
Georg Kloeck
Weißensee School of Art and Design, Germany, Product Design
Georg Kloeck
Mohammad Moradi
Weißensee School of Art and Design, Germany, BA Product Design & MA Interaction Design
Mohammad Moradi