The iFortune

Short Description The iFortune is a Playful Kitchen Appliance. The function of this device is to wash a coffee or tea mug, inserted into it by the user, and provide a short 'fortune', tailored to match the user's percieved mood. The fortune is generated by 'reading' the coffee grounds or tea leaves at the bottom of the cup.
The iFortune also examines cultural images associated with food, and tries to find a place for low-key spirituality in the kitchen.
Project Goals Design Creating the iFortune is an exercise in human-centered design. By providing its user with both functionality and a novel experience, the iFortune pushes its user to reflect on his or her relationship with other, purely functional kitchen appliances, as well as with technology in general.

Technical The most interesting technical challenge involved with creating the iFortune is working out a Natural Language Generation algorithm that will map from a digital photo of the coffee grounds or tea leaves at the bottom of a user's cup, as well as the user's percieved emotional state, to an appropriate 'fortune'.

Final Design
Click here to see the iFortune hardware setup. The grounds or leaves on the bottom of the cup are photographed by an eyeModule digital camera that plugs into a Visor Platinum handheld. The Visor generates the fortune and sends it to a Datecs PP-50 handheld printer to be printed.

The following are drawings of the final iFortune design, and related commentary:
(front view)
(side view with cut-away)


Click here for a short list of fortunes the iFortune has generated, and read a brief description of the fortune-generation algorithm.
 
The iFortune is sponsored by a grant from the NSF