KAIST's 'Diary-Writing' Air Purifier Receives Overseas Praise

International Conference 'Outstanding Pictorial Award' Winner

A 'diary-writing' air purifier developed by domestic researchers has received high praise in the international academic community.

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) announced on the 16th that a paper on the development of a diary-writing air purifier by Professor Nam Taekjin's industrial design team won the Honorable Mention Award, the first such recognition for a domestic team, at the international conference ‘ACM DIS (Designing Interactive Systems) 2023’.

With the advancement of artificial intelligence, smart objects believed to possess attributes such as consciousness, thoughts, and emotions are emerging. However, research on how these attributes are incorporated and manifested in objects and how they affect people remains limited worldwide.

The ACM DIS conference is one of the top academic conferences in the field of human-computer interaction and was held this year from July 10 to 14 at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA. The pictorial format at this conference refers to a new type of paper that conveys knowledge by extensively using visual materials such as annotated illustrations or photographs, rather than just text and formulas.

The research team, having first presented a pictorial paper in 2021 with the development of ‘IoTIZER,’ a device that easily converts analog products into Internet of Things (IoT) devices, achieved the first domestic paper award this year. They developed a product called ‘Areca,’ an air purifier that writes its own diary from the perspective of the object itself, and introduced the design process that defines and expresses the attribute of consciousness included in the object. As a concrete example of a future object perceived to have consciousness, they designed Areca’s hardware and interaction. By implementing a working prototype, they enabled deep reflection and exploration of the impact future objects may have on humans.

Johyung Jun, a doctoral student on the research team, said, “It seems that the high evaluation was due to presenting immaterial elements such as consciousness, which will newly emerge in the design of artifacts with the advancement of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), along with actual examples.”

Professor Nam said, “Areca is not just a simple case of turning an interesting imagination into reality but a research product that shows the prototype of highly intelligent products equipped with AI, and we will continue research on new types of smart product design.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.