Designing hands free interactions in Indian household kitchens


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Creator/Artist: Sanika Deshpande

Category: Interaction Design

Document: P3 Project

Batch: 2021-2023

Source: India,   IDC IIT Bombay

Period:  2019-onwards

Medium: Report pdf

Supervisor: Prof. Anirudha Joshi


Detailed Description

Cooking plays an important and essential role in our lives. Young people who have recently started living independently, though, have not had enough experience with cooking. As a result, they often rely on online recipes or call their parents for guidance. This project focuses on understanding the problems faced currently in Indian household kitchens and designing a hands-free interactive solution for the same. As per the results from primary research, three areas were identified, which were recipe assistance, assistance on multitasking, and cooking assistance, where hands-free interaction techniques can help young adults to improve their skills and enjoy cooking even more. The proposed design utilises voice-based and visual assistance through a dedicated mobile app installed on the user's device and assisted by a kitchen- camera, kitchen sensors (such as temperature sensors), and actuators (such as LED lights and beepers on the stove). The system behaves differently in various scenarios, adapting to meet the specific needs of each user. For an absolute beginner, the system offers step-by-step interaction, whereas for the intermediate users, it plays the role of an assistant, supporting and helping multi-tasking, drawing attention to things that might go wrong. To refine the final design, user evaluation was conducted using the Wizard of Oz technique. Valuable insights and feedback from the evaluation were utilised to modify the design, enhancing its overall effectiveness and user experience.