Plant Shadow Morphing As a Peripheral Display

The amount of status and notification information available topeople is increasing beyond the capacity of the current primarydelivery channel of smartphones. Ambient displays, e.g. embeddedin the home or work environment present an alternative channel,suited to less critical information. We created an ambient displayby manipulating the natural shadows cast by a house plant to carryinformation. To explore user perceptions of the shadow display weevaluated it in a focus group (n = 6). Whilst participants saw somepotential in the approach, there were concerns about identifying themeaning of the display and the psychological effects of distortingreality. The work highlights the potential for designers to explorethe use of functional shadows to carry non-critical information.