I want to create experiences that feel magical. Note that I don't mean "magical" in the same way that Apple might use "magical" to describe their products—it's more Harry Potter than that.
There are two different kinds of magic that I'm fascinated by:
Magic that yields an unexpected narrative: Imagine walking into your office only to unexpectedly find all of your co-workers have somehow been transformed into centaurs.
Magic that yields unexpected power: Imagine that you were given the ability to transform anyone into a centaur at will.
Because of the word constraint, I will just propose just one project here which embodies the the magic that yields an unexpected narrative. See the video for another project idea around magic that yields unexpected power.
Imagine you're at a cafe and trying to connect to Wi-Fi. You see a network called "Do Not Connect".
Click... you're connected.
A splash screen opens that reads:
You have stumbled into the Regnevacs Project
This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. If you click the blue 'decline' button or disconnect, the story ends, you will not be able to connect to this wireless network again. If you click the red 'accept' button, you stay in Wonderland and we will show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.
You click the red button.
On the screen you read:
Follow the white rabbit. knock42times
At the bottom of your screen you see numbers counting down:
60...
59...
58...
You quickly take a screenshot.
0
Your computer is disconnected. You try reconnecting—but to no avail.
You search for "white rabbit" on Google. You see these two results:
White Rabbit Tattoo Studio on 121 Essex St.
White Rabbit Tattoo on 249 E 10th St.
You quickly bike over to the first address. You open your laptop. And there it is, a password protected Wi-Fi network called "Down The Rabbit Hole"! You're asked for a password.
Hmmm... You type in "knock42times"
You're connected...
It is a scavenger hunt across NYC. Clues direct you from one Wi-Fi router to another.
Raspberry Pi based Wi-Fi Routers. A router will be about the size of a pack of dryer sheets and can run off battery or AC power.
- Most Regnevac routers are password protected. You need the clue from the previous router to connect to the next.
- Some routers will remember the MAC address of the device that connected to it so that the device cannot reconnect twice.
- Some routers may only be turned on at certain times of the day.
- The password of the Wi-Fi router may change over time, say based on the weather reported by weather.gov or the day of the week.
- To expand the number of places people can stumble into the first clue, every router will also broadcast the first clue on a network called "Do Not Connect"
- The router is connected to the internet so that (1) the Regnevacs Network can be reconfigured remotely and (2) uptime can be ensured