Sanya Rai

Mobile payments are expected to reach $670 billion by 2015 and there will be more than 300 million NFC-capable smartphones by the end of 2014. The world is going cashless. Current cashless transaction methods are monotonous and inexpressive. They provide little or no feedback on how we are paying. Moreover, we pay exactly the same way, whether we buy a banana or a car: touch/ enter PIN and go.

The Art of Paying is an experimental project exploring how we can create a contextually-aware sense of scale and meaningful feedback in transactions. It is designed to change the perception of paying from a mere action that marks the end of a task to a bridge that connects your previous experience to your next. For example, when you bought groceries in the evening, what if you were also given suggestions of recipes possible with what you just bought?

My final experiment looks at how we can utilise the context of a transaction - person, place, time and products purchased - to generate meaningful feedback that is personalised to the user. 

Amoeba (group project)

With increasing numbers of digital interactions, we are constantly bombarded with vast amounts of data. Organising all this data is hard, even though we are already processing it unconsciously.

Amoeba is the result of an experimental project that was aimed at finding new ways of navigating through large blocks of digital data. It was exhibited at the Work-in-progress Show 2014 at the Royal College of Art, London. It was also recently featured on Dezeen, CNET, Gizmodo, SkyNews and many other design and technology blogs across the globe.

Amoeba records changes in three bio-parameters breathing rate, pupil size and skin conductance to analyse content by interest and presents it through a simple, interactive interface.