As founder and director, I’m excited to announce the Homeware Lab — a 1200 square ft world-class design research lab and studio that offers world-class facilities to the design and study of radically new kinds of forms, materials and technologies for the emerging Internet-of-Things paradigm. The term Homeware aims to challenge ideas of what ‘home’ is and what ought to constitute a ‘domestic technology’ through designing new technologies that connect materials and forms of domestic artifacts (e.g., tableware) with embedded and networked software and hardware. Supported by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Homeware lab provides dedicated access to state of the art equipment to support electronics prototyping, digital fabrication, finishing and assembly, and field study documentation of new IoT research prototypes and products.
The following is taken from the SFU university-wide press release:
The new lab will be the first of its kind in the country, enabling researchers to efficiently translate people’s experiences with everyday analog objects to design of new IoT artifacts. The lab will develop and refine integrative design processes for creating, producing, testing IoT artifacts and embedded systems, and studying them in real-world contexts.
“This research requires a laboratory to support the rapid iterations between and across the design and production stages of prototyping, fabrication, assembly, finishing, and deploying research products,” says Odom, who is also co-director of the Everyday Design Studio.” The lab will be unique in Canada and rare in the world.”
With the rapid progression towards the IoT, Odom says there is an increasing demand to develop new approaches to IoT systems that “match the real-world needs and living situations of Canadians in ways that are user-driven, beneficial, and offer sustained value over time.”
In addition to training the next generation of scientists and designers, Dr. Odom’s research will advance knowledge related to producing futuristic interactive technologies to directly catalyze the emerging Canadian IoT digital economy, an area of national strategic importance.
“Knowledge and technology will be transferred effectively through collaboration with end-users in local, national, and international industry, the community of human-computer interaction and design researchers and practitioners, and educational communities,” he notes. “Ultimately, the availability of IoT technology integrated into people’s everyday domestic lives will provide significant health and security benefits for Canadians.”