The Dream Machine

Designing with AI
Interaction Design
Design for Behaviour Change
Prototyping
Group Project
2022
Illustration of person with thoughts coming out of the head

Project description

The Dream Machine is a design concept that uses AI and interaction design to help people clear their minds. Many people struggle with ruminating on thoughts, especially before falling asleep. Usually, people process their thoughts and impressions from the day during sleep, which can manifest itself through dreaming. Can this processing be supported by machine learning to help people process their thoughts? Can it help people see new perspectives, and close their days with more ease and mental space?
The Dream Machine makes people’s daily thoughts tangible and collects them through voice. At the end of the day, it is designed for slow and reflective interactions by users inputting their thoughts and “seeing” them being processed by the machine. I wrote a JS program that converted user input into emotional states to guide them through questions reflecting on their thoughts. The program then used Rytr (https://rytr.me) and DALL-E 2 to create a reflection card that held both a story and a picture created by AI based on their daily thoughts. This reflection card could be kept and stored for further reflection. The project was implemented as an interactive exhibition as seen in a sketch below.
Ai-generated content has intrinsic qualities triggering reflection such as Abstraction, unreality, and ambiguity.
Illustration of person talking to a marbleIllustration of hand putting a marble into the dream machineIllustration of a hand taking a card out of the dream machineAn illustration of the dream machine with a dream cardSketch of dream machine functioningSketch of the interaction with the dream machine at the exhibition