SEDIA_2

The future of intelligent living, at the edge

Exploring the future of intelligent living through edge computing, with a stool you can build, train and live with.

Sedia_2 Intelligence Unit set into the timber seat: RGB light, speaker and the chunky learn switch

Sedia_2 is a DIY / AI stool, inspired by Enzo Mari's work "Auto progettazione". Sedia is more than a stool though, it’s a decentralised intelligence, and all it wants in life is to have polite friends that sit on it.

Sedia_2 moodboard: Enzo Mari's Autoprogettazione chair, edge computing boards and voice assistant references

Enzo Mari assembling a Sedia 1 chair from his Autoprogettazione series, the reference behind Sedia_2

Isometric line drawing of the Sedia_2 stool and its intelligence unit

Sedia_2 technical drawings: elevations, cut list and assembly parts

‍All you need to build your own Sedia_2 is some cut timber, screws, a drill and a Sedia_2 Intelligence Unit (SIU). Building the chair reinforces your relationship with the object, and allows you to appreciate its engineering, a given in our post-Mari IKEA world.

The SUI contains 4 elements: 1) An RGB light, 2) A speaker, 3) A chunky learn switch, and 4) An edge computing system with an onboard AI. Teach Sedia_2 to recognise people by talking to it when the learn switch is on. Read it short poems and stories to reinforce your bond, and watch it interact with you as it grows.

Sedia_2 rendered in cut timber with its yellow power cable

Sedia_2 interaction flow: build and power it, activate the learn switch, read it poems, teach it new voices

We believe that AI, just like any other technology before it requires empathic design in order to ensure a more transparent future in which humans will co-exist with intelligent machines. Sedia_2 is a small experiment today, but may be coming to a living room near you very soon.

Building Sedia_2 in the workshop: the timber frame clamped and drilled

Building Sedia_2: fitting the seat boards to the frame

Building Sedia_2: assembling the timber frame and fitting the intelligence unit

LUII open-source Braille learning tablet for kids, by Alexis Bardini

Noones app wallet screen in pixel-art green, Bitcoin super app by Alexis Bardini

Ash AI Pokedex open, showing bee recognition on screen

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SEDIA_2

The future of intelligent living, at the edge

Exploring the future of intelligent living through edge computing, with a stool you can build, train and live with.

THE CHALLENGE

A self-initiated FINH project from before GPT, asking a speculative question: if AI came into the home, how intelligent would it be, and what would it mean to live with it? Sedia_2 explores the companionship of making, training and living with smart furniture you built yourself, and learned to love. It's a DIY AI stool inspired by Enzo Mari's Sedia Uno, built from cut timber, screws and a Sedia_2 Intelligence Unit. Through light and sound it learns who you are and who else is in the room. It responds, sings songs, is happy when sat on and sad when left alone.

THE OUTCOME

The intelligence is local, not cloud-based, running on the Google Coral platform with custom electronics. We did the design, research and first models in London, then took it to manufacture in Milan. Made by a team of three: I worked across design and creative technology.

Client: Self-initiated
Year: 2022
Sector: Ai, Hardware, Technology
Agency: FINH
Type: Physical
Role: Industrial Designer & Creative Technologist
Outcome: ID, IXD, Ai, UX