Moov

Graduation show of the IDII in Milan, project number 7!

Hayat Benchenaa‘s thesis is about the experience of moving to another country, adapting and learning about a new environment and how to make the whole process as trauma-free as possible.

The Moov service service is made of a series of elements, which can be physical products such as boxes and mail but also a website, an SMS service, and a community.

11moooooov.jpg22moooov.jpg

The MOOV website is a place to meet people, exchange experiences, give tips and suggestions about places. It will also provide the “mover” with all the information needed: notify that the water will be turned off this afternoon or that their electricity has been turned on in their new home, etc.

Hayat designed a range of packing tools which help make the whole moving experience more playful.

The Boxes and Packing elements of the service feature various degrees of technology:

– The no technology box is a regular moving box with holes in it to look right through and see what is inside.

– The second version of the box helps you organize your belongings by logging them into a data base or organizing them in groups. You would get a regular box and large stickers. On your personal page on the website there is an area where you can log all your belongings which is linked to this boxing method.

– the most technological boxes are using RFID tags which are stickers that come in a booklet. The stickers can mark special things such as documents, your favorite plates or anything important. Once the boxes are packed you can scan the boxes with an RFID reader that will alert you when it comes past a tag. The reader (like the Nokia 3220 model that can be fitted with a RFID shell) will inform you what the tag is linked to.

00stamp.jpg22stamp.jpgUsing the Moovstamp to record the content of a box

Another MOOV object is the MOOVSTAMP that helps create a database of boxes and objects. First you stamp the box or item which gives the item a number, which is linked to the computer through bluetooth. Once the item has been stamped the voice recording is activated so you can name the item and leave a message with it. The message is linked to the digital number and transferred to the database on your computer and the MOOV website. You could stamp a box and name it like this “ Box 2� then while you are packing you can keep talking into the stamp “the family photo album, the 2003 phone book, my expired passports� this way when you look at your database you can find back the box number and what is in it. The speech to voice software will transform your messages into text, so you can look back and read it.

There are several other components of MOOV, i won’t list them all but i’ll end up my mentioning the “first and last meal” service, the SMS system to help you navigate your new home town and another service which takes care of the appliances and objects that you won’t take with you in your new house (like a tv set that you can’t take to France because it doesn’t match the voltage in the UK) but could be useful to others.

Video scenario. Images from the IDII show.