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Cupra Ferro — A fluid intelligence co-existing in a vehicle.

Scope

Together with Cupra and the Transportation Design program at UID, we explored what future sensorial in-car experiences could look like.

Experience Prototype

We explored how a ferro fluid could co-exist in a vehicle, and represent intelligence in a more abstract way. It moves throughout the vehicle, changes shape and expresses intionality to express itself to the humans inside of the vehicle.

The user changes the shape of the steering wheel when going from driving to speed mode, the driving information moves accordingly from the dashboard to the HUD.

Autonomous -> Driving -> Speed

The driver enters the centre console when requesting driving information from the fluid about the autonomous journey, the fluid shows its shift of focus accordingly.

Autonomous -> Touching -> Status

I created the ferro fluid animations using Blender, combined them with the interface elements in ProtoPie, and projection mapped that onto the physical model. The UI was done by Marie, the CAD by Nikita.

Ferro Fluid Explorations

We experimented with various types of ferro fluids, trying different proportions of the chemicals and carrying liquids to explore the behavior and aesthetics of this material.

Ferro fluid made using iron powder and motor oil, on a speaker magnet.

Project Info

10 weeks, autumn 2023
Interaction Concept
Umeå Institute of Design

Team

Marie Spreitzer
Nikitia Zatonskiy

Partner

Cupra