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QLeaves is a system for distributing and sharing user-generated digital media through physical objects (as in Ishii, 1997, Jacobs, 2003 and Ljungstrand, 2000) in public spaces like cafés and bookstores. We are motivated by a desire to add vibrancy to places in modern buildings that are typically sterile and impersonal. They are clean and maintained thus sometimes lacking indicators of culture and history beyond what is fabricated for presentation purposes. An information space created by users of a place could better represent its culture and history.
Inspired by the ubiquity of fake indoor plants, the leaf was chosen as an object through which digital media or messages can be distributed. The QLeaf is a leaf shaped card printed with two QRcodes encoding a URL and an email address with which people may read and write digital messages and photos to and from the leaf object using a mobile phone's email and web browsing capabilities.
An initial prototype of the QLeaves system included:
Six different QLeaf designs and 100 QLeaves produced, each having a unique id and capable of containing unique information.
QLeaves server software for managing the reading and writing of messages to the QLeaves from a mobile phone.
A Flash visualization of the 100 QLeaves, indicating the current message status of each (message existence, age, etc).
This working prototype was presented at a public research forum, SFC ORF 2006, and as a technical demonstration at Interaction 2007 (links in Japanese). We received good reception to the use of physical objects as digital information containers and to the leaf designs as well as abundant feedback from visitors on how they would like to use QLeaves. Afterwards, we were invited to exhibit a new version of QLeaves in The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan) in Tokyo, Japan.
For this exhibit, QLeaves was redesigned to be used as a questionnaire system during a special event at Miraikan. Twelve leaves were designed, each one posing a different question that could be responded in free form or in multiple choice by sending an email to the address encoded in the selected choice's QRcode. Below are three of the QLeaves designed for Miraikan (click to view larger).
The QLeaves exhibit was set up to be used during a five-day period by visitors to a special nature-themed presentation. Visitors could respond to survey questions about the presentation, questions about QLeaves, as well as a few fun, personal questions with their own mobile phones. They could also use their phones to view response left by previous visitors. We observed QLeaf usage with goals of better understanding issues such as privacy, user motivation and information awareness as related to systems for distributing user-generated digital content in public spaces.
