Funbrella: recording and replaying vibrations through an umbrella axis

We propose an umbrella-like device called Funbrella that entertains people with many types of rain by focusing on an umbrella as a user interface that connects humans and rain. Generally, people experience rain with sound, sight, or sometimes smell; however, in our proposed system, we focus on the vibration perceived through an umbrella’s handle so that people can feel the rain. We implemented a vibration-giving mechanism with an extremely simple structure based on a dynamic microphone and a dynamic speaker whose structures are almost identical. With this structure, Funbrella records the vibrations caused by raindrops and plays them. We implemented three applications: Crazy Rain, Tele-rain, and Minibrella. A questionnaire study about Crazy Rain application reveals that Funbrella is amusing enough for people regardless of age or gender because Funbrella accurately reproduces rain. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.5.2 [Information interfaces and presentation]: User Interface – H...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: ACMACE
• Authors: Kazuyuki Fujita, Yuichi Itoh, Ai Yoshida, Maya Ozaki, Tetsuya Kikukawa, Ryo Fukazawa, Kazuki Takashima, Yoshifumi Kitamura, Fumio Kishino
• Keywords: ACMACE 2009, Computer Entertainment Technology, Crazy Rain, People Experience Rain, User Interface