The closest competitor I've found is Cisco's UMI telepresence for the Home. 
http://home.cisco.com/en-us/telepresence/umi/

• Yet, it's not an always on connection. 
• What they've done is moved the experience to your TV from your computer. 
• Expanded the camera's field of view so it's less one-on-one. 
• Uses HD video. 
• Allows for video messages for missed calls. 
• Allow for video panning and zooming.
• Controlled by a remote.

Songdo, Korea is installing it in all the city's homes?!
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/smart-takes/what-happens-when-a-green-city-ha... 

I just came across this article on Good.

There was a sentence about an open video link between IDEO and Steelcase called the "wormhole." Essentially, I found out I wasn't the first to come up with the idea of an always-on video connection.
I google searched "wormhole" and come across 3 more articles: boingboing, techweb, boston

In the article on boingboing, they actually refer to the idea as the "portal"! Naturally I was flabbergasted and seriously seriously distraught & dishearted. Here I am on the last leg of my research & I find out the idea isn't original. Well what am I to do? As I read through these articles I find my niche. I've been focusing on the in-home situation. I still have that opportunity and I know I have some novel ideas. 

Conclusion: Keep calm & carry on.

This was just the past two weeks captured of the design process. Talk about form follows function; a new form for every function!.

So here it is, my senior year's capstone project. Right now I call it the portal.

I've started the research for my capstone project. I've posted my capstone proposals on here before, but I recently developed a third proposal titled "Social Portal" that I'm very passionate about and will be pursuing.

What was the research that started?

For about a week my house "coy boys" will have a dedicated webcam to my studio friends house "triffle tower" in which will be constantly streaming. What I'm testing is the implications of a constant passive stream of communication (the always on webcam).

So far, in it's first minutes it's been going really well. People on both sides of the camera are using the stream as an extender of the living room. Both side are watching the same football game.

I hope to learn from this experience and try to do it with other friends and other types of relationships in a variety of locations.

 

 

 

it's done! (with a few minor refinements yet to be made).

This quarters Design Communications class came to a close with a video and a poster. My group consisted of Alex Broerman, James Sloss, & myself. Our focus was on sensationlism. We called our line Fiction; designed as a sub-brand of GAP.

 

almost there.

milling is complete. led test with acrylic pieces. Looks like something out of "the rock" right?