Our lives are bombarded by a constant stream of digital communication. According to Copenhagen Institute of Interactive Design students Dhruv Saxena, Gunes Kantaroglu and John Ferreira, the obligation to immediately respond to these messages is hugely disruptive to your workday. Their clever invention, Mail Man Barry, is a perceptive transmitting device built to act as a middleman or bouncer between you and the people communicating with you.
Barry is designed with a GSM module – a modem-like gadget, which enables the management of incoming messages and email accounts. Any information received from these platforms is automatically filtered according to the user’s preferences. Senders and subjects that the user deems important will be wired into Barry’s operating system, so that he knows to notice messages from your mother or a “thinking of you” from a travelling friend.
Barry is made to be in tune with the user’s moods, and can track activity around the house via sound and movement receptors. Peace and quiet is Barry’s signal that the user is relaxed and is ready to receive the unanswered messages of the day. He will then slowly print out the messages on paper for the user to tear off, read and reply to. The best part is, the typed out messages add the novelty of an old school letter to your digital communications, which you can then keep or pin-up as a memento or subtle reminder.
