Taking social networking out of the context of the internet and restoring it to it’s rightful place in the local watering hole, Glow invites bar goers to interact through an intuitive social competition.
Services like Facebook and FourSquare have added an interesting new variable into our social lives by quantifying friendships and keeping record of all of our interactions. Because they reside only on our computer screen they lack the richness of a real social environment. They attempt to mimic real social gestures with poor substitutes like friend requests and pokes. Glow combines the best of both worlds.
My concept uses a drink glass embedded with sensors and LEDs. As users make new connections they will cheers glasses with their new friend, a social ritual practiced worldwide. With each cheers to a new glass, the LEDs in both glasses will grow brighter and a record of your interaction will be made. Having the brightest glowing glass means your have met the most people. The color of the LED could even correspond with your “social status” (Single, Taken, etc). The statistics from your night, stored in your glass, could be bumped to your smart phone or printed.
