Locket
Andy Yang
Losing a loved one is tough and reminiscing over photos and dreams never seems enough. The things we long for: the conversations, the laughter, the smiles, and the gaze of their eyes. What if we could recreate that? What if we could keep a digital clone of someone we love? The way we record and remember our loved ones has changed in pace with the development of technology. From drawings and paintings to physical photos, and now to digital imagery, the next digital step as a medium of memory could be digital clones.
Locket proposes an unorthodox way of saving, capturing, and experiencing our loving memories. It allows the user to capture/upload visual and audio assets of their loved ones. Through analyzing assets including the social media, photos videos, personal interviews, an AI generates a digital clone that resembles them, both in appearance and personality. Once the digital clone is created, the user can interact with them either directly from the mobile app through an Augmented Reality camera, or by linking it to a Locket device, capable of generating holograms and VIrtual Reality experiences.
How may this adapt in a distant future? As an AI develops, could its digital clones start feeling emotions? What if they call me to have a conversation? What if it wasn’t just a one-way interaction but two? Will our morals develop and align with a technology that is recreating humans? It is design’s responsibility to consider these scenarios, not only for the present and near future, but the far future as well.