An Interactive Curtain for Media Usage in the Shower

Access to digital information became almost ubiquitous. There are only few situations left where digital media cannot be accessed. Showering is probably the only regular and common activity that does not allow to access and interact with digital media. Based on a large-scale survey, we identified potential applications that users want to use in the shower and designed a system that augments the user's showering experience to provide pervasive media access. We developed a projection-based system that augments shower curtains from the back side and recognizes user input using a thermal camera. Through a user study in a running shower, we collected feedback from potential users and evaluated different algorithms to recognize touch input on a shower curtain. Our results show that participants are enthusiastic about accessing and controlling media using an interactive shower curtain. Furthermore, we identified two algorithms that are robust enough to be used in challenging environments such as a shower.