Sending Signals:
- The user has three modes of input control – lip pressure on the rim of the cup; heat, pressure, and pulse rate from the hand to the handle (or frame) of the cup; and choice of direction or orientation to point the cup.
- There will be a designated area on the rim of the cup that will respond to pressure from the lips. Therefore the user does not have to send messages if he or she does not want to. If he or she does want to either explicitly send a message to another cup (or just send out a message to the space every time a sip is taken) then the user must apply the lips to that designated area of the rim. Otherwise, the user can safely drink from the cup without sending messages by using the part of the rim that is not in the designated area. While the user is applying lip pressure on the designated area on the rim of the cup, the cup will temporarily not receive any signals from other cups so that the hand grip pressure on the cup will only be used in determining the type of output the cup is sending out (and not be used in determining what signals to pick up).
- When the user is sending a message, the lip pressure will determine the amplitude of the signal, the pressure and heat from the hand on the cup will determine the frequency of the signal, and the pulse rate from the hand will determine the rate at which the signal is being sent out (in other words the vibration will occur, then stop, then occur again, then stop, etc. at the specified rate). The signal will be sort of an amplitude modulated signal. If the user does not hold on to the cup long enough to send it the pulse rate, then the signal sent out will occur once, then stop.
Receiving Signals:
- The output of the cup is a very low amplitude vibration (less than the amplitude of a cell phone battery’s vibration) on the rim of the cup that will not be too obtrusive (just enough to tickle the lips). If creating a mechanism that will vibrate on the rim of the cup is not feasible, then the vibration will occur on the frame of the cup.
- When the user lightly grabs hold of the cup (applying as little pressure as possible) then the cup picks up more signals (is less directional) from all the cups that are sending out these signals. This allows the user to get a feel for the space.
- The more pressure that is applied to the cup, the more directional the receivers will be in picking up signals. In other words the cup will pick up signals from other cups that are pointed in the directional field (where the size of this field is based on how much pressure the user puts on the cup).
- If the user puts enough pressure on the cup, he or she will only pick up signals from other cups that are explicitly sending a message to him or her by pointing the cup directly at the other cup.
- When the user is applying lips to the part of the rim that is not in the designated area, then vibration messages will be received. But if the pressure applied is high enough (not so high where the user is biting the cup and hurting his mouth, but more pressure then normal sipping) then the user will temporarily stop receiving messages and will be in a mode that will allow him or her to figure out who sent the last message before being put in this mode. This is done by changing directions of the cup until you receive that same signal again. When that signal is received again, whichever way the receiver is pointed will determine the direction where the signal came from.
- When the cup receives more than one signal at the same time (which is likely the case when it is lightly touched) then each signal will be added to each other to create a more complex wave. If the user wants to determine who sent the signal by biting the non-input area of the rim, then an algorithm will be used to determine which cup will be the one that the user will receive that same signal again. The algorithm will find the other cup that was most closely pointed toward the user’s cup and will use the signal with the highest amplitude (i.e. pressure of lips from other user) if more than one cup is pointed directly at the user’s cup.