Today, it is easy for two people to connect even if they are geographically far from one another. Voice, text, and video are the main ways that they do so. They obviously work well for communication, but they are redundant and give us more or less the same manner of connection with our loved ones.

I wanted to explore a new way to connect two far-away people, with a more abstract and emotional approach to feeling the presence of the other.

This cloud-synchronized pair of boxes embodies the weather from the other box’s location. With a mysterious and magical interface, it’s as if the box trapped the weather of its twin. Each person can feel the other’s presence and experience in a silent way. Relying on empathy, it lets another kind of communication be felt between two people, perhaps bringing them closer than the voice, text, and video methods.

Only when a person on one side picks up the box does the other’s box begin to awaken and glow more strongly, as if with life inside. You can virtually “feel” the other person on the other side of the world, a connection more profound than the usual ways of communication.

When you gently shake one of the boxes, you stir up the weather in the other end’s box. It’s a spell cast, trapped inside the box, like a crystal ball.

This new interaction that doesn’t include any words, known symbols or facial video facilitates a new way to connect, and opens a new channel and language of communication between friends: the language of presence.

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