The Inner Circle

The Inner Circle is a gesture-operated wearable device, designed to create a space for communication, privacy, and intimacy in crowded, noisy locations — for planned or serendipitous encounters, by groups of two or more.

The name is contradictory depending on the observer: it symbolizes the need to belong and communicate intimately even in the midst of a crowd, while to someone outside it can read as an exclusive group — a quiet revolution staged in public.

Design idea: we observed which social gestures occur during interaction between bodies — handshake, bowing, hug, kiss, whisper, eye contact, getting closer, handwave. Handshaking and handwaving in particular mark the beginning and end of an encounter, and became the core triggers for the device.