THERO is not only an artistic device that will give more fantasy or originality to your office; it is a device that “has the value of freedom and the right to digital privacy.”
It is a tool that enables people to block or encrypt their digital communication by a simple manipulation of the object. The user simply has to turn the object from left to right or vice-versa, and THERO will manage his/her digital contact with the outside. By this way, he/she will be aware of his/her data traffic in a physical way.
THERO’s designers believe that “the presence of an object can give corporality [to] something so abstract like the digital world, configurations and the consequences of its use.”
Furthermore, the user literally has the power in his/her hands to close his/her data transit. In addition, he/she is aware at the exact moment his/her privacy or anonymity is violated.
The device itself
THERO is programmed with Python and equipped with a Raspberry pi 3. Designers took into account both the style and the functionality. That’s why, one of the prototypes is made of both concrete and 3D printed parts and the other is completely 3D printed.
For the sake of transparency, Torres and Angulo, its creators, decided to let the project open source: an OpenWRT version will soon be available.