Imagine Aura like a shining light around you. It’s only visible to other Aura users and you can change
it to express your feelings, ideas and share any information you like.
After downloading it the first thing you do is to select your Aura's color. Next, you choose a
cause or idea that you feel for.
And that’s it - your Aura shines and stays with you wherever you
go. Of course you can disable it any time!
But luckily Aura has no perceivable impact on your battery and its power consumption is below 1% per
day.
There’s nothing like Aura and people will probably use it in creative, unexpected ways.
So far, Aura was built with a few scenarios in mind:
Do you have causes that are important to you? A statement like #refugeeswelcome, the latest track from your totally unknown favorite artist or a crowdsourcing campaign to help a friend: What’s important to you is part of your personality and Aura allows you to share it wherever you go. It’s like a bumper sticker, button or ribbon. Just infinitely easier to change. And more impactful - other Aura users will spread your idea if they feel the same. Ever wondered what moves the people you share the morning bus or subway with? Aura is a window into the invisible world of ideas and thoughts of the people around you.
In many regards information technology has shifted the balance of power between states and individuals towards more surveillance and control. The driving trends for this are automation and centralization. Aura attempts to shift this balance at least slightly back towards individual freedom. When the internet is not freely accessible, Aura allows an unfiltered, unblockable way of sharing (political) messages with people nearby. This allows for data grafitti: Use Aura to put your thoughts and ideas on an old phone and put it into a crowded place. Other users will see the Aura without being able to see where exactly it is.
It becomes really powerful when crowds are protesting. Even with full internet surveillance and shut down GSM/LTE signals, Aura allows to quickly pass messages, coordinate and share unblockable ideas.
It’s quite easy to get lost on large music festivals without proper phone signal. Waiting back at the camp can be as annoying as wandering stage after stage for hours. Aura adds to your chances of finding them again. If you and your friends have it, you'll see their latest status as soon as one of them is in proximity (50-100m outdoors). That doesn’t help if they’re at the other end of the festival. But it sure helps if one of them passes by the stage you’re enjoying. No need to watch for them. If your Auras get close, you get a notification on your phone.
At no point will your data be sent to us or anybody else over the internet. The privacy-concerned can use Aura on a blank phone without a SIM card. Others will link their instagram account to express themselves.