قبلة Qiblah [hardware][speculative][prototype]

Qiblah is a speculative hardware prototype that explores anti-interface design for sacred spaces. Rather than routing prayer through a smartphone, Qiblah is a self-contained analog object: laser-cut wood, a magnetometer, and a ring of LEDs that silently orients you toward the Ka'aba.

Impact:Independent Research Prototype · Speculative Hardware for Sacred Spaces

Role:Concept Design, Product Design, Hardware Prototyping, Physical Computing

Collaborators:Independent Research

Why

Every major qiblah app routes the direction of prayer through a smartphone. A device designed to maximize screen time, not minimize it.

How

A self-contained object: a magnetometer reads the earth’s field, a Raspberry Pi computes the bearing to the Ka’aba, and a ring of LEDs indicates the direction. No screen, no sound.

Impact

Independent Research Prototype · Speculative Hardware for Sacred Spaces

Early prototype on a prayer rug, oriented by compass toward the Ka'aba. Laptop running bearing software in the background.

The qiblah, the direction of the Ka’aba in Mecca, is a fundamental axis in Islamic prayer. Every prayer, wherever you are on earth, is oriented toward it.

Me demonstrating the device

Today, finding the qiblah is almost universally delegated to a smartphone app, bringing notifications, screens, and everything else the phone is doing into a moment of prayer. Calm technology operates in the opposite direction: it passes through intention into action without demanding attention. Most qiblah apps do the opposite.

I designed a dedicated ambient object. It doesn’t notify, it doesn’t ask for attention. It sits at the foot of the prayer rug and points.

Qiblah prototype. Laser-cut wood, acrylic, LED strips, compass, Raspberry Pi, Arduino.

The device reads the earth’s magnetic field through a magnetometer. Software running on a Raspberry Pi resolves the sensor data into a great-circle bearing toward the Ka’aba for the device’s location, then expresses that bearing through a ring of NeoPixel LEDs. Ambient feedback that registers at the edge of attention, not the center of it.

Compass software running on Raspberry Pi. City: San Francisco. Bearing: 18.77° East of North.

The enclosure was designed to read as an object rather than a gadget: laser-cut wood, acrylic, and brass hardware instead of plastic and ports.

Components: laser-cut wood enclosure, Raspberry Pi, Arduino, NeoPixel LED strips, magnetometer, jumper wires, breadboard.

I moved between sketched concepts and physical prototypes, working through enclosure geometry, LED diffusion, and how to make the directional output legible at a glance.

Design sketches. Wood frame, LED indicators left and right, diamond compass at center, sensor wiring and speaker layout.

The prototype demonstrated that calm technology principles apply directly to sacred spaces. A dedicated object with no screen, no notifications, and no other function is a more honest design response than any app.