A European MIT for 2008?

The European MIT known as the EIT (European Institute of Technology) with R&D should become operational in 2008, dixit the European parlement. It will be based on a principle of knowledge and innovation communities, relationships with companies and universities.

Article online (in French). Thank you Olivier for sending me the link! Another article in English

Hungry stuffed animals

The Hungries by Dana Gordon is a family of plush monsters with an impressive appetite for RFID. Each Hungry has a different personality expressed with its own unique voice. It listens to the secrets whispered to its ear. When its arm is pulled, it plays them back in its own voice. When they are fed to one another, their voices are mixed in a burp-like way.

Undercover

I recently spent time with friends Jean-baptiste Labrune and Dana Gordon these past two days, and we had awesome research discussions about the future of HCI! Dana Gordon explained me her fascinating projects and I loved her Undercover blanket.
The Undercover contains 24 wireless speakers and provides a special physical sound experience. The Undercover allows you to enjoy the vibrations of the speakers on your body and provides a private mobile soundscape.

The blanket has an embedded array of small speakers that can receive a wireless audio signal via a Bluetooth connection. This audio signal can be beamed from any kind of audio device, such as mp3 player, television, computer, radio, etc. The volume controllers were designed in a way, which suits the blanket’s natural cuddling behaviour. The upper corners (A.K.A 'the blanket’s ears') control the volume - (pull the right one for higher volume and the left one for lower).

Bracelet for moods

An interesting, beautiful but difficult concept design idea, Sense by Patty Yuan, a wrist-based bluetooth device that senses your emotion by reading your heart rate, skin temperature.

Mapping emotion to biometric data is a difficult research question, especially when it supposedly presents itself as a nonverbal communication device. What is communicated here? What is the language? What is the feedback loop? Many devices from this category deal with the same complexity: how to map these data to a visual or haptic language.

Cable carpet

Britta Böhne's Cable Carpet.

Why hide cable clutter when you can embrace it and make it an integral part of your environment? The cable's path is cut into the carpet, but there's also an insert that the cable snaps into to hold it in place. More after the jump. Britta has a placeholder website here.

Thank you Touching the city for the link! Also more info on Moco Loco

Science Fiction movies and HCI

Forbidden Planet (1956): the “thought analyzer” is a device inherited from the planets former inhabitants, displays a 3 dimensional image.


Human Computer Interaction in Science Fiction Movies by Michael Schmitz in CS Seminar “Instrumented Spaces” SS 2003 A. Butz, C. Endres, W. Wahlster.

I was recently talking about the influence of HCI over science fiction movies but also the reverse situation on how science fiction movies and books can inspire researchers in HCI. This paper, available online, proposes an analysis of several science fiction movie examples related to HCI.

Abstract: Science Fiction movies have been a source for speculation about the future of technology and human computer interaction. This paper presents a survey of different kinds of interaction designs in movies during the past decades and relates the techniques of the films to existing technologies and prototypes where possible. The interactions will be categorized with respect to their domain of real-life applications and also evaluated in regard to results of current research in human computer interaction.


Minority report (2002)

Gestural interaction in museums

“A proposal for an upcoming Canadian Museum for Human Rights suggests a wide range of advanced interactive technologies, including “a gesture-responsive wall full of factual information that will work in a fashion SIMILAR TO NINTENDO WII technology,” according to a report in the Edmonton Journal. “With a simple swipe of the hand in the air, visitors will be able to turn virtual pages.” You won’t even have to remember what you saw: “Visitors will be given a ‘human rights key’ that will provide a digital recollection of their experiences that they can later take home.” The museum is scheduled to open in four years in Winnipeg.” Via roomware

Stock puppets

8 foot tall fiberglass mannequins act as puppets, each puppet movement is connected to a face animation of the appropriate finance minister on the VGA monitor head. Via Pasta and vinegar.

The G-7 Stock Puppets are an Internet-driven kinetic installation that tracks the movements of global stock markets with seven larger-than-life marionette puppets. Using a real-time data stream, a network of PC laptops, and a complex electro-mechanical control system, the installation reanimates the abstract machinations of global financial markets as an absurdist carnival puppet show.

Web site

Fabric suppliers

TreeFall design listed and commented on online fabric stores. A useful list for any craft designer! Via craft magazine

Part suppliers

Adam Kumpf from the Tangible Media Group at MIT created this very comprehensive list of part suppliers for getting electronic components! A useful guide for any tech-researcher!