Golden Disk

LaCie makes now golden hard drive!

And computer choppers proposes golden mac book pro!

Sketch furniture

Sketch furniture by Front allows sketching onto space to become an object.

Motion Capture translates motions into 3D-files and are used in this project to simply record the tip of a pen when people draw pieces of furniture in the air. Rapid Prototyping is a technique that materializes 3D-files. A laser beam builds the 3D-file layer by layer within a liquid plastic material. Every 0.1mm the liquid harden by a laser beam. After a few hours, the 3D-files come out as materialized pieces. The Sketch Furniture project in Japan is made in collaboration with Barry Friedman Ltd. Tokyo Wonder Site Aoyama and Crescent.

Lifestyle in 2057

2057 EP1 The Body featured on Discovery Channel offers mixed information between current research explorations and fictional scenarios of our lifestyle in 2057.

It is a nice effort in considering what is being done in HCI and medical research which converges into everyday scenarios. Under its over dramatic tone, the examples are sometimes tacky and stereotypical. The show could have incorporated other important issues such as affordable cutting edge technological solutions for the rest of world.

This video is fun and accessible. I loved the transplantation of a human heart, heart that can be 3d printed! Presenting a vision for a future lifestyle, this video reminds me of the American Look (1958): America lifestyle in the 50's with its *idealistic* sense for design.

Miniature motion controller

A Miniature One-Handed 3D Motion Controller by Kynan Eng that I saw at Interact 2007.

Abstract Users of three-dimensional computer-aided design (CAD) and
gaming applications need to manipulate virtual objects in up to six degrees of
rotational and translation freedom (DOF). To date, no 3D controller provides
one-handed 6DOF input with miniature size and low cost. This paper presents
a prototype of the first one-handed 6DOF motion controller suitable for use in
portable platforms such as laptop computers, mobile telephones and hand-held
game consoles. It is based on an optical sensor combined with novel planar
spring mechanics, and can be easily manufactured using low-cost materials and
processes.



Paper

A stretchy fabric controller

Created by Angela Chang, Zstretch is a fabric device that can capture the richness of active touch interactions for controlling music interactions. Much of the prior work on integrating electronics with textiles focused on rigid, exact places for touching the fabric, rather than supporting the many actions our hands and bodies can create. The project explores how to support the large range of forces that people apply when interacting with fabric.

Paper for Nime 2007

Camping sauvage

Camping Sauvage (projet), Tentes igloos, toile de spi, ballon météo, hélium, 100 x 200 x 200 cm chacune, 2006.

I love this art proposal from La Guardia. Because free camping is forbidden in France, La Guardia decided to create a new genre of tents, still attached to the ground using ropes tied to stakes, but the tent itself is floating in the air. This allows anyone to camp without law infraction as well as being suitable in any type of landscape environment.

Ambient clock for elders

At Interact 2007, I discovered the work of Yann Riche and Wendy Mackay.
He presented the MarkerClock, an ambient clock for elders.
Pdf of the paper.

Seniors support one another through routines and through shared awareness. The MarkerClock facilitates the sharing and awareness of routines among elders. Built upon seniors’ stories of their daily life, it invites for reciprocal care behaviors.



The clock appears as ambient and non intrusive by giving symbolic graphical information on the user's activity. For instance, if Beatrice goes to the market in the morning, this information is coordinated with the clock and displayed graphically as "absent". Because her friend knows she is at the market, it appears as normal.


Examples of a) users’ codes, b) user’s motion trace

During user observations, an elder explained that she sends a signal by ringing 3 times the phone of her friend so that her friend can assess that she is all right. Users originally invented strategies, such as this code, to be aware of each other's lives. The design rationale integrates these findings into the augmented clock. It embeds active and passive communication and do so by simply detecting the user's motions in front of it, directly measuring the senior's activity.

Interact 2007 presentation

Today at Interact 2007 I presented my research conducted from 2002 until 2005. I presented the story of a Graphical User Interface that became a Tangible User Interface. The presentation introduced a novel approach to collecting, editing and performing visual and sound clips in real time.
The cumbersome process of capturing and editing becomes fluid in the improvisation of a story, and accessible as a way to create a final movie. It was shown how a graphical interface created for video production informs the design of a tangible environment that provides a spontaneous and collaborative approach to video creation, selection and sequencing.
Iterative design process, participatory design sessions and workshop observations with 10-12 year old users from Sweden and Ireland were presented and discussed. The limitations of interfacing video capture, editing and publication in a self-contained platform were addressed.

I uploaded my presentation in .pdf format here

Paper in .pdf

Visualizing Audio Cues

Today at Interact 2007 I discovered the work of Tony Bergstrom who happens to be Karrie Karahalios's student. He presented today the Conversation Clock table.

On the Conversation Clock table, lapel microphones monitor conversation while the visualization of history is projected in the center. The Conversation Clock provides a visual history of interaction and communication. Each contribution displays bars colored to indicate the speakers’ identities. The lengths of these bars indicate the degree of participation, measured by volume. As a conversation progresses, a history is built with concentric rings reminiscent of the rings on a tree.

The Conversation Clock displays various conversational cues such as turn taking, interruption, conversational dominance, silence, agreement, aural back-channels, mimicry, time spans, rhythm and flow. If an individual has not been speaking, their lack of aural contribution is made clear in the rings. Of course, if individual is speaking at length and dominating the conversation, one can easily observe this as well. Aspects such as interruption, silences, and argument also make visual impressions on the table.

As a result, the Conversation Clock allows people to interpret their role in interaction. The visualization of audio allows people who speak the most to regulate their speech and speak less and the persons who speak the less to speak more.
"Live visualization of audio through social mirrors can provide influential cues for
individual participation in conversation. Participants alter themselves in order
to equalize the contribution of individuals."

Paper to download

Hand-eye coordination at 22 months?

Researching on hand-eye coordination, around 5-7 they still are supposed to develop it. I found this 22 month old toddler pretty good at playing Wii-Tennis!



Hand-eye coordination - Definition
Hand-eye coordination is the ability of the vision system to coordinate the information received through the eyes to control, guide, and direct the hands in the accomplishment of a given task, such as handwriting or catching a ball. Hand-eye coordination uses the eyes to direct attention and the hands to execute a task.
Description
Vision is the process of understanding what is seen by the eyes. It involves more than simple visual acuity (ability to distinguish fine details). Vision also involves fixation and eye movement abilities, accommodation (focusing), convergence (eye aiming), binocularity (eye teaming), and the control of hand-eye coordination. Most hand movements require visual input to be carried out effectively. For example, when children are learning to draw, they follow the position of the hand holding the pencil visually as they make lines on the paper.

From "Hand-Eye Coordination." Encyclopedia of Children's Health. Ed. Kristine Krapp and Jeffrey Wilson. Gale Group, Inc., 2005. eNotes.com. 2006. 8 Sep, 2007
More description here
.pdf of the paper