Keep in Touch designed by Nima Motamedi at Simon Fraser University, Canada, is a networked fabric touchscreen designed to support and maintain intimacy for couples in long distance relationships. To achieve this she created a novel sensorial interface by combining the visual and tactile senses together. Each partner is presented with a blurred digital projection of their lover. When they touch their partner's body, the image comes into focus revealing their features.
In the paper presented at TEI in 2007, the authors describe how this sensory mapping creates an expressive and emotional interface allowing couples to communicate through touch, gestures, and body language.
See also her paper: The aesthetics of touch in interaction design!
See also Mutsugoto by Tomoko Hayashi, Stefan Agamanolis and Matthew Karau.
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Blog Jouons 
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Keep in touch: a tactile-vision intimate interface
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Design a multi touch pad in 15 min
I love this type of video tutorial. Here is a tutorial on how to make your own multi touch pad in 15 minutes using a web cam, cardboard box, a piece of glass and software. I think some regular ambient light is needed! Also the next step, not the least difficult, is to have the software running. The idea is when you place you fingers on the surface, you create shadows with your fingers. The webcam detects these shadows, sends the image to the tracking software to track the shadows as they move around.
Below are some basic info to start:
Materials
* Cardboard Box
* Piece of Clear Flat Sturdy Material (ie. Glass, acrylic, plexiglas)
* Paper (ie. printer paper, tracing paper, almost any paper)
* Webcam or Video Camera
* Computer
* Optional Picture Frame
Finger Tracking Software
* Touchlib Beta v2: - Written by David Wallen
* Download, unzip and copy the config.xml into your touchlib directory
More by AudioTouch - Via.
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Blog Jouons
Monday, May 05, 2008
Three days in Vancouver, Canada …
Granville Island
I was off for a few days to Vancouver city, the town that brings together the mountain, the ocean and the forest. I was here to give a talk at Simon Fraser University for the 25th Anniversary of the Faculty of Business Administration. The department will make a DVD of the talk (for education purposes only).
My trip to Vancouver was delightful! My hosts: Dr. Judy Zaichkowsky (Research Director and Marketing Area Co-ordinator) and Dr. Olga Volkoff, professor MIS, were fantastic. From my stay in a lovely hotel (Four Seasons Hotel), walking, driving trips throughout Vancouver, boat tour to reach the Island where all you find is handmade craft work as well as houses floating on the water, to the most delicate restaurant: Le Crocodile, I never felt so empowered in giving a talk!!! The crowd was enthusiast and receptive: a combination of business & art & tech professors and students with business attendees. The research we do in our group was embraced and according to many comments and emails after the talk: inspiring. Nothing better than being inspiring!! So I go back home with wonderful souvenirs, great contacts, cute pictures (I had my iPhone so took a tone!!).
The Surrey Campus, Simon Fraser University.
I felt in love with the Simon Fraser University, the business department and ... the city!!! I recommend to any of you who have never been to Vancouver to immediately jump in the first flight/train. You might have to discover by yourself, but the city is so people friendly that I don't think you will have any difficulty exploring around.
I recommend (in any order)
. Granville Island : take a boat, that comes every 5 min, to go to the island. The prettiest collection of craft boutique and floating houses!
. The museum of archeology: outstanding collection of native Canadian art.
. Winners : great shopping for students, dixit Judy. I found a special edition of Addidas
. Holt Renfrew: great shopping to find designers and tailored clothing. I found a Burberry white trench coat (sold out anywhere else) and tailored trousers. I must admit that Canadians in Vancouver are particularly sweet, gentle, helpful and smiling!
. Le crocodile restaurant: a special recommendation, the French food there is excellent.
. Stanley Park
. Gastown
. Take the Skytrain to have an idea of the scope of the city!!
and dont forget to check out the inspiring talks and series at SFU!!!
A special thank to Pet Nilsson for his great comments and thoughtful blog!
Voilà!
More about inspiring research in interaction design SOON ...
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Blog Jouons
Sunday, May 04, 2008
The new Ars Electronica Centre, opening January 2009
The new Ars Electronica Centre, opening January 2009
*********** JOBS @ ARS ELECTRONICA ***********
Ars Electronica Futurelab is hiring artists and researchers
. artists /software engineers (openGL, C++)
. artists / hardware engineers (sensors and programming)
. artists / modelers (3D, real time graphics)
. technical planners (software and/or hardware and CAD)
. project managers (software, exhibition)
. designers / architects (exhibits and media in architecture)
Ars Electronica Futurelab, the R&D division of Ars Electronica founded in 1996, is an atelier/lab for media art, design, research, and production. Members of the Ars Electronica Futurelab represent a broad variety of different disciplines and nationalities, working in such areas as computer vision, sound analysis, mobile computing, generative graphics, computer controls, and computer networks.
Ars Electronica is embedded in the activities for Linz, Austria. As the European Capital of Culture in 2009, a continuously growing, vital cultural environment is guaranteed both in the city and as the working environment at the lab.
Ars Electronica Futurelab is hiring 12 to 20 new members to be part of the creation team of the new exhibits at the Ars Electronica Center as well as other projects. We are seeking both junior and senior level team members. Partially academic, partially production oriented, experts share their knowledge in workshops we call "LabAcademies," thus we are seeking both experienced teachers and avid students.
Interested persons should prepare to stay for a period of at least 12 months in Linz Austria. There is a possibility for some positions to stay even longer or become permanent. The languages spoken in the Lab are English or German.
Ars Electronica will assist foreigners to obtain work permits for Austria. Contracts may be either for employment ("freier Dienstvertrag", includes insurance packages) or as contractors ("Werkvertrag"). Annual wages vary according to experience but will generally be 23,000-30,000 E ($36,000-$50,000). Linz is a medium sized, picturesque city located on the Danube, with typical housing costs for a one-bedroom apartment of 400 E ($550) per month.
Please email your CV or resume and a short letter (including references) to: Horst Hortner
Email: futurelab [at] aec.at
More information ...
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Blog Jouons
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Attachments to artifacts: Collect to connect to construct
I am thrilled! My proposal for book chapter titled Attachments to artifacts: Collect to connect to construct has been accepted! It will be part of the first Franco-English book that will tell you all you ever wanted to know about new technologies of the self, mobilities and (co-)constructions of identities.
In this book chapter, I explore the psychological trade-off between what we call virtual and tangible “attachments”: I focus on people’s attachments to things, and through things, their relations to people (virtual and digital). I address the digital object collection mechanism in relation to the way we gather artifacts in the physical world.
Edited by Fred Dervin, Senior Lecturer, Department of French Studies, University of Turku, Finland and partner in crime Yasmine Abbas, Doctor of Design, Harvard, USA, ReD Associates, Denmark. The book will be published in Autumn 2009.
More info ->here<-
SYNOPSIS extraits/excerpts, in both French and English
L’hypermobilité physique comme virtuelle qui touche les individus contemporains conduit à multiplier les récits et discours sur les rencontres avec les autres, mais aussi avec soi-même. Qu’ils soient issus de migrants, membres de diasporas, réfugiés, personnes en mobilité à court ou long-terme, résidents virtuels, internautes, etc., ces témoignages sont transmis à travers différents média et espaces personnels et publics: du simple coup de téléphone au site internet et à l’e-mail, ou à travers des autobiographies, des témoignages écrits et oraux, des articles de presse, des documentaires, etc. L’avènement de nouveaux espaces relationnels tels que ceux proposés par les Webs 2.0 et 3.0 (weblogs, podcasts, vidéocasts, Facebook, Second Life, Youtube…) offre la possibilité à la fois de faire partager ses expériences de mobilité au quotidien et de construire son soi face à/avec des millions d’interlocuteurs potentiels et ce, de manière multimodale. La présence de ces témoignages de mobilité, qui s’apparentent à des actes de confession, donne accès à des données intéressantes et inédites dans plusieurs langues et cela, de façon illimitée…
The new interpersonal spaces created by web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies seem to correspond to the technologies of the self that Michel Foucault (1988) has addressed in his lectures at the Collège de France at the beginning of the 1980s. These new technologies enable the individual’s self to emerge publicly and to be worked upon with its “disciples”: be they companions in Second Life, readers (for example on a blog) or listeners (Podcasts). With high speed Internet access and increasingly generous capacities of storage (mp3, USB keys, iPhone, portable computers…), the opportunities for staging the self have become unlimited…
MEDIA TREATED blogs, forum, Life Forms, MMS, moblogging, mondes virtuels, photo et vidéo, photos et vidéos mobiles, robots de compagnie, sites Internet, téléphones portables. | Craigslist, digital artifacts, Del.ici.ous, World of Warcrafts, Facebook, Gaming, Geolocalisation, MMORPG, retail surveillance devices, SilkRoad online, Social Networking, YouTube, WWOOF, Second Life.
THEMES Photographies en mobilité, espaces relationnels, hétérogénéité culturelle, industries culturelles, identités migratoires, identité hmong, diaspora, NOTICs (Nouveaux Objets issus des Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication), infoguerre, mouvement en danse, personnage virtuel, avatars, Autre imaginaire, voyage réel et virtuel | Attachment, backpacking, collection, collective identity, participatory culture, politics, rhythm, second self, tourism, tribalism, virtual nomadism. Attachment, backpacking, collection, collective identity, participatory culture, politics, rhythm, second self, tourism, tribalism, virtual nomadism.
I could not help but join this picture sent to us by Edith Ackermann, also selected by Yasmine Abbas, because it directly refers to the ideal of mobility and its beautiful sacrifice. Edith says:" i am in Switzerland moving out from my apartment: a sweet dump i had rented since i am a student, filled with paintings from my grand father, mom’s carpets, and leather coated books. i never had to let go of so many evocative objects at once. a bit overwhelming really, but i guess i will feel lighter once i am done. good i have my “final home” coat, a gift from my japanese friend noboyuki…. objects come, objects go! and so do people :) " Edith tells us all about it ->here<-
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Blog Jouons
New interaction technique for timeline control in video scenes
Dragon is a research project by Thorsten Karrer, Malte Weiss, and others at the Media Computing Group, RWTH Aachen University in Germany.
Objects on video scenes are used to control their trajectories in time, basically any object that appears in the video becomes a slider that can control the video timeline. The project is meant to be a "more" frame-accurate in-scene video navigation than usual systems and during studies users found more natural the use of this video navigation "slider" than traditional timeline sliders. It seems to me a great WYSIWYG for video!
->Video <-
Abstract
We present DRAGON, a direct manipulation interaction technique for frame-accurate navigation in video scenes.
This technique benefits tasks such as professional and amateur video editing, review of sports footage, and forensic analysis of video scenes.
By directly dragging objects in the scene along their movement trajectory, DRAGON enables users to quickly and precisely navigate to a specific point in the video timeline where an object of interest is in a desired location. Examples include the specific frame where a sprinter crosses the finish line, or where a car passes a traffic light.
Through a user study, we show that DRAGON significantly reduces task completion time for in-scene navigation tasks by an average of 19–42% compared to a standard timeline slider.
Qualitative feedback from users is also positive, with multiple users indicating that the DRAGON interaction felt more natural than the traditional slider for in-scene navigation.
Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure.............................................................................................
Blog Jouons
Blog Maison Blog Passion
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Chocolate is the key
Everyone needs to relax a bit from the computer. Let this sweet keyboard show the way ...
Chocolate Keyboard by designer Michael Sholk
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Blog Jouons
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
A little bubble and a little LED
Tri-Color LED, Tilt sensors, 1.5" diameter sphere
Bubble Bobbles by James Clar are water-resistant floating globes each embedded with a tri-color LED. Tilt sensors are placed in each Bubble causing it to change colors depending on which direction it's tilted. Used in multitudes Bubble Bobbles can be placed in a pool or lake, causing ripples of colors with each splash and wave.
-> Movie <-
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Blog Jouons
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Your email in the future
After Fuzzmail a program that allows to write a message that unfolds in time -with Fuzzmail you end up sending what you dynamically write instead of a flat/clean email!- we now have Time Machiner, the email time machine that sends an email in the future! It does not go beyond 2030 so you cannot go too crazy, but still it leaves you time to prepare some freaky surprises. Also one can imagine pre-sending the birthday wishes, so that you will never seem to have forgotten, see example below!
When the email is being sent, you receive this nice confirmation screen. The team has a sure sense of humor!
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Blog Jouons
Monday, April 14, 2008
Talk at Simon Fraser University
The Faculty of Business Administration at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, invites me to talk for the Anniversary Speaker Series: 3 Campuses, 3 Speakers, 3 Themes, 3 Important celebrating two significant milestones: 25 years as the Faculty of Business Administration and 40 years since the launch of Canada’s first Executive MBA.
Theme Innovation
When? May 2, 2008, 10:30am
Where? Simon Fraser University Surrey Campus, Westminster Savings Credit Union Theatre, Room 2600.
Sign up here! ($25, free for SFU students + Alumni)
Talk summary Cati Vaucelle, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab will present two recent projects developed for the Media Lab's Tangible Media Group focused on Gesture Object Interfaces.
At the Media Lab, the future is lived, not imagined. In a world where radical technology advances are taken for granted, we design technology for people to create a better future.The Lab comprises rigorous research and graduate degree programs, where traditional disciplines get checked at the door. Future-obsessed product designers, nanotechnologists, data-visualization experts, industry researchers, and pioneers of computer interfaces work side by side to tirelessly invent-and reinvent-how humans experience, and can be aided by, technology.
On May 2nd, come and explore innovative ways to design seamless interfaces between people, digital animation, and physical environments. Discover "tangible bits" which give physical form to digital information and computation. Learn about user interfaces that employ physical objects, surfaces, and spaces as tangible embodiments of digital information exploiting the human senses of touch and kinesthesia and analyze ambient media as reflections of digital activity at the periphery of human awareness.
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Blog Jouons
