Gesture Objects: movie making at the extension of natural play

I passed my PhD critique successfully! My committee: Hiroshi Ishii, Edith Ackermann and Cynthia Breazeal. I will now focus on few more studies and building few more projects as much as I can before graduating (in 9 months). A little bit on my presentation ...



Gesture Objects: Play it by Eye - Frame it by Hand!

I started with my master thesis Dolltalk, where I establish the ability to access perspective as part of gesture analysis built into new play environments. I then, move into a significant transition phase, where I research the cross-modal interface elements that contribute to various perspective taking behaviors. I also present new technologies I implemented to conduct automatic film assembly.



The structure of my presentation

At each step, I present the studies that allow me to establish principles which I use to build the final project, the centerpiece of my third phase of research, Picture This. At its final point, Picture This is a fluid interface, with seamless integration of gesture, object, audio and video interaction in open-ended play.



With Picture This! children make a movie from their toys views, using their natural gestures with toys to animate the character and command the video making assembly. I developed a filtering algorithm for gesture recognition through which angles of motions are detected and interpreted!

Finally, I developed a framework that I call "gesture objects" synthesizing the research as it relates to the field of tangible user interfaces.



Gesture Objects Framework: In a gesture object interface, the interface recognizes gestures while the user is holding objects and the gesture control of those object in the physical space influences the digital world.

A .pdf of my slides!

When atoms become bits!

Directly from Japan, look at the Tuttuki Bako Virtual Finger Game! 100% real and fantastically crazy by simply sticking your finger in the hole and a digital representation appears on the screen. Then you can use your virtual finger to play all kinds of cool mini games... from swinging a panda to having a karate fight with a tiny little man. It's so odd yet so wonderful.

You can find it at ThinkGeek

Monitor your dog's activities remotely!

SNIF Tag is the revolutionary dog tag that lets you monitor your dog's activities remotely. It even includes social networking. Woaaaa! I want one for my cat! "Monitor your dog's activity while you're away. Keep in touch with his friends and yours. Share helpful information and pet tips online. And get connected to your community. It's hi-tech, it's hi-style, easy to use, and completely customizable."



So how does it works? Well they use the uberbadge technology developed at the MIT Media Lab, basically when a dog meets with a dog who has a tag and is a friend, it blinks! Also you can know the owner's dog and find out their owner online...

Thank you Nan Wei!

A video

Cup communicator

Cup communicator by Duncan Wilson. Tug the cord to activate, squeeze to talk and hold to the mouth and ear.

The design of the Cup Communicator is focused on the gesture of use and the relationship between the users and object. I aim to explore the potential of the product as a medium for interaction and reassess the way we use technology.

The form and function of the Cup Communicator refer to the ‘two-cans and string' children's toy and the physical factors involved with that device. This typology and its associations remind us of the magic and playfulness of our first communication devices.

Sculpt-a-Light (using duct tape)

After self-powered LEDs, what if rolling the tape piece completed the circuit and lighted it up? Keywon did it!

Startup advice from a startup master

Rick Borovoy has started a series of video posts on how to start a company. He presents the very early stages "where you're trying to put together an idea with a technology that can implement it with a group of people who will use it, another group of people who can an build it, and a third group of people will fund it". Rick Borovoy co-founded a startup in 2002 based on his Media Lab Ph.D. work on technology for face-to-face community building. On top of that, he has gotten many social technology-oriented projects off the ground, and has thought a lot about the process.

The Pony Diving video


His next video is about you needing partners and not employees... but it is the next step!

What a visionary anime!

I've just finished the awesomness Denno Coil anime, only 26 episodes, an epic end. Everyone out there working on HCI should give it a try, it's not just about wearing VR glasses and having a secret child's world, it is about fusion between anime culture, with a tiny revolution: girls use their brain quite inventively, and a vision of a digital world merging physical, microscopic illegals that needs special encodes, kids collecting metabugs to gain more credit, with a digital police that can also be hacked. O well, I had fun watching these!!

A "trailer" with a soundtrack I never heard before!

An illuminating paper book ...

Absolutely gorgeous! A pop-up book that explores the integration of paper, electronics, mechanics, and computation by Jie Qi, Leah Buechley and TungShen Chew

Electronic Popables is an interactive pop-up book that sparkles, sings, and moves. The book integrates traditional pop-up mechanisms with thin, flexible, paper-based electronics; the result is an artifact that looks and functions much like an ordinary pop-up book, but has added elements of dynamic interactivity.

Enter the Barbie world

Barbie Cafe



After the Barbie Cafe in Shanghai, China by architect Hayes Slade designs the first ever Barbie Flagship for Mattel. The 35,000 square foot store holds the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of Barbie dolls and licensed Barbie products, as well as a range of services and activities for Barbie fans and their families.



Mattel wanted a store where “Barbie is hero”; expressing Barbie as a global lifestyle brand by building on the brand’s historical link to fashion. Barbie Shanghai is the first fully realized expression of this broader vision. Mattel worked with BIG, the branding and design division of Ogilvy & Mather, to develop creative concept, identify project location, explore featured activities and identify creative partners.





The central feature is a three-story spiral staircase enclosed by eight hundred Barbie dolls. The staircase and the dolls are the core of the store; everything literally revolves around Barbie.

The staircase links the three retail floors:

The women’s floor (women’s fashion, couture, cosmetics and accessories).

The doll floor (dolls, designer doll gallery, doll accessories, books). The Barbie Design Center, where girls design their own Barbie is on this floor. This activity was planned by Chute Gerdeman Retail and designed by Slade Architecture.

The girls floor (girls fashion, shoes and accessories). The Barbie Fashion Stage, planned and designed by Chute Gerdeman Retail, where girls take part in a real runway show, is also on this floor.

For WoW insiders only: We don't date n00bs we pwn them!!

A video that is hilarious, for World of Warcraft insiders only!!!