The people at MIT have developed a brush that allows you to brush whatever it can see. The brush scans the surface of an object by putting the brush on the object. The brush turns this scan into a texture which can be used to brush on a wall.
But not only can the brush use stills for brushing it can also capture movements of the object that is being scanned. Likely with a camera this is captured and after brushing this texture the movement stays alive and is displayed on the wall as well. In the video one example is shown of capturing ‘blinking eyes’ which are then brushed on the wall. Also on the wall the eyes keep blinking, that is cool! [Continue reading...]
Designer Nicolas Büchi has designed an interactive display which is controlled by manipulating three cups of water. By entering your finger and moving around in the cup you control the size and frequency of the bubbles on the display.
In his bachelor project Nicolas shows how a physical interaction can operate a display. In his project it are the bubbles but this physical interaction can be brought back in many products. This could reduce the number of buttons while the interaction is playful and explorative. Does it have a good usability? Probably not, but it might be more joyful as we wrote earlier about the media cubes. [Continue reading...]
Most products are only designed for the majority, by using for instance the P95 rule. Although this includes the majority it explicitly excludes a large group of people as well; the P5. Especially user groups that have a disability such as blindness or hearing loss are ignored almost continuously by today’s product designers. The field ‘inclusive design’ tries to develop products that include as many people as possible.
A hearing device or glasses are no products of inclusive design, they are specially made products to reduce or solve a disability. But a cellular phone that also can be used by blind people is a good example of inclusive design.
Designer Kim Changduk and his team have developed a toilet that not only can be used people without a disability but also by people that are in a wheelchair. With existing toilets the transfer from wheelchair towards the toilet is a problem as there is often a lack of space to place the wheelchair next to the toilet as well as the lack of supports. The common solution is to have a separate toilet for people who are in a wheelchair. In the end this is quite expensive as only a few people use this toilet. [Continue reading...]
Designer Mike Burton has developed a wall of water, called ‘the Waterboard’. Is is in interactive whiteboard that allows users to manipulate the flow of water. The fun part is that the water can be manipulated by drawing lines that form objects or by use of actual physical objects such as…..humans!
Mike Burton somehow achieved to define what the water does in reality into formulas. When a bowl is drawn the water will keep flowing in the bowl and the water level rises. When the bowl is full the water will flow over the edge and continue its new course. In that way all different paths can be made as long as it goes downward.
Another interesting detail is that the water responds to the time it is not flowing. After a certain period the water will develop into a greenish goo with little flies circling above the water. [Continue reading...]
Philip has been working for some time on the Icat, a robot that mimics facial expressions and talks to its users. It is an indication of how future products will look like and what their capabilities are. At this moment the Icat is still under development and can only do simple tasks such as setting your alarm clock or give information about television programs.
Why a cat?
So why did Philips choose for a cat and not a human face? Most of use know the theory of the uncanny valley. It proposes that people feel uncomfortable or even afraid if robots look to similar to humans, both visually but also in the way they behave. So they chose an animal that is fairly innocent, but it could have been a dog as well, but then the Aibo was already on the market.
Limitations
Existing limitations of the cat as with many other products is the speech recognition. To convert everything from speech correctly is still not possible, although improvements are continuously made. People differ a lot in the way the pronounce words, pitch, volume and speed. This can be clearly seen in the videos of the Icat with user tests. The Icat and subject seem to communicate well, but this is only because the subject is using short answers like ‘yes’ and her ‘name’. [Continue reading...]
One of the awarded concepts for the Microsoft / IDSA PC design competition is the Slice concept. The concept is different in the way that it does not use a file hierarchy but a flat, linear file system. Instead of having to look for folders that are a few levels deep this concepts relies on slices. Each slice represents a category of files, like music, videos or my documents.
Secondly this system can be used throughout the house while existing computers have limited possibilities. Yes there are media centers that control radio, video and television but not with the same capabilities as this concept.
How does it work?
The bowl is the central processing unit, while the spheres contain all the information. Since this is a family concept each family members has one sphere. To use the files also on remote places the concept also has small processing units that can be attached to third party devices. When the sphere, or slices are connected to the smaller unit communication between the smaller unit and central processing unit can take place. This can turn the television into a media center or fully functioning computer. [Continue reading...]
Designer Mason Bonar has designed a digital boarding pass concept. Instead of walking around with your paper ticket this digital ticket helps you navigating to your gate and provides entertainment on the flight. [Continue reading...]
Have you ever collected images in nicely stacked piles of categories for inspiration? When you start designing and are looking for inspiration you are browsing through your images but you always can’t find that particular image you are searching for. Ianus Keller of the TU Delft developed ‘the Cabinet’ for his PHD to solve this problem. [Continue reading...]
In earlier posts we wrote about the usability of one particular parking meter in the Netherlands and proposed two interface alternatives. After discussing both concepts one interface has been further developed. [Continue reading...]
The interaction design company Whitevoid from Germany has developed what they call ‘flakes’. With many of these flakes they can visualize whole walls to create effects. [Continue reading...]
