Stasis Chamber

(Is this from Avatar?)

Ship visualization

3D map visualization of a tunnel

Large-scale multi-touch display/presentation

Controls (reminds me of 2001)

Ship controls

More ship controls

Spacesuit monitor

Concept art

Related posts:

1. Movie: Avatar
2. Movie: Tron
3. Interview: Neil Huxley (Art Director, Avatar)

Touché is a system developed by Disney Research and Carnegie Mellon University that allows people to interact with everyday objects via gestures. It’s pretty interesting, and invites not only a whole new type of interaction, but the ability to use almost anything as an interface.

Ivan Poupyrev, senior research scientist at Disney Research in Pittsburgh, claims it’s pretty accurate, too!

“In our laboratory experiments, Touché demonstrated recognition rates approaching 100 percent. That suggests it could immediately be used to create new and exciting ways for people to interact with objects and the world at large.”

The video shows some cool sample applications, including using the body to control music playback, sensing what implements someone is using to eat, and adjusting the tv and environment based on how the user is sitting on the couch.

(Link via Wired UK.)

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1. Manual Deskterity
2. Handheld Projectors
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Here’s a great way to explore a foreign city at your own pace, using local services. It’s the Tram Sightseeing app — created for Västtrafik, the public transportation system in Gothenburg, Sweden. Using the mobile app, you can find the nearest tram stop and get a tour that lasts about 45 minutes. The app uses audio (via headphones) to point out sights along the way. Each tour ends at the stop you started at.

It’s a simple and elegant way to give visitors an easy way to enjoy a new city. Is there any reason this couldn’t be opened-up so that it could be used in other cities? Even expanded to allow visitors to recommend new sights, or even create personalized tours that focus on their interests?

The app was created by Forsman & Bodenfors. You can download it, but unless you’re in Gothenburg it’s sadly not going to be much use.

(Link via CreativeReview.)

I realize that asking you to spend an hour watching a talk by a programmer at an engineering conference sounds like a lot to ask. But this might be a case where it’s worth the effort.

First of all, in this talk by Brett Victor, there are some pretty fantastic interfaces that he’s developed – most of which are a kind of visual programming. They’re rooted in the idea that “so much of art and creation is about discovery, but how can you discover anything if you can’t see what you’re doing?”

Direct manipulation coding

Brett’s coding app gives a great connection between code and the image generated. You can even select items in the image, and find the code that was responsible for generating it. A gameplay development app lets you look at behaviors over time and see how changes to the code change the timeline. And there’s a fantastic timeline animation tool on the iPad where you can sketch with gestures.

What’s key here is that he puts all this work in the context of a personal, and moral, mission. For Brett, much of this is around the idea that “creators need an immediate connection with what they’re creating.” There can’t be a delay, there can’t be anything that’s hidden. And when Brett sees that people can’t express themselves due to bad interfaces… these aren’t simply opportunities to create something new, but instead they’re injustices and moral wrongs.

Brett speaks about how we all, with our particular skills and lenses on the world, have the ability to recognize wrongs in the world. And there we have the option to dedicate oneself to fighting for a principle. The big idea is that social activists don’t have to fight by organizing, but instead by “inviting.”

Direct manipulation of gameplay behaviors

He gives Larry Tessler as a compelling example. A person who, in the 70′s at Xerox PARC, believed that personal computing could change how people thought and lived. Larry fought against the idea of “modes” — something which was common in software at the time (particularly word processors). Larry’s guiding principle was to eliminate modes — going by “Don’t mode me in.” His text editor Gypsy was the first text editor to demonstrate this principle – for which he also invented cut/copy/paste.

Other examples, of technologists on missions, include Douglas Engelbart (allow people to solve urgent problems), Alan Kay (computer literacy is critical), and Richard Stallman (software must be free).

Timeline creation

He sees the “regular” paths people can take as a craftsman or a problem solver (who looks at crafts and sees things that need changing). But argues for a third path, that of a crusader — someone who follows a principle which is grounded by an insight.

A really nice talk about following your vision for what the world should be.

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1. Of Mice and Windows

Nature Valley Trail View

It seemed like last week, everywhere I turned, another street-view type of map site popped-up. While they may not have especially groundbreaking interactivity, they give the opportunity to experience places that are otherwise inaccessible to most people. And their gentle pacing supports experiences which are more in-tune to what it’s like to be there, rather than a quick fly-through.

Nature Valley’s Trail View lets you explore a variety of hiking trails in the US. They’re beautiful locations, with lots of additional information. You can even auto-play so it’s like you’re taking the hile. Plus I love how most trails start in parking lots, just as in real life.

Google’s collection of Amazon streetviews lets you explore waterways and trails in Brazil’s Amazon. Some start in small towns, and you then hike dirt roads before getting deep in the forrest. It’s just part of a larger gallery of curated streetviews, but unique in its “wildernessy” quality.

Lastly, what was launched as an April Fool’s joke, is a cute 8-bit version of Google Streetview. It’s basically the world as seen from an 8-bit console. Cute.

Oh – also, from a couple years ago, here’s a couple guys doing a real-time race across the US using Google streetview…

Related posts:

1. Street Slide
2. Grassroots Mapping

“The New Aesthetic” is a term I hadn’t heard before, but now that I have I’m fascinated. It’s a primarily visual theme that James Bridle has been exploring, first in a blog post which introduced the idea, and then on his blog, The New Aesthetic, which is full of great examples.

From a recent SXSW session description (here’s a post-event write-up, too):

Slowly, but increasingly definitively, our technologies and our devices are learning to see, to hear, to place themselves in the world. Phones know their location by GPS. Financial algorithms read the news and feed that knowledge back into the market. Everything has a camera in it. We are becoming acquainted with new ways of seeing: the Gods-eye view of satellites, the Kinect’s inside-out sense of the living room, the elevated car-sight of Google Street View, the facial obsessions of CCTV.

As a result, these new styles and senses recur in our art, our designs, and our products. The pixelation of low-resolution images, the rough yet distinct edges of 3D printing, the shifting layers of digital maps.

I’ve since been trying to think what this means for interaction and interactivity. My homework assignment is to find some good examples. Stay tuned…

(Link via Russell Davies .)

Related posts:

1. The Creative Internet
2. Media Surfaces

Corning continues their vision of the future with “A Day Made of Glass 2.” When I previously posted about their earlier film I wasn’t so impressed, but this one feels more interesting. It’s full of different interactions made possible with a variety of glass displays, from handheld to very large. And, in addition to the standard video, there’s an “unpacked” version (embedded below) which explains the scenarios and the technology which supports them.

Corning makes the case that much of this technology is either available now or else it will be soon. The challenge, it seems, that they’re putting out to the world is to develop the compelling content, applications, and interfaces that can really take advantage of if. But the handful of ideas they show are a nice start… Integrated tablets and large surfaces for education, wall-sized telepresence and collaboration for medical, and transparent displays for large-scale signage and augmented reality.

Sure, it’s a little corny – but it’s fun, too. And it all feels strangely closer than I’d have imagined a year or two ago.

(Thanks Chris for the link.)

Related posts:

1. Medley AR
2. Oblong Mezzanine
3. The Future of Screens, 2014

I’m a dork for liking flying and airports as much as I do. It’s not based on any modern reality, just nostalgia for what it used to be like. And one of things I used to love at airports was, while waiting for a flight, going to the observation deck and watching the planes.

So it’s nice to see Observation Deck, Dock B — a new permanent installation at the Zurich Airport’s observation deck created by ART+COM.

There are several pieces, designed to help visitors understand airport operations and what is going on. Especially interesting are the “medial telescopes” (or “Airport Scopes”) through which visitors look to get details about any of buildings or airplanes that are in view.

(Link via infosthetics.)

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1. Who do you think you really are?
2. Vampires and Night Birds
3. Interview: David Small

Out of the Box

The IxDA has just published the winners of their first ever Interaction Awards and it’s a really interesting collection of projects. Unlike other design competitions, which tend to segment projects into categories based on communication types or media categories, these awards are based on what interaction makes possible: connecting, disrupting, empowering, engaging, expressing, and optimizing.

A couple noteworthy winners…

Best concept went to Out of the box by Vitamins. It’s a charming old-technology solution to a new-technolgy problem: helping people learn how to use a new smartphone. Here, flipping pages of a paper book guides the user through setting up and learning to use their phone. While I don’t want a phone that requires this much learning, it’s a beautiful solution working within its constraints.

The best of show award went to LoopLoop — the world’s smallest music sequencer — created by Stimulant. It’s a tactile and exploratory experience, letting users pour loops from one cube to another, and build longer compositions.

Appie, is a great approach to shopping lists, integrating recipes, store inventory, previous purchases, and the post-shopping cooking. It even knows the store’s layout to present the shopping list grouped and ordered for your route. I only wish it connected to other sites and apps.

There were also a couple larger-scaled installation winners that were interesting. Plug-In-Play was an architectural-scaled experience where participants could impact graphics being projected on a tall building. And the Alumni Center had some nice screen towers.

I’m looking forward to seeing what wins these awards next year.

Appie

(Link via FastCo.)

Related posts:

1. Digital Media and Learning Competition
2. File Prix Lux

Light and Dark Networks, Ursula Endlicher, 2011

Dont’t bother reading this post. Just head over to Artport and take a look around.

“Artport is the Whitney Museum’s portal to Internet art and an online gallery space for commissions of net art and new media art. Originally launched in 2002, Artport provides access to original art works commissioned specifically for artport by the Whitney; documentation of net art and new media art exhibitions at the Whitney; and new media art in the Museum’s collection.”

Artport is a great collection and, considering the age of some of the pieces in it, it’s great that much of it is still able to run. But it’s an incomplete collection — a work-in-progress — and the Whitney continues to conserve and integrate works from their collection. A reminder that technology changes, and the challenges of collecting such works.

There are also two new items. The recently commissioned Sunrise/Sunset. And the newly updated for the iPad/iPhone CODeDOC.

The full list of their past exhibitions is on the previous Artport website. It’s definitely worth exploring. And a new view into some past internet art.

Axis, Golan Levin, 2002

Voyeur_Web, Tina LaPorta, 2001

The Battle of Algiers, Marc Lafia and Fang-Yu Lin, 2006

(Via @reas)

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1. Pretty Loaded
2. Jim Campbell’s Reactive Works
3. iPhone Art