Rhizome 2009: A Lovely Interactive Multi-touch App on a Flexible Lycra Screen

Loran Bey is a member of the NUI group. He created Rhizome 2009 using Unity 3D and tBeta, now know as CCV (Community Core Vision). The screen in the video is made from flexible lycra, and this provides a tangible interaction effect. The music in the background is Aphix Twin's Avril 14th.

MultiTouch Screen Lycra from Loran Bey on Vimeo.

Unity 3D is a game development tool for browser-base games, including games optimized for the iPhone. (If you visit the Unity 3D website, be sure to download their 3D web plugin and visit their relaxing on-line Tropical Paradise.)

The screen displayed in the video was inspired by the 2005 Khronos Projector installation, by Alvero Cassinelli, an assistant professor at the Ishikawa Komuro Laboratory at the University of Tokyo. Khronos is described as a "video time-warping machine with a deformable screen."

The Khronos Projector website provides several simulation applets built with Processing that you can play with. They were fun to interact with on my HP TouchSmart PC. I liked Behind the Door the best.

The following video demonstrates how the Khronos application works:


Take a look at Alvaro Cassinelli's archive of his interactive media art if you have the chance!

Cassinelli's Meta-Perception research group is doing some interesting things, too:

"The goal of this group is to research methods for capturing and manipulating information that is normally inaccessible to humans and machines. In doing so, we hope to create new ways of perceiving the world and interacting with technology. Our research methods span fields such as human-computer interaction, media arts, physiology, and ethics."

World Builder: Interaction of the Future?

World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.

If you've seen this 9-minute video, you won't mind taking another look. It was created by Bruce Branit depicting a man who builds a holographic world sometime in the future. Branit is a visual effects artist, who reportedly used the Lightwave 3D graphics platform for post-production.

The music was composed by Randy Skach.

Interaction Design 2009: Video of Dan Saffer's Presentation

Dan Saffer - Attention Awareness for Interaction Designers 2009 from Interaction Design Association on Vimeo.

Dan Saffer is an interaction designer who recently spoke at the 2009 IXDA conference. His company is Kicker Studio.

FYI: Gestural Entertainment Center


RELATED:
What is Interaction Design?

McDonald's Digital Signage "Interaction" in Piccadilly Circus

McDonald's has launched a fun approach to interactive marketing in the UK. The following video shows passers-by interacting with the content of a large digital billboard in Piccadilly Circus. Watch all of the poses!

Advertising without the annoyance. Cute.

McDonald's Piccadilly Circus Flickr Group









I can see this concept spreading. Outdoor signage is going digital, and the web will connect it all!

Yellowbird 6 lens 360 degree video camera creates web-based interactive 3-D videos

Update 6/4/10:   Take a look at the new Yellowbird 360 degree demo reel video on the following post: http://interactivemultimediatechnology.blogspot.com/2010/06/interactive-360-degree-video-demo-reel.html


Harry Brignull, who blogs at 90% of Everything, has an interesting video taken at what looks like an electronic music festival - "Ever wondered what it's like to be trapped in a crowd of 600,00 Dutch clubbers?"

THIS IS JUST THE PICTURE

You will need to visit Harry's blog to explore and pan around the video.

“By using a Google Streetview-like camera, a system with six lenses, not as a photo but as a video camera, an all-encompassing picture is captured. [...] From the point where the images were recorded, the viewer can look in any direction, let his eyes wander through the crowd, or stare at the ground or the air, which makes viewing a video an experience without boundaries.” - Yellow Bird press release

The Gear in Action

If I can find additional examples of Yellowbird videos, I will post them here. They are easy to work with a touch-screen. I bet these videos would be great on SmartBoards or other interactive displays.

By the way, Harry Brignull blogs about "Experience Design, User Research & Good Old Fashioned Usability"

Interacting with the Internet of Things: Pachube

I have a growing interest in the emerging "web of things", and figuring out how computers and gadgets can inter-operate more smoothly. This summer, I'm planning on playing with my RFID toys and learning more about wireless sensor networks. I can't wait until waiting for my MIR:ROR and Nabaztag arrive. I'm also looking forward to exploring the Pachube concept.

So what is Pachube?

Pachube: "A web service that enables people to tag and share real time sensor data from objects, devices and spaces around the world, facilitating interaction between remote environments, both physical and virtual."






You can sign up for Pachube on the web, and learn more about it by exploring the following links:


Pachube, Patching the Planet: Interview with Usman Haque
Ways to User Pachube
Pachube Website
Pachube Tutorials
Extended Environments Markup Language
EEML library for Processing


Pachube iGoogle Gadget: Create a monitoring dashboard

Usman Haque is an architect and director of Haque Design + Research.

"The domain of architecture has been transformed by developments in interaction research, wearable computing, mobile connectivity, people-centered design, contextual awareness, RFID systems and ubiquitous computing. These technologies alter our understanding of space and change the way we relate to each other. We no longer think of architecture as static and immutable; instead we see it as dynamic, responsive and conversant. Our projects explore some of this territory."

(cross post on the TSHWI blog)