The Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI ‘10) conference
was held in Cambridge, MA, this week. Technologists and designers from around
the world gathered to demonstrate projects exploring the blurring of physical
and digital user interfaces. Here are some of the most interesting projects
from the conference.
A
Physically Responsive Map
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This tabletop display shows 3-D shapes on a moving, flexible surface.
The display changes shape in response to users’ touch; for example, a map was
projected onto miniature mountain ranges, and an image of the brain was
contorted to reflect its shape.
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“You could have an image of the body and dig into it and feel the
heart beating,” says MIT research assistant Daniel Leithinger, one of
the creators of the project.
Interactive
Art Cobots
Christian
Cerrito, a graduate student at New York University’s
Interactive Telecommunications Program, is developing interactive art displays
with collaborative robots called cobots. One of his cobots draws yellow circles
until it receives an audio sound (someone clapping or shouting, for example),
and then it draws a dashed line. Another changes its designs in response to
light and shadow. In the future, Cerrito says he would like to use bigger
robots in a public space for an interactive art exhibit.
A
Tangible, Digital Jukebox
Researchers at the Music
Technology Group of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Spain are
using this project to explore the
importance of physical objects associated to music–vinyl or
CDs, for example. Their tabletop display consists of an infrared camera and projector
beneath a sheet of Plexiglas. Small pieces of paper with dots underneath are
traced by the camera below the glass. A user can use a piece of paper as a
playlist.
An Augmented
Reality Pattern Table
With this multiuser, augmented reality table, users can experiment
with digital and physical patterns and shapes. A projector and infrared camera
beneath the table lets a user “pick up” an image
or video clip with plastic tiles and remix them to make new patterns. Arranging
these augmented geometric tiles could give children a fun and interactive tool
to learn about mathematical shapes, according to MIT graduate student Sean Follmer.
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A Soap
Bubble Display
This soap bubble display was designed by Axel Sylvester from the
University of Hamburg and colleagues from the University of Duisburg-Essen in
Germany.
The machine spits bubbles onto a soapy surface; below, a camera
tracks the bubbles, which a user can move by blowing or gently dragging a
finger. Moving the bubbles lets the user control lights, or images projected
onto them. “We use it to think about the materiality of tangible [objects],” says
Sylvester.
Videos by Kristina Grifantini, edited by Brittany Sauser
