Student Area

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I liked this project:

https://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/recompose/

The project utilizes gestural movements similar to the Soli, yet 10 years prior and with real objects responding in physical characteristics rather than a computer program on a screen. The precision and control that the user can impose these shapes reflect a more precise version of soli’s tap function, allowing them to shape the height of the cuboid landscape. This also allows a more natural “pinching” gesture to indicate pulling up the surface below. I think this some ideas of how to approach soli.

 

 

 

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inFORM: MIT Tangible Media Group

 

The project inFORM by the Tangible Media Group explores how digital interactions can feel more physical through a matrix of physical “pixels” that react to hand gestures (and other inputs). They propose that this type of interaction can bring more presence in remote conditions.

The physical pixels can be used to materialize a variety of intangible inputs, such as a 3d topographical map from a digital map.

This is apparently the underbelly of the entire machine to control each individual pixel.

I found this project to be particularly interesting, as I have always wondered what the future of interactions would look like without relying on the limited mediums we have today (computer mouse, keyboard, and screens). Nowadays, we’re so used to abiding by the rule of deriving digital outputs from physical inputs. Projects like these that inquire alternative ways we experience the world are exciting to me, as new forms of interaction can breed new, creative ideas – just as the Soli project is doing for us right now.

I think that this interactive piece is especially great at being honest with its audience, as it boils down to only the essential details: the hand and the pixels, with no extraneous elements. This simplicity makes it effortless for the audience to ponder over the implications of a phantom touch.

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https://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/venous-materials/

Vernous materials explores an alterative way to visualize and record motion without using electronics. In simplest terms, these are structure created with fluid inside; with pressure applied, the fluid travels along the structure and “functions as a sensor and display of tangible information”.

As the project pointed out, “computer chips and electronics usually require rigid and bulky components, Venous Materials is a soft and self-contained mechanism that utilizes the motion of daily activities as its energy source”. I think seeing an alternative way to visualize data without electronics could have some interesting applications, and I was surprised as to the amount the data(bending, pressure, or recording past data) they’re able to get just  from manipulating the shape of the structure cleverly.

 

(zimoun’s work is also super cool! Reference lampsauce’s post about it!)

OoodBird-sketches

Cat Petting Simulator:

I love cats, and have been feeling very deprived of cats, so I was thinking of making a program that simulates the feeling of petting a cat. Tapping on the screen will make the cat move either on its stomach or back (tapping in a very gentle non violent way) and swiping left or right will allow you to pet the cat causing it to make a purring sound in response.

Space explorer:

This project is meant to focus on the satisfaction that comes from spinning an object, in this case a globe.  The user can tap to generate a new planet it will have random facts or possibly real facts about this planet (depending on how hard each option is to implement). The use swipes to left or right to make the planet spin and can enjoy it more that way.

Task manager:

This will be a way to organize someone’s calendar. The tasks will appear in order of most to least urgent and by tapping on will be able to switch to the next task. swiping left on a selected task will archive it and swiping right will allow you to create a new task that will automatically be set to 10 minutes after the one currently selected. One can of course manually change the times and events. This is designed for daily tasks (in a more implemented version for example it could appear on a home screen or something).

tale-soli-sketches

I want to have more options and hear others opinion on these so I came up with more than 3 ideas. I’m not sure which idea is most interesting/ possible to implement in a week of a timeframe so I’ll include sketches to all, but I’ll only explain the three ideas I find most suitable/interesting for this project.

1. Virtual Bookshelf

Idea: 

Often times I find myself not reading enough books. Libraries are either closed or operating with limited hours due to covid19, making reading books even harder for everyone. To be honest, reading a book is totally achievable even without having libraries to be open, but our book options are relatively limited. I wanted to recreate the experience of having some options to choose from when reading  a book/searching for a certain topic-related book.

How it works:

I’m thinking to have “swipe” to shift through the options on the bookshelf and “tap” to select the book.

Each title of the book will be a broad category, and the content of the book will be some random information of that topic. For example, “recipes” would give a recipe of a random dish, and “motivation” would give some random quote that motivates you. If the first content doesn’t satisfy you, then you can “swipe” to generate another one.

Hopefully I could connect to some sort of data set/API (if there is one) that I could potentially draw a random piece of information from.

Potential Challenges:

  • COLLECTING DATA:  I’m currently unaware of any big data/API of random facts/information/quotes of a certain category.

2. Flapping Bird (bottom sketch)

Idea:

Exercising is not happening in my life these days and I’ve been losing a lot of muscles.. A lot of my friends also related to the lack of movement due to covid19 and social distancing, so I wondered if I could make something that at least works out my arm. So I thought of this idea, where the player would be required to move their arm to “tap” to make the bird fly through the sky.

How it works:

“Tap” to make the bird flap. The bird might fall (i.e. game over) if you don’t “tap” often, but you don’t have to “tap” all the time because oftentimes birds ride air current instead of flapping rigorously.

Potential Add-on:

“swipe” to make the bird go left/right of the screen?

Potential Challenges:

I realized Soli can’t recognize consecutive motions as well as a single independent motion. It also often recognizes one motion as another (ex. “tap” as “swipe” or vice versa), so perhaps it’d lead to game over even though the user has been moving arms so much to get the motion of tapping across…

On a bright side, it’d lead to more arm exercise? Although I get annoyed when the sensor keeps reading my intended motion as another, so perhaps it might annoy others too..

3. Stay Clean (covid19 edition?)

Idea:

Due to covid-19, many people including myself began to use disinfecting products much more often. I came up with this little app that swipes between the three interactive pieces related to our daily lives with covid19.

How it works:

Swipe left or right to move to the previous/next interactive piece:

a. hand sanitizer

“Tap” or “Swipe down” to push down the hand sanitizer bottle and make a little pile of hand sanitizer next to the bottle.

b. wiping surfaces

“Swipe up” & “Swipe down” to wipe out the virus.

c. wear mask properly

“Tap” to begin/end the game, “swipe up/left/right” accordingly to make the person on the screen correctly wear their mask. I got the idea from all those people who don’t wear their masks properly in the public space. (Mask is not a chin guard.. )

Potential Challenges:

  • Would I be able to implement all three within the week of time? I’d be drawing all the visuals in illustrator on top of coding the interactive part. How realistic is this to all be done in a week with preparing for midterms?
  • Same as in the second idea: Soli often detects one motion as another, so what if the user is having fun wiping surfaces, for example, and is so close to being done but then soli reads their motion as swiping left/right and changes to the next piece?

pinkkk-soli-sketches

The first two ideas are entirely visual and responds to the hand swiping motion.

 

 

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For this one, I think there are lots of opportunities for details to animate the tilt of boat, ripples in the water, rising sun, etc.

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I wanted to have random nasty things thrown on the car window, and users can activate the car wiper by hand swiping motion.

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This concept incorporates presence, swipe, and time. Users start with an egg that will eventually hatch with ones presence, which will also impact the background color to become warmer (the eggs need to be kept warm for them to hatch). Once the egg hatches, the user can interact with little ducklings with hand swiping gestures to play. The duckling needs a certain amount of love and care to mature. Lastly, when the duck grows up, it will lay eggs and users can choose to restart the game by clicking on an egg. Or, users can remain in this stage and interact with grown duck.

 

 

 

 

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Trans Plant, Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau

In this early interactive computer installation, the viewer generates and moves through a virtual world, populated by plants that change properties based on the viewers themselves and their movements. This is their world, generated only by them. Others may witness and their images may be seen in it, but they have no control over it.

Because of that personal aspect of it, I think this work places itself in an interesting position in terms of ecology. Under a capitalist system and as ego-driven as we are socialized to be, we view our world as this one. We view the ecosystem as our systems, which are to be manipulated for our own personal gain. Perhaps this work serves as an outlet for those desires in a way that is not harmful, as it is virtual.