Acoustic Barcodes // HCII CMU

Straight out of Carnegie Mellon, an interesting interaction using structured patterns of physical notches as Acoustic Barcodes. Swiping the barcodes with for example a fingernail produce a complex sound that can be resolved to a binary ID. A single, inexpensive contact microphone attached to a surface or object is used to capture the waveform. While the applications might be a bit odd, I think it’s an very interesting approach by making the interaction more tangible compared to scanning an RFID.
 

Heat Map // onformative

A translation between sight and touch merges human sensing abilities. Projecting imaginary heat on top of human skin and its surrounding to create a virtual thermo reactive surface. I think this is an interesting concept of giving the illusion and perception of heat on a surface, because we are so used to the visual representation of thermo colors for temperature. The smudge effect really reenforces the illusion of heat being transferred on a surface and the heat dissipates over time. I would love to test and interact with the system for myself and see how it would play tricks on my senses.
 

Zimoun: Sound Sculptures & Installations, Sound Architectrues

Using simple and functional components, Zimoun builds architecturally-minded platforms of sound. Exploring mechanical rhythm and flow in prepared systems, his installations incorporate commonplace industrial objects. In an obsessive display of simple and functional materials, these works articulate a tension between the orderly patterns of Modernism and the chaotic forces of life. I love the simplicity of the work, and how rich and mesmerizing the experience is. It’s just something stuck onto a servo, but the compositions and sounds that the sculptures create have a very elegant feeling to it.

Chamelon Guitar (by MIT Media Lab)

It’s a 99-in-one guitar. It has different small bodies, equipped with piezo sensors. They can get the resonance of the small body, and simulate that for the whole. I think this is a really simple, and pure idea, that is relatively easily implemented.

CATEN (David Letellier)

Created for the Saint Sauveur chapel in Caen, Caten is a levitating sculpture, determined by gravity and guiding the evolution of a sound composition.
300 wires suspended from two ropes, connected themselves at each end to a slowly rotating arm, form an evanescent surface which interacts with the architecture.

At each turn, the engines emit one of the first 4 notes of the scale (Ut, Re, Mi, Fa), creating a sequence of intervals, constantly reconfigured. Low frequencies resonate in the space and emphazise the transcendental character of a place once dedicated to faith.
The name is derived from the term catenary, which describes the plane curve formed by a rope hanging between two points.

Konkreet Performer

Konkreet Performer is a live music performance controller. It has a beautiful circular multi-touch interface that reconnects the musician’s actions directly with the music. Although their description sounds a bit too commercial, I think this is a good example of what’s possible to do with multi-touch devices.

Number 1: Obligatory Music Post.

I thought this project (and the other hundreds of similar projects with apps and music) is pretty cool. This wave of software designers is trying to find new intuitive ways to perceive, process, and manipulate music, and this is just one example which looks particularly pretty. That said, I think that coming off a project like my last one where I felt underwhelmed with my results, I think I want to leave music behind for this project. Which brings me to:

Number 2: Wii Remote Finger Tracking

I love Johnny Lee. I think we can all learn from his top notch documentation skills, plus he is very creative with inexpensive resources. While the Wii Remote Finger tracking is not an interactive art piece in its own right, I think I could easily set this up and use it as a resource for my interactive projects, which is why I am showing it here.

And number 3: Non-real-time interaction

Baroque.me: J.S. Bach – Cello Suite No. 1 – Prelude from Alexander Chen on Vimeo.

It’s a visualization. But it’s also a piece of non-real-time interactive art. The lengths of the strings interact with the pitches in the signal, and the result is a really pretty experience. Maybe without abandoning music altogether I can still make a meaningful piece in the space of my two disciplines, without putting the pressure of composition upon myself (because I am just really really insecure in my ability to compose meaningful music, by hand or algorithmically)

{ PURE WHITE PAPER – LI HONGBO }

Simple, elegant, analogue interaction.  I was amazed by the fact that morphing of the structures was actually thousands of papers.

Inspiring:

a. Using analogue materials to mimic digitalization process;

b. Even the most common and ordinary material can make extraordinaries. – do we really need high technology?

c. This could be seen as a reverse and dynamic version of 3D printing.

{ L.S.D+LIGHT SEQUENCER – Benjamin Gaulon}

Using light-dependent resistor to receive the brightness of the screen as input to control the sound wave parameters.

A few things that worth thinking:

a. this might not be as interesting if is not done with analogue;

b. sound-visual connection isn’t clear enough;

c. the ultimate question for sonification: how to make the sound appreciable and beautiful and less randomness sounding.

{Voice Array – Rafeal Lozano-Hemme}

Poetic. I love it that the waveform is not always there, but you could see and hear it grow along timeline.

Light and space is immersive, but I wonder how the sound space was set-up, surround would definitely be a plus.

When I was doing this looking outwards, I am kind of naturally re-define interactivity in my mind. I consider from large dimension of interactivity to the tiny fine interactive experience. I also think about the necessity of this interactivity and human senses.
The examples as follows are focused on the topics above.

Driveless Car – Interact or Not
One day in the near future, we will not driving and the car will drive us to where we want. I am thinking two things: one is whether or not people will miss the lost feeling of driving a vehicle; another is that people will do on there driveless cars. With the coming of driveless car, people’s interaction with car will all change. People may do the work, hangout on g+, or set around drinks coffee.
In this sense, some missing interaction may be a good thing; while I am sure, this field interactivity is to be defined.

XL vs XS
WHITE NOISE WHITE LIGHT
http://www.mystudio.us/projects/3
Soft Robot Walking and Crawling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DsbS9cMOAE

The first hologram example is not extremely big, but my point is to put interactivity on an urban level. Mash up element in the living world and make something tangible is the most accessable way for people to interacte with. From this example I come up with the thought that the straight-forward playfulness is the core of tangible interaction.

Another example is the creep soft robot. people are not touching it, but people controls it. Sometime people may not controls it, and it will go on its own way. From this example i understand dimension/material/behavior contribute to interactivity.

Human Senses
It seems that we have over use our virtual senses with the advantage of screen displays. With apple’s extraordinary iphone and ipad, interaction and intelligence is greatly enabled in artifacts. However, interaction overwhelmingly based on single senese is not intuitive. I therefore list human senses as my third topic. I am very optimistic about next generation’s interaction maybe somethign we now called TUI- tangible user interface.

exTouch from Tangible Media Group on Vimeo.

Durrell Bishop Marble Answer Machine

I choose this one because it is a very beginning of TUI. It’s a really new interaction way for people to interact with virtual things.

1992 Marble Answer Machine. The physical visualisation of a system. This was the second of many demonstrations that simplified the interaction of products. It uses the direct manipulation of messages within the descriptive environment of a product and then the extension of this language to other products.

Here’s the video.

T(ether)

It’s a new way to combine the virtual world and real world. T(ether) is a novel spatially aware display that supports intuitive interaction with volumetric data. The display acts as a window affording users a perspective view of three- dimensional data through tracking of head position and orientation. T(ether) creates a 1:1 mapping between real and virtual coordinate space allowing immersive exploration of the joint domain. Our system creates a shared workspace in which co-located or remote users can collaborate in both the real and virtual worlds. The system allows input through capacitive touch on the display and a motion-tracked glove. When placed behind the display, the user’s hand extends into the virtual world, enabling the user to interact with objects directly.

Omnitouch

Today’s mobile computers provide omnipresent access to information, creation and communication facilities. It is undeniable that they have forever changed the way we work, play and interact. However, mobile interaction is far from solved. Diminutive screens and buttons mar the user experience, and otherwise prevent us from realizing their full potential.

It’s a powerful alternative approach to mobile interaction that uses a body-worn projection/sensing system to capitalize on the tremendous surface area the real world provides.  However, turning everyday surfaces into interactive platforms requires sophisticated hardware and sensing. Further, to be truly mobile, systems must either fit in the pocket or be wearable.

1. Weave Silk

Weave Silk is a drawing tool that generates curves based on mouse or finger movement.  It is definitely an interesting tool and has a nicely crafted interface.  The interaction is also very satisfying; the user is able to create beautifully generated images with a few movements.  The tool does seem a bit limiting though; it feels like I want to have more control over the movements, especially because there is an inherent symmetry to the curves you can create.

2. Tree Drawings by Tim Knowles 

This project is not digital but it is definitely generative and I found it extremely interesting.  The artist   created a series of drawings by attaching pens to the branches of different trees and allowing wind and other natural factors to generate forms on canvases.  As such, through the generation of this images, the artist is also recording and visualizing information about each tree, the environment they exist in and the time of year when these drawings were made.

3. L-Systems in Architecture by Michael Hansmeyer

For this project, Computational Architect Michael Hansmeyer designs a piece of architecture using L-Systems.  I am intrigued by this idea of using L-Systems for different artist applications outside of the realm of modeling plant growth (my friend and I have been working on a project that also explores this idea).  The artist’s project statement describes the project in context to seeing what is possible.  I would be interested in further hearing his thoughts as to where such a building would work conceptually and how creating such buildings using L-Systems begin to inform both conceptually and functional spaces within.

4. H_Edge by Cecil Balmond

H_Edge is an exhibition by Cecil Balmond that I had the fortune of helping to install in the Carnegie Museum a few years ago. It is a amazing structure that consists of chains and metal ‘H’s that is help up by the tension between its components.  It is not quite a generative project, as I believe the spaces created are planned out, at least to an extent, but the structure definitely strikes the observer as generative.  Moving through the exhibit, new spaces are formed due to the reflectivity of the materials and the interactions between the structure’s elements.

1. Augmented Shadow

I’m not sure what state this project is in but I find it very interesting.  It plays on the idea of a shadow using Augmented Reality by allowing the using to move around blocks to explore the mysterious shadow world that exists.  Personally I find the concepts of playing with shadows really intriguing and I think this is a really interesting play that could cause emergent storylines that are all dependent on the interaction of the user.  In this way, it also reminds me of an idea I had for an app that would allow the user to explore a story independent of a chronological storyline.

2.  Light Form by Mathieu Rivier

This is an interactive project that allows the user to affect a surface through touch.  The physical shape of the sculpture does not actually change but rather the shapes projected on the surface do.  I think the real “magic” of the piece is not so much in the interaction but rather in the 3-dimensionality that emerges through the interaction.

3. OKO – Interactive Journey Through NASA Image Database by Jeremie Forge, Pierre Rossel, and Nadezda Suvorova

This project is an iPad app that allows the user to explore images from NASA’s database by turning them into interactive puzzles.  I like the concept of this project because it exposes these beautiful images to the public on a mass scale.  I’m unsure about how I feel regarding the design of the puzzles; some are more successful than others.

4. Snail Space by David Hockney

This is one of my favorite pieces, located in the American Museum of Modern Art in Washington, D.C. It is not technically interactive in the sense that it cannot be experienced tangibly, but it definitely creates a experience that goes beyond the visual.  The exhibit consists of a mural that extents from the wall onto the floor and slowly changing lighting that turns the painting into a three-dimensional space that is constantly evolving.

When I sat down to browse the internet for this blog post I happened to be surrounded by five or six people currently knee-deep in designing a tabletop game. Everyone had done a lot of research into games and other interactive experiences–thus, after searching the internet for a bit, I asked them for some of their favorite interactive projects. After all, research can be done in a lot of different ways, right? I got a lot of good suggestions, and so in addition to one project that I found myself I will include my favorites of those that they suggested.

ANOMALY INTERACTIVE BOOK APP
http://www.experienceanomaly.com/
http://allthingsd.com/20130223/heres-what-happens-when-you-combine-a-comic-book-an-ipad-and-augmented-reality/?mod=atd_su/

This book is an incredibly cool concept–the graphic novel Anomaly is a beautifully illustrated book that comes with a table app. When the user aims the tablet at the book, characters and scenes jump to life, becoming interactive elements that the user can play with and learn extra information from. I love the idea of gleaning more hidden information from a complex medium–with the addition of the app, the book moves from illustrated story to in-depth guide to this world that the artists have built.

While a very cool idea, the execution is still a little clunky. The 3D visuals sometimes break the immersion in their occasional dips into uncanny valley, for example, and the disconnect between book and tablet is unavoidable. That being said, it’s a cool and reasonably polished application to a relatively new technology. The company is already well into their second book, so I anticipate that their company will continue pushing the envelope on this technology for a while.

JOURNEY
http://thatgamecompany.com/games/journey/

When I asked my friends about interactive art pieces, they told me to look up Journey. In fact, they said, we have it here; you should sit down and play. So I did. It was the most gorgeous video game that I’ve ever played. It was beautiful in every area–visual design, gameplay, plot, music, and length. It follows a hooded, nameless, voiceless character in their journey to the top of a mountain. Along the way they discover a lost, sunken city covered in sand in which strange flying red cloth creatures flock like birds and sea creatures.

I spent two hours playing this game and was entertained throughout. Not only that, but through the discussion I got a lot of good information about interactivity and game design from talking to my friends. For instance, the game will pair you with another person on the internet who is playing the game and the two of you traverse the mountain together for a time. You never talk to or message this person–you are both simply pilgrims on a journey. It’s an incredibly elegant way of playing a game with another person without breaking the illusion. Rather than laughing and joking with another person, you’ve just gained a companion for a time. It was a lovely touch to an already fantastic game.

INGRESS
http://www.ingress.com/

Like Anomaly, Ingress is a cool interactive piece that is among the first of its kind. Ingress is a multiplayer augmented reality game by Google that lets all of the users interact with works of art all over the world to stop an unnamed invasion force. As more players work together to unlock a particular area, the game works against the group as a whole to take over the city or town in question.

As this is an Android app and I have an iPhone, I didn’t get a chance to playtest this game. I love the idea, though. It’s a lot of fun to play games with a large community of people–Ingress takes the next step and brings the game to the players’ day-to-day environment. It’s real-time and hits a little closer to home in its targeting of recognizable works of art. I hope that soon I will get a chance to play it. If not, though, I’m sure that there will soon be more games of a similar nature that more closely links the game to our everyday lives.