| Monday, November 10, 2003 |
13:38 - I can feeeeel the muuuuusic
http://web.media.mit.edu/~jpatten/
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I'm usually not one to endorse willfully kooky new interface ideas that seem to be designed solely for the purpose of being New and Different. But this guy might well be on to something here.
I'm a PhD Candidate in the Tangible Media Group at the MIT Media Lab, where I design new interfaces to computers based on physical objects. These tangible interfaces aim to let people take advantage of the skills they already have when using a computer, instead of having to develop new ones. Recently I've been focusing on the theme of the interactive workbench. I've developed some technologies for quickly and accurately tracking the movements of objects on a tabletop surface, and several applications of this technology, ranging from musical performance to business simulation.
This "interactive workbench" involves several Oreo-sized knobs that you can place anywhere on a flat, featureless table; sensors track how you move the knobs, sliding or rotating them, and attaches interface elements to them that are projected from above you. The deal is that the knobs are something you actually touch, bridging the gap between the physical satisfaction of analog controls and the ever-redrawing universality of digital display feedback.
The way that the knobs "bind" to the projected lines and connection points is really pretty cool. It's playing a few tricks on your mind, when you see how the lines representing decision-trees sway and spring back and forth when plucked-- there's got to be some oddness about how you don't actually feel any physical resistance corresponding to the projected elements; but I can certainly see this system having its uses. Check out the chemical-reaction demo. Sweet.
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Brian Tiemann
