Final Product

More info will follow, but for now a small demo video of the end product. I controlled the installation by only using the light of my cellphone. Thanks for the great help on the scripting Niels!

Add comment | August 31st, 2008

AdLight || Interactive Light Advertising

No more clicking, typing or touching a screen, but just waving a light source in front of a screen to control the content; the content of an interactive advertisement.

Add comment | July 25th, 2008

Non-Touch Interaction

Well, it’s been a while since my last update, but I’ll give you a short update of what I’ve been doing for the last months. 

For my graduation project I wanted to create an interactive digital advertisement for in the public space. I wanted to use a whole new type of interaction, called “Gesture Based Interaction”, which is (as the name says) a type of interaction controlled by your gestures. With this kind of interaction it’s possible to control the content on a screen by “just” waving with your arms. It’s just like in the movie “Minority Report” which I mentioned in an earlier post. Interacting in such a way has a lot of potential, in both usability as in safety and location. It is easy to learn how to use, you only have to wave your arms and you don’t have to learn handling an input device. It can be placed almost anywhere, for example in bus-stops, billboards and even in shopping windows, the only things needed are a big screen (projection) and a spot to place the camera’s. 

This type of interaction has only one downside to it, the technique… In my research I found that there are a few possibilities to recognize the movements through a camera. The first option is the ZCam, produced by an Israeli company called 3DV Systems, a camera the size of a webcam which has the ability to capture video and three dimensional data at the same time. The only problem with this camera; it won’t be available till the end of this year and all prototypes were gone as well. I’ve been in contact with 3DV Systems though and they told me that my plan would be possible using the ZCam. But since the project needs to be finished at the 21^st of August, this option ends for me. An other option which is possible is the use of a double lens camera in combination with an infrared camera. But to realise this, I need to find  someone that knows everything about these techniques and the scripting behind it. Due to the short time available I had to drop this  concept and think of something else. A real shame because I think I could have made this into a great product. 

Maybe I will still be able to build this concept after the release of the ZCam.

Some concept sketches: 
  
  

Info about the ZCam:

Add comment | July 11th, 2008

CeBIT 2008

CeBIT 2008

For me this was my first time at CeBIT, so I didn’t exactly know what I could expect. I read on the internet that previous editions were better, but I thought this one was just great. Although I didn’t find anything new for my project, it was still pretty exciting to see all the new technologies and possibilities.

We got a change to talk to the developer behind the T-Mobile multi-touch wall which was really interesting. He explained what hardware was used and gave us the change to take a glance behind the scenes. (no photographing allowed). This was a real work of art. A variety of infrared camera’s and beamers made it possible that a few dozen people could interact with the screen at the same time. To bad for me that it was still touchscreen. According to the designer no touch interaction would be ro much of a hassle in this size. Note to myself; don’t make the screen to big!

One thing I really hoped seeing at the CeBIT was the ZCam, but I wasn’t that lucky. This camera is exactly what I need for the project. It is a webcam which can register depth and 3d,, which allows you to assign gestures to it to control your computer. This opens a world of opportunities, for example the way the see their selves, as the new Nintendo Wii.

A few things (not related to my project at all) that were dragging my attention at the CeBIT were the big amount Asians promoting their USB flash drives (already up to 64Gb) and the huge amount of RFID chip solutions. I think this is really a thing to worry about. The capabilities of these tiny chips are unbelievable and before we know we don’t have any privacy left at all. It starts of with some small (useful) applications as for example a login keychain which you can keep inside your pocket at all times, but in the end it can be used for everything. Imagine all your info is on the chip and before walking into a grocery store you are already being spammed with your personal ads of that day.
That’s just my opinion ofcourse, but I think it’s a thing we should be careful with.

The most interesting thing to see was how small they can make everything. Before we know we have a couple of hundred megabytes inside our telephones and other portable devices. Chips can be hidden anywhere and you can watch your favourite movies wherever you want on the smallest devices.

Technology keeps on going… and I’ll be there to see it on CeBIT next year!

Some pictures:

Add comment | March 12th, 2008

Minority Report interaction

One of the most interesting ways of interaction for me is the Minority Report type of interaction. For those who don’t know what I mean, here’s an explanation:
In the movie Minority Report the main character uses his hand to navigate on a digital screen. Without touching the screen he opens files drags them across the screen, etc. The only thing that needs to be done to this concept is getting rid of the gloves.

I like this kind of interaction and think it has potential for an easy user friendly type of navigation. Therefore I am looking around for stuff that has been done using this type of interaction, and try to figure out what techniques are used.

This is an example made for Orange (the first public installation using this type of interaction):

Add comment | February 18th, 2008

And there is more…

UK Interactive Design Exhibition

Building Interactive Playgrounds 2006 (BIP)

Artificial Dummies (TODO)

ARTIFICIAL.DUMMIES from todo.to.it on Vimeo.

Add comment | February 6th, 2008

The great source of YouTube

Big Screen Public Interaction:

Solaris Interactive Screen:

Fiat 500 Intro, Interactive Screen:

Minority Report Interface Prototype:

Viso Interactive Face:

BumpTop 3d Desktop:

Add comment | February 4th, 2008

Concept Idea: Interactive Billboard/Busstop/Advertisment Screen

After a search on the web for some interesting musea, I found a poster museum in Hoorn. When I was browsing to their website a few ideas popped up. A lot of advertisments you find along the street are kind of lame and boring, you walk by them every single day, see them at the busstop or maybe you don’t even notice them anymore.
I think these ads can be much more interesting if you make them interactive. This can be anything from sharing data with your mobile to being able to change the content by using an touchscreen interface.

I think this idea can’t be only interesting to see and do, but can also work.

That’s why I went to the Poster Museum today to see what are the key elements of an poster. What I noticed was, the message in the poster is getting more and more complicated and let’s the user think about what he/she just saw. Posters contain a very little amount of text and the main focus of the poster is in the center which shows an image or title.

I think this is one of the key elements that should stay if you make something like this digital. So this means it needs to be an easy to understand interface with a lot of visual communication.

An example of an application for this could be a interactive ad for Coke, where you can let the user design their own bottle print. This can be done by selecting one of the in coke style brushes and then brush them over the screen using touch screen or motion tracking.

Some links I found on this topic:
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-bNZRAypgQ
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJEjl3NEWks&NR=1
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5mwzhUCqkA
- http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3502186
- NY Times

Add comment | February 1st, 2008

Start of the Graduation Project

Today we started with the project. The first 6 weeks will get us to a (hopefully) good proposal. This looks like a long time, but I think I’ll need all of it.

 First I need to start to come up with a field of interest. Talking about it at school today brought up the first few directions.
- Gadgets
- Public Interaction
- Graphic Design

Tomorrow I’ll start searching in these 3 items and find out what I want.

Add comment | January 29th, 2008