Inventing Interactive

Saturn Green Line at NextFest

July 14, 2010 - In Past

Way back in 2006, at the Wired NextFest, Saturn sponsored a “green” exhibit, highlighting their hybrid technology. It was a 4,000 square-foot installation featuring a life-sized, interactive holographic people, CAD projections onto vehicles, and a interactive/reactive wall with user-generated content. I first learned of the project when I was judging the Communication Arts 2007 Interactive Annual and said it was beautiful and poetic. It may not have had deep interaction, but that was ok for…

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Reactive Books

July 8, 2010 - In Past

All of John Maeda‘s work is amazing and inspiring, but I find his series of Reactive Books to be among the most engaging and thought-provoking. Created between 1994 and 1999, each book explored the use of a different input: microphone, mouse, time, keyboard, and video. At a time when interactive media was trying to be more and more, the simplicity and focus of these pieces set them apart. Their visual simplicity allowed you to really…

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Wrangler Blue Bell

July 6, 2010 - In Present - One comment

The websites for Wrangler Europe’s Blue Bell collection may not be revolutionary, but they have a simple and delightful interaction. When I saw the first, a couple months ago, I thought it was super-cool. And, with the launch of an update this week, I figured I now have permission to do a post. Designed by Kokokaka, the sites reveal their content through a series of simple chapter pages. On each page you’re able to control…

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Cooking Dinner and Project Oasis

July 2, 2010 - In Past, Present

This is interesting… Intel Labs’ Oasis Project uses your kitchen countertop to recognize the foods that you place on it, and projects a variety of interactive content. It’s still early research, and so the sorts of interactions possible, as well as the content that’s projected, are pretty basic. But the video suggests a variety of ways people could be assisted in a kitchen of the future. Actually, when I first watched the demo, the first thing that popped…

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Modernista! CP+B. Timtastic!

June 30, 2010 - In Past, Present

Way back in 2008, when Modernista! launched a new version of their website, I was blown away. It was such a simple idea, but it was daring and revolutionary. And it generated a ton of buzz. The site was super-simple, just a navigation layer that connected live Modernista-related pages from sites including Flickr, Wikipedia, YouTube and Google News. It’s embrace of Web 2.0 concepts startled some, but it positioned the agency as innovative and creatively…

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Two Tabletops

June 28, 2010 - In Present

The tangibility of tabletop/object interfaces can make them much more approachable and informal than screen-based applications. That, plus you’re focused on the experience — not distracted by all the other apps or toolbars fighting for your attention. So it was cool to discover these two recent explorations. The first, Augmented Shadow, is by Joon Moon, a grad student at Parsons. By moving an object designated as the light-source, the other objects’ shadows are updated. The…

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Life Moves Fast

June 24, 2010 - In Present

Take a look at this series of commercials from Palm, part of their “Life moves fast. Don’t miss a thing” campaign. They show a kind-of augmented reality, holographic-style mobile UI. Unlike the Chase Blueprint ads, which showed some pretty innovative ideas for holographic interfaces, these essentially project what’s happening on the screen. The point isn’t to present a new interface — instead it’s about communicating how you can use a mobile interface while you’re on-the-go….

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Share Happy

June 22, 2010 - In Present - 2 comments

This is interesting… an ice cream vending machine that’s smile-activated. The system recognizes a user’s facial expression and, if they’re smiling, rewards them with free ice cream. It’s a great example of creatively using advanced technology for a brand-relevant experience. Created for Unilever (who own the brands Ben & Jerry’s, Good Humor, Breyers and Klondike), the project was developed by SapientNitro UK. You can read more on their case study and press release pages. PSFK points…

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What is Watson?

June 18, 2010 - In Present

I’ve previously written about my first job after college, working in the field of artificial intelligence. AI work had an energy and optimism that was very exciting. But, over time, the field slowed down, faced with complex problems that seemed insurmountable. But over the past ten years, AI been picking up steam again. Researchers are using increasingly large databases of information, and developing new ways of analyzing and learning from them. And they’re working on question-answering…

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Drawdio

June 14, 2010 - In Present

How adorable is this… with Drawdio you can turn almost anything into a musical instrument. (Unlike most posts on this blog, this isn’t screen-based — but creating interactive drawings in addition to designing interactivity with physical objects seems pretty cool.) Developed by Jay Silver at the MIT Media Lab (I promise to try and stop using them as a source for posts here… but there’s a lot of cool stuff there)… The Drawdio circuit-craft lets…

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