Inventing Interactive

Chase Blueprint

June 14, 2010 - In Future

Cool UI in credit card commercials? These two 2009 commercials from Chase for their Blueprint Visa cards demonstrate not only some advanced interaction models, but upcoming technology ideas, too. The “Couch” ad features a magic paper bill, with qualities similar to Caprica Paper. The bill lets a customer touch an item to get more details about a purchase, along with being able to manage payment schedules. It’s interesting to see the purchased product revealed in…

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LuminAR

June 10, 2010 - In Future, Present

It looks like we’re one step closer to the Luminous Room. Take a look at this demo of LiminAR. It’s a project by Natan Linder, a student of Pattie Maes in her Fluid Interfaces Group at the MIT Media Lab. LiminAR is made up of two components, the Bulb and the Lamp: The LuminAR Bulb combines a Pico-projector, camera, and wireless computer in a compact form factor. This self-contained system enables users with just-in-time projected…

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Uniqlo Lucky Switch

June 9, 2010 - In Present

Uniqlo’s interactive stuff is always cool, and this little toy is no exception. The “Lucky Switch” widget was part of a 2009 end-of-year clearance campaign. The widget could be embedded into blogs and websites, and when pressed, transformed every image on any website into a Uniqlo Lucky Ticket. The widget was designed by the Japanese firm IMG SRC. You can see a description (in Japanese) of the project here. I’m still searching for the actual embed…

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Oblong and Before

June 4, 2010 - In Past, Present

TED.com just posted a talk from this year’s TED2010 by John Underkoffler on his research into gesture interfaces. John is best known for his work on the interfaces in the film Minority Report but has since founded Oblong Industries. The talk demonstrates Oblong’s point-and-touch interface called g-speak. I have to admit, having never actually used the system myself, that it looks a bit baffling. How does a user know what to do? Don’t your arms get…

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Interative Gastronomy

June 3, 2010 - In Future, Present

In a recent post Golan Levin writes about how adding the term “computational” to various non-science fields allows you to imagine all sorts of new subjects. Specifically, he “created” Computational Gastronomy, only to realize that the field sort-of actually exists (!), and so started an interesting list of articles and research in the emerging field. That got me thinking about how we use, or fantasize about using, technology to interact with food — specifically how…

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File Prix Lux

June 2, 2010 - In Present

File Prix Lux is the competition component of the FILE | Electronic Language International Festival in São Paulo Brazil. The prize’s Popular Vote allows anyone to vote on their favorite digital artwork. There are three categories in the competition: Interactive Art, Electronic Sonority and Digital Language. Take a look and vote. The nominees are an eclectic mix of the crazy, more crazy, somewhat boring, and inspirational. Voting is open between May 3 and June 25….

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Matías Diarte and Mobile UIs

May 27, 2010 - In Present

There’s been a lot of buzz online today about the news that mobile interface designer Matías Duarte is leaving Palm (now part of HP) and going to Google to be the user experience director for Android. And the consensus is that it’s good news for Android which, while a solid OS, has always been a bit lacking in visual design. At Palm, he was the vp of human interface and user experience — leading the…

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Remembering Quokka

May 26, 2010 - In Past, Special - 2 comments

Back in the late 90′s and early 00′s, Quokka Sports was doing some pretty groundbreaking design. Their sites were unlike anything I’d seen online before. An amazing mix of raw data, bold images, and real-time data that really connected you to the events. Quokka was founded to cover the 1997-1998 Whitbread Round the World yacht race. After the race, they aimed to become the premiere digital sports media company. And they produced some great sites…

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iPhone Art

May 26, 2010 - In Present

Rhizome has a great post today Art in Your Pocket 2: Media Art for the iPhone and iPod Touch Graduates To The Next Level. It’s a really interesting collection of work that doesn’t normally get a lot of press. I’d love to copy/paste the entire post here. But instead… go over and take a look yourself — and try downloading a few of the apps. They’re all pretty cool — each is pushing interactivity in its…

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Seeper and Projection Mapping

May 25, 2010 - In Present - One comment

Projection Mapping is a hot trend right now, and this piece from the UK collective Seeper, a promotion for Nokia Ovi Maps, is a beautiful interactive example. [The project] combined a high powered projection installation with dynamic face tracking, custom optical flow and a completely custom and crazy thing called arrow chess. The interactive projection mapping brings people right into the projection, from placing their face on the wall through to creating optical waves and…

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