My prototype is under under construction

This is my prototype, I used a black cardboard to construct the element. There is a plastic photo frame at the top, which is going to hold the "touchscreen". Those little playmo figures are mend to show how the water reacts when someone walks on it.

sketch of my final product

Interactive iBar

iBar is a system for the interactive design of any bar-counter. Integrated video-projectors can project any content on the milky bar-surface. The intelligent tracking system of iBar detects all objects touching the surface. This input is used to let the projected content interact dynamically with the movements on the counter. Objects can be illuminated at their position or virtual objects can be "touched" with the fingers.

The iBar system is ready to be installed completely into any kind of bar-counter, there's no need for any further installations on the ceiling or something like that. The software is flexible and can be adjusted and enhanced.

Illness distracted my work.

I was sick for 6 days and was not able to get any work done. During this week I had planned to get the rest of the parts that I need and start on my model. Instead I need to make a prototype of the model to show scale and how it is going to look visually. I had done everything else on the check list so that is a positive thing.

Interactive Multitouch Display

Theory of operation

This multi touch display screen design is based on the description in Jeff Han's paper,

Han, J. Y. 2005. Low-Cost Multi-Touch Sensing through Frustrated Total Internal Reflection.

In Proceedings of the 18th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology

The figure below comes from his web site.

An acrylic panel is edge lit with infrared leds. When your finger comes in contact with the acrylic, it scatters infrared light out the back where it is visible via infrared camera. As long as nothing is touching the acrylic, very little of the light escapes, instead just reflecting around inside. Image processing takes care of detecting tips of fingers and relaying their location to application software. Since the camera "reads" the whole display in parallel, it is easy to detect multiple fingertips at once, even those belonging to multiple users. All this sensing goes on in the infrared spectrum, leaving us free to utilize the visible spectrum to display interactive software.

Parts and preparation

Tools:
hacksaw
knife
cordless drill and drill bits
soldering iron
T-Square

Materials:
Webcam (Phillips SP900 Recommended) - Available for purchase on the web
Windows PC (sorry Atari, the vvvv toolkit is Windows-only.)
4.3 x 4.3 mm Infrared (aka nightvision) lens - Available for purchase on the web

Infrared LED's (SFH485 recommended)
A power supply (output 3.3v DC at 220mA recommended) - Available at most hobby/craft shops
Fast setting crazy glew (any brand, and get it in a brush on bottle) - Available at most hobby/craft shops

Sandpaper, 400 grit and 800 grit - Available at hardware store
Brass Polish - Available at hardware store
8 x 10 sheet of Lexan standard thickness (0.85) - Available at hardware store
8ft strip of "Tile Divider" - Available at hardware store
A cardboard box, at least 1.5 feet tall on one side (we used 1.5' x 1' x 1') - Available at hardware store (or just laying around!)
Small bits of wire. If you don't have wire laying around, get a small spool of 20 or 22 gauge wire, in both red and black.- Available at most electronics/hobby shops

Information come from Instructables

Mini-Multitouch Interface

My interface is going to be similar to this one, there are not going to be any bubbles, only waves that form your footstep:

The Sea of Lost Time

"The Sea of Lost Time is a vast stretch of water somewhere in South America, bordering a small abandoned village, whose hard soil is cracked with saltpeter. At the bottom of the Sea there are terraces of flowers... Many years ago, during the first few nights of March, the Sea - which normally swept along refuse - started to give off a heady odour of roses. People began to return to the village, which had been almost abandoned even then."

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "El Mar del tiempo perdido," in
La Increible y triste historia de la candida Erendira y de su abuela desalamada, Buenes Aires 1972.

The sea of lost time inspired me to think of this idea. The floor is censored and looks like water but isn’t. When a person walks on, it ripples appear where their feet touch the floor, just as if they were walking on water. It has memory for about 5 minutes.

Flying Machines

Flying Machines is a series of sounding mobiles that feature flowing curves, slow movements, and spinning fans suspended below delicately balanced speakers. They have a lifelike aura and emit deep, voice-like sounds that seem too low to come from these slender, flightless machines. A study in gentle motion and organic tones, over time the piece reveals complex and subtly shifting patterns of movement and sound.

This project is taken from Ed Osborn

Quicktime Video - 320x240 (6.7mb)

Night-Sea Music

In Night-Sea Music, many small music boxes are driven by slow electric motors attached to them via rubber cables which curl and release intermittently. The piece is titled after a John Barth story, Night-Sea Journey, which is narrated by a confused and not altogether enthusiastic single spermatozoa on its journey in search of...well, something (the narrator is not very clear on the concept). The twisting and spasmodic movements of the piece alludes to those tiny twitching travelers whose brief existence is a suicidal mission to carry information through a difficult environment. The music boxes all play the old folk tune "The Merry Widow," which serves as a wink and a nod towards the overwhelmingly futile energies expended by all those determined sperm.

The motors run at slightly different speeds depending on the amount of slack between them and the music boxes to which they are attached, so there is no way to synchronize the content of music boxes. While the flavor of the melody is heard, the overall contour of its progress is diffuse and meandering. This diffusion is both temporal and spatial since individual notes or clusters of them are heard randomly from various points across the wall where the piece is mounted. The factors causing the different rates of playback - the amount of slack on the rubber cable and the angle of that cable on the wall - are clearly visible and intuitive. The rubber cables make a mark of their motion against the wall, thus emphasizing the piece's tactile presence and leaving a physical trace of the amount of its efforts.

This project is taken from Ed Osborn

Quicktime Video - 320x240 (4.8mb)

Fish pong

FishPong is an interactive system designed to stimulate spontaneous cooperative play in public spaces such as coffeehouses and cafes. FishPong consists of a tabletop tangible user interface (TUI) that allows users to control a fish-themed video game using coffee cups that have been tagged to serve as passive input devices. In this project I contributed to the development of the game narrative as well as the implementation of the interactive experience.

Dancing fish

The iFish is about 8 inches long by 4.5 inches tall and is constructed of plastic. The head of the iFish is solid, while the tail resembles an actual fish tail with many bones. The tail can sway back and forth with a slight touch.

It is is powered by 3 AA batteries that fit into the belly. Once the batteries are installed, you can tap one of the front fins to wake the fish up. 5 LEDs on each side of the head and 3 LEDs in the tail will light up and cycle colors. Bubbling noises will play from its speaker, and wheels in the belly will allow the fish to spin around in a circle.

irises

An iris diaphragm is an aperture with a variable opening diameter. The majority of instances of irises can be found in aperture settings in camera lenses as a means of regulating depth of field and the amount of light that is exposed by either film or sensor in capturing an image. aperture, being an array of irises, is part of a building's facade. Composed of single aperture-modules with receptor (LDR—light dependent resistor) and actuator (servo-motor/iris), aperture acts like an autonomous skin, which is also capable of precise external control. Visual information is transmitted from the inside of the building to the outside, the surface permeability is regulated when the aperture's opening diameters are changed. Each of the apertures in the array can be used to represent a pixel of an image.

BUBO

Bubo is a toy owl with "magic" power that can cast spells and take control over innocent devices.

Turning the real environment into a playground is a fascinating idea to us. It leaded us to think about the interactions between toy to toy and toy to its surroundings. Furthermore, we set the context on mastery by gaining control. In the mean time, we would also like to provide children the experience of exploration and imagination over the real world.

Bubo is a toy owl with "magic" power that can cast spells and take control over innocent devices or other toys in its surroundings. It also has a learning mechanism to expand its spell book stored inside.

Spells are hidden in surrounding infrared remote controls. There are plenty of home appliances controlled by infrared, such as TV, air condition, computer, printers, etc. Bubo can sense the infrared transmission around it, and picks up new spells from.

Light interaction

I really like this kind of interaction, using light to interact the screen

Function of Oil

Fats are required in the diet as they provide the structural components of the cell walls of all tissues. They also act as carriers for the soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. Whilst an excess of saturated fat in the diet can lead to raised cholestrol levels and heart-related diseases, poly unsaturated fats can actually lower cholestrol levels. Some oils contain essential fatty acids, a deficiancy of which can lead to heart disease, acne and eczema. Mono unsaturates have actually been found to reduce cholestrol levels.

Interactive membory ball

UPGRADING the magna doodle

The Magna Doodle is a classic children's magnetic drawing toy.
Comprised of a magnetic drawing board, a pen, and a few magnet shapes.
Over forty million have been sold to date, and still popular with children today.

How can we expand on this idea, with the addition of sound and light?

Simplicity Event

The kid can draw on a wall, when he puts his "pen" into a bucket he can change the color!

Strangely Familiar