Portfolio Category: Experiments

Humans, have the tendency to build mental constructs around themselves and adhere to standard practices of everyday motion, like “switch on the lights” or “press a button to send a message”. Over time we have become so used to these constructs that anything beyond our perception seems like magic.

Blowing Messages explores how constructing an experience tangential to these constructs can lead to a magical experience for the user. The first of a series of projects undertaken under the mentorship of Prof. Rishikesh Joshi, Blowing Messages is an interactive exhibition project which lets anyone in the vicinity type a message on his or her phone and then blow it towards a projector screen where it is displayed.

Humans form bonds with everything around them. It may not always be a strong emotional bond but we do have a tendency to get attached to even non-living objects. Cognitive Lights explores how interactive lighting can bring about a warm feeling of presence. It aims to study the point at which a human machine relationship can have an emotional link and what amount of cognition should the machine exert in order for this to happen.

Lights have been a integral part of human society for years. Apart from technological advancements, they have remained largely the same and built for one purpose - illumination. But at the same time, we tend to perceive light changes the most. It is for this reason interactive lights was chosen for this project.

Current characteristics exhibited by Cognitive Light is the ability to detect presence in the room and pop on (with a slight animation) when a person walks in. They fade out over a period of 2 minutes if you don't give them attention. They can be spoken to and will change color and brightness based on the way you talk, responding in a corresponding fashion the moment you stop talking, similar to a conversation with a person. At times they also exhibit random "breathing" at times to catch your attention.

Further work in being done on improving the concept beyond just lights, adding audio (not speech) and fine tuning the aggregation of sensor readings.

Many of the systems we use are optimized for efficiency but not always intuitiveness. An ongoing project, KeyTou, addresses one such area of human-computer interaction specifically the use (or rather hindrance) of a mouse on notebooks. The touchpad has been around for centuries and over the years we have adapted ourselves to make the most of it. This project looks at what would be the most natural way to interact with a computer?

A significant point of irritation when typing is when we have to take our eyes and hands away from the keyboard to use the mouse. It breaks our line of thought and is a deterrent. The mouse is critical to computer systems and this projects in no way tries to replace it. What KeyTouch aims to do is attempt to naturalize the menial tasks which do not necessarily need our attention to be taken away from the task at hand (literally).

On computers, we have a substantial array of keys in front of us. Can this be used similar to a big touchpad albeit with lower resolution. Can simple tasks like changing windows, brightness volume, etc. be done without the need to remember shortcuts, complex menus and specific keys? KeyTou uses gestures which can be “drawn” by dragging your finger across your keyboard (think like pressing all keys across a piano with one finger).

As a proof of concept, the upper row of numeric keys is used to control volume. The user can press any key in the whole row and then drag left or right to decrease or increase volume. This method was found to be much more user intuitive and natural than searching for the specific function key and then pressing it.

Current work includes the extension of this concept to the whole keyboard and development of a framework to accurately detect gestures.

Touch is a fundamentally central human sense which transcends into so much more than just a mere function.
These projects explore how touch can go beyond the norm from everyday devices which respond on touch to actually transmitting data through human touch. A torch that turns on through the touch of a single person or through a chain of people holding hands. Research to exchange electronic information through physical touch. Next time you meet somone new  just a handshake could exchange your business cards

Resistive screens are inexpensive and relatively easy to interface thus giving them the unique ability to add touch interface to everyday objects. A simple interface allows the use of resistive screens along with an Arduino and Processing to control a PC mouse through the touchscreen (DIY Graphic Tablet). The touchscreen calibration tool created using Processing allows for calibrating a resistive screen as a single touch multibutton panel for reuseable interactive experiences.