DisplayObjects: Interactive Styrofoam Gadget Design Workbench

May 31st, 2008

DisplayObjects, by Eric Akaoka and Roel Vertegaal at the Human Media Laboratory in Canada is an organic user interface for creating computer displays on arbitrary surfaces, such as pieces of model cardboard or blocks of styrofoam. It allows easy prototyping of hardware gadgets through software/hardware fusion. The system tracks the location of the model, as well as the finger, via markers tracked through computer vision, and renders a 3D software model of the object back onto the hardware model through projection [Site Link].

Gummi: First Flexible Computer

May 31st, 2008

Gummi, designed at Sony Computer Science Laboratories by Carsten Schwesig and Ivan Poupyrev, simulated a credit-card size flexible computer, that could be used to, for example, navigate subway maps. A touch screen on the back allowed for positional input, while bending back and forth allowed for zoom operations [Site Link].

PaperWindows: The First Foldable, Hi-Res Paper Computer

May 31st, 2008

Designed by David Holman and Roel Vertegaal at the Human Media Lab in Canada, PaperWindows was the world’s first foldable paper computer. PaperWindows simulates hi-res, full-color e-ink display through projection. Shape is tracked using a Vicon computer vision system, and projections of real computer windows are corrected for the shape of the paper before being projected back. The experience is one of true electronic paper. Folding, bending and earmarking can be used to page down and otherwise navigate documents. [Paper Link]

CMU Claytronics Concept

May 30th, 2008

Concept video by CMU’s Computer Science Department showing a future display in which molecular voxels, or Moxels, build up display elements physically, in 3D [Site Link].