Tuesday, January 27, 2009

EyeCU - The car that meets the eye



When I look at someone, who then meets my eye, it feels a lot better than if that person looks away. This is one of the ideas behind this thesis project.

In the movie above, imagine that the mouse pointer is where you look.

If someone wants your attention from a distance, they can wave their hand at you. When you look their way, they stop waving. To continue waving, would appear moronic, but that's excactly what car's been doing so far. Now, this can finally change.

Thank you Lina and Therese, for taking this idea all the way to a working prototype. It's been a treat working with you. Now it's up to the world to imagine this with fabulous graphics and animation.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Wii Music Demo (E3 2008 Nintendo Press Conference)



As a music loving father of two infants, I'm always eager to find shortcuts to musical performance. Harmonicas tuned to one key makes soloing over a blues in that key almost as easy as blowing a candle. Most of the sounds that would sound wrong have already been filtered out when the instrument was made. Wii Music seems to be much the same. You can't play notes out of key. The challenge is to play them in synchronization to the song, and that looks to be hard enough to make it both challenging and fun.

New Scientist: NanoTouch (Microsoft Research, Hasso Plattner Institute)



The guys at Microsoft Research have continued from their early Lucid Touch prototype, to a smaller, more production friendly version. It is no longer multitouch, and it is based on ordinary touchpad technology.


The see through finger seen in this image is fake. It is based on a pre-captured photograph of a caucasian male finger. But even if your own fingers don't match the fingers on the device, the fake fingers will tell you that the device is sensitive to touch on the backside.

Tactile touch feedback is generated with a solenoid.