Folks from our lab today visited colleagues next door to see the current projects they're working on, some sort of low-cost CAVE and haptic interfaces. Very instructive to try it out live. Quite big pieces of machinery anyway. In the past twenty years, what were the improvements in haptics? What ...
Street illusion
The presence of illusion on the streets of Geneva, a glimpse of entertainment on your daily stroll to work. What if urban signs were based on different reading levels? ...
Device Art
Reading Device Art: A New Form of Media Art from a Japanese Perspective by Machiko Kusahara this morning in the train was a good way to start the day. The author describes what he intends by "device art", describing how this concept took shape on the basis of an analysis of works by contemporary Ja...
How to design an alien
In an issue from december 1991 of New Scientist, there is a curious article entitled "How to design an alien". It's definitely not the astrobiological dimension that struck me as relevant, but rather these quotes: "[inventing new planets] requires building a new world ecology with a detailed evolut...
Defining "slanty design"
Russell Beale use the term "slanty design" in a short article he wrote for Communications of the ACM recently. "Slanty design is the term I've given to design that purposely reduces aspects of functionality or usability (...) Slanty design incorporates the broader message, making it difficult for u...
Future research interview
An interview of foresight research Wendel Bell by himself offers interesting elemeents (although the idea of a robotic interviewer is a bit lame). It was actually published in 2005 in the Journal of Futures Studies 10(2) (November 2005): pp. 113-124. Some excerpts: "Prediction—or whatever euphemism...
50 game design advances according to Ernest Adams
A very comprehensive article by Ernest Adams in BW about the "50 Greatest Game Innovations". The underlying argument there is how video games are a hotbed for innovation (in other domains than the gaming field). I won't enter into much details about every single design advances presented there, sta...
Dassault Systemes 3D modeling initiatives
A very intriguing article in the IHT about how Dassault Systèmes wants to jump on the Web2.0 bandwagon with their new 3Dvia division. They aim at democratizing the usage of 3D so that everybody can use it in its everyday life in a pure "marketing investment" fashion. Their motto is "We have been in...
Gibson on futurism
Yet another interesting interview of William Gibson! Some excerpts I found pertinent: "The slot in culture that I'm most closely associated with is one in which charlatans declare that they know the future. My job is to sit near that slot and when people approach me I say: 'Only charlatans say they...
If a video game had that interface
So what if the Kärcher puzzi 400K was a video game interface? Beyond traditional stick/cross paradigm, what about weird buttons/signs. As a design exercise, I would really enjoy seeing what one can do out of such interface. Take this as a design brief. Why do I blog this? ideas for a course about ...