Screenshot from an application running on a home made interactive table
After setting up an interactive surface with ReacTIVision, we needed to create an application that would be engaging to the rest of our classmates and demonstrate the potential of this new tool. The result, which needed to be accomplished in less than a day, was a toy that allowed you to mix and match the body parts of all the Pilot Year students (plus a few unsuspecting faculty). No video yet, but keep reading for some photos…
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“The methodology that melds an end-user focus with multidisciplinary collaboration and iterative improvement to produce products, services or experiences.” - San Jose Business Journal
“A discipline that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods to match people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity.” - Harvard Business Review
“…involves a period of field research — usually close observation of people — to generate inspiration and a better understanding of what is needed, followed by open, nonjudgmental generation of ideas. After a brief analysis, a number of the more promising ideas are combined and expanded to go into ‘rapid prototyping,’ which can vary from a simple drawing or text description to a three-dimensional mock-up. Feedback on the prototypes helps hone the ideas so that a select few can be used.” - New York Times
“…a process for practical, creative resolution of problems or issues that looks for an improved future result. Unlike analytical thinking, design thinking is a creative process based around the ‘building up’ of ideas. There are no judgments in design thinking. This eliminates the fear of failure and encourages maximum input and participation.” - Wikipedia
My bookmarks from the past week:
- Question Box - All About Question Box
Question Box is a project that “brings the information of the Internet to people who lack access. Users call our hotline, speak in their own language to an Operator, and ask any question they wish. The Operator looks it up and gives back the answer.”
Francesco setting up table, photo by Yaniv Steiner
Reactable is a “collaborative electronic music instrument” in the form of a multi-touch tabletop interface and was created by a team of Music Technology students in Barcelona. As an exercise in Computer Vision, to expand our toolkit as Interaction Designers and to have a little bit of fun before vacation, Yaniv Steiner helped a group of us set up our first multi-touch surface which we powered with the same software that runs the Reactable. Keep reading for some notes and photos of this process…
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My bookmarks from the past week:
- Fuse Project
“Founded in 1999 by Yves Behar, fuseproject develops cohesive brand + product experiences. With a focus on establishing new markets and disrupting old ones, our work takes a long-term strategic approach to developing and enhancing our clients’ business, with teams spanning brand & market strategy, identity & naming, packaging design, product development and communications design.”
- Five questions » Design Thinking
“I popped into BusinessWeek a few days ago so that they could interview me for their “Five Questions” series. I spent most of my time talking about design thinking.” Tim Brown, IDEO CEO
- reactable software
“reacTIVision is an open source, cross-platform computer vision framework for the fast and robust tracking of fiducial markers attached onto physical objects, as well as for multi-touch finger tracking.”
- Songbird - Open Source Music Player
“Songbird is an open-source customizable music player that’s under active development.”
- Dropbox - Home - Secure backup, sync and sharing made easy.
- Henrietta center keeps families dealing with disabilities connected | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle
A newspaper article about my brothers in Rochester!
- Kamworks
“Kamworks Ltd was established as a Cambodian solar energy company in 2006. The mission of Kamworks is to provide affordable energy systems order to contribute to sustainable development. “
- Lumen
“Currently we are working on a project for Kamworks, a young solar company located in Cambodia. We are developing an affordable, quality lighting solution for the rural Cambodian population.”
- Many Eyes
“Our goal is to ‘democratize’ visualization and to enable a new social kind of data analysis.” Shared data sets facilitated by IBM.
- Fritzing
“An open-source initiative to support designers and artists to take the step from physical prototyping to actual product.”
Take your own photos and videos, don’t rely on other people to document your projects and presentations!
