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…
I just finished a five day workshop with Yaniv Steiner which covered many things, from toys and games to computer vision and magic tricks. Presented here is a project we spent 2 days working on which required us to create a game using motion tracking with Adobe Flash. The result was Face Off, a game where two people must work together to keep the music going by dancing at the right time.
We just finished our second “foundations” workshop and the subject was video prototyping. From the course syllabus:
Representing complex relationships, new behaviours and attitudes are an integral part of interaction design. These can be represented through many mediums including sketching, making physical prototypes, etc., but capturing the journey over time requires a linear medium like video.
Prototypes help validate the value of new ideas and test initial assumptions. Prototypes can also help to convince other and yourself. Early and rapid prototypes require low resource and time investment. It provides faster feedback and a participatory approach to developing your ideas. It also provides early validation of ideas in the development life-cycle and creates a platform for constructive discussions.
