INTERACTION LABORATORY
FEEL
LISTEN
MOVE
A selection of projects by the Designing Quality in Interaction research group from the Department of Industrial Design at the Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands.
LOOK
01 Perception Rug, 2009 by Eva Deckers
04 Soft Interiors, 2011 by Paula Kassenaar
02 Sensible Music, 2010 by Stefan Zwegers
05 Rights Through Making, 2011 by Ambra Trotto (PhD)
03 Fluenci, 2010 by Jaap Knoester
06 The Audio Adventurer, 2007 by Philip Mendels 07 Mustick, 2009 by various artists 08 Jukebugs, 2009 by Joris Zaalberg
09 Custom Street Headphones,2009 by Brian Garret 10 Augmented Speed Skate Experience, 2009 by Jelle Stienstra 11 LinguaBytes by Bart Hengeveld, 2011 (PhD)
12 Fonckel, Designing New Interactions with Light, 2008 by Philip Ross (PhD) 13 Friendly Vending, 2009 by Guus Baggermans
16 Rich Actions Camera, 2006 by Joep Frens (PhD) 17 Library of Skills, 2009 by Wouter Kersteman
14 Sensible Alternative, 2010 by Jelle Stienstra 15 Liquid Living, 2011 by Jop Japenga
18 A Camera for Serious Amateurs, 2010 by David Menting 19 Apollon, 2011 by Gordon Tiemstra
SYSTEM DESIGN: EINDHOVEN SCHOOL A selection of projects by the Designing Quality in Interaction research group from the Department of Industrial Design at the Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands.
The future of design is unclear, as designerly responsibilities are changing. The emphasis used to be on form and production, but as the products to be designed have changed, design has changed. With an interactive product the designer needs to consider not only the form but also the temporal aspects of the product’s interaction and behaviour, and even the specifics of its functionality. While we are starting to understand how to design for interaction through the integrating of form, interaction and function, the next challenge is already in sight: designing for systems. From a design perspective, there is very little experience of designing systems, and there are no methods ready at hand. However, our question of ‘how to design for systems’ is not a ‘methodology’ question in the first place. To formulate a method is to simplify and abstract the design challenge into a defined set of subsequent steps to be taken. In the case of design for systems, this is problematic because it is difficult, if not impossible, to have an overview of the complete system before it exists or of its impact on society. Not only is our grasp of the system limited by our point of view, but systems also allow for many different yet valid points of view, thanks to their inherent complexity. In order to overcome these issues it is necessary to start exploring the design space for systems. As we have little experience in
this area, it is essential that we get involved in designing ourselves and let our insight in these matters grow until we can compile it into a relevant methodology. What is more, we need to take an experiential approach to the design of these systems. That is, we need to undergo the experience of living with such systems as we are designing them if we are to make value judgements on the direction the solution should take. In other words, the uncertainty of method and the complex nature of systems call for a researchthrough-design approach, with ‘doing’ as the mechanism for obtaining insight into the process at hand guided by relevant theory and a vision of what we want to achieve. This exposition contains a selection of projects involving members of the Designing Quality in Interaction (DQI) group in which research, education and industry come together. These projects provide insights into our perspective on design and how it has changed over the years. We aim to paint a picture of a world that could be, as well as giving insight into how we think the design challenge for industrial designers is changing. Oscar Tomico, Curator
01 Perception Rug, 2009 by Eva Deckers
04 Soft Interiors, 2011 by Paula Kassenaar
02 Sensible Music, 2010 by Stefan Zwegers
05 Rights Through Making, 2011 by Ambra Trotto (PhD)
03 Fluenci, 2010 by Jaap Knoester
FEEL 05 Rights Through Making, 2011 by Ambra Trotto (PhD)
01 PERCEPTION RUG 2009, Final Master Project Author: Eva Deckers Coaches: Stephan Wensveen, Kees Overbeeke PeR is short for Perception Rug. PeR perceives our presence when we touch it and reacts to this by means of light. PeR can behave in different ways in response to this touch; it might follow you everywhere or it might be a little shy and humbly stay at a distance. If you are not exciting enough it will look to see if there is somebody or something else to perceive. But it is not only behaviour directly linked to human touch that is possible. PeR shows you it likes your music, alerts you when you have mail waiting, and can allow you to understand the intelligible connections that different systems will create in your home in the near future. This research questions if and how notions from the phenomenology of perception can inform design. PeR is an example of how an artefact can adopt perceptive behaviour. It shows how perceptive behaviour is evident in our daily life and how it can be applied to design perceptive behaviour in objects. The goal is to provide knowledge and tools to design products or systems that are capable of perceptive activity and can engage in reciprocal interplay with the perceived world, including multiple users and multiple products. This interplay between person and artefact positively influences the person’s feeling of involvement in their common space. Object sensing and actuating abilities are integrated into the carpet. You feel the touch of the light, not the fibres of the carpet. The aesthetics of the textile material, the electronics and the algorithm are well balanced and genuinely reinforce each other. An example like this helps us to bridge the gap between the industrial and the academic spheres. We are working with international flooring company Desso on the development of an improved version, making use of their production mechanisms. We are set to make PeR a platform for designing perceptive behaviour.
Author: Stefan Zwegers Coach: Joep Frens
Sensible Music makes it possible to experience the music on your MP3 player in a new way, allowing you to feel the beat and get lost in the music, which appears to be louder even though the actual volume is lower. Sensible Music consists of a normal pair of ear-canal phones, but at the split in the ear-bud leads there are two little blocks that vibrate with the lower frequencies in the music. These blocks can also be attached to your clothing so the vibration spreads through your clothes, and with the special Sensible Music garments the vibrations are spread across even more of the body. A current health risk for a lot of us, especially young people, is music-induced hearing loss. Young people turn up the volume of their MP3 players to feel the lower notes of the music, thus increasing the risk of hearing loss. Sensible Music makes it possible to really feel the music when listening to an MP3 player while having the volume at a healthy level. Sensible Music was designed for and with young people aged 12 to 17. These kids often have their players at maximum volume so they can really feel the music, increasing the risk of hearing loss. One of the obvious solutions, a volume limiter, just takes away part of the music experience and doesn’t add anything to it. Therefore, the idea was to create an even more intense music experience, but at a safer volume.
FEEL
02 SENSIBLE MUSIC 2010, Final Master Project
03 FLUENCI 2010, Final Master Project Author: Jaap Knoester Coach: Philip Ross Client: Philips Design
Fluenci, a breast-pump concept, makes expressing at work more comfortable and enjoyable. The form is curved like a baby’s neck, inviting the mother to hold the pump in a more natural way. The pump then covers the breasts, screening them fromview, so the mother does not have to worry about her colleagues seeing her. She can record the sound of her baby on a small gadget and play it back during expressing to stimulate the milk to flow more freely. Parts of the Fluenci pump are warmed, making it comfortable on bare skin, and smart sensors determine the rhythm of the pump so the mother does not have to worry about pressing buttons. This new pump is a bit more like a baby — and a bit less like a milking machine. Stress and discomfort can block the release of the milk-reflex hormones. In a work environment, discomfort and stress can come from a busy agenda, from concern about colleagues coming in or from feeling like a dairy cow. Difficulty in expressing milk can produce extra stress, resulting in a vicious circle. It is therefore essential to get rid of stress and discomfort. Expressing should be a natural, intimate and emotional experience, like feeding a baby. This is important because giving milk is a very bodily process. When the nipple area of a mother is stimulated by a baby’s mouth, hormones are released that make the milk flow: this is called the ‘milk reflex’. This reflex can also be triggered by more emotional stimuli, such as the way a baby sounds, feels and smells. If more natural and emotional baby-like stimuli are available during expressing, it can be easier to prompt the milk reflex. Fluenci is the only breast-pump that stimulates the mother emotionally, instead of in a purely physical way. Fluenci’s innovative shape invites the mother to cradle it like a baby, while its warmth, the playback of her baby’s sounds and the smart responses to the milk flow help remind her of her baby and let her feel more secure and human.
Author: Paula Kassenaar Coach: Stephan Wensveen Client: Philips Research
Soft Interiors is a piece of lightweight semi-translucent fabric with integrated glowing light that you can drape in your living room to create soft lighting accents. This light-emitting textile is not only pleasing to look at but also feels great to the touch. It is intended for creating the right ambience in your living room, as you would do by lighting a candle. The fabric incorporates a wireless charging battery and charging plate. Soft Interiors presents a new way of integrating LEDs into textiles that ensures a pleasant direct-view-lighting experience and can be handled like the sheer fabric it is made off. As a material, Soft Interiors offers a wealth of possibilities for professional interior and fashion design. ‘Warm’, ‘calm’ and ‘pleasant’ are key terms much appreciated in ambient domestic lighting. Textiles have great potential in the living room setting because they are generally experienced as warm and pleasant. The upcoming advances in electronic textiles make it possible to explore the potential of textiles as lighting elements. But electronic textiles often turn out to be harder, bulkier and less flexible then we would like them to be. Up until now, integrating light into textiles has often resulted in pieces that are flashy or cool rather than calm and pleasant. This project was all about the aesthetics (both visual and tactile) of light-emitting fabrics. This is an example of a light-emitting fabric that shows pleasant direct-view-lighting in a textile that is exceptionally supple and shear. The promise of light that flows gently with the movement of fabric has an almost fairytale-like appeal. Light comes closer to you, letting you mould it in your hands.
FEEL
04 SOFT INTERIORS 2011, Final Master Project
05 RIGHTS THROUGH MAKING 2011, PhD Author: Ambra Trotto 1st Promotors: Kees Overbeeke, Caroline Hummels Co-promotor: Pierre Lévy Partners: University of Florence Sound Experience 2010, Master Project Authors: Michele Tittarelli,Giulia Pavanello, Riccardo Roggi, Federica Francini, Elena Vangi. Coaches: Ambra Trotto, Stoffel Kuenen, Elisabetta Cianfanelli.
+++Wearable player 2011, Master Project Author: Michele Tittarelli Coaches: Ambra Trotto, Elisabetta Cianfanelli, Kees Overbeeke
Sound Experience is a wearable controller for MP3 players. There are four models and each of them is dedicated to a different urban subculture. There is a hood for hip-hoppers, a scarf for cool hunters, a MUFF for emos and a CUFF for fashion victims. These controllers mix the music on the user’s own MP3 player with the music of somebody else in the vicinity. The offered music intrusion can then be accepted or not. Different people can meaningfully get in touch and learn to appreciate one another’s identity and tastes through music. This project is a reflection on the concept of privacy. The project +++ Wearable Player is an evolution of Sound Experience. It is a wearable personal trainer/MP3 player in the shape of a cuff, which operates on a viral principle. The ‘virus’ is somebody else’s music, characterized by its BPM (beats per minute). A specific goal of physical activity is set on +++ Weateable Player. As you exercise, +++ Weateable Player detects good and bad viruses in the vicinity, i.e. music whose BPM could help you reach your goal. If it detects a good virus, the two tracks are mixed and you can choose whether to accept the new track. Sound Experience and +++ Wearable Player are part of the Rights through Making research project. Rights through Making explores ways in which design can contribute to a new civilization: it proposes a vision of how design can change Western thinking and foster a greater ethical sense and a social praxis centred on justice and freedom, and enable these to permeate society in a capillary way and help us become aware of our own rights, and willing and able to contribute to play our part in fulfilling our rights and those of people everywhere. On the basis of our skills and what we make with them, integrating our know-how and points of view, we as designers can contribute to the creation of a new praxis that will disseminate empathy and autonomy and foster a fuller ethical awareness. This approach is named Rights though Making and explains the design actions taken to realize the goal of a pervasive ethics within this framework. The thesis illustrates the approach, which is grounded in the fact that designers transform the world with their skills. The initial stance is that this transformation should be oriented in an ethical direction. To elaborate a design approach able to contribute to this vision, eight workshops were held between 2007 and 2011. In these workshops, students from different countries were asked to give material form to the values embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The projects on show in this exhibition are examples of the outcomes of these workshops.
06 The Audio Adventurer, 2007 by Philip Mendels 07 Mustick, 2009 by various artists 08 Jukebugs, 2009 by Joris Zaalberg
09 Custom Street Headphones,2009 by Brian Garret 10 Augmented Speed Skate Experience, 2009 by Jelle Stienstra 11 LinguaBytes by Bart Hengeveld, 2011 (PhD)
11 Lingua Bytes by Bart Hengeveld, 2011 (PhD)
06 THE AUDIO ADVENTURER 2007, Final Master Project Author: Philip Mendels Coach: Joep Frens
To avoid navigation difficulties, the audio world is constructed as a network of paths rather than open spaces. Each path is a separate environment with a matching ambient sound and matching footstep sounds. Interaction is simple but rich. One hand is used to hold the device. The other is used to travel paths, to interact with the world, objects or characters, and to browse an inventory of items that can be acquired and used in the world. The project explores what an audio adventure game is, and how to design the narrative, the game world and the physical controller for an optimal experience. It is not specifically designed for visually impaired people. It aims to provide a new game experience for everyone. An audio game allows for more imagination than a visual game. However, most audio games are difficult to navigate, which can result in a frustrating experience. The Audio Adventurer’s special combination of narrative, game world and physical controller resolves these problems. The controller is also designed in such a way that the game can be played with your eyes closed. It provides a much more relaxed experience than most visual games.
LISTEN
The Audio Adventurer adds a new dimension to portable audio. It is a device for playing audio adventure games and is much more than an interactive audiobook: You can explore an audio world filled with objects, characters, challenges and a narrative, at your own pace. It provides a relaxed interactive audio experience, with more space for imagination than in visual games.
07 MUSTICK 2009, Master Module Authors: Tom van Bergen, Wouter Kersteman, Floor Mattheijssen, Joris Zaalberg. Coaches: Kees Overbeeke, Stephan Wensveen The digital revolution has reduced creating and listening to music to the act of clicking and tapping on laptops and tablets. We have become people that create and consume hunched over or stretched out with our feet up. Mustick challenges us to use our entire body to interact with a piece of music, by moving around and expressing ourselves. Mustick turns the ‘play’ button, one of the icons of the digital music revolution, into a device that allows people to experience music using the whole body. Mustick lets us manipulate the playback of any track in real time — simply by moving, shaking and swinging the device. The direct control of musical content creates a dialogue between user and music, turning the listener into a performer. The goal of the Mustick project was to imagine a future music-listening experience in light of the theory of Embodied Interaction: Mustick creates a music experience that is action driven. The perception of a piece of music is directly related to the actions the listener carries out, the way he or she interacts with the music through the mediating device. This form and shape of this device are tailored to the human body and reflect some of the history of musical instruments, enticing the user to move both subtly and boldly. The relatively simple technological implementation only strengthens its message. Mustick is exemplary of products allowing non-musicians to perform the music of their favourite artists without the steep learning curve facing people who want to play a musical instrument. These designs use the expressive powers of the human body to interact with pre-recorded music in meaningful ways.
08 JUKEBUGS 2009, Final Master Project Author: Joris Zaalberg Coach: Oscar Tomico Client: BMAT
Jukebugs took a fresh approach to designing a music player, in order to seek out the emotion, playfulness and serendipity that make music so valuable. There is a long and great tradition of designing music-playing devices: from musical instruments to record players, radios, the Walkman and mobile phones, to name a few. As hardware has turned in to software, we have seen many of the buttons and sliders from old music players being translated quite literally into digital experiences. This project aimed at reconsidering our communication with the deviceas an integral part of the music listening experience, something that reflects the continuous flow of music over time. It played with the concept that this experience goes beyond sound alone, and involves light and motion to emphasize the physical presence of the music in the space. The result is an interesting hypothesis of how the physical and the virtual can find common ground on which music listener and computer can shape the listening experience together through the context they are in. This project is one of the few to address the role of light in the music-listening experience, as both an output and an input mechanism. Beyond the value of using such a product over time, there is a wonderful magic in experiencing the unity between light and sound that it manifests. From the first touch of the device it is clear that the play between light and music hits us at a very emotional level.
LISTEN
Computers are becoming increasingly smart at understanding human experiences. Algorithms can now accurately predict whether any given piece of music will be perceived as happy, relaxed or aggressive; whether it can be danced to or not; and whether it sounds acoustic or electronic. To benefit from these technologies, music listeners and machines need to adopt new ways of communicating. In pursuit of that aim, designers need to come up with interactions that go beyond knobs and sliders, beyond the one-directional nature of traditional music-player interaction. Jukebugs looks at how a shared, contextual experience can give rise to such communication, and specifically to a light-and-motion-based language. The developed device is a music player that selects the music it plays in response to the amount of light and movement it perceives. Users can manipulate these variables of movement and light intensity to change the music to their preference. The amount of light determines the intensity of the music that’s playing, and the amount of movement determines the extent of the change in style between one track and the next. Jukebugs create an overlap between the physical world of the music listener and the virtual world of the music library. You can use them to explore your music collections naturally and intuitively, never having to worry about what track to play next.
09 CUSTOM STREET HEADPHONES 2009, Final Master Project Author: Brian Garret Coach: Joep Frens Client: Freedom of Creation Street Headphones is a series of customizable headphone designs. These headphones are manufactured with state-of-the-art rapid manufacturing technologies, allowing each set to be personalized with the customer’s taste in music. This musical taste forms a decorative textual pattern around the headband of the phone showing everyone your favourite bands, song titles or lyrics. The design is an exploration of how our digital behaviour can be translated into rich tangible products. This project investigates user-based mass customization through rapid manufacturing with 3D printing. The design process allows the customer to create a truly personal product rather than simply buying another of the millions of identical products we consume nowadays. The headphones are designed in such a way that there are actually infinite possibilities within an area defined by three different design styles. The customer can blend the various headphone designs to find their own desired form factor, whether it be futuristic and minimalistic or a more street or DJ style. As a final layer the user’s personal music taste is applied as a decorative pattern, consisting of the different genres, lyrics and titles. Such a project has multiple purposes; it serves the 3D printing industry, as it creates new product applications, and at the same time it opens up new possibilities for users, who are at last able truly to express themselves when buying a consumer product.
10 AUGMENTED SPEED-SKATE EXPERIENCE 2009, Final Master Project Author: Jelle Stienstra Coaches: Alan Murray, René Ahn, Stephan Wensveen, Kees Overbeeke Client: TVM Schaatsploeg b.v.
The goal of the augmented speed-skate experience is to support athletes in the understanding and improving their skating technique. By means of movement sonification, the translation of movement into sound, information that is normally hard to experience is now provided in a soundscape. Thanks to an informative, motivating, non-coercive and easy-to-apply movement sonification mapping, speed skaters are enabled to experience their skating technique through a different sense modality. The complex information streams of the movement are incorporated into the speedskaters’ training, providing them with a better mental and bodily understanding and thus helping them to improve their skating technique. What is novel here is the application of movement sonification in a professional context. This is not only meaningful in sports but can also be applied in physical therapy contexts, because the sensors are small and light enough not to interfere with their actual use.
LISTEN
Speedskating is a complex sport in terms of the athletes’ ability to monitor and control their skating technique. The Augmented Speed-skate Experience provides real-time auditory feedback that allows the athlete to learn about and control their speed-skate technique. A device weighing only 70 grams, attached to the speed-skate blade, measures the amount of energy transmitted to the ice. The balance and amount of energy is translated in real time into a soundscape. While this cannot determine whether the skating technique is good or bad, it enables the athlete to interpret this easily and use it to improve their technique.
11 LINGUABYTES 2011, PhD Author: Bart Hengeveld Promotors: Kees Overbeeke, Jan de Moor. Co-Promotor: Caroline Hummels Partners: Radboud University, Pontem LinguaBytes is a modular toybox aimed at early language development. Children can read interactive stories using any of the laminated story booklets, or play language games using the Âą250 input figures, combining these materials on one of the wooden interfaces. In this way, young children learn about stories, sounds, letters, sentences and much, much more. What makes LinguaBytes special is that it allows children with in some cases severe limitations enormous control over interactive materials, in a way that they can master. This not only aids their language development but also helps them build up their self-esteem and confidence. LinguaBytes is a research-through-design study of how to design for diversity; or to put itanother way, how to deal with the complexity of designing for heterogeneous user groups. The main vehicle for this research was the development of a play and learning device that would stimulate the early language development of pre-speech children and children just starting to speak, aged from 1 to 4 years. In an iterative process, five incremental experiential prototypes were designed, built and experimentally evaluated in a real-life context. Two core foundations of LinguaBytes are the philosophical school of phenomenology and social constructivist learning theory. On this basis, the development of LinguaBytes aimed at creating a platform for participation, for the shared creation of meaning, rather than a standalone learning tool, as so much current educational software is. This research is based on the conviction that meaning emanates from how we interact with the world, and is therefore fully dependent on how we are in the world and thus by definition subjective. Consequently, the only way to design Ambient Intelligence is by respecting human diversity.
12 Fonckel, Designing New Interactions with Light, 2008 by Philip Ross (PhD)
14 Sensible Alternative, 2010 by Jelle Stienstra
13 Friendly Vending, 2009 by Guus Barggermans
15 Liquid Living, 2011 by Jop Japenga
12 Fonckel, Designing new interactions with light, 2008 by Philip Ross (PhD)
12 FONCKEL, DESIGNING NEW INTERACTIONS WITH LIGHT 2008, PhD Author: Philip Ross First Promotor: Kees Overbeeke Second Promotor: Loe Feijs Co-Promotor: Stephan Wensveen The Fonckel LED luminaire embodies a new way of interacting with light. The multi-touch body allows you to adjust the light exactly as you wish. Two current trends converge in this design: LED as the light source of the future, and interactivity as an ever more important value in products. This product uses of the all advantages LED offers, in terms of both freedom of form and functionality. The Fonckel LED luminaire is formed to fit the human body, interaction making intuitive and pleasant. The lamp is organically shaped, like the human body, and the control gestures are simple, as if you were actually holding the light in your hand.
Fonckel is the market-ready version of one of the research prototypes. The design research project investigated how to take the ethical dimension into account in design of intelligent products and systems, using intelligent lighting as design carrier. Two intelligent LED lamps were developed with a view to inviting specific value-related behaviours. Empirical studies were conducted to evaluate the designs. In addition, frameworks and design techniques were developed to support the incorporation of aesthetic values through intelligent product design in general.
MOVE
An aesthetics-based design approach has been developed to invite specific human behaviours in interaction with intelligent products. Laban Movement Analysis theory, used in choreography and dance, is here a means to define a language of form for intelligent product behaviour. The process began with an experiment in which dancers acted out intelligent lamps. The dancers searched for movements that invited specific value-related behaviours from their users, such as social power and helpfulness. The movements of the dancers were transferred to a first lo-fi moving prototype. This initial design was then developed into a more detailed, fully functional model that was able to portray the behaviours of the dancers in its own way.
13 FRIENDLY VENDING 2009, Final Master Project Author: Bus Baggermans Coach: Kees Overbeeke
Most modern machines are designed with one goal in mind:cost-efficiency. The user experience takes second place.The result of this project is a buttonless vending machine that communicates with people on a more personal level. The vending machine invites us to explore all of its possibilities of interaction. By following our movements through space, the soft drinks cans show that they can see us. We as users will come closer to see what is happening, and maybe even buy a soft drink. The goal of the friendly vending project was to: ‘design a socially aware vending machine that is forthcoming and speaks the users language’. The machine tries to understand how the user moves and thinks, and then reflects this back in order to attain a mutual understanding. The moving cans mirror the user’s movements. This form of communication works on a very personal level, engaging the user directly.
14 SENSIBLE ALTERNATIVE 2010, Final Master Project Author: Jelle Stienstra Coach: Kees Overbeeke
The Sensible Alternative is a design for an operating system that enables navigation between applications in a natural associative manner on a smartphone. The user presses a pressuresensitive spot on the back of the smartphone and context-relevant applications and functions are shown on the screen in an exploratory manner. These applications and functions can then be accessed via the front of the smartphone while contextual content is shared among the applications. The applications that can be pushed through are meaningful because they are related to the context and content the user is engaging with. This interaction provides a faster way of switching between applications, bypasses hierarchical menu infrastructures, provides a self-learning tailored menu, efficiently allows for data sharing and offers a predictable, pleasurable and natural application-access experience.
By passing the hierarchical structures allows the user to reach applications and information through intuition. Using both discrete and continuous computing powers, the Sensible Alternative expands existing smartphone operating systems with an extra layer of interaction.
MOVE
The Sensible Alternative explores a novel way of interacting based on natural mappings. The objective is to bypass the hierarchical and procedural structures incorporated in complex computer systems. The vision is to develop methods that use our perceptual-motor and emotional skills instead of depending on a cognitive process in addressing complex systems. The Sensible Alternative is a first attempt to bypass complexity by allowing access to hierarchical functions by way of personalized associations and the use of expression involving the body rather than the head.
15 LIQUID LIVING 2011, Final Master Project Author: Jop Japenga Coach: Oscar Tomico Client: Interactive Institute, Ocean Search. Ocean Search aims to visualize the oceans of the world by means of user-driven data collection and storytelling. The project aims to move the essential data-gathering process away from reliance on expensive research vessels and use the enormous fleet of sailors interested in the oceans, much as space enthusiasts (pro-ams) helped astronomers to map the universe when telescopes became affordable to a wider public. A set of sensors for measuring different values of water quality can be installed on ordinary sailing boats. As sailors travel around the oceans they will collect data for research oceanographers to use. At present these researchers are dependent on data from specialized research vessels, which are very expensive to run, and are too few in number to gather the amount of data required to study the ecosystem that covers over 70% of our planet’s surface, and find out more about the ways in which we affect it. In the design of this platform, the emphasis was on the sailor’s perspective. The aim of the project was to explore a future way of living described as ‘Liquid Living’ by designing for an extreme scenario for the future, today. Sailors are literally cut loose from a fixed physical location, and communication with this platform requires that they be actively focused on connecting to the rest of the world, not in a physical sense but through media. The value of this project is methodological, in finding out in which ways design and research can be combined to learn something about a possible future. While research is generally based on observation of the present or the past, design is in essence about the future. All of the steps taken in the project are evaluated on their value for the design case as well as on their contribution to ‘Liquid Living’.
16 Rich Actions Camera, 2006 by Joep Frens (PhD) 17 Library of Skills, 2009 by Wouter Kersteman
18 A Camera for Serious Amateurs, 2010 by David Menting 19 Apollon, 2011 by Gordon Tiemstra
16 Rich Actions Camera, 2006 de Joep Frens (tesis doctoral)
15 RICH ACTIONS CAMERA 2006, PhD Author: Joep Frens Promotor: Loe Feijs Co-promotors: Kees Overbeeke, Tom Djajadiningrat The Rich Actions Camera offers rich physical action possibilities. The camera has a large lens that is aligned with the screen at the back. This screen is seen to be held in place by a ‘trigger’ at the side. The lens captures the light, digitizes it and projects it on to the screen at the back. When the trigger is pushed, the screen flips open, breaking the (information) connection with the lens. As a result the image on the screen freezes: a picture is taken. The screen is now aligned on a path to the memory card. The user can either decide to save the picture by pushing it towards the memory card or decide to delete the picture by pushing the screen back to the lens. The camera shows an alternative approach to interacting with everyday products as it does not use generic buttons and menu structures but expressive physical controls that show what they are for and how they can be used. The camera tells a story of how to use it through its expressive form, a viable strategy alongside the buttons that we already know. The goal of this research project is to explore and investigate new interaction styles. It starts from the theory of ecological perception and the research field of tangible interaction and aims for a richer, more natural kind of interaction that builds on our perceptual-motor skills as well as our cognitive and emotional skills. This project is a compelling example of how research-through-design can be executed and how it can produce knowledge. The camera resulting from this project is both a research vehicle and physicalized knowledge.
LOOK
16 LIBRARY OF SKILLS 2009, Final Master Project Author: Wouter Kersteman Coach: Joep Frens
The Library of Skills is a repository of design knowledge and skills for the Department of Industrial Design at TU/e. It is to be place where both students and staff can ‘deposit’ and ‘acquire’ knowledge and skills relevant for design. The system consists of a series of dedicated cameras, located in the workshops. These cameras can be used to make video reports of their design action. The video reports are annotated and published in the Library of Skills. This library can be accessed on the web or from one of the kiosks. Users can then view the videos and apply these skills in their design process. It allows them to ‘stand on each other’s shoulders’ and it can act as a lever for new learning experiences and insights. In a professional environment, such as a company or organization, time and manpower is invested in successfully completing projects. In the course of these projects, workers develop their personal knowledge and skills. Each worker in an organization has his or her own set of knowledge and skills. Combining these individual areas of knowledge and skills results in a collective set of knowledge and skills. The operation analization of the collective knowledge and skills can be called the ‘collective potential’. The collective potential gives an indication of what the organization could potentially achieve if it had access to the collective set of knowledge and skills. Sharing knowledge from within an organization has multiple benefits. Knowledge from the past does not stay ‘hidden’ or get ‘lost’. This allows problems to be solved in a shorter time with out comes that may well be of a higher quality. Sharing knowledge can also spark creative and innovative solutions. In a department of industrial design or in a design agency, design knowledge and skills are continuously developed and are constantly ingreat demand. In the Library of Skills, design knowledge and skills are stored in the system in such a way as tobe meaningful for others to use. The users make audio/video recordings of their design knowledge and skills, and annotate them with descriptions and attachments. Videos have a high level of informative quality that clearly communicates the design knowledge or skill. The low-threshold contribution device is a plug and play with any computer or laptop and is placed in the workshop, right on top of the action. It encourages users to contribute to the repository because it is quick, simple and easy to use. On top of all this, the videos can be peer-reviewed. The repository is placed online (intranet) and can be accessed from any computer or device. It includes a powerful search engine, a recommendation system, expert reviews and voting mechanisms
17 CAMERA FOR SERIOUS AMATEURS 2010, Final Master Project Author: David Menting Coach: Joep Frens
A Camera for Serious Amateurs gives the photographer rich control over the most important parameters when taking a picture: aperture, shutter speed and ISO. Immediate feedback is given by means of textured wheels. The textures correspond to the current settings and can be manually adjusted or left to be automatically set by the camera. The transition between automatic control and manual control becomes a dialogue. Setting the camera becomes a part of the learning process by providing the photographer with a rich tool for interacting with the photo he or she is about to take. This invites exploration and helps the photographer understand how different settings result in different pictures. For beginner photographers, it is often a challenge to achieve creative control over their photographs. It requires intimate familiarity with the technical side of photography. On many amateur cameras, technical parameters such as aperture, shutter time and ISO are automated. However, this automation takes away the photographer’s creative control over important expressive effects such as leading the eye towards a subject by blurring out its background or creating a dark atmosphere by underexposing the photograph. The goal of this project was to design a camera better suited to amateur photographers than those current available — one that would support them in their learning experience and invite them to take creative control. Amateur photographers often confront their own shortcomings in understanding the complexities of photography. If these complexities are obscured — by automatically setting aperture or shutter speed, for instance — the photographer does not learn how to deal with them. The purpose of this design project is that it makes the complexities approachable and at the same time teaches the photographer how to control them.
LOOK
By combining textured controls with force feedback the camera helps you learn the relationship between the settings and use in each situation. Force feedback allows photographers with varying levels of skill to use the same interface for varying levels of control.
18 APOLLON 2011, Final Master Project Author: Gordon Tiemstra Coach: Joep Frens
Apollon is a camera that gives playful photographers the opportunity to take photography to the next level. Its strength lies in its feature of physically combining your camera with friends’ Apollon cameras. If the Apollon cameras are physically combined the photos taken with your friends cameras are wirelessly transferred to yours and vice versa, resulting in your having a series of photos of the same event but each one from a slightly different perspective. By processing these photos, new types of media can be generated that go beyond ordinary photography and could not be achieved with a singular lens. For example, animated photos that evoke a 3D effect. In addition, the more friends with Apollon cameras take part in this process, the more possibilities you have to explore, and the more perspectives there are, the richer and more interesting the results will be. The most important and most innovative feature of the Apollon camera is the division of the camera into two modules: the lens and the photo-taking function are decentralized, allowing the photographer to appear in the photo while taking it. This adjustment makes it possible to explore perspectives and types of photo-making that were not feasible before. The Apollon camera thus acts as a third eye rather than an extension of the user’s eye, showing us things that we could never have seen before. The form of the Apollon camera has been designed in such way as to prompt the user physically to explore miscellaneous camera configurations and through this new media by innovative ways of using interconnected cameras. By means of small changes in camera design and technology a new platform is created — one that can be used for a wide variety of purposes.
DISSENY HUB BARCELONA (DHUB) General Curator DHUB Ramon Prat
Director of DHUB Museums Marta Montmany
EXHIBITION Systems Design. The Eindhoven School A selection of projects by the Designing Quality in Interaction research group from the Department of Industrial Design at the Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. Organized and produced by Disseny Hub Barcelona (DHUB) Curated by Oscar Tomico Graphic design LOSIENTO Audio-visualsetup Luis X. Iturralde Authors Guus Baggermans, Tom van Bergen, Eva Deckers, Federica Francini, Joep Frens, Brian Garret, Bart Hengeveld, Jop Japenga, Paula Kassenaar, Wouter Kersteman, Jaap Knoester, Floor Mattheijssen, Philip Mendels, David Menting, Giulia Pavanello, Riccardo Roggi, Philip Ross, Jelle Stienstra, Gordon Tiemstra, Michele Tittarelli, AmbraTrotto, Elena Vangi, Joris Zaalberg, Stefan Zwegers.
Members of the Designing Quality in Interaction (DQI) group and the Department of Industrial Design at the Eindhoven University of Technology Emile Aarts, René Ahn, Richard Appleby, Martijn ten Bhömer, Miguel Bruns, Bill Buxton, Lucas van Campenhout, Eva Deckers, Jelle van Dijk, Tom Djajadiningrat, Loe Feijs, Joep Frens, Rombout Frieling, Bart Hengeveld, Caroline Hummels, Stoffel Kuenen, Kristi Kuusk, Pierre Levy, Remco Magielse, Philip Mendels, Alan Murray, Kees Overbeeke, Michel Peeters, Philip Ross, Jelle Stienstra , Oscar Tomico, Stephan Wensveen, John Zimmerman Translation and correction of texts Isabel Llasat, Graham Thomson Production and montage Jordi Ballesté Graphic production MAUD Transport TTI Insurance Marsh, S.A.
With the support of:
23 February to 27 May 2012 Exhibition opening times: Tuesday to Friday, 11a.m-7p.m. Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, 11am-8pm You can consult the doctoral theses in the DHUB documentation centre (DHUBdoc) or on the website: http://dqi.id.tue.nl/web/publications/ DHUBdoc opening times: Tuesday to Thursday from 11a.m. to 6.45 p.m. Disseny Hub Barcelona Montcada, 12 08003 Barcelona T +34 93 256 23 00 dhub@bcn.cat www.dhub-bcn.cat Follow us at: facebook.com/dhub.bcn twitter.com/dhub_bcn