Tangible user interfaces and music

The Music Technology Group (Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona) specializes in audio processing technologies and their music and multimedia applications.

Among several research projects, I have found a very interesting one: reactable (see http://mtg.upf.edu/reactable/)

reactable, as you can see in the following videos, is characterized by the use of a Tangible User Interface in the production of sounds and music.







Don't lose the opportunity to test this software. It's open source. You can get it here.

At reactable website, there's also a fantastic collection of similar projects, all with videos ready to be enjoyed. See them here.

Intelligent interfaces in CAD

Have you ever worked with a 3D CAD system ? It is really time consuming... In order to get some results, you need a lot of time.

New AI techniques can provide very interesting results to this problem. A solution can be the use of handwork or sketches as input in those systems. The problem is however, how can these sketches be transformed into technical and accurate geometry.

GIDeS++ is a good example. From the authors we can read the following:

With the advent of new interaction techniques and supporting hardware we should look beyond traditional WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointers) interfaces. Mouse and keyboard are by far the most widespread input devices and have been around for a good many years. However, before these, designers have been using pen and paper for an even longer period. GIDeS++ is a tool that adopts the paper-and-pencil metaphor to bridge the gap between designers’ and modellers’ innate ability at freehand drawing and the more elaborate and structured methods required by traditional CAD systems. GIDeS++ offers handwriting recognition for both gestures and measures, combined speech recognition as an alternative to floating toolbars and a set of innovative, simple and efficient tools that allow for quick prototyping and modification of three-dimensional shapes.

In the following video, a bit long but very interesting, you can see the product in action:



You can get more information of this system here. In this website, you can enjoy with more videos and even to download the product itself. Inevo is the company behind.

Motion capture as a 3D modeling tool

Recently, via Gizmodo (thanks to Ignacio Bellver for the link), we were able to see an amazing work from a sweedish group called FRONT.

The idea is quite simple and not new, but perfectly undertaken. Using 3D motion capture, it is possible to design 'in situ' a collection of new furnitures. After this process, real size models are generated (using stereolithography).

More information can be found at Dexigner web site here.

Finally the link to this impressive demonstration of the process: