Students in one I School course have been learning to think outside the box — outside the computer box, that is.
Unlike most computer interface-design classes, which are constrained by the keyboard, mouse, and screen, "this course explored 'beyond-desktop' interface design," explained assistant professor Kimiko Ryokai. She teaches her students to "take advantage of the physical and peripheral senses, beyond desktop, keyboard, mouse, and screen."
The course is Information 262, "Theory and Practice of Tangible User Interfaces," which Ryokai has taught at the School of Information since 2007. The course, called "TUI" (tangible user interfaces) for short, combines theory with a design studio; students not only study design theories, but also build prototypes of their designs. "I really want the students to wear a designer's hat," says Ryokai; "to not just talk about ideas, but really design something new. Only by turning an idea into concrete form can students see the possibilities of their ideas."
The TUI course is a student favorite; students say the course sparks their creativity and imagination and opens them to new ways of thinking.
"How do you think about the physical affordances of interfaces and translate them to the digital world?" asked student Ryan Greenberg. "It's not something I was very good at thinking about at the beginning of the class, and the class has really helped." Classmate David Rolnitsky agreed: "We learned about electricity and mechanics and prototyping, and for me that was a new experience."
"I have an engineering background," explained student Niranjan Krishnamurthi, "and what I learned there was very technical: how to connect circuit boards— but never to think beyond that circuit board. In TUI, you learn a little bit of electronics, but you also learn so much more."
"It's a great class for mastering the creative process, iterating your ideas, and solving problems quickly," said student Heather Dolan.
This year's projects embed computing intelligence into musical instruments, games, household plumbing, and the clothes we wear; they create fanciful ways to peer through the center of the earth, to communicate your emotions across space, and to turn a stationary bicycle into an artist's palette.
"Year after year, students surprise me," says Ryokai. "This year, I'm very impressed with the quality of the projects and how much work and energy the students have put in."
"In what other class do you come home and say 'I have to make a musical instrument this week'?" asked student Hazel Onsrud, "Or, I'm going to make a frog that, when you kiss it, turns into a prince on the screen? That's got to be the funnest homework assignment every week!"
Student Chung-Hay Luk agreed. "It was a whole lot of fun. I love the class!"
2009 "Tangible User Interfaces" Final Projects
BarSurface: Augmenting Social Interactions at Your Local Pub
Lita Cho & Marco Cozzi
BarSurface enhances a person’s experience at a bar using a multi-touch tabletop surface as the bar table. BarSurface focuses on enriching the social interactions of the following scenarios: ordering a drink, leaving your mark at the bar, and passively communicating with other patrons.
Bellydancer as Drum Machine
Stephanie Pakrul
Using wearable sensors, this system allows a bellydancer to generate percussion sounds by executing movement isolations as used in a drum solo performance.
BuddyBearings
Dhawal Mujumdar, George Hayes, and Thomas Schluchter
BuddyBearings is a mobile application that allows users to find each other outdoors. It uses GPS, a digital compass and directional sound feedback to lead participants to a midpoint between them that is established as they walk. Think of it as an audio-augmented treasure hunt. (Watch video)
busPet
Eric Mai, Elliot Nahman, and Molly Reichert
busPet is a travel companion specifically designed for latchkey kids to help them navigate city bus systems. It's a squishy, rubbery friend that buzzes, beeps, vibrates, and lights up with increasing intensity when the right bus is approaching, and again when the young traveler's stop comes.
Emlo: Tangible Broadcast Buddy
Ian McDowell, Alison Meier, and Jessica Voytek
The increasing popularity of micro-blogging services such as Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare illustrates people's desire to create and broadcast concise descriptions of what they are feeling and doing in the moment. While the information being expressed is very personal, the devices that people use to communicate this information are cold and impersonal. Emlo is a device that allows people to use intuitive gestures to broadcast a succinct message about emotion and location as well as to receive feedback about how others are feeling.
Fun Can
Tanushree Jindal, Karen Nomorosa, and Sunny Lee
Fun can is an augmented tin can telephone that allows two people to communicate/converse using a mix of verbal and non verbal messages. It is intended as a toy for children that gives them the freedom to create/design their own communicative language.
Gogh Bike
Ben Cohen, Ryan Greenberg, K. Joyce Tsai
Gogh Bike is collaborative interface for creative expression. One person mixes paint into a can on the back of Gogh Bike while another person jumps on the bike and brushes the paint across a digital canvas.
♥ Heartbeat Jenga
Chung-Hay Luk and Yu-Chun Huang
This game uses biofeedback to train players to stay calm under stress. The player whose turn it is removes a wooden block from a tower of blocks and places the piece on the top of the tower, while the table and ambient lighting shakes and dims respectively in response to the player's heart rate.
Kill-a-Liter
Mohit Gupta, Hazel Onsrud and Niranjan Krishnamurthi
Kill-a-liter helps households reduce their water consumption by exposing usage information. The prototype is similar to a Brita Water filter, attachable to any faucet. The system detects a household's water usage and slowly restricts the water flow from the faucet as usage increases. The user can obtain full water flow with a simple pumping action. Our goal is to be able to tangibly, interactively and immediately show the user the effects of their (sometimes excessive) water consumption.
Mobile Patch
Dan Byler
Mobile Patch is a tangible mobile phone interface for individuals too attached to their phones. Like a nicotine patch, Mobile Patch provides users with the fix they need (knowledge of incoming calls) while protecting colleagues from distasteful ring-tones and secondhand vibrations. When the phone rings, instead of hearing an audible tone, the user feels a mild electric shock administered to the body via Mobile Patch.
String-a-ling
Jinyoung Baik, Neha Kumar, and Janani Vasudev
String-a-ling creates a tangible and collaborative music-learning environment for children ages 4 to 10. It provides audio and visual feedback to the learner, helping her form associations between notes and sounds. The goals of the design are to afford educational value via an engaging experience, while paying special emphasis to the mechanics of sound transmission.
The Wonderscope
Heather Dolan,
Nathan Yan, and
David Rolnitzky
The WonderScope is a periscope-like device that allows users to explore the surroundings of distant places by viewing and exploring images as they move. By doing so, users gain a new perspective and appreciation for a view of the world not immediately accessible to them.
