As interaction designers undoubtedly know, human computer interaction (HCI) involves more than just keyboards and mice. This is especially important when working with people who have special mobility needs, such as quadriplegics. While eye-tracking software or equipment for translating head movements can help meet their needs, such solutions have limitations either in their software/hardware side or on the human side (people tire quickly).
This ArsTechnica article highlights one prototype which proposes using the tongue as part of a virtual keyboard in the mouth. A permanent magnet is attached to the tongue (is that through a piercing?) and used to trigger sensors in particular areas of the mouth which in turn translate into specific commands.
The feasibility of this prototype hinges on the fact that the tongue is connected directly to the brain, which means it retains full functionality even if the spinal cord is damaged.
While the equipment required to implement this prototype is not something most people would want to wear, this project highlights two important values:
First, the idea that designing for extreme cases can provide benefits beyond those extreme cases. Tongue interfaces, with more modern technology than that demonstrated in this prototype, could be used by anyone. A boring example: dialing your phone while driving, using your tongue.
Second, the idea that interaction design has a lot to offer people with specific and demanding health needs. While we often tend to think of interaction design as applying to mobile phones and computer interfaces, there are a lot of areas which can substantively benefit from innovative (or simply better) interaction design. Health is one area, and when I’ve had the chance to attend the ITP shows I’ve always been impressed with the projects produced by the Assistive Technology group at ITP.
You’ve heard of a carbon footprint, and maybe you’ve even calculated yours, but what about your water footprint?
Just as the food and products you consume have a hidden oil cost (fuel used in manufacturing and transportation, for example) they also have a hidden water cost.
A recent article in the Guardian (Revealed: the massive scale of UK’s water consumption) made the point that each Briton consumes 4,645 litres a day when you take into consideration hidden factors such as the water used in the production of food and textiles. By comparison, the daily water usage in Britain for cleaning and drinking is 150 litres per person per day.
This is important information, but how can we make sense of it? Carbon poses a similar problem: it’s hard to visualize what several tons of carbon actually means (although this photo in National Geographic helps a little bit).
How can we begin to understand the water problem in a similar way?
One attempt is this double-sided poster by German designer Timm Kekeritz. One side illustrates the amount of water needed to produce selected products such as beef or corn. The other side quantifies the amount of water used by different countries. While the site is primarily intended to sell his poster, you can still interact with the top graphic to see the water impact of different products:
Another site about water is Waterfootprint.org, which includes calculators to determine your water footprint, in addition to facts about water use (to produce one cup of coffee we need 140 litres of water), publications, and research data.
I’m sure there are other visualizations out there which either directly address this subject, or use a visualization technique which could be applied to the subject of water. Have you seen any? Which ones do you like?
With summer in the northern hemisphere turning soon to Autumn, it’s time to start thinking of warmer clothing. For those of us with mobile phones and QR Code readers, perhaps this scarf by Lendorff.Kaywa is just the ticket….
Between August 18th and 29th 1scale1 will run 7 simultaneous workshops in open software and hardware for designers and artists at k3 in Malmö, Sweden. Themes are related to either physical computing or computer vision. There are basic and advanced workshops varying in length ( 2 and 3 days ).
Physical computing superstars Tom Igoe, Casey Reas and David Cuartielles will be present!
Via Engadget, a floor that uses capacitance sensors to detects footprint and lights up LEDs under your feet as you walk across it. While the concept isn’t new (see The1970s), this implementation by Sensacell has a little tweak where the trails stick around for a bit after you pass over the floor:
Reminiscent (in a 2D way) of the Volume installation at the V&A by United Visual Artists, particularly the bit where walking through the field of poles reveals presence through the height of the suspended “balls” of light (a higher-quality video is available on their Volume project website.):
Some other projects come to mind while looking at the Sensacell project (there are of course tons of other LED-based projects, but these are two on the top of my mind at the moment).
First is the interactive LED wall by Phillips Electronics that’s installed at the Mercy Medical Center in Rogers, Arkansas:
The other project that I’m reminded of is one that appeared at the Picnic conference in Amsterdam in 2007.
The implementation of this project was the complete opposite of the Sensacell project: a field of flowers was projected on the floor, and as people walked across that field, the flowers would temporarily disappear, leaving a trail of the bare floor which would slowly be refilled with flowers.
Of course with all these flashing floor tiles, it’s hard not to think of Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean music video…
Mozilla labs has opened up the design of the next generation of web browser to contributions from designers and others who might not normally contribute to open-source projects. The idea is to inject new thinking and innovation into the concept of a browser, and they are accepting contributions ranging from Ideas, to Mockups, to Prototypes. More details in their Call for Participation.
One of the highlighted concepts on the Mozilla Labs site is by the folks at Adaptive Path. You can check out two concepts below, but it’s better to go High-Def and full-screen to get a better sense of the activity on the screen.
Overall, these video prototypes do a nice job of setting the context of use and communicate the main concepts very clearly. I particularly like the way they show the scenario and then follow up with more specific commentary on key scenes and activities.
The one bit I don’t particularly care for is in the second demo, where the two people on the bench are using a mobile device. The GUI that is shown on the mobile device is extremely high-resolution, which is inappropriate both for the users (unless they have extremely good vision) as well as the intended medium. But it gets the concept across, and at this point that’s all that matters.
Well, the hard drives themselves aren’t made of bamboo, just their housings:
Besides looking quite stylish, the case for this drive is constructed of bamboo and aluminum, proving that you don’t need to sacrifice green(er) intentions for the sake of your technology collection.
While being sick is never fun, it can sometimes reveal nice design.
Case in point is this packaging and set of instructions for a course of antibiotics.
To set some context: the big issue with antibiotics is that patients must take the full course of medicine. If they don’t, they risk breeding antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
…but what’s interesting about this packaging for Azithromycin is that it merges the instructions with the packaging in a very intuitive way.
Not only is the language clear and in plain English, but the interface provides feedback in the form of empty spots for pills you’ve already taken.
The plain language bit is especially important, as it can often be a source of confusion: does one pill twice daily mean one pill split in half and taken in the morning and evening, or does it mean one pill in the morning and one pill in the evening?
While it may seem like an issue of semantics, consider that patients taking these drugs are probably not in the best state of mind: in pain, sleepy, or otherwise affected by events or other drugs in their system. Anything that we as designers can do to make these patients’ lives easier and, more importantly, safer, should be one of our priorities.
