4. Travel Souvenirs!
Ever bought a souvenir somewhere of a landmark or a statue? That’s old-news, having a 3d print of you somewhere is much more 21st century. The 3d camera on the Kinect allows you too use it for 3d scanning and photography.This data can then be 3d printed, giving you a copy of the form. Be Your Own Souvenir by Blablalab was an installation that scanned you and 3d printed your form, letting you leave with a custom souvenir of yourself. This 3d data can also be used with a traditional DSLR camera’s picture to create some stunning abstract photography. James George strapped a Kinect to his DSLR and started photographing people on the NY subway platforms for a project called DepthEditorDebug. The result was a cross between glitch art, perspective drawing, and candid photography and it is fascinating.
5. New Ways to Interface!
Sci-fi movies have long been an incubator of things to come. When Minority Report showed us what our desktop computers may be like, hackers rose to the challenge and quickly engineered new interfaces. Using nothing but off-the-shelf Playstation Move controllers and custom software, you can see how close this demo gets to making this speculative interface real. In some cases, the interface is designed to accommodate for change. Such is the case with EyeWriter, which allows a graffiti writer with ALS to once again make his art. With some incredible imagination and execution, a small team of coders, hackers, and designers created a way for Tempt One to write with his eye movement. A Playstation Eye was attached to a pair of glasses in order to track his eye. Designers and engineers are always looking for new ways to use technology to enhance experience and enrich our lives. Starfield by Lab212 is a simple, but powerful interaction. The Kinect and swing installation allows you to move through the stars and creates an amazing effect with a playful interaction.
6. How They Can Change Your Life…
There are many instances of gaming technology being used for art and design, but its capabilities stretch far into the fields of robotics and medicine. The ability for a doctor to view CT scans without touching anything is crucial while in a sterile operating room. As the video below demonstrates the 3d sensors on the Kinect provide for a perfect interface beside the operating table, insuring that data is always available. Their are also examples of gaming tech being use to control lawn equipment like a lawn mower. Many of thought that there must be a better way to mow the lawn. There is, controlling your tank-trend lawn mower with a WiiMote is a game changer. Essentially turning your yard into PacMan, this interface offers a new way to think about our daily chores.
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By Jean Aw and Shawn Sims. JEAN AW Founder of NOTCOT: Concept, Content & Creative, Editor-In-Chief of the NotEmpire*. . . Design Addict + UX Designer + Shopaholic + Tech Connoisseur + Design Writer + World Traveler. *NotEmpire = not an empire, composed of NOTCOT.com, NOTCOT.org, NotCouture.com, and Liqurious.com. Shawn Sims is founder and director of Synaptic Lab – sy-lab.net – a research and design group dedicated to searching for new ideas about the implementation of technology [ and/for/with ] form. Shawn is a graduate of the Pratt Institute School of Architecture and the Computational Design Lab at Carnegie Mellon Universitywhere he recevied a Master’s in Tangible Interaction Design. While at Pratt he developed research interests in network+swarm theory, biomemetics, minimal surface morphologies, and computational form finding. Current research includes computationally embedded objects, physical+ambient computing, robotics, and advanced digital design+fabrication methodologies. In June 2011 Shawn joined NOTCOT Inc. as director of NOTlabs. It is the experimental+play and design+fabrication side of the NOTempire.
