Hack a Day » tangibleinterface

Burning in the Siftables

Caleb Kraft — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 20:15:00 +0000

[Curiouslee] put up some pictures of his Siftables burn in. He got them in the mail with all their accessories and decided to make a special box to carry it all. He started with an ArtBin parts box and cut out dividers where necessary to make everything fit nice and tidy.

The Siftables are quite interesting. They are an information interface that is supposed to be more physical and natural. The analogy they use is a container of nuts and bolts can be sifted through quite easily using your hands. They envision us being able to sift through data similarly. They also mention that it could be used as a gestural interface as well.

Each unit is a small device with a screen, wireless communication, and IR sensors. There are some pictures of the units in action as well as a video on their site.

[via Make Flickr Pool]

SenseSurface: Custom inputs on your lcd screen

Caleb Kraft — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:30:00 +0000

[Lindsay Williams] has come up a novel way of constructing custom physical inputs for your programs. SenseSurface is a viable alternative to building a new interface for each application. Simply place the dials, buttons, and sliders on your screen wherever you want them.

A sensor board, placed behind the display, picks up the signals from the inputs. The only limitation to the number of inputs available is the size of your screen. Inputs are held on magnetically, and have a low friction backing to avoid scratching or gouging your screen.

Here is a demo video showing use with one knob. It doesn’t appear to slip or slide at all while they are turning it. We’d love to play with it a little bit and see what it is like, as well as see more information on what technology is being used.

[via Music Thing]

Tangible sequencer interface with Skittles

Benjamin Eckel — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 01:10:00 +0000

Using a webcam, some cardboard, and a bag of Skittles, [Kyle McDonald] created this tangible interface for a beat sequencer. The Skittles are dropped onto the rows which correspond to a drum channel and each Skittle represents an 1/8th note. For such cheap components, the system seems to recognize the sequences pretty quick. This is probably due to some clever programming with the processing back-end. He claims his inspiration was the BallBearing sequencer, which uses the ball bearings as contact switches to determine the sequence rather than having a webcam analyze the surface.

It would be really nice to see this project expanded into a full blown instrument. the webcam could allow for dynamic surfaces and he could certainly add more control to the system with some knobs and/or sliders. He claims these features, and the source, will soon arrive.