See-through Computer Allows Users to "Grab" Digital Content

A transparent computer that allows users to reach "inside" the screen and manipulate content with their hands was unveiled at the TED conference in Los Angeles last week. Introducing the SpaceTop 3D desktop computer at the TED conference, interaction researcher Jinha Lee explained that enabling humans to physically interact with machines could make computing more intuitive.

"The gap between what the designer thinks and what the computer can do is huge. If you can put your hands inside the computer and handle digital content you can express ideas more completely," he told the BBC.

Working in collaboration with Microsoft and its Kinect technology, Lee developed a system that combines a transparent LCD display with built-in cameras that track gestures and eye movements. Users place their hands behind the screen to scroll or type just as they would with a normal computer, but they can also raise their hands up to grab and manipulate the virtual 3D elements. One camera is used to track fingers, recognising gestures like pinching and dragging, while the other camera faces the user and tracks the position of their head to display perspective-corrected 3D graphics.

A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lee is currently carrying out his compulsory military service in South Korea at electronics firm Samsung, where he is developing television interfaces. Last month Google released a movie preview of what it would be like to wear its voice-controlled Google Glass headset, while earlier this year we reported on an augmented reality iPad app that allows architects to look inside static architectural models – see all technology news.

Check out the clip here. Images and movie are by Jinha Lee.

What this new interface will bring if it is successfully incorporated into the urban landscape speaks volumes for the future of cities. It'll change the way we explore and experience the city for good. Exciting stuff.

The Beautiful Thing That Happens When You Project Video Onto Falling Snow

"to be an extremely fortunate confluence of nature and digital."

As snow fell across the northeast over the weekend, Brian Maffitt of Chestnut Ridge, New York, had a brilliant idea: Project a movie, with the falling flakes as his screen. He set up his camera (a Canon EOS 7D) at his upstairs window where a pine tree ensured a dark backdrop, and started filming. The result was beautiful:

The film Maffitt chose to project was "The Lorax," he explained to me over email, "for the sole reason that it was at the top of the list under 'Children's Movies' on Netflix," where, he presumed, the movies with the greatest color saturation tend to cluster. The music comes from the stock options included in Final Cut Pro.

As the snow came down faster and faster and got blown around by the winds, "the intended colors were lost, replaced by pure red, green, and blue dots, produced by the rotating color wheel on the front of the single-chip DLP video projector."

Lunar Trails by Seb Lee-Delisle

This installation project by Artist Seb Lee-Delisle is a console that allows visitors to play to the classic arcade game Lunar Lander. As they continue to play, the gadget connected to the console would plot movements of the player's in-game avatar in ink on canvas. The process resulted in a beautiful abstract image. This multimedia installation combines art technology and performance and is a totally new and interesting collaborating effort. You can watch a video of the image’s creation here.

Co.design commented...

“The result is something that works on a few different layers. On one hand, the whole project is a crowd-gathering interactive experience–a work about “the process of the creation of the image,” Lee-Delisle explains. But it’s also about that image itself, and while anyone who walks up will be able to recognize the unexpected, abstract beauty that the installation is deriving from the game, fewer might consider that what they’re seeing is actually data viz in its purest form.”

Intel Lives - Nick Tory's Lighting Installations

Love the multimedia aspect of this and the contribution the light show makes to the urban landscape - though limited by the time of day - is none the less spectacular. Somewhat reminiscent of the Telecom light feature here in Auckland they had a couple of years ago, where a lit canvas was projected onto Auckland's iconic ferry building downtown. I really must check if its an annual thing, and if it was in fact Nick Tory who was commissioned for it. 

3D UV Thread Installation by Jeongmoon Choi

Korean native, Berlin based artist Jeongmoon Choi latest installation is pretty outstanding. Her 3D UV lights + Thread Installation dresses rooms by creating shapes and mapping with threads that she illuminate with UV lights. A genius concept that create beautiful 3D visual effects.