Physical Computing for Everyday Life
Introduction
This paper traces the changes from physical architecture to wired architecture by focusing on the wallpaper and how the old static wallpaper that people don't usually focus on can be made interactive. By making the wallpaper interactive, the surroundings can be changed and at the same time have a psychological effect on the mood and atmosphere of the place.
Interactive Wallpaper - What is it?
Wallpaper Technologies
Prototype designs were made using existing technologies . Software used included Director/Lingo, Flash/Action Script, Java and Logo. Off-the-shelves hardware were used including sensors, actuators, projectors and micro-chips. The idea is in putting together available technology rather than to create new technology elements.
William Morris Wallpaper
This fruit-and-flower wallpaper designed by William Morris is transformed into a moving backdrop wallpaper. Used mainly in halls and spacious salons, it depicts lemons and blossoming flowers hanging on a branches with green leaves.The branches and leaves seem to move slightly and random lemons, leaves or flowers fall to the floor. The wallpaper changes with time and this interactive fruit-and-flower wallpaper can be programmed to change colours and behave according to its environment. It is able to detect changes and the presence of people.
The way it seems to work would seem random to the public as the underlying information on how it goes is only known to the people who understand the code.
Word Map Wallpaper
Word Map puts together the visual sense and the acoustics. It uses a microphone to capture the conversations happening in the space and converts them to words which are then displayed on the surface of the wallpaper. The words swirl, float and slowly sink to the ground, becomes smaller and then fades as sediments on the interactive wallpaper. As time goes by, the words are collected as thoughts on the floor.The words on the floor can sense the presence of approaching visitors and move slowly towards them as if they are interested in the humans' bodily activities.
Interface devices for this are made explicit so people who are in the space know that they are being listened to as the idea is not to spy on people but to let them know that they are there to listen to their conversation snippets and loud thoughts.
Haptic Wallpaper - Digital Tape
This wallpaper invokes other senses and goes beyond the visual and acoustic. It makes people have a desire to touch them. The idea is to enrich the visual and auditory perception and make people want to sniff and reach out to feel the textures.A projection of semi-transparent adhesive tapes that seem to hide interesting stuff behind its translucent appearance. There are no iconic buttons or symbols that invite people to press or click on but the fact that it looks pretty touchable makes them want to reach out and feel the urge or desire to scratch the surface of the wallpaper just to make it reveal something behind it. This action is innate in us since young as everyone has these gestures embedded in their tactile memory. This wallpaper makes our experience with it sensual and natural as it incorporates our body to interact with it.
Skin-Deep Wallpaper
This wallpaper goes beyond the screen and takes up the tactile dimension up a notch. It does not project anything onto a wall or screen but is animated in itself. It is the material surface that makes the changes to the colours or movement as it has embedded computer chips, sensors and actuators that is interwoven in the fabric. So it would seem like the material has a life of its own.
Some examples are :
Affectionate Velour .
This is an interactive material that can have an affectionate relationship with the user over time and reacts with the user by remembering caresses and emits a noise to ask for more so it would seem like it has a life of its own.
The Water Wall
Uses falling water that forms a thin water curtain that either stops when someone tries to pass under it or does not allow anyone to go under it without getting wet. Sensors are used in this case to detect the presence of people and the whole body of the person is involved.
Interactive Fabric
Angora hair is weaved together with electro-luminescent wires and embedded with touch sensors turning it into an interactive fabric. This fabric lights up when touched and fades away in time.
Lichtenstein Wallpaper
This wallpaper is actually a painting of Lichtenstein that has been made interactive. The dots in it respond to viewers getting smaller as they come close and bigger as they move away from it. It gives an effect of the painting having some form life. Each dot is programmed to have some form of behaviour and interacts with neighbouring dots too.
Digital Shadows Wallpaper
Interactions between people are captured in shadows and frozen in time as it slowly fades away and becomes like a backdrop. As more new interactions takes place, the old ones just remain frozen as it fades away leaving an interesting pattern on the wall that depicts the movements of people previously in that space. It is a grayscale shot like shadows so you don't actually see the person's face in order to protect their privacy. The shades of shadows are like a memory or history of past interactions of people.
Usefulness & Relevance
The wallpapers are definitely one of those things which can be classified under physical computing as it deals with the interaction between people and technology and how it is all done without them having to directly touch any sort of input device to interact with it. There are many things in which it can be used for especially in art museums, science exhibitions, design installations and shopping mall walkways that can still be explored.
My Personal Reflection
I find the interactive wallpaper rather fascinating as there are heaps of stuff that can be done with it in different settings and applications. It would also be interesting to see what could be done if we integrate the existing technology of the motion sensors and projections on the walls with other future technologies that would allow a more personalized viewing for each person passing by the area.
I especially like the Skin-Deep wallpaper as it has the potential to be used in future as material for clothes, shoes, handbags, curtains, bedsheets etc. Imagine the Interactive Fabric being used in such areas. You can buy clothes that can change patterns or shoes that can change colours just by touching it and having perhaps new downloads of fresh patterns that changes what it looks like. It would be easier to match accessories just by buying one of it made in that material and later on getting updates on the latest colours and pattern designs so it goes well with anything that we might think of wearing out on that day instead of having multiple similar clothes or shoes of different colours. The same shoe can change its colour to match our clothes.
What is reviewed here are just some prototypes of interactive wallpapers. There is still a lot of potential in the direction where it can be taken to.
Other Related Work
Reference
Interactive Wallpaper
| International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques ACM SIGGRAPH 2005 Electronic Art and Animation Catalog | ||
