Art, Technology,
Process, and Product
by David Pescovitz
The
Community Guitar, seen here with its inventors, enables
each user to mechanically strum a single guitar string to
play a collaborative tune. (Click for larger
image.)
David Pescovitz photo
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At a recent wine
and cheese celebration at UC Berkeley Richmond Field Station's art
studios, talk of TCP/IP and wireless sensor networks seamlessly
flowed into heated discussions about the aura and authenticity of
art in the digital age. This surreal cross-disciplinary dialogue
between artists and engineers was old-hat to the student hosts demonstrating
their final projects from the Spring 2002 course "Tangible
Interfaces: Crafting the Ubiquitous Experience."
Taught jointly by four instructors representing the Department of
Mechanical Engineering, the Department of Electrical Engineering
and Computer Sciences, Art Practice, and Intel Research, the course
brought together engineering and art students to foster collaboration
informed by deep thinking about how technology is woven into our
daily lives.
"Given the fact that technology is clearly moving from outside
to inside us, into our souls, it seemed important to look at the
artistic side of life that adds meaning to our daily existence,"
says Mechanical Engineering professor Paul K. Wright.
In
this project, a user's exercise pattern (see photo below)
directly affects the health of the plant. (Click for larger
image.)
David Pescovitz photo
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Working in small teams, the students built working systems with
the goal, Wright explains, "of creating an emotional interaction
with the computer that affected multiple senses." For example,
one project consists of a wristwatch-sized sensor that measures
the wearer's physical activity. At the end of the day, the user
docks the device into a computer system that controls how much light
and water a plant receives based on how much exercise you've done.
Another team built a coffee table containing microphones and water
spouts. The louder and more constantly someone speaks, the higher
and more intense the stream becomes. The point, Wright says, is
to subtly and creatively let someone at the table know when they're
dominating a conversation.
A
wristwatch-sized sensor measures the wearer's physical activity
as he hits a punching bag. (Click for larger
image.)
David Pescovitz photo
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"Someone talking too much is truly a social problem,"
Wright says. "The fountain is one technical solution to that
problem."
The Tangible Interfaces course grew out of Wright's popular High-tech
Product Design and Rapid Manufacturing class. In that course, students
from numerous disciplines—from engineering to business—are
required to design and build a product, and accompanying business
plan, based on a core technology. For example, last year's students
were provided with Berkeley and Intel-developed sensor motes that
they had to transform into marketable "inconspicuous computing"
products. A final tradeshow event showcased the student work, including
a motorcycle helmet outfitted with a wireless communication system
and a device to help parents locate lost children.
Professor
Paul Wright and a Tangible Interface student watch as their
voice levels are expressed through spurts of water. (Click
for larger image.)
David Pescovitz photo
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The success of High-tech Product Design and conversations with Berkeley
computer science professor and Intel Researcher Anind Dey, pioneering
technology artist Greg Niemeyer, and Trevor Pering, a Berkeley engineering
alum and human-computer interaction researcher at Intel, led to
the Tangible Interfaces offering. The course, Wright says, is a
quintessential example of the multidisciplinary approach of the
Berkeley-based Center for Information Technology Research in the
Interest of Society (CITRIS). Indeed, while the Tangible student
work is exemplary, the cross-disciplinary process was the real product.
"My usual work as a design engineer is very product based and
business-oriented in many aspects, but Tangible gave me the chance
to do more research into human-computer interaction," says
mechanical engineering graduate student Nathan Ota.
Ota's Tangible Interfaces team built a multi-limbed robotic structure
that could be installed in an office building to intuitively and
viscerally reveal, through handshake-like gestures, who is available
for an impromptu meeting at any given moment.
"Having an artistic perspective makes research a very different
experience than crunching numbers and measuring angles," Ota
says. "With multiple points of view, a really nice synergy
develops."
Tangible Interfaces course syllabus
High-tech Product Design and Rapid Manufacturing Tradeshow 2001
Intel Research
Lab Notes is published online by the Public Affairs Office of the UC Berkeley College of Engineering. The Lab Notes mission is to illuminate groundbreaking
research underway today at the College of Engineering that will dramatically change our lives tomorrow.
Editor, Director of Public Affairs: Teresa Moore
Writer, Researcher: David Pescovitz
Designer: Robyn Altman
Subscribe or send comments to the Engineering Public Affairs Office: lab-notes@coe.berkeley.edu.
© 2002 UC Regents.
Updated 6/20/02.
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