Spring09 / P1 / Interfacing with Interface

Our first project in Studio this semester (the warm up project) encourages us to explore possibilities with interface by "intervening in an existing interface to reconfigure the condition of contact." The "condition of contact" being the space between two entities and the way they interact. And did I mention that it is due on Thursday, so this is a quicky. While I started off with many ideas such as a floor mat in your bathroom that collects, records and stores your health data, I have narrowed it down to two.

1. Camera interfacing with surroundings, subject and the environment

A camera already collects and tags image with info about camera settings and time of day. What if we added much more sophisticated automatic tagging capabilities? Such as: GPS locations, temperature, weather, lighting, tides, moon phases, events, directional recognition (NSEW) as well as color, landmark and facial recognition.

These capabilities could enhance the way we sort and search our images and ultimately allow for greater capabilities in the way we document our lives.

A number of photographers currently use keyword and tagging systems that allow for sorting and searching capabilities. However, these operations are done manually. We already have the technology to pinpoint gps locations, from here the camera could collect geographic information such as name of city, weather conditions, temperature, moon phases, tides (if applicable), etc. Upon uploading images you can view tagged metadata and choose to deny or alter certain tags to customize.

Example:
Standing on the beach on the west coast of Florida I am taking a picture of my sister at sunset. The camera can pick up and record my GPS location from here it determines that I am on a beach and based on the time of day and the current sunrise and sunset charts that I am facing East at the time of sunset. It is May and the temperature is 79 degrees at that moment in time with partly cloudy skies. My images will be tag with these things:

Boca Grande, FL
7:12 p.m.
island
beach
sunset
79 degrees
Partly Cloudy
Low Tide
¼ moon
yellow
orange
red
pink
purple
blue
Caitlin Maxcy (my sister)

2. Individual interfacing with email in a more natural way

Purpose: To allow the electronic mail process to mimic characteristics of the physical mail experience.

The way we currently “work” with email seems rather counter intuitive and unnatural. It is removed from our natural, physical mail behaviors. Why don’t we bring back in some of the tactile elements as well as collecting and sorting methods that we are familiar within our current schema of physical mail.

The system would be much more visual and tactile.

Characteristics of mail:

Tactile
Handwritten messages
Retrieved from Mail box
Collected and posted (invitations, cards, announcements, etc.)
Anticipation when opening a card or invitation
Can easily see direct mail and make quick judgment on whether to save or toss.
Sorted into piles of personal, bills, forwards, junk, etc.
Bills are sorted into trays to pay all at once.

Emotional Characteristics of the physical process:

Anticipation
Excitement
Sense of accomplishment

(Could have a recycle function where all “trashed” emails could make up a piece of art.)