David Law is a user experience architect in Silicon Valley.
As a Human Factors nerd, I found this particularly fascinating. Modern Camo looks like pixel art, because the pixels are mathematically closer to actual noise than the more stylized camo patterns of the past. Westpoint’s engineering psych dept must be a cool place to work!
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/07/invisible-inc/8523/1/
Very cool tech for creating holograms that provide haptic feedback. Half the system is built using off the shelf technology (Wiimotes) and the other half is a new fangled ultrasonic feedback device, that basically tickles your fingers to create the illusion of touch. I’m really curious to see how flexible the system is; how many planes of touchability can it support? What if one hand is blocking the other hand’s line of sight to the feedback device? From the video it appeared that the touch sensing was uni-directional i.e. you could feel objects up or down, or side side, but not both at the same time due to the projector. Can the holography projection setup co-exist with a more robust system of touch sensors? Maybe next year they will have an array of Kinect’s doing the touch sensing, and a full surround system of touch effectors.
The use cases here seem endless; they mention that one of the major sources of infection in hospitals is people touching the same machines and passing germs around. If the machines had a holographic interface that could provide the same tactile feedback without actually being touched, you could significantly reduce the opportunity for cross contamination without sacrificing the usability of the instruments. You could even combine it with tech like these contact lens displays to create a personal dork field of touchable objects that only you can see! :)
I definitely agree with this article about designers needing to be able to code as well. I’ve always found that the most effective designers are the ones who know the limits of what can be built, which entails at least a cursory knowledge of code. Think of a building architect who has to design a building that existing materials engineers can support. Without that knowledge, all you’ll ever design are pipe dreams.
That said, I still think that there’s a place for more forward thinking design that pushes the boundaries of what is achievable; without dreamers like these, we will only ever build more of what has already been built.
I guess most recipes list out measurements by volume rather than weight, but this would be great design for someone trying to lose a few pounds; measure out exact portions as you are cooking them.
