Author: Thomas Stovicek (Canada)
Supervisors: Ralph Ammer and Neil Churcher

Idea/problem/context In the future, our electronic devices will be networked together and all our digital �content� readily available when we need it. So we will have ever more data to sift through. This project looks at new ways to access, view and filter this growing store of information.

What it is Exploring the Content Network is a set of screen-based software and hardware interactions between devices. Devices are physically manipulated and keywords used to make a more intuitive, natural way to access content.

How it works The coordinating system, Content Network, connects a group of devices and gives them access to each others� content. One of its elements, Navigation Through Related Tags, lets you find your content based on keywords instead of folders. Combining Devices to Navigate Content uses very short-range wireless between the devices to detect how they are interacting and trigger data transfer and shared actions: placing your mobile phone over someone else�s, for instance, brings up, on both screens, a combined calendar highlighting available times for a proposed meeting.

Value/Potential Related tags offered a new way to sort and organize your content by keyword. Physical interactions help by using intuitive actions to interconnect the devices of a group of people and to show only data relevant to, and organized for, the task in hand. These concepts, which apply to both work and social groupings, demonstrate new potentials in navigating your content without the fear of information overload normally associated with it.

download QuickTime Movie (video by Andrea Pierri) - 1.28 MB