press release
1 June 2005
Via Porta Palatina 15, Turin
Italy
Friday 10 June from 11am to 6pm
Press preview 3pm-6pm
Drinks reception 6-9pm
Saturday 11 June open to the public from 11am to 5pm
On Friday 10 June, Interaction Design Institute Ivrea will present Exit, nineteen projects displaying the most exciting future scenarios in interaction design. Set appropriately in the vast and low-tech spaces of a car park in Turin, Exit intends to celebrate, display and salute the work of those students that have come from over ten different countries to study at Ivrea.
For their final year, the students of Interaction-Ivrea have come up with an array of projects that proves once again the multidisciplinary and questioning nature of the interaction design Masters Course. Taking cue from audio, product design, mobile and wireless technology, fashion, film, sports, graphic design and even theatre, the nineteen students have each devised visionary working prototypes created as their end of year thesis. From a toothbrush that plays your favourite tune when you are brushing correctly, to an intricately designed flower interface that symbolizes the current state of your social relationships; from a wearable system for mountaineers to a series of devices that can enable the compulsions of people with obsessive compulsive disorders, these are just some of the projects on show. Not only new technology then, but also ideas and working prototypes that address social, cultural and psychological issues.
At Exit, there will also be a chance to see videos of the work of some first year students, which has already been successfully exhibited at events such as this year�s Milan Furniture Fair.
Design Institute Ivrea
Interaction Design Institute Ivrea is an independent non-profit organisation, founded by Telecom Italia and Olivetti, and now part of the Progetto Italia initiative of Telecom Italia. The Institute is one of the better examples of Telecom Italia's investment in specialist education. In fact the Institute is a cultural centre that promotes the production and diffusion of knowledge in interaction design, through its two year Masters Programme and through the creation of innovation projects both independent and in partnership with Italian and foreign companies. The culture of interaction design was originally born in California, Silicon Valley and has now expanded, connecting itself to the Italian cultural legacy within a European context and interpreting current design trends, innovations and ways of life. The result is a fusion, from which one can recognise typical Italian traits in the designs of products and services.
www.interaction-ivrea.it
LIST OF PROJECTS
The Social Fabric
By Steven Blyth
Thesis advisors Neil Churcher with Jan-Christoph Zoels
The Social Fabric is a representation of your social world, displayed as a single visual array on your cellular phone. It does not replace your address book or calendar but keeps you subtly informed about which relationships are prospering, which you have neglected, and the overall state of your social fabric.
Actively Mobile
By Jennifer Bove
Thesis advisors Neil Churcher with Heather Martin
Actively Mobile is a small disc worn on the wrist, arm or hip � wherever is most comfortable � of those engaged in physical exercise. Incorporating the functionality only available currently by carrying several devices, it offers a range of facilities, and accesses a variety of services, of particular use to runners: a heart-rate monitor, a GPS locator, and time and speed tracking.
Light Appliances
By Giovanni Cannata
Thesis advisors Heather Martin with Massimo Banzi
Light Appliances is a system of easy to use buttonless appliances that enables people who don�t use computers to access services over the internet. The user can feel the experience of accessing internet services such as e-mails, video calls, audio calls, internet radios and some others, in a new and intuitive way. For example it is possible to call people by dragging and dropping contacts from a digital picture frame to a phone, or to send handwritten e-mails by dragging, instead, the contact into a an e-mail appliance.
Family Scrapboook
By Andreea Chelaru
Thesis advisors Ralph Ammer with Neil Churcher
Family Scrapbook is a service and an application, allowing a family members living away from each other to share snippets of their daily life and thus retain an intimate and meaningful relationship with each other. Family members can post digital media (pictures, messages) which the rest will receive instantly, thus re-establishing daily family connection.
String Thing
By Benjamin Dove
Thesis Advisors Ralph Ammer with Massimo Banzi
String Thing is a cello-like electronic instrument played by stroking or beating metal rods with the hands. The use of bodily gestures, infinitely variable and visible to the audience, avoids the �robotic� and visually uncommunicative quality typical of computer music.
Experiencing Mobile Images
By Bernd Hitzeroth
Thesis advisors Jan-Christoph Zoels with Ralph Ammer
This thesis explores new interactions which enhance the aesthetic and communicative value of sharing images on the mobile phone. The focus is on four interactions which address the realtime exchange of pre-recorded images. Gestures are as natural as casting a shadow with your hand or sliding a photo across the table. This project offers insights into the mobile�s unique qualities as a visual medium.
BuddyBeads
By Ruth Kikin-Gil
Thesis advisors Simona Maschi with Heather Martin
BuddyBeads is a system of techno-jewellery which uses mobile telephony to share, non-verbally, simple expressions of mood or situation between group members: �I�m bored�, say, or �I�ve met a new boy�. Each group member has an identical bracelet (or necklace or watchstrap) with a range of differently-shaped beads. Wearing BuddyBeads advertises group membership, but the privacy of its codes and silent conversations reinforces the group�s identity and exclusivity.
Eco-Pods
By Erez Kikin-Gil
Thesis advisors Massimo Banzi with Philip Tabor
�Eco-Pods� is a TUI-controlled system that mimics the growth of a flower. It comprises a main project, Power Eco-Pod, and three smaller research explorations: Mini Eco-Pod, Light-Wall, and Eco-Sim. Power Eco-Pod is a game program, supplied with two �pods� which plug into any personal computer. It teaches children about the complex interactions of natural phenomena, thus introducing them to systems thinking.
Urbanseeder
By Maya Lotan
Heather Martin with Yaniv Steiner and Lavrans L�vlie
Urbanseeder is a flirting service that increases your chance of running again into people you find attractive. Using minimal digital technology, the game plays out unpredictably in real space and using physical tokens. It is an attempt to preserve the spirit of flirting and utilize technology in a way that complements our urban living.
T�-per-te
By Patray Lui
Thesis Advisors Simona Maschi with Yaniv Steiner
T�-per-te is a combined holistic health monitor and advisor which dispenses tea appropriate to one�s current health. As you approach T�-per-te its associated floorpad and visual sensor measure your weight and height. Placing your hand on the tabletop measures your temperature. The touch screen asks how you are feeling. Software analyses this data, offers a diagnosis and recommends a therapeutic response, including a combination of tea varieties.
Neighbourhood Satellites
By Myriel Milicevic
Thesis advisors Ralph Ammer with Yaniv Steiner
Neighbourhood Satellites are handheld sensing devices powered by light, which enable people to monitor their local environment in a playful way, combining physical exploration and real-world data with digital gameplay. Each satellite monitors air quality, cellular signals, and light levels. The data it collects is presented in three different modes.
Pronto? I�m Almost There
By �znur �zkurt
By Jan-Christoph Zoels with Simona Maschi and P�r Heyden
Pronto is a navigation and communication system for car drivers that accepts data from the driver�s digital address and appointment books and uses it to simplify interaction with itself. Pronto plans the route, offers traffic updates, and adjusts its communication channel to give priority to the destination contact, later scheduled contacts, and your frequent contact list. The current interface includes a touch-screen, �head-up� projection on the windscreen, and a dashboard-mounted progress-bar display.
Peripheral Needs
By Christian Palino
Thesis advisors Jan-Christoph Zoels with Neil Churcher and Philip Tabor
A set of designs which enable the compulsions of people (such as those who agreed to be the subjects of this study) with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Through design principles and techniques similar to those applied to mainstream needs, designing for peripheral needs declares that those needs are acceptable, and worthy of being addressed as mainstream ones. More generally, it highlights design�s ability to affect, or at least perpetuate, ideas of social acceptability.
Deal Me In
By Simone Pia
Thesis advisors Heather Martin with Simona Maschi
Deal Me In is a project that substitutes the computer keyboard with a �tangible user interface� (TUI) and a metaphor familiar to seniors: playing cards. Deal Me In is a box containing plastic discs like poker chips, each representing a month or year, two decks of cards resembling playing cards, and a foldable mat, rather like a blackjack table. One deck of cards is used to collect photos into sets, �albums�; the other, to modify the albums, print the photos, and so on.
EasyTech SafeTrek
By Anurag Sehgal
Thesis advisors Heather Martin with Yaniv Steiner
EasyTech SafeTrek is a system comprising modular devices for mountaineers � each offering a function like phoning, photography, position-location, or avalanche-warning � a tiny computer �hub� linking these functions together, (either with or without wires), and a single power supply. These elements are �wearable�: distributed around the body, mostly in pockets attached to an upper-body harness.
Exploring the Content Network
By Thomas Stovicek
Thesis Advisors Ralph Ammer with Neil Churcher
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- text, photos, videos etc. 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.
InstantShareCam
By Akemi Tazaki
Thesis advisors Jan-Christoph Zoels with Philip Tabor
InstantShareCam, designed for a near future of wireless broadband networks, is a hardware specification and a software application allowing groups of people, each with a camera, to shoot and edit videos collaboratively and �on the fly�. Simple controls on each camera and an intuitive interface on its screen, allow each to see what the others are shooting and decide between themselves which stream takes precedence.
Mus~ync
By Haraldur Unnasson
Thesis advisors Neil Churcher with Yaniv Steiner
Mus~ync is a musical interface that playfully rewards you by making a �right� sound when you do something �right� � and vice versa. When you perform an everyday action like brushing teeth, cooking or driving, Mus~ync reads your movements through sensors and plays your favourite tune from your music library.
Design Improv
By Nathan Waterhouse
Thesis advisors Neil Churcher with Heather Martin and Philip Tabor
Design improv is a service that can be used by design companies and clients to facilitate the process of designing. It uses improvisation similar to Improvisational Theatre, a specisalised performing art where the actors improvise their parts based on rules and adapt the play as it progresses. The service, represented by a facilitator (or �master of ceremonies�), is typically hired just for a short duration during a project, particularly when large groups, perhaps including users and customers, need speedy coordination.
Sara Manuelli
[email protected]
0125 422 148
335 1035604
www.interaction-ivrea.it
