Sociable Floor The floor is the architectural surface

By admin on October 26th, 2007

Sociable Floor

The floor is the architectural surface that receives the most
physical interaction. By monitoring use of the floor and
projecting onto it, many useful functions can be played out.
We use a modular tile floor with capacitive sensors under
the 12 x12 raised modules. Ceiling-mounted projectors
paint the floor with information gathered from where and
when people stand on the various tiles.

Sociable Floor can augment the sensing already discussed
by judging exactly where different users of the kitchen are
standing. The system can warn users when they are working
too close and allows for projected information to accurately
follow an individual user as their tasks carry them through
the kitchen.

Spatial Definition Some areas in the kitchen can

By admin on October 26th, 2007

Spatial Definition

Some areas in the kitchen can be dangerous to newcomers.
It would be helpful if certain conditions (such as a hot stove
or a knife on a table) could be easily denoted and
communicated. When someone enters these zones,
some automated multimedia reminder would make one
aware of unseen dangers. We have explored two ways for
such zones to be easily denoted and stored in a computer: a
kitchen design GUI and a gesture language.

The kitchen design GUI consists of plan of the kitchen
projected on a countertop with a drawing interface that
allows users to denote areas as dangerous. Users can also
annotate an area such as the table to show the menu when
users sit around it.
Gesture recognition techniques are widely used as
intuitive input interfaces. Our gesture language allows users
to specify a reminder zone directly on the space itself so
that anyone entering that zone triggers an audiovisual
reminder. Video cameras dispersed through the space
recognize a basic gesture language and create virtual zones
to map the physical environment accordingly. To find the
position of a user s hand, we use image processing
techniques that track color and motion in Visual C++. The
hand acts as a spatial pen so long as certain recognizable
gestures are made in front of the webcams. A back-
propagation Neural Network trains pre-defined shapes
(circles, triangles, arrows, and crosses.) The network
recognizes simple gestures if the path of the hand follows
one of the predetermined shapes. The gesture language for
spatial definition denotes an audio reminder zone with a
circle, a danger zone with a triangle, and a visual reminder
zone with an arrow.
Once a zone is programmed by the gesture language, the
same webcams serve as motion detectors to detect when
someone enters the zone. Each part of the kitchen can be
programmed with reminders without interfering with the
tasks being performed.

HeatSink Like Information Annotation of the Kitchen, HeatSink

By admin on October 26th, 2007

HeatSink

Like Information Annotation of the Kitchen, HeatSink
projects task-specific information directly onto the object
being measured, in this case water itself. A microcontroller
measures the temperature of water exiting the tap and
projects colored light into the stream of water to indicate its
temperature: red for hot and blue for cold. Users can
intuitively gauge the temperature of the water without
getting their hands wet. Successive users automatically
know what the prior water temperature was and avoid
scalding themselves.

Information Annotation of Kitchen The kitchen as a

By admin on October 26th, 2007

Information Annotation of Kitchen

The kitchen as a graphical user interface can coordinate the
multiple events that take place within, from people working
and playing to the autonomous behavior of the stove,
dishwasher and refrigerator. How can all of the users of a
kitchen be made aware of the many visible and invisible
operations under way in the kitchen?
The refrigerator is painted with text and images to describe its contents and
the items that need to be purchased, in addition to serving
as a digital bulletin board. The dishwasher displays whether
it is clean or dirty, empty or full. The electric range informs
users on the temperature of its burners. A single multimedia
projector can position the information directly on all of
these appliances, where users will be certain to notice it.
The same system used to annotate the kitchen can be used
to decorate the space. Games and other interaction can be
projected on work surfaces when the work is finished, while
decorative textures can be mapped to change the mood and
function of the space depending on its function.

Hello world!

By admin on October 26th, 2007

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