Imagine yourself in a completely unknown place and you are looking for someone to meet. You take out your mobile phone, start GPS.. but GPS does not work because of not being into open place. Then you start your browser, wait for network to select, type in “google maps.com” but unfortunately network signal is weak, that option is also gone. Imagine the same situation becoming worst, when your phone does not even have GPS/internet facility to run google maps, what to do..where to go?

Here we are.. “2D barcode based information and navigation system”

Not only navigation but also information system using 2D barcode (like QR code, semacode, maxicode etc) designed and prototyped by Keyur Sorathia(Interaction Designer) & Dhairya Dand(Computer Science Expert). A research project exploring new possibilities on contextual navigation & information using almost any camera mobile phone and with just 50 paise print out.

Here, the scenario tries to explain every aspect of it, still we are mentioning some important points needs to be considered.

If we explain the process in simple steps:

start reader >> triggers your camera >> automatically fetches the data & shows on mobile screen

Some more points that are not mentioned in the scenario:

• Technology is designed in such a way that, unlimited data can be stored and displayed
• Detailed contextual information is displayed which never happens in GPS / google maps
• Information can be displayed using all media of videos, images and text.
• The system can be placed and used in any place
• It requires only step interaction to call, send SMS, view website & mail

Currently we have a low fidelity prototype using Nokia N95 and looking forward to make a working prototype using other mobile phones.

Waiting for the comments

Humans are intelligent animals (perhaps social also, but never thought about it). We see our surroundings, observe them and then modify them to complete our tasks. This post is about describing some of those intelligent modification only where we use our everyday life objects to complete some or the other tasks of us. Here are some of the example which might interest you and next time when we do, we for sure give a thought about it.

What is the future PC? How would it look like, interms of form, structure, interaction and many more. Though it is quite old, but interesting concept were presented at Futuristic PC by microsoft in 2008. Cnet has presented all the concept here. I am showing the winner entry which is Napkin PC. I found it interesting in a way where it is an open ended concept that can be taken further in any domain a designer could think of. If we look at other projects, then they were focused on one specific domain, which in a way is required.

“A multi-user, multi-interface, modular computer designed for creative professionals to collaborate and bring their greatest ideas to life”. The interface consists of any number of ‘Napkins’ and a ‘Pen’. When powered by the Pen, the Napkin is a multi-touch input display that responds to human touch as well as the Pen “

Just now i was reading core77, interesting article on understanding creative director. Article only showed an image on the page, which i guess was more than enough to explain what they wanted to show. It is a core toon developed by core77. Here it is,

It is fun to watch. Cheers!!

I don’t know whether i have articulated the heading properly, but the idea is “can we design metaphors which are interactive”. Here I am not trying to get into a core funda of interaction design of input-output, but trying to understand whether metaphors can be more communicative than interactive. Perhaps communication design is a proper word to describe it. But lets get to the point, recently i was watching a video of IXDA 2009 by Robert Fabricant from Frog Design, where i came across a really interesting example of sustainable speedometer. It is interesting to see how metaphor design can make a huge difference in communicating the concept.

I do not think i need to explain what is says.

I like work done by Schulze & Web, a design consultancy by Jack Schulze & Matt Web in London. I saw his presentation on their website few days back, but today i saw the video on core77. The presentation was focused on “Scope – Design and contributing to culture; ourselves as individuals and the big picture; taking action”

I tried uploading the video here, but unfortunately it shows some error, but you can view the video here.

A cheery on the ice cream, Bruce Steerling also presented there and you can view the video together with Matt’s video.

Today morning as i opened my gmail, it opened up with a new message saying ” drag & drop to give labels to your mails”. For me, drag & drop feature is always interesting & intuitive interaction (for sure, in some context it might not work). I wonder why gmail took a long time to come with this feature. Though it is a starting point, but i am sure they must be looking forward to come up something more interesting (something like wave)

Its always interesting to see TED’s presentation as it always delivers innovative contents, speakers & some interesting talks to attend. Recently one talk by Chris Hughes created a lot controversy, where he showed a very basic (i really mean, its tooooo basic) Augmented Reality demo which anyone with not so deep knowledged person can present. Augmented Reality toolkit is open source and anyone can download and start using it.TED’s answer on it :

“When Chris showed us the software off stage at TED, we jumped at the chance to show it to our audience, and swooped him up to the stage after a very short prep time”

See what people have reacted to his presentation.

Someone actually wrote: “Wow Chris, how many lines did you actually write? Well done speaking at TED!”

Gesture based interaction is next 10 years, for sure. Started from Sony (Nintendo Wii), Apple (iphone) & now its turn of Microsoft (Project Natal). Microsoft as come up with an extension of XBOX which is completely gesture based. Interesting thing is, it does not require any remote like Nintendo Wii & its works on a camera recognition which recognizes full body gestures.

   ” Natal is controller-free, using what looks like a TV-mounted camera/microphone bar to sense motion, sound, and even 3D movement, suggesting that the technology involved is far beyond that of products like Sony’s PlayStation Eye “

the alloy looks at different concept of navigating through several application in a single mobile phone. Today we use number of application on our mobile phones, like games, GPS, sms, call etc. The question is how a mobile device can become more intuitive to help users understand to navigate through the application.

” Ultimately the target audience for the user interface is anyone who wants to use their mobile phone to do more in a more intuitive and user friendly way than allowed before. It is a phone that allows for older eyes and clumsier fingers as much as for the younger touch screen savvy generation. In this respect the 01 User Interface has significant cross over value and broad appeal that could be applied within any multi functioned mobile handset or multi media device “

Cheers!!