towards better interaction

Embedded Interactions Lab (EILab)

keyurbsorathia — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 04:44:38 +0000

I completely forgot to post about the new lab that has been set up at department of design (DoD), IIT Guwahati. The lab has been set up few months back by me and we are in process of developing it. Though more details can be found at www.embeddedinteractions.com

Grocery shopping at Public transit

keyurbsorathia — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 03:35:31 +0000

Imagine how technology is transforming lives and our comfort level. A recent launch from Tesco (Homeplus in Korea), where grocery shopping made easy through a QR code based smart phone application, allowing people to buy grocery items on the transit path.

I was wondering, what if technology is involved in all tasks around us to make it easy, would that be interesting or will we consider it as technology invading our lives? An interesting debate, isn’t it?

flexibility design – interesting concepts

keyurbsorathia — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 05:29:41 +0000

Though this post may not be related to interaction design, i thought it has interest set of concepts, which provocates design thoughts and discussion. Here, i am putting few of them to start a design conversation. Hope you like it.

significance of research and paper writing by Dr.Dinesh Katre

keyurbsorathia — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 04:44:56 +0000

Though it is a bit late, but it will be important to share those who do not know about it. They may find it interesting and motivate them to write a paper. This topic was conducted as a part of a workshop at Symbiosis, Pune. Here are the videos showcasing the session:

arduino the documentary

keyurbsorathia — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 04:41:35 +0000

One of the wonderful prototyping tool name arduino has now a documentary on its name. It is interesting to see arduino’s progress, world wide usage by varied professions and people and for sure, its spoofs Just to infrom, arduino’s actual work started in 2005 in Interaction Design Institute Ivrea by a bunch of people (you will get introduced to them in this video). Arduino is widely used for making sensor based applications, installations and prototyping. Hope to see more and more success from arduino

Here is the link: http://www.vimeo.com/18539129

Website development cycle

keyurbsorathia — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 17:12:24 +0000

A post after a looooong time, uh!! Recently i came across a post on IXDA about website development cycle. One of the IXDA member Shenoa Lawrence had actually development his perspective of website development cycle. Thought people would like to see.

So, what you think about it?

Mother of all demo

keyurbsorathia — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 18:03:20 +0000

It is always worth watching Doug Engelbart and his works. Recently i came across his video called “the mother of all demo” explaining the process for of his mouse invention and work. It is always interesting to see and understand the process instead of looking at the final product. Worth watching

Coming IXDA 2011

keyurbsorathia — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 03:16:10 +0000

All of you who are interested in Interaction Design, Research, new innovation, design strategy etc., you will find a good blend of all at IXDA 2011. This time it is happening at Boulder, Colorado. Interesting programs, workshops and a good line up of speakers that includes Bill Verplank, Brenda Laurel, Bruce Sterling, Eric Hersman, Jason Bruges, Richard Buchanan, Lisa Strausfeld. Will wait for the videos!!

Here you can find the details

A pen that never forgets

keyurbsorathia — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 03:41:15 +0000

I have always thought and had an idea, why not my pen remember what i write, or can it suggest me spell check even if i write of normal paper!!

Though not with the same feature set, but with a different approach, Livescribe – a start up from Oakland, Calif has made smart pen that can record lectures & audio for further reference.

“The pens perform an interesting trick: when students write in their notebooks, the pen records audio of whatever is going on around it and links the audio to the handwritten words. If her written notes are inadequate, she can tap the pen on a sentence or word, and the pen plays what the teacher was saying at that precise point”

Though there are few points that makes this pen a bit tricky

It can not write & record on a normal paper, it requires specific kind of sheet
Students might get afraid using this pen, because it also records the surrounding and “students’ talk” – so private talks might not happen often
this pen size is as big as a cigar, now question is how do you hold it!!

I think it is really a great starting point. As technology improves, it may get smarter

Cheers students!!

Music in Images

keyurbsorathia — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 07:24:25 +0000

Arjun Gupta, a master student in Digital Media from Drexel University, Philadelphia PA sent a mail to Prof. Ravi Mokashi, which was later on forwarded to me to get some feedback on his thesis project called “music in images”, where algorithmic music composition is created from digital images. While going through the website, and uploading an actual image, it is really pleasant and worth using it. Arjun mentions

“It presents an approach where visual art (or visual data) is transformed into music art (or sound data) through the application of an algorithmic filter.

This project presents a new approach towards algorithmic music composition where the music is composed using the pixel values of digital images. The application makes use of image data, such as: pixel Color, Saturation, Brightness, and qualities like: Overall Image Brightness, Color Variation and Prominent Colors. The song attributes controlled by them include: Melody generation, Durations, Cord Generation, Chord Progression, Tempo,Scale and Transposition.”

Great going Arjun