interaction

I sat down next to an issue from Because magazine on the tube when I was on the way to class and was intrigued by the simplicity of the layout. Part of what picked up my interest was the tagline, which said "Animated Fashion Magazine & App Combo".

Having studied the implications of interactive design through different digital media, I was quite delighted at the coincidence of which the time and place that I found this magazine.

The concept was simple, accessible to many using their smart phones.

The app (Fashion Scan) is free and easy to use with quick and straight to the point
instructions, with a light and simple interface.

DOWNLOAD - SCAN - PLAY

HOW THIS MAGAZINE WORKS

WELCOME TO FASHION SCAN.

After loading, the interface of the app turns into a 3D, 3 faced triangle that allowed you to navigate through the systems, of which included the title and tagline of the app, the instructions on how to use the app, as well as feedback that can be provided toward the app designers for more improvement.

I think this is a superb tagline, and it targets the right audience in a very straight forward manor.

There was a clear 3 point direction on one of the pages, which includes image directions as well as compatible smart phones.

This might be a controlled, linear, almost narrative interaction, but the concept of 'bringing fashion to life' or 'turning magazines into pop-up books' is quite interesting.

Ikea is ideally known as one of the largest, most innovative companies that constantly grows with groundbreaking ideas.

We start of this journey of interaction with Ikea in it's 2010 interactive catalog.

The free application, downloadable on all smart phones.

The aim of the mobile interaction was to allow users to place pieces of furniture anywhere in their holes, readjusting the sizes to fit the ratio of the room, and take a snapshot.

The users also access all product information from the application itself without having to go into Ikea.

The second section of the app allows you to choose between two styles of a product that helps you better discover your taste and eases the picking of products.

Interaction between two different medias make up such a huge part of our technological world.

The way the interaction works helps us as users connect to everything instantaneously. Things like this helps us visualize things that a moment before we could only imagine.

Companies like Ikea that invest their time and money into making a catalog such as the augmented reality shows that a company started in 1951 can embrace change according to our time and this is the kind of innovative ideas we need to always come up with to keep up with this ever changing generation.

In the 2013 Ikea Interactive Catalog, we see much more development in the application.

By downloading the app, paired with the catalog, we can

1. Scan to unlock films
2. Enjoy interactive experiences with the catalog
3. View photo galleries

The video below shows New Gadget's review on the new Augmented Reality Catalog, and the interaction between the catalog and the user is actually quite astounding.

As long as the page has a little phone icon at the corner, the page can be turned into a photo gallery showing the specific item in different settings, videos, 3D views as well as item placement in a home setting.

2013 AUGMENTED REALITY.

The users also access all product information from the application itself without having to go into Ikea.

This is a video made by Corning in 2011, when the rise of technology was booming and people were becoming more and more aware of the vastness in which we could grow in terms of physically and technological interactivity.

The screen has taken up a big part of technology. It occupies the majority of visual space on televisions, computers, as well as mobile phones.

Corning took this brilliant concept of 2D space and expanded it to even mirrors and table surfaces and replaced the typical notice boards, tables and even counter tops in the kitchens.

The part of the video that stood out was being able to place the phone onto a designated area on the screen, and expand the view to other users to ease their visual experiences. There are also scenes depicted which allows users to manipulate the screen as they would a thin plastic folder, which eases transporting a large screen from one place to another by rolling it up.

These are pictures captured off the screen.

The picture on the left shows the user playing with the 3D features which allows her to see the item of clothing she wants in all angles before she decides to try it on. The one on the left shows a mirror screen that displays the news, temperature and reminders. The user types out a reply to a friend's message.

is a pretty damn sexy app to have on your computer.

This is an app that answers the demands to the laziest, most have-it-easy-generation the world has ever had, our generation.

With three simple hand gestures, Flutter allows you to flip through music from a preference music app (such as iTunes or Spotify).

The hand gestures work from 1-6 feet away. So whether you're making lunch in front of your computer, have your hands full and want to pick up your phone, or just cuddling with your loved one on the bed in a comfortable spot, Flutter allows you to sift through your music, videos and movies merely by lifting a finger or two! Pun intended.

On a more serious note, Flutter ties in very strongly with the type of interaction I would like to dabble into. Upon more research, I found GestuRe.

is a mixed-initiative interactive machine learning system for recognizing

hand gestures. It trains the object to understand commands that come in different forms such as hand or even face gestures.

The video on the right shows the creator exploring and explaining the process of how the application works.

is another interactive application designed by 4 students.

SoundWave is a technique that uses the microphone and speaker already present in used devices to sense in-air gestures around the device. These 4 students used the Doppler Effect, teamed with their programming skills to come up with a complex and easy way of interaction that other designers such as GestuRe failed to refine.

The link in SoundWave directs you to the video which shows the type of things you could do with SoundWave. These include things like multitasking interaction, scrolling, as well as playing and stopping music.

This is a simple and fun kind of interaction. It's interaction which only has 3 options that doesn't seem to lead to much else except three separate endings.

The video starts off with three girls being kidnapped and the user only allowed to pick one girl to save. Toward the end of the video, we see the girls struggling but as we hover over them, we are allowed to choose the three different outcomes, to save Karena, Nina or Foxy.

Each girl you click on links you to a different video on YouTube with a different scenario happening because you saved a different girl. The choice given to the audience, however, ends here. The end of the video gives you the three options yet again.

Though the concept is simple, it's a good and straight forward way to start off an off-screen interaction that could lead to deeper and more interactive ideas.

This is a concept done by Mobile Mobile.

It is an environment where they have used old HTC phones they were about to get rid off and made into a set for Christmas.

They hung each phone from it's charger cable and assigned ab 8-bit sound to each individual hand held device. The phones are also choreographed simultaneously to create a wonderful, magical Christmas tune. The light on the phone lights up at the same time where the note plays as well.