Project Name: Gooii

Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Scope: Installation at CSAIL, MIT for the exhibition Collision Collective, 2008

This device was developed as a human-computer interface. As designers we use external tools to implement what is an internal design intention, knowing that the tool has a resistance or limitation in its embodiment. For this project we developed a soft, pliant interface with which to control navigation in a 3d scene. If haptic feedback is conducive to intuitive use, we chose to explore how this device could allow occupants to control a digital environment. A negative mold was milled out from a design generated from the human hand. A polyurethane positive was poured with embedded wires. This array of wires, connected to a microprocessor, measured capacitance based on physical proximity among the wires as they were pushed or displaced by human interaction. That capacitance controlled yaw and pitch in the digital scene. Because the gooii did not have any visible markers to predetermine interaction, the occupant was free to experiment with the device which was quick to display its behaviour.

credits:

Charlie De Tar
Yannick Assogba