ZeroN - Levitated Interaction Element
What if materials could defy gravity, so that we could leave them suspended in mid-air and freely control them? ZeroN is a physical and digital interaction element that floats and moves in space by computer-controlled magnetic levitation. Both the computer and people can move the ZeroN in the 3D space.. Jinha Lee, Rehmi Post, and Hiroshi Ishii www.leejinha.com/zeron http://tangible.media.mit.edu published at UIST 2011. Jinha Lee, Rehmi Post, and Hiroshi Ishii. 2011. ZeroN: mid-air tangible interaction enabled by computer controlled magnetic levitation. In Proceedings of the 24th annual ACM UIST '11. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 327-336.
I stumbled across this project recently and thought it was worth sharing. This is not a visual reference like most of the other posts, but instead it introduces an interesting new interaction concept. The interaction revolves around a levitating sphere that can be controlled digitally and physically.
I've really been fascinated by interactive holograms and other non-physical UI, but what's always lacking is some sort of tactile feedback. I think it's a pretty important and useful aspect of interaction, there's so many benefits like being able to touch-type without looking at the keyboard. It's about being able to utilise your sense of touch and feel, like how hard you step on the accelerator in a car, or the difference between drawing with a pencil on paper and using a wacom tablet. This is the first time I've seen a concept that's really starting to bridge that gap.
Some of the most interesting demonstrations use the sphere as a light source, whereby moving it changes the way shadows are cast, and another is when using the sphere as a movable camera. What also caught my attention was the demonstration where the movement of the sphere is recorded and played back.
This clip has really opened up my imagination to the possibilities of this technology. Make sure you check it out!