Black Box Project Shield Arrival

So excited to receive our new sheild which will be plugged into the Arduino Mega Board and used in our Bike Project.The Black box takes a

• 9 Degrees of Freedom – Razor IMU – AHRS compatible

• MEMs Barometric Pressure Sensor – SCP1000 Breakout

• Reed Switch

The shield is designed by Ru Zarin (with Bjorn’s help) at Interactive Institute and custom printed by our friends at the Fritzing Fab Lab. We highly reccomend this service for people who like to tinker like we do.

thanks guys!

Arduino and IMU Fusion Board (ADXL345 & IMU3000)

Here is an example of how one might wire sparkfuns’ IMU Fusion Board with an Arduino Mega

you’ll need:

• [4] 10k resistors
• [2] MOSFET Transistors (2N7000)

The Transistors are to translate between 3.3 and 5 volts, unless you have a 3.3 board in which case you won’t need to do this.

and the main thing is that you plug into the I²C ports (SDA and SCL) on the mega and analog input pins A4 (SDA) and A5 (SCL) on other boards like Diecimila.

also there is an adruino script from Hobby Electronics  to output the values, and that’s it! Comment and let me know if you found this useful.

iiu conducts a stop motion workshop at Umeå Architectural School

The results are in and here are the video’s from the talented students that participated in our one week stopmotion workshop themed ‘Growth’.

Two Papers Accepted for CHI 2011!

Interactive Institute Umeå is happy to announce that they will be presenting two papers at this year’s ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) in Vancouver, Canada, May 7-12. CHI is widely acknowledged as the premier international conference of human-computer interaction.

First, Ru Zarin and Daniel Fallman will present a note entitled “Through the Troll Forest: Exploring Tabletop Interaction Design for Children with Special Cognitive Needs”. The paper reports on the process of conceiving, designing, implementing, and testing Trollskogen, a purpose-built tabletop multitouch system featuring a range of small software applications, termed ‘micro applications’. Each micro application is devised as a tool intended to improve or allow for exercise of social communication skills. Throughout the project, we have worked closely with a group of six children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or Down’s syndrome in the age range of 5-8. The system has been designed together with the users, their teachers, and various experts as a complement to the current curricula.

Second, Daniel Fallman will present a full paper called “The New Good: Exploring the Potential of Philosophy of Technology to Contribute to Human-Computer Interaction”. This paper discusses how current HCI, as a result of the increased interest in issues such as engagement, affection, and meaning, has increasingly come to examine the nature of interactions between artifacts, humans, and environments through concepts such as ‘user experience’. Yet, in the field’s transition from usability metrics to user experience, what appears lacking is a more explicit characterization of what it is HCI now strives for as a discipline—i.e. what would constitute a ‘good’ user experience? The paper explores the potential of philosophy of technology to contribute new insights and provide well-grounded conceptual tools for discussing if there, first, is a need for such a ‘new good’, and second, what characteristics such a ‘new good’ might have.

Woodbot Pilots 3D Camera Project

Relax. Take a deep breath. Spread your wings and fly like a bird. How quickly you can reach the goal?

You stand in the reception hall in Skellefteå Airport, in front of an 82 inch touch screen with an ultra-modern 3D camera that lets you control characters called Wood Bots.

A breathtaking game experience in which your body’s movements are used to navigate the gaming environment, but its more than a pastime for those who are waiting for departure or arrival. Much more.

Daniel Fällman receives ‘Individual Grants for Future Research Leaders’ by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research

Interactive Institute Umeå’s studio director Daniel Fällman has been awarded with ‘Individual Grants for Future Research Leaders’ by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF). The award is for 10.000.000 SEK (€1.000.000) and is to be used over five years. The aim of the program is to support and promote young scientists who have the potential and the ambition to become future leaders of academic and/or industrial research in Sweden. Competition is very stiff, only 18 scientists from technology, medicine, and the natural sciences received the grant this year, and the grant itself is only awarded every three years.

More information is here (Swedish only):

Får 10 miljoner för forskning kring interaktionsdesign

Framtidens forskningsledare inom IT

Två av framtidens forskningsledare finns vid Umeå universitet

De är framtidens forskningsledare

SSF har utsett framtidens forskningsledare

Final Multitouch Prototype of SCA Factory Viewer

This is a Multitouch prototype created for the SCA Paper Factory in Obbola Sweden.

We interface with existing industrial systems and incorporate it in a seamless, fluid 3D zoomable interface. Our approach uses representation of machines in the factory environment, displaying information such as temperature readings, alarms, pressure etc…

This is a part of the LEAN manufacturing production practice, which uses key number evaluations to show the status of efficiency for which the factory is running at any given time.

The prototype also features integration with existing systems such as SAP, ProTak and winMops and a interactive whiteboard allowing the user to annotate various parts of the factory.

Trollskogen presented at NMM ’10

Interactive Institute Umeå was proud to present the Trollskogen project at the NMM festival held at the Visualiseringscenter C in Norrköping, Sweden.

NMM is an annual international media art festival taking place in Norrköping, Sweden. The festival premiered in 2006 and is devoted to innovative works and projects in electronic art, media, music and visualization.

Trollskogen is an interactive framework designed to enhance communication among people with cognitive disabilities. These multi-touch based programs are split up into interactive modules that provide a fun and engaging learning environment while helping improve on certain aspects of speech, reading/writing and symbol based languages.

Colour and Light in Architecture Conference 2010

Tii’s Rouien Zarin just returned from speaking at the CLA conference in Venice. This first international Architectural conference focusing on light ran for two days comprising of inspiring projects, people and great Italian food.

Colour and light in architecture is an international two-day scientific conference for those interested in the history, human effects and design of colour and light (natural and artificial) on the built environment. It approaches the themes in their broadest sense, including aesthetics, psychology, history, design, physics, sustainability, emotions, performance and communication.

Stop Motion of the New Bild Museet

2250 images taken in a 7wk period from the Interactive Institute studio in Umeå on the 2nd floor of the Architectural School.