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by Giuseppe Burdo

catch

build

combineshare show

Sketchingand the Technological Horizon

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Sketching and the Technological Horizon

1st edition, paper and pd version

Printed in Venezia, Italy

onts

text: Scala Sans Light 9-13notes: O fcina Sans Book 8-13titles: Scala Sans Regular 74-80subtitles: Scala Sans Regular 19-22pictures: Handwriting - Dakota 9-13

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Introduction

PART I: Explore and describe

What a sketch isPaper mediaDigital media

PART II: Imagine

Augmented RealityQuantum ComputingMind control

ConclusionsAre you ready?

Source List

Index

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Someone said that one image is worth a thousand words. Well,this is not an assay on which media is going to win the marketingcup on persuasion.

Since immemorial time, people used to make sketches on the

rocks for different reasons, for example to better express what wasin their mind. But nobody knows how many purposed they wereused for: safety, business, pleasure, education, and so on.Have you ever told to a tourist how to reach a place? And vice-versa? Well, if so you maybe know how sometimes it is hard to tellit. And lets see hand gestures or rough drawing on some wastepaper.

Images play an important role in our everyday life, as for adesigner to present a project, for a person to illustrate a map, foran artist to show his world to the committee.

Imagine when the idea to express is made by more people.

Here the game starts to be hard.The booklet is divided in two parts. The rst one concerns

Introduction

in sketching nowadays, and the main uses. The second is apersonal possible view on how it could evolve in the next yearsaccording to the most advanced technologies. Have you everthought to sketch without a pen..a board..a paper...mmm without

anything?For this reason you will look at strange things here, as a new

virtual shared interface that enables us to sketch in an easy andengaging way.

This opportunity is potentially useful for everybody; the imagehas a more common dictionary than any other language.

The approach is itself sometime a sketch, so dont be angryif you dont nd too many details. But if you want to know more,write to this e-mail address: iamtellingyousomethingnew[at]future[dot]com

Kidding aside, remember to keep your mind with you. You will

know why.I hope it will be an easy and enjoying reading.

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Dont speak loud, someonecould be scared

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Part I

Exploreand describe

9Figure 1 Daily sketch

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As Bill Buxton says, a drawing to be called sketch has to assolvedifferent features. You dont need a lot of t ime to sketch, becauseof its inprecise shapes, its not ne art. You can do it whenever youwant, a piece of sheet or a napkin and a pencil are enough.

Thanks to its cheap property its also disposable, in a way thatit is always useful as a track of the design process and as a wayfor ourself improving. It has to be not too detailed, because in thebrainstorming you dont know how exactly what it will be and any-

way it has to assolve a great and essential function: to suggest.If you show it to other people, stay open to more opinions as

possible ... because they can give you more details about theirexperience, their needs and what they are seeking for. Welcome tothe design process.

What a sketch is

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Figure 2 How do you eel, Bill Verplank

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The design process is made by different and continuous stages,from the research, based on needs and desires, to the real proto-type.

We can represent this process with a funnel, where at the startwe have a lot of pre-ideas to manage and we de ne the opportuni-ties that are the way how we think the things will work. But whilethe sketches have to suggest and explore, the prototype phasehas to explain what the concept is, if possible in the appropriate

scenario.There are already different studios who elaborate algoritms for

virtual environments, but they work just for prototyping in expen-sive area of studies, where the nal product is based on algoritms,not just drawings.

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fast to see+fast to touch +acustic beep

iconic language high visible,low energy

Figure 3 Sketching a Train Button

Figure 4 Sketching unnel, Bill Buxton

The act of seeing is not just an action. Think about where youare, who is around, what you are dressing. Well, what you are do-ing right now is more than reading. You probably are listening tosomething else, volountary or not, or you are sitting on a comfort-able chair.

This moment covers up a lot of stimolous, but just very few of them are conscious. In a process design everyone tries to considermore things as possible, as a matter of fact the branch od Experi-

ence Design has grown to become itself a new discipline.It gets sense when the person feels and does, is related to a betterawareness of what surrounds us.

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Paper media

Probably You have read that you need a H pencil and then astronger one. Well, its more simple than it seems. Surely colorscan add details and information about your scenario, but they arenot necessary. Take the rst pencil or pen that you nd comfort-able and start sketching. If you dont know how to make them ef-fective and clear, let you get inspired by google images for example.

As Bill Buxton remembers2, maybe the rst sketch was made byMariano di Jacopo called Taccola, from Siena in the fourteen cen-

tury. He was an engineer, sculptor and architect. His work has beenbroadly recognized from his colleagues in the following centuries.

There could be several purposes, for example the gure 6shows an exercise done in the Telecommunications course, wherewe were asked to imagine a service for the mobile.

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Figure 5 Taccolas sketches

Figure 6 Alcove fnder by G.Burdo, A.Filippi, V. Venza

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Whatever is your idea, you have surely more chances to be clear,and sometime also funny.

Fast prototype needs fast tools. The gure 7 shows how we candesign an application for a small device in less than one minute. Itdoesnt matter how it is re ned at the start, its a good way to goon in order to show how it works ... or how it will work. Sketching is a way of understanding the physical world3.Everyone has a way of doing that. And also you can be more aware

of what is around you, as for example to know how many plugsare in your apartment. Sometimes it is a reason for the appliancesplacing.

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Figure 7 Post-it way o thinking

Figure 8 Looking or plugs

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Digital media

Digital is about the information stored and eventually sentusing just two numbers, zero and one. Take for granted some bool-ean logic, its amazing how many things our devices are able to do.

Think about deleting and re-drawing instantly without anyeraser.

Have you ever tried an etch to sketch board? Almost everykid has used it or something very close to it. Someone has evenachieved wonderful results, often overpassing the sketching funda-

mentals to get into drawing.Also the multi- award iphone and ipod touch are very suitable

for fast and small sketches. Use your nger, save or send it andshake it to get a new blank window. Thats a deal!

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Figure 9 Etch a sketch board

Figure 10 Application or Ipod touch and Iphones

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When computers started to show their potentialit ies, prob-ably few people thought about sketching. The machine languageseemed not suitable for expressing something different fromcomplex calculus or hard-core programming.

On the left side there is a Google sketch screenshot This is usedfor any type of project and sometimes also for serious purposes,for example you can create your own build ing and export to googlemap. Thats in just few minutes( yeah, more or less).

On the right, you can look at a funny web application callediSketch. After the registration process, choose the language and thelevel and get into one room chat. In turn while one member startsto sketch, the other tries to guess what the object is. Then you geta score. Thats also a good way for training. :)

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Figure 11 Google sketch

Figure 12 iSketch, web application

00101011 10001100 10101111 11110000

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Figure 13 From people to people through the World

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DE S I G N

A R T S

S C I E N C E

ME DI C I NE

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Part II

Imagine

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Augmented Reality

As Nathan Shedroff says, Science ction has in uenced alsoInteraction Design. And surely, this is a part of truth.

On the other hand, even this genre is really inspirational, actu-ally it is so arti cial that people are no more humans, and this isthe last thing that IxD designers want.

Here we have a screenshot of the Matrix lm, made in 1999 butset in 2300. The police agent is using what it seems to be a com-mon interface for retrieving data.

This is very close to t he augmented reality, where you are bothin two spaces, real and virtual. The second one is able to give youa more effective way of operating, and also more engaging. Its notby chance that the rst purpose of this technology was used formilitary simulations.

catch what you see

build what you need

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Figure 14 Sketching in the augmented reality

Figure 15 Matrix rame movie

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While you are sketching something new, it is common to usemany things and objects from the real world. So, why should weredraw something that is already real?

What you see in the picture above is the new way of sketching inthe augmented reality.

You can catch whatever you want thanks to a gesture recogni-tion system and put it into your virtual sketch. Even if there areseveral steps, you can come back whenever you want. Now you

build upon what you have just caught or closed to it. Other peoplecan also share the same space and editing or adding somethingnew. You can also keep your design process private, because of your own glasses.

At the end you can show your sketch to the committee thanksto a hologram projector.

show the virtual sketch to your committee

share the virtual space

combine whatever you want

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Figure 16 Haptic glove scheme

Figure 17 Virtual-reality glasses

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Quantum computing

Do you remember the rst computers in the world? Well, surelyyou have seen them just on tv. They were big as a room, expensiveas a house, and so complicated that you needed a master in engi-neering for using them.

In few decades of years, while they were used for even more ap-plications, the prices were going down allowing more research onthem, in order to be the most fast and small as possible.

If a normal computer works by units of zeros and ones, the

next generation will not be based on bits, but on qubits5

. Here, thebasic information is not just zero or one, but it could be both andsomething else.

Thats why computers will became even smaller and able toelaborate more information at the same time. When this technol-ogy will be ready on con rmed improvements, it will be integratedeverywhere.

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Figure 18 Molecule structure

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We are just atoms and molecules. I remember this sentencefrom the high school, and I almost hated that because of its cynicview. But actually, it is surely a true point of view. When we will beable to catch easily information from molecules, we can extend ourpotentialities to every kind of surface, more or less tangible. Forinstance we can import the textile properties, or also the drawingabove that and export it to a new surface, just to say if it looks goodor not.

Think about tattoo. You will be able to transfer a new onedirectly to your skin, and then you can decide if you really want it orhow long do you want to keep it.

We can extend the output of our imagination to all objectsaround us, give them a different shape, size and color accordingto our preference. Virtual is just what we are going to do, not justawesome effects in dark environments.

tools

objects

environment

people skin

screeens

holograms

streets

wearebles

liquids

bulb projector

walls

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Figure 19 Internet o things based on atoms

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Mind control

Have you ever realized to turn off the light when you werealready on the bed? Ok, maybe someone could clap his hands,someone else uses a remote control. But think about to do thatjust by the thought. Is it useful, isnt it?

This research eld was born in the last years with the purposeto give a better living to paralyzed people. Actually scientists knowfew things about, but some of the rst experiments have alreadyachieved effective results.

How does it work? Well, the picture shows something like a hel-met with sixteen electrodes. Each one gains signals from the brainareas involved and they are interpreted by the software. Then therecognized patterns are able to turn on the programmed devices.

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Figure 20 Brain Computer Inter ace device

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signal processingand acquisition

signal classifcation

Until the previous possible innovations people have to use atleast their body, as the arm gesture, for using tangible devices, inthe future the thought will be already enough.

When scientist will be master on that, it will be possible to cre-ate physical interaction without any physical movement. The chal-lenge is about the training, both for the person and the systems.Sometimes the way how the brain works is a little bit different fromeach other. For this reason, the calibration is essential.

Each eeg signal with a particular range of frequency could beassigned to a speci c command, where all the external devices willbecome part on the own body.

Many theoretical implication could come up, but as all the dis-coveries and inventions done until now, the life of humans is alsodue to their responsibility.

mind controlled

wireless controller

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Figure 21 How it works, general scheme

Figure 22 EEG Signals

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Are you ready?

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Figure 23 A Human approach to the diversity

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Source List

Text

1 Buxton Bill, http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/review_sketching.asp2 Buxton Bill,Sketching User Experience, pg. 1053 Hart J, http://web.mit.edu/iap/www/iap01/searchiap/iap-2957.html4

http://www.youtube.com/user/dineshvadapally5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qubit6 Arturo Schwarz,The complete works on Marcel Duchamp, pg. 8857 McLuhan, http://it.wikiversity.org/wiki/Media_freddi_e_media_caldi

Figures

2 http://www.seisdeagosto.com/indica/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/howdoyou.gif 4 http://www.vuidesign.net/wp-content/images/BillBuxton_Mix09.jpg5 https://reader009.{domain}/reader009/html5/0523/5b051818cfd6c/5b05183922f28.jpg9 http://www.coolest-toys.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/ airclassic-etch-a-sketch-the-worlds-favourite-drawing-toy.jpg16 https://reader009.{domain}/reader009/html5/0523/5b051818cfd6c/5b0518394c2d6.jpg17 http://www.gearlog.com_images_17977.jpg18 http://www. ickr.com/photos/21210850@N06/3378473847/20 http://www.lewiswire.com/us/uploaded/front-whiteSM.jpg21 http://nitrolab.engr.wisc.edu/images/BCIoverview1.png22 http://www.neurodevelopmentcenter.com/uploads/pics/eeg_traces_01.gif

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About the booklet

Sketching and the Technological Horizon is the secondbooklet asked to make in the core theory courses in theVisual and Multimedia Design graduate programme atIUAV University, which are run by Gillian Crampton Smithand Philip Tabor.We were asked to explore, describe and imagine possibilefutures about our topic after the basic lessons concerningthe key concepts and techniques of computing and tele-communication technologies. The size had to be in A4.

more infos at http://www.interaction-venice.com

About me

I was born in Terlizzi, near Bari, in 1985. After gaininga Diploma in Electronics and Telecommunications, Imoved to Ferrara University to study Multimedia Design,gaining my undergraduate degree with an experimentalthesis on visuo-haptic interaction in virtual environ-ments. Meanwhile I worked in Milan as a multimediacontent manager for a communication agency and inLucca as product designer for Sca Hygiene Products.

Now I am in my second year of IUAV Universitys Visualand Multimedia Design graduate programme and aserasmus student in the MSc Medialogy course in Cope-hagen.For any suggestion and/or comment I look forward tohearing from you at giuseppe.burdo@gmail.com