king talk

Tomorrow the envis team will be hanging around at Schwäbisch Gmünd to have a look at the latest work from the students. We expect some innovative concepts at the media lab like the last years project from Jonas Heuer and Jürgen Gräf. Notput is an interactive music table with tangible notes, that combines all three senses of hearing, sight and touch to make learning the classical notation of music for children and pupils more easy and interesting.

All basic clefs, note values and accidentals exist as single wood elements. Whole, half, quarter and eighth notes differ not only in their form, but also in their weight: Long note values are heavier than short ones. The idea is pretty simple and the experimental approach is enjoyable and informative at the same time.

Why don´t we use tools like that at school?

The »Interaction Design« program of study at HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd (near Stuttgart / Germany) is offering three jobs inside an excellent and award winning academical environment. Be a part of the team and help to create new projects for future interactions…

Job #1 – academic advice for the media lab
The media lab is searching an academic assistant who will be responsible for the technical equipment (tracking cams, multi-touch tables, sensors, actuators, video projectors…) and is looking after students there, helping to create a good working environment for interactive developments. Basic knowledge in programming (e.g. Actionscript3, Processing or vvvv) as well as technological skills like prototyping with Arduino are required.

Job #2 – research assistant as user interface designer
You love pixels? Photoshop, Illustrator and FireWorks are your tools for creating aesthetic and logical interface layouts? The »haptICS research group« is searching for a research assistant for user interface design.

Job #3 – research assistant as electrian
You like to solder stuff? You know how to create a PCB layout for manufacturing? You have experienced development with microcontrollers? The »haptICS reasearch group« is searching for a research assistant who can help them out to creating electronic-based prototypes.

If you are interested in one of these jobs or you know someone who would be interested just forward this article or write a eMail directly at info [at] envis [minus] precisely [dot] com, we can forward your request to the responsible persons…

»AstroTable« is a prototypal interactive installation designed for an exhibition context. Astronomic principles of planetary movement can be explored and understood very easily. By placing one of the eight discs, representing the »Laws of Planetary Motion« of J. Kepler as well as the »Laws of Gravitation« of I. Newton, on the sun one can select a specific topic.

Smoothly animated, the solar system fades out, an abstract layer for visualization appears. The selected disc represents the sun’s mass. By spinning it, one »manipulates time«.

The disc remains consistantly spinning at that rate by itself (and a bit of electronics…). One can accelerate and decelerate it and thus manipulate the visualization. An audio comment completes the explanation. By removing the disc, one goes back to the solar system view.

This project was done by Andreas Brendle, Fabian Gronbach, Eduard Warkentin at the course »Interaction Design« from HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd under supervision of Prof. Beck & Prof. Krämer.