Is HTML 5 the Open Source Flash?
I just stumbled upon this piece of beautiful interactive web art. Now, usually when saying the words »interactive web art«, they are synonymous to »Flash«. Wel, not this time, folks. What you see on this page has been done purely with HTML5, JavaScript and CSS – complete with audio!
After both YouTube and Vimeo have rolled out beta programs for HTML5 (read: flash-less) versions of their sights, the art and visualization community seams to start getting interested in the new Standard.
While some purists are already proclaiming the end of Flash, I think it will be around for a long time to come. Yet I like the fact that it is facing more competition from open standards. And now that two major players in the web video business are starting to toy around with those standards, Adobe might finally reconsider their priorities in terms of code optimization for their player.
Here at envis precisely, we are using Flash (along with other programming tools like Processing or openFrameworks) quite a bit as you might know for a wide variety of tasks (of which only few are directly web related). I don’t think this is going to change anytime soon, if only because I firmly believe that JavaScript is a terrible terrible language to do creative stuff with. Anyway, that might change as well, so we are definitely keeping a close eye on the developments there.
This post was written by Philipp
on January 31st, 2010
Envis will connect the dots
We are working on something. It’s about presenting information and we are confident that it will rock quite a bit.
More to come this fall!
This post was written by Philipp
on August 31st, 2009
Flexible display surfaces for interacting with visual artefacts
»Providing dynamically changeable physical buttons on a visual display« was developed by Chris Harrison and Scott Hudson (Carnegie Mellon University / USA). It´s all about a visual display that contains deformable areas, able to produce physical buttons and other interface elements. These tactile features can be dynamically brought into and out of the interface, and otherwise manipulated under program control. The surfaces they describe, provides the full dynamics of a visual display (through rear projection) as well as allowing for multi-touch input (though an infrared lighting and camera setup behind the display).
To illustrate the tactile capabilities of the surfaces, they describe a number of variations we uncovered in our exploration and prototyping. These go beyond simple on/off actuation and can be combined to provide a range of different possible tactile expressions. A preliminary user study indicates that the dynamic buttons perform much like physical buttons in tactile search tasks. The official paper can be downloaded here.
Another flexible approach called impress comes from Silke Hilsing (FH Würzburg / Germany). Impress is the deliverance of the touch screen from its technical stiffness, coldness and rigidity. It breaks the distance in the relationship of human and technology, because it is not any longer the user which is subjected to technology, but in this case the display itself has to cave in to the human. Impress is a chance of approach of user and technology, above all, from technology.
It is a matter of a flexible display consisting of foam and force sensors which is deformable and feels pleasantly soft. Impress works with the parameters position and time like other touch screens as well, but in addition to that, it reacts, above all, on the intensity of pressure.
The user can merge in and collaborate with technology more than ever. He can squeeze out information and fly through rooms, he can form three-dimensional and put objects in motion by deforming the surface. Four short applications allow an insight into an absolutely new world of deeply sensitive and intuitive interaction possibilities. This project was created by using Arduino and Processing.
via infosthetics & FH Würzburg Blog
This post was written by Thomas
on May 7th, 2009
Construction of »FreeFloat«
If engineering knowledge and creativity merge together, the result will be breathtaking installation like that. This project is called FreeFloat and is a perfect example for an interdisciplinary approach. The 512 self-illuminating RGB-LED-Spheres can be positioned up to 3 meters by an electrical drive. This possibility helps to create new forms and graphics with this system. Within the matrix (3,2 x 2,3 x 1,6 meters) the content will be repositioned at every moment. Parameters like form, color and motion are controllable in real time. The conception and creation of this project is an internal development by the company MadHat from Offenbach (Germany). The event agency CCP Studios brought that master piece to the IBM booth at CeBIT 2009.
This post was written by Thomas
on April 2nd, 2009
IBM showing balls
Balls go up and down, glowing blue, white, red…
Many balls seemed to float in space building up an infographic which explains the methodologies of cloud computing.
The user has the chance to pick some detailed information about it. Depending on which term was selected the balls begin to form a graphic.
This interactive installation seems to be inspired by the kinetic scultpure at BMW Museum by art+com (2008) and the classic ballon installation electric moOns by whiteVOID (2005-2007).
This post was written by Thomas
on April 2nd, 2009
via RSS Feed
on Twitter
Subscribe to our Newsletter