Leveraging some of the work that I completed in my Masters project, I applied for - and got accepted to - the xCoAx journal proceedings in Portugal. From the conference: The “x factor" in xCoAx – that spellbinding glue that holds arts, computation and communication together – is what makes thi[...]

Conceptually, this interface (which I should name) is about removing the cool efficiency of current media player interaction, and replacing it with humane efficacy. When we approach this new interface, how can it enable and extend, or deflect, our current emotional state? We listen to music fo[...]

Here is another brush:

I am building a new Interface Design Machine (4.0) and need a variety of brushes for users to draw with. Here is one:

In order to ascertain whether the basic premise of biokinetic languaging is true - namely, that there is a common, subconscious visual language associated with music - I created a series of tests.   In this first test, I asked Danish design students from Designskolen Kolding to draw a[...]

I have been trying to expand my understanding of Processing in light of the 'living' interface that I am trying to emulate, these are little steps along the way:

Daniel Sierra's Masters animation thesis looks, perhaps peripherally, at the some of the areas that I am most interested in: the abstract visual language of music in this great piece.  Although some of the compositions are a little iTunes visualizer for my taste and concern, the parts where he reins[...]

This sketch is testing the basic template for simulating a gesture enabled electromagnetic grid. It's been several weeks since I have been programming, or uploading, so it's go to get back on the wagon.......clickity clack, etc....

I should have posted this some time ago.  I built a larger 5x5 grid using the same Neodymium magnets that I used in an earlier experiment.  The flux is a lot less strong than when they were close coupled.  This tallies with conversations that I have had with electromagnet engineers around the nature[...]

This was a sketch that I made a long time ago - but for some reason I still think it is pretty thing. Cursor movement creates the bubbles, and a pad click resets the screen:

An updated version that uses the centerpoint as the origin for the cursor interaction:  

After some very kind help from Kitt McGregor from Version Interactive, I am able to upload and embed my Processing sketches using Processing.js.  Here is the first in which I am trying to emulate a single magnetic field that interacts with your cursor:  

In an attempt to illustrate the simple idea of pushing interface logic far beyond logical complexity into the area of complex intuition - I made this simple video:   Buttons Pattern Morph from Ben Jarrett on Vimeo.

In order to start the real inclusion of users in biokinesis, I have begun to test some of the assumptions that I have had to use in order to move the project forward.  The main issue in terms of the interface is the proposition that it is possible to create a universal understanding whilst employing[...]

Here are some initial representations of a second IDM that expands the path that the first IDM helped create.  I believe that the first IDM was valid due to the fact that it showed that we do not all have a common response to processing input commands, despite the ubiquitous gestures that map across[...]

I have made some experiments with using the audio react functionality that the Trapcode plugin for After Effects contains. The plugin allows the user to chose the direction that the effect begins from, here is a sequence of three identical audio snippets:

The first video is a meditation on the user perspective that one might take - first person one point perspective in this case. I was trying to investigate how a mass of information might look like.....in this case it looks confusing. When the view rises above the mass, then there is some semblance o[...]

Here are some more recent interface possibilities taken from other sources:

I have been experimenting with overlaying a tweaked "CC Hair" effect from AE over videos of different movements in order to remove the representational nature of the images and look instead at the underlying kinetic patterns, whether stable or unstable.

Here is a grouping of animations that I made to explore some tentative designs as Solidworks animation sketches in order to understand the territory of biokinetic interfacing (there is some overlap with other posts in the interest of a concise database):

An animation of the wave amplifier, exploring some basic ideas around it's use...

I completed these some time ago, but have been negligent in posting them/ Again: very quick investigations into possible architectures.....

I have been trying to codify some sort connection between the various facets that are present in the artifact, and it's place in the world at any given time. There a bunch of factors at play as shown in the Venn diagram above. Moving down from a macro view of the entire world and public space [...]

In his 1960 book Truth and Method (Wahrheit und Methode), Hans Georg Gadamer argues for the existence of a historically effected consciousness (wirkungsgeschichtliches Bewußtsein) that essentially acts as a lens through which we perceive the world around us.  He wrote: "My real concern was and is ph[...]

An initial attempt at pursuing stopmotion technique as a way in order to communicate several possibilities for biokinetic interfacing. Lessons: Less is more for movements Make sure the camera is on full manual to stop flickering Focus!

PWM controlled LEDs in Bubbles/Water/Clear acrylic Ferromagnetic fluid manipulated by PWM controlled electromagnets Magnetic powder controlled by electromagnets. This is one model that I have considered the most likely - and this is the first application of it that I have seen when sea[...]

This talk by Jeff Han of NYU's Media Research Lab in 2006 looks incredibly important in retrospect and has certainly influenced smartphone design extensively. However it is his actual talk about the interface itself is very informative and relevant to building a biokinetic interface.

I have been toying with the idea that, if using a rotary dial as the main controller, there is an analogy between the lens on a high quality SLR camera, and it's precision fit and feel.  I quickly knocked up a Solidworks render to visualise a set of inset dials that expand out into useablity when th[...]

I had a slight cold when making this, so I wheeze like an old man/