Research Index
Research directions.
12Pixels: Exploring mobile creativity.
Lumen: A shape-changing display.
Tactile user interfaces.
Gummi: A bendable computer.
Research directions.
I am interested in designing and investigating interfaces that seamlessly combine both digital and physical properties in everyday objects and tools. Such interfaces would not only be easy and enjoyable to use, but also they would allow us for new and exciting experiences that become only possible with digital technologies.
The projects archived below describe some of the modest steps that I took in this direction. They are loosely grouped in research themes; some of the work described below was done before I joined Sony CSL. Please, see individual project pages for more information.
12 Pixels: Exploring mobile creativity.
12Pixels is an innovative interface, mobile phone application, and web service that allows people to draw and share pixel-based imagery using only the regular twelve keys of the mobile phone. Expensive touch screen or pen based interfaces are not required to express ones creativity. Therefore, anyone with a regular mobile phone and internet connection, anywhere from Tokyo to Nairobi, can create pixel-based drawings and share them with the world [more details...].
12Pixels is a collaborative project with Karl D.D. Willis, University of Tsukuba.
12Pixels has been presented at CHI 2008 conference as well as exhibited for general public in Dublin and Tokyo. Sony Style and Sony Marketing of Japan released 12Pixels as a free service for general public in 2009.
Lumen: A shape-changing display.
Lumen is a concept of an interactive display device that can dynamically change its own mechanical shape in order to communicate information to the users [more details...]
Lumen is a collaborative project with Tatsushi Nashida, Sony Creative Center. Lumen mechanical design was done in collaboration with Shigeaki Maruyama, Sony EMCS.
Lumen was demonstrated at the SIGGRAPH 2004 and ARS Electronica Festival 2005. Lumen was also included as a title project of the annual prototype issue of Axis magazine and was featured in the Design News magagazine.
Tactile user interfaces.
Tactile user interfaces allow people to perceive information through touch, which allows for easier, natural and more enjoyable interaction. My work on tactile user interfaces cover a range of projects, including the development of TouchEngine™ tactile feedback hardware platform, designing tactile interfaces for pen interaction and tactile interfaces for small touch screens [more details ...].
Tactile interfaces research is collaboration with Shigeaki Maruyama, Sony EMCS.
There results of our work have been extensively published at such conferences as ACM UIST, ACM CHI and SIGGRAPH, as well as reported in public media. It was also released on on the market by Sony in a number of products. These were the world first consumer electronic devices that allowed tactile feedback for touch screen interaction.
Gummi: A bendable computer.
Gummi is an interface concept based on bending a flexible handheld computing device. Users interact with Gummi by a combination of bending and 2D position control. We explore physical interaction techniques and screen interfaces for such bendable devices [more details...]
Gummi was developed and investigated together with Carsten Schwesig, Sony Creative Center/Sony CSL and Ejiro Mori, Sony Creative Center.
A full paper on Gummi design was presented at the ACM CHI 2004 conference. Gummi was also demonstrated at the Wired NextFest 2004 festival in San-Fransico and was covered in a variety of media including Financial Times, Japan Times, New York Post, New Scientist, Axis Magazine, Slashdot, Register and many others.
Ivan Poupyrev (c) 1994-2009, updated 11/10/2009