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Lab, Jahrbuch 1996/97 für Künste und Apparate, Verlag Walther
König, Köln, ISBN 3-88375-279-7
(in german)
Michael Hoch
Academy of Media Arts
Peter-Welter-Platz 2, 50676 Cologne, Germany,
e-mail: micha@khm.de
Abstract
The Intuitive Interface is a research project that investigates new methods
of interaction with the computer by freeing the computer from the non-flexible
desktop setup and integrating the interface in the every-day physical environment
of the user. We focus on creative people, as users, who are often unfamiliar
with computers and hesitate before getting involved with mouse and keyboard,
because of the symbolic and alphanumeric abstraction that is necessary. The
system makes strong use of body movements to trigger commands and real space
in front of a rear projection screen to store and retrieve information. This
so called memory-function is based on a technique called "Ars Memoriae"
which was used by orators in antiquity to memorize long speeches. The orator
would create icons of the subjects to be memorized and place them at chosen
locations in an imaginary architecture. The icons are used as links to the information
and as the orator (in his mind) walks to the memorized locations he is able
to retrieve the icons and with them the information. Our scenario uses this
metaphor by allowing the user to put entities at chosen locations in real space
and to retrieve these icons and the linked information at a later time. A stereo
computer vision system is used for sensing user posture and simple gestures
like pointing, together with a speech recognition software that is used to trigger
commands. The vision system is based on color segmentation and blob analysis.