Magical Interaction
Man’s ability to control illumination is magical in itself but is seldom experienced as such because light switches are purely functional and generally don’t stir up imagination. Designer Joris van Gelder rethought the boring activity of switching on/off a light to bring out its potential to evoke wonder and surprise. The magical lamp depicted in the movie below is an example of Magical Interaction an approach towards interaction design aiming to stimulate people to use their own imagination in the interaction with a product.
http://www.nextnature.net/data/magical_interaction.flv
As products are becoming more active and at the same time less visible in the environment, this enables more subtle and richer interactions between people, products and the environment. The core of Magical Interaction is in the elegant use of technology. The interactive magical lamp responds to an ultra-sound signal which is emitted by a special bracelet worn by the user.
Besides the magical lamp, Joris is still working on other magical products in the home, among them a TV remote control jewelery enable people to control the TV set with magical movements. I might post more on this later..
Funny movie!!
looks like the guy leaning to the wall is holding the lightswitch
I think the video is just to test the experience. was this lightswitch really implemented?
The lightswitch was really implemented. You can see it under “magical interaction – result” on my website (www.magical-interaction.com) or you can download the video directly: http://www.student.tue.nl/n/j.m.v.gelder/lamp_result.wmv
Cool video Joris, of course I should have stressed in the post that the concept is actually implemented by using the Doppler effect in radio waves..
Anyhow, I still enjoy the ‘magical’ test video in which you still operate the switch yourself. ‘Wizard of Oz’ and ‘User Studies’ have always been a excellent duo.
I don’t believe it….why is the boy with the curly hair always next to the lamp? I think he is using a switch. Nevertheless a good idear and great to see the movement people make to activate the lamp….