Forecasting Prize/Award
“Future is about touch”
“Touch is the first sense for a child”
“The speed of change is fast. Very, very fast”. The team of Sara Peluso, Design Researcher from Milano (Italy) is the winner of the Forecasting Prize/Award of the TWOTY 2013 competition. Their vision “The image of Progress”. Teammember Andrea Zero says: “Our aim is to give new value and feedback on everything we create. Think of a picture (photograph) where you actually can feel the floor, the leaves and so on…”. There is a loud applause from the audience in the Amsterdam Houthaven Lab on september the 13th 2013 (!).
The winning team
Industry and Design
As Andrea Wiegman (organiser, SecondSight) says on behalf of the Jury: “This Forecasting Prize/Award is not the most easy part”. It is about sharing your secrets. “It is between futurists and trendwatchers, close to the Industry and Design” . Working with IBM and Disney on new tactile systems, we certainly will hear more from the team.
Healthcare
I ask them on their view on Healthcare. Will distant communication doctor-patient will be influenced by adding ‘touch’ to the ear, the eye.. ? Think of eHealth and Domotics. What are the possibilities?
Hello Jan!
Sorry for our delay in answer you. We’re so busy in these days. Talking about our research, obviously we did not develop directly any of those new haptics systems, but we use theme just as suggestions for our trendforecast vision. By the way, you can find something more precise about interesting projects created by Disney (like Revel and Touchè) at this link:
http://www.disneyresearch.com/research-areas/human-computer-interaction/
You can also find other information about similar systems here:
http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/ibm_predictions_for_future/ideas/
And here: http://senseg.com/
Talking about the possible connection with health care, we think that it is extremely important to consider the possible pedagogical, medical and care influences that this trend will reach. Tactile information will allow to monitor the correct posture, using the registration and propagation systems on fitness/medical equipment to avoid erroneous use. In addition, possible visual deficits of a user may be compensated by tactile information transmitted through the contact with a haptic display: a blind person will receive braill sms, or experiencing by touch landscapes, portraits and graphics. So, of course there will be evolutions in the distant communication doctor-patient, permetting a deeper monitoring of the patient rehabilitation.
Hope I’ve been helpful!
Bye,
Andrea Zero
http://www.7ditches.tv/aflevering/350/tom-palmaerts-wint-de-trendwatcher-of-the-year-awards-2013
Touch
Touch is indeed a thing which is worth looking into. It is a very interesting and intimate modality which can provide essential contextual information.
First thing which comes in mind is home shopping. How often did I wonder “is this material a bit rubbery, or just plain plastic?”. Well, not that I always wonder if the material feels rubbery, but you get the point. In this context it is ‘important’ to know how something feels.
In the clip Facebook and Instagram are mentioned. Such photos are a mere reminder for an event what took place or an emotion one had. In this context it not important how something feels and I think that is exactly the point. By adding another modality to such photo’s it removes the emotional representation and makes it something concrete. We tend to create our own stories around pictures. I don’t want to touch my best friends face, or a stranger’s dog. Frankly, it resembles a gimmicky embossed postcard a bit too much.
I can imagine that in the healthcare world screens with a touch layer could be beneficial for doctors. Something like skin conditions could diagnosed from a distance (is the skin rough, smooth, moist, etc?).
Touch is in vision extraordinary useful when it is not representing the real world. In another reaction I already mentioned the uncanny valley in this area. Not alone is skeuomorphism dead, but it is also strange to mimic real life situations on a flat screen. A screen is by its very own nature not a representation of something physical. And the interactions you have on it, or not interactions you would usually have with real life situations.
Therefore ‘touch’ should be approached from a symbolic point of view. It could guide users through a UI or help users to interact with devices without looking at them.
Technology & design
Andrea Wiegman states that technology becomes invisible. Well, it already is invisible. Ever since the first computer was invented we can not comprehend technology, we can not pinpoint any more where what happens.
It is therefore not that technology becomes invisible, but that it is becoming a new nature to us. A Next Nature as Koert van Mensvoort calls it (nextnature.net).
What I am really opposed to is the fact that the design community is currently mimicking everything. Adding ‘new’ stuff to existing products such as touch to photos, or making stuff that is highly technologic but feels like it has existed for a 100 years such as skeuomorphism. This ‘technostalgia’ does not help us forward, and it is exactly what design and technology are not about.
The future of tech and design therefore lies not within making the old stuff new (or vice versa) but in finding new empathic ways of using it. Touch can be the future, if applied in a symbolic meaningful way.
Hallo vrienden,
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