Fundamentals Studios Final

Fundamentals Studio with Chris Fahey

Students began their process by exploring project ideas within the themes of memory, behavior, politeness and sharing, and were assigned groups with shared interests. Each group developed an idea from concept to final prototype, using new technology and modes of interaction where appropriate.

• Beatriz Vizcaino, Jeff Kirsch, Angela Huang : Acumulus

  

  Acumulus is a large-scale installation of networked multi-touch displays in airports around the globe. By enabling travelers to compose and read short, anonymous messages for and from each other, it satisfies the inherently human interest in sharing stories with those around us, while simultaneously highlighting two technologies that have greatly shrunk the distance between people: air travel, and the internet.

• Russ Maschmeyer, Kristin Graefe, Carmen Dukes : Amima

  

  For the final project, Kristin, Carmen and Russ focused on early childhood education. They created the Amima concept, a plush toy paired with an e-reader that uses sensors to create a holistic educational experience. Ami, the talking plush friend, uses speech recognition, accelerometers, force sensors, location awareness and more to interact with children on a physical and conversational level. Ima, the soft, flexible e-book reader plays games, tells stories and introduces children to screen interfaces. Together, Ami and Ima become Amima.

  Take a look online.

• David Bellona, Adjoa Opoku, Carrie Stiens : INTouch Restaurant Tables

  With INTouch, the team wanted to explore the idea of mutli-touch tables as part of an integrated system of networked devices in a restaurant. Rather than replace the waitstaff, the table seeks to augment and support communication between guests, servers, and the kitchen and bar by offering solutions to certain dining inconveniences. Features include allowing guests to sort the menu based on dietary preference, sharing food items with the rest of the table, and dividing bills for group dining with smartphone payment.

• Stephanie Aaron, Chia-Wei Liu, Michael Katayama : Naked City

  

  The Naked City is a mobile application that lets the buildings and neighborhoods of New York tell you their stories. Through photographs, maps, sounds, text and oral histories this application will connect the past with the present through a rich media experience using GPS, augmented reality, touch screen, and holographic screen technology. The Naked City will peel back the layers of history to discover the stories — an architectural wonder here, a famous artist colony over there, and even an infamous murder that will give them meaning as they wander through the city.

  Users can input their own narrative and photographs, or create a tour they can share with friends or the general public. For example, a user can record their experience of a favorite places in their neighborhood which will be stored and shared for others to see in the future. The Naked City experience allows the user to relive the multi-layered history of NYC from Henry Hudson’s visit 400 years ago to today.

• JoJo Glick, Tina Ye, Catherine Young : Shadow.Me

  Shadow.Me is an interactive installation that allows visitors to share their secrets anonymously and to view the secrets shared by others. These secrets are visually embodied in the shadows of the contributors, which are scanned in a pod that is part of the installation. To share a secret, the user walks into the pod, enters his age, gender and geographic origin, and whispers his secret into the “ear” of the pod. After his shadow is scanned by sensors, he can then leave the pod. His shadow will appear on either wall of the installation after a twenty-minute delay to hide the visitor’s identity. The text of the secret will appear on the shadow’s body, and the audio track of the visitor whispering his secret will be heard over the speakers to join those of others.