I created a page that explains the final design of this projects. There you can find all the final videos and explanations in one place. I called the system I’ve designed Nexight:

Nexight (Final Design, descriptions, resources, links and videos)

There is also the final animation of the user interface (you should check out the HighDefinition version to see all details of the interface)

As promised here is the video of my Thesis Presentation at Umea Institute of Design. It’s about 45 minutes – I am explaining the whole scope of this project: research, ideation, animations, demonstration of the prototype – enjoy the show!

sound is a bit low, you might have to turn up your volume.

I just created a page for all the material I used in the 3D tracking prototype. You can download the vvvv-patch and the 3D files from there if you want to play around with it.

Yesterday I had the final presentation of this project at Umea Institute of Design. And I passed the examination. So I am officially a Master of Interaction Design now!

Here is a picture of me presenting my project. Photo and editing by my good friend Vitorio Benedetti – thanks!!

We also video taped all presentations. As soon as I get the video of my presentation I’ll post it here too.

Last night, 3 days before the final presentation, I have reached a state in my prototype that I am really happy with. The tracking stability is even better than expected with the new LED pen. Also I added a basic graphical user interface and some cool features. But look yourself, I am explaining it in this 5 minute video:

I just finished the final version of the LED pen I am using for the 3D tracking. I added a button to the pen that is currently used to change viewmodes in the 3D tracking system. Also I found some nice light diffusers, this will make the color tracking more stable because the cameras can now see the light from all directions.

more details here:

Before and after the assembly. Pen + 1 blue LED + 1 red LED + pushbutton + Arduino

I was asking Camille if he knows any good light diffusers I could use for the pen. He had some good ideas, however while we were talking about it I discovered a abandoned Muji pen on the floor of his office. The caps of the Muji pen were exactly what I was looking for – great, milky, pen sized light diffusers that fit around a LED.

Along the way of my project I’ve built 4 “generations” of pen for the 3D tracking system.

1. The first one had no lights and only one tracking point (the yellow cap of the pen). with only 1 tracking point I couldn’t track the orientation of the pen.

2. So I added two different colored leds attached them to batteries and just taped them around the first pen.

3. For the third generation I removed all the insides of a pen, so I can put the cables inside instead of taping them around the pen. also I added a pushbutton (attached to the computer via arduino).

4. I had some problems with the 3rd pen. it was to small, so it was easy to accidently cover one of the LEDs with your hand. Also the LEDs had different brightness and they had the attribute to shine in one direction. Different brightness and directional light made it difficult to track the LEDs from all angles. I fixed these issues in the 4th generation and hope to be able to track from further away, so there would be more space that you can move the pen in.

I found this nice plugin for vvvv called “roentgen” by Sebastian Gregor and implemented it into my 3D tracking prototype. I looks great and gives the prototype a whole new level. I was not sure if I’ll be able to prototype this idea, so I am really happy that it worked in less than a day!

Here are some screenshots… I’ll shoot some videos later when I’ve implemented some more features.

Here is the first raw version of the full Touchscreen Concept for this project. I rendered it yesterday night, and there is still some quirks, missing screens and no explanation at all. But it was really important for myself to see the whole thing together. It made me realize that there are still small problems and inconsistencies in the interface. Not sure if I am going to be able to change everything, because there is only little time left. Still I think it conveys the concept and idea very well, and that’s the most important.

its pretty hard to see the details of the interface in the low resolution version here on the web. I guess I have to make an extra web-version in the end. also Vimeo somehow stretched the video image. (…a lot of things to fix)

Our Institute has invited several interesting speakers to Umea for UID Designtalks 2009. On June 3 there is also the opening of the Degree Exhibition. The Exhibition (that my project will be a part of) will be open to the public June 8 – 17, 2009.

This is the report for a Interaction Design Master Thesis by Jannes Peters at Umeå Institute of Design Sweden that was developed from February to May 2009 sponsored by Philips Design Helathcare.

download pdf – report may 08 – 19mb

Its the first complete collection of Reserach, Ideation and Design Phase. However its probably not the final version, as there are still 10 days left until examination and another week after for cleaning up prototypes and building models.

This “artwork” was done by putting all 67 pages from the report in the OsiriX Dicom Viewer