January 7, 2015

The Force: Telekinetic & Teletactic Interaction with Distant Objects

HCI research, video design and generation

intro

The Force was my masters thesis at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Prof. Daniel Wigdor. It is an exploration of futuristic interactions in the physical world with one’s surroundings. I looked at the concept of telekinetics with the added ability to feel objects being interacted with or “teletactics.”

Through this project I was able to explore some of my key interests: internet of things, wearables and human enhancement. Here is a video compilation of key details of my thesis project with focus on the vision, interactions and applications. Enjoy!

Goals

The goal for the project was to develop novel devices or interactions that could be further studied and tested on potential users. The project began very open ended and developed with time.

Constraints

The only constraint that I encountered was the available technology. For example, accuracy of haptic feedback is very limited today. This field is still in its infancy.

Process

Each of the posts below provide a deeper insight into the milestones that were achieved and the implementation process for the project.

  1. The Initial Concept for the Force
  2. Designing the Sphero Control System
  3. Controlling Multiple Spheros Simultaneously
  4. Prototyping Haptic Handheld and Wirst Worn Sphero Controllers
  5. An Array of User Scenarios for Force Interactions
  6. Developing User Study to Evaluate Force Interactions

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