The general idea was to 1) have Nicky and Cat learn about and experience IC’s culture, methods and process by collaborating with members of IC’s team on two independent projects that followed our front-end innovation process, albeit in a condensed fashion due to time and resource constraints, 2) provide IC with an objective “outsider’s” perspective on the organizational structure and cultural mechanics here and now, 3) help us develop an initial prototype or model of how IC may want to approach and improve upon cultural exchanges and internships in the future. In the end both sides learnt a great deal from one another and were able to hammer out two great concept explorations that we hope to push further in the New Year.

The projects:

Cat’s project called Food + Friendships explores the rituals, relationships, and possible futures of fast food. More specifically how we could challenge existing fast-food paradigms and archetypes, how food and consumption experiences play an important role in developing and maintaining friendships; and how social technologies can enable for new community centered approaches to “franchise” concepts. The result (to be published soon) flips incumbent models on their head and provides a more sustainable and compelling community oriented perspective on how fast food may be approached in the future.

Nicky’s project called Once Upon a Time sought to question and explore identity, storytelling, and actualization in social media. More specifically, how the web, digital communication and social technologies are enabling for transmediated manifestations of ones persona and personal brand online. The project also explored the tensions existing between creating and updating one’s true on and offline self as an individual VS collective or co-creative effort. From this perspective – time was spent evaluating how existing social media platforms like Face Book actually limit our ability to engage in more meaningful and constructive conversations; and in response proposes a series of new feature based approaches to organizing, accessing, and co-creating one’s personal content as part of a larger idea of how storytelling and personal myth generation may occur in the future.

In addition to focusing on their own passion projects the Pilots also worked on a report that analyzed the organizational structure and culture at IC. They presented their findings in a video that highlighted how the physical space, roles, and relationships work (or not) to enable for multi-disciplinary collaboration and pointed out some great ways to improve the cultural mechanics inside IC which has been growing and expanding very quickly over the last year.

IC has always been a multicultural and multidisciplinary organization and it was great to have the KP’s visit, add to the mix, share their experience, and exchange with us. I love that IC is a place that enables and encourage this kind of exchange and is committed to supporting independent project based explorations and learning- outside of client work- as an important part of fostering a more creative and innovative organizational culture.  We learn, think, and do best together.

I Recently had the pleasure of visiting the Kaos Pilots in Aarhus Denmark. The school focuses on developing change-agents and action oriented revolutionaries through pedagogic models like appreciated inquiry, action learning, and systems thinking. The school uniquely combines elements of business, design, and the humanities into a challenging and truly world-class educational experience that harnesses the positive energy, aspirations, and attitudes of its students, faculty staff, and guests in all the right ways. This place embodies a serious-play model for real.

Before my talk began, the group met for Monday morning coffee on the school’s terrace. It became very apparent how close the KP’s are to one another; how well they know each other – and the how these relationships add an invaluable layer to the overall educational experience. I believe a 3 month long project based “out-post” in Shanghai was largely to thank for this. (This year’s class is traveling to Bogota Columbia). I heard many great stories about this and other “out-post” experiences during my time there. Placing students in a foreign place and challenging them to live, work on, and deliver client projects all on there own is an integral component to the KP experience and the school’s legacy.

So why was I there in the first place? Oh ya, lucky for me, I was invited by my good friend Pete Sims to share some of my own personal and project based experiences from within the design research / foresight context, and to introduce a situational awareness and sense making tool we call the Table of Context with one of the KP teams. This tool / cognitive aid helps to plan and establish the scope of front-end research, organize findings for group learning and socialization, catalyze imaginative inquiry, and facilitate co-creative dialogues. We’ve used Tables of Context both internally and externally (i.e. with clients) on several occasions to map out existing and emerging opportunity spaces, communicate research findings, and to inspire critical dialogues based on the potential and meaning of signals and the contexts they create and or occupy.

I thought this was particularly relevant to a Kaos Pilots’ learning because being placed at the ambiguous front-end of an innovation project -or stuck in the middle of chaos- without a previously defined starting point, clear plan of inquiry, or “map” of the landscape / context is now commonplace and can be a frustrating, scary, and even overwhelming experience- for students, designers, and corporate executives alike. That said, the table of context is meant to help reduce some of this ambiguity and chaos, and focus one’s attention on building up an accessible knowledge base (as a tangible, visual and or interactive resource) that can be expanded upon and leveraged over time to help innovation teams develop a better informed awareness or literacy about a given subject, context, problem or opportunity space.

Ultimately my goal was to highlight how foresight and design research practices and some of the tools/methods employed, especially at the “fuzzy-front-end” of innovation. I also wanted to point out that this type of work requires a personal commitment to the development, practice, and maintenance of an an always-on curiosity and appetite for collecting, questioning, sorting through and sharing the salient and not so salient bits that one comes upon throughout their day. Even when you’re not at work – and especially when you’re not at the office.

Please stay tuned! There’s more on the KP + Denmark experience to follow.

Mobile Location Based Services: You’re tired and cranky after another distressingly long subway ride to an unfamiliar part of town. Your mobile senses this and recommends you take a break at a nearby coffee shop. The device points the way, checks the complex menu and suggests three items best suited to helping you relax and restore your physical-emotional balance.

Fashion/Apparel: You’ve purchased the latest Under Armour Sport Tactical Vest for the players on your team and linked them to the coaching staff’s integrated performance optimization system. The system monitors individual and collective bio-emotional and physiological stats while sending just-in-time haptic ‘coaching cues’ to players during practice.

Navigation & Browsing: You become eligible for a cable or Internet service upgrade and decide to have your provider install the latest integrated multi-touch bio-emotive program guide. You ‘surf’ like never before as the system recognizes and establishes a personal, empathetic connection between you and your preferred content.

Health & Gaming: You join a specialized yoga class called Meditation for Longevity and Gaming where you learn not only to identify and control your thoughts and emotions for personal health reasons but also to improve your mastery over new, multi-modal gaming consoles that demand the integrated use of body, spirit, and mind.

Tele-Intimacy: Your spouse moves abroad for several months on contract work and the separation puts a great deal of emotional stress on your relationship. You decide to purchase a tele-intimacy kit made by Philips that includes home-based applications designed to help the two of you connect and feel each other’s presence in…more ways than one.

To take advantage of this sense-rich paradigm early enough to prototype the kind of disruptive products and services that offer competitive advantage, brands and businesses need to understand the intersections between future technology and evolving humanity. That first requires a more robust, competitive R&D process. The research, design and development of multi-modal feelback systems and their successful incorporation in products and services will rely on multi-disciplinary teams drawing on very specific and specialized areas of knowledge, experience and expertise in and around the affective domain of ‘feel’.

Because the layering, combination, and re-combination of a wider spectrum of input/output modalities will create a host of new usability problems- one or more critical collaborative R&D areas will need to cultivate the space between Human Factors, Anthropology and Industrial Design. Standardization issues surrounding multi-touch input languages – where the function and meaning of finger gestures varies greatly from one device or platform to another or, equally important, from one group of users to another, will be solved only through research on product prototypes and users in action and in context. Otherwise, the social, cultural, cognitive, physical and performative are all potential glitches waiting to trip up organizations that fail to recognize, appreciate and design for human diversity. Like the pictures Wolf pulled yesterday on the big screen, those organizations will quickly become old news.

Touch opens a wider variety of interface and application options not constrained by old degrees of interaction physicality. It has improved on the accessibility and experience of websites, video and gaming. It has created sentimental consumer demand for a new retro paradigm by transferring analogue artifacts (e.g. rotary phone interfaces, compasses) into the digital realm and it offers a relatively low cost and efficient way to try, fail .and improve upon even more new ideas.

What do we lose by replacing our buttons with pixels and graphics though?

For many of us, sensuality. Touch eliminates the familiar tactile feedback associated with the push, click, and resistance of a button. Like somatosensory wastelands, flat screen touch devices lack the stimulating vibro-electro-mechanical feedback of past interfaces. This has sparked criticism from both consumers and proponents of universal design principles. For fewer than most of us, but equally if not more important in considering the “unmet and unarticulated consumer needs” that many of us say should drive design thinking- touch threatens accessibility. Designers of touch have yet to seriously consider how, for example, a person with visual disabilities will interact with current and future products.

Steps towards feeling

Ongoing, innovative work is being done to re-capture, improve upon, and amplify the tactile and multi-sensorial qualities of future interfaces. Much of this work points to emerging transitions in the first wave of feel and feelback systems. For example, a recent project entitled “Dynamically Changeable Physical Buttons on a Visual Display,” conducted by Chris Harrison and Scott Hudson at Carnegie Mellon University exemplifies an incremental push towards more tactile forms of touch-based interaction. In a more radical fashion, “Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display,” is a new holographic display system developed by researchers at the University of Tokyo that enables users to experience tactile feedback through focused ultrasound waves that produce vibrations felt on the skin. Other new interface and interaction modalities serve as starting points for further thought and discussion about the ongoing shift from touch to feel.

Haptic Technology has evolved way beyond the Rumble Pack video game controller and the iPhone’s turn to view or shake to shuffle interactions towards more sophisticated forms of input/output. Novint’s newly released Falcon gaming controller is an excellent example of a design evolution enabling entirely new gaming experiences. Phillips’ Forced Feedback Jacket and similar projects by the United States Department of Defense aim at increasing a grunt’s situational awareness and ability to feel their way around the battlefield.

Tele-presence and Tele-intimacy are pushing the boundaries in more personal and intimate ways. Consider tele-dildonics, Internet connected and mobile sex toys that enable direct feelback stimulation between partners. Alternatively, Mustugoto, a project developed at Distance Lab, uses computer vision and a projection system to “allow users to draw on each other’s bodies – enabling a different kind of synchronous communication that leverages the emotional quality of physical gesture.”

In the realm of Gestural Interface, Nokia has been exploring how pointing, waving and flipping a phone over to silence it can enhance mobile experiences. These natural gestures and spur-of-the-moment emotional responses to a disruptive in-coming call create the illusion that the device can see, sense and feel its user. Microsoft’s Natal project for Xbox 360 pushes this apparent feelback even further by mixing computer vision with an avatar (read: an intelligent agent) that can recognize a user’s facial features and, to some degree, displayed emotions to deliver a more ‘natural’ interaction and compelling experience.

Also known as brain machine interfaces (BMIs), Neural Interfaces employ non-invasive fMRI and EEG signal scanning techniques to enable mind-to-machine interaction. Applications include the control of robotic limbs, gaming, therapeutic exercises for treating ADHD, communication and art. One example comes from biosensor company NeuroSky which has developed a ‘mindset’ application where users visualize brainwaves as they listen to music – described on their company website as the ability to “translate feelings into actions.”

Bio-emotional Interfaces harness emotions, cognitive states and physiological states as input/output modalities. According to Philips, SKIN, one of their many inspirational design explorations, signifies a shift from ‘intelligent’ to ‘sensitive’ products and technologies by integrating new materials into the area of emotional sensing. Although we still haven’t experienced widespread intelligent products yet, the promise of sensitive ones is certainly alluring.

Affective Computing suggests markets emerging around new experiences with sensitive products and services based on the softer side of input – mood, feeling and emotion. MIT’s Affective Computing group is conducting a wide range of research and design that focuses on, among other things, the development of new affective sensing techniques, machine learning algorithms, technologies to help people become more aware of emotional states and communicating them, and the ethics of Affective Computing. Applications in this domain vary from serving people with Autism to gathering customer experience data to mobile health applications like outpatient monitoring.

Research being conducted on Artificial Intelligence and Assistants could well lead to the emergence of working relationships between people and their intelligent assistants, A.I. entities that understand and help us satisfy our needs. DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) funded projects like Pal (Personal Assistant that Learns) and SRI International’s CALO (Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes) are pushing the boundaries of what these intelligent agents might do to help us maximize our individual and collective potential. Some applications include managing tasks, social networks and interactions as well as gathering, organizing and preparing information. Note: these are not the friendly paper clips or wizards we’ve grown accustomed to on Windows machines.

These are all steps towards the shift from touch to feel, a transition that might eventually combine potentials and characteristics to enable entirely new, sense-based forms of interaction, communication and exchange. This transition from disparate forms of single modality interaction towards multi-modal interaction will be slow, but when (and if) it occurs the illusion of predictive modeling and suggestion will be shattered by a new reality where our products, objects and devices will, over time and through new forms of usage intimacy, get to know us, feel us and learn how to better meet our needs.

How will this shift change the way products are defined, shaped, and made? Will it make products or services easier, better, more enjoyable, more intuitive or more meaningful to use?  Stay Tuned for part 3

Multi-touch interfaces like Apple’s iPhone, Microsoft’s Surface and Perceptive Pixel’s Multi-Touch Wall have enabled a wave of new applications, products, services and consumer experiences- they are today’s market standards. By pushing beyond these interfaces as well as forthcoming variations of tactile feedback and gestural interfaces into a more affective domain, the emergence of what we might call ‘feelback’ systems will provide transformative opportunities for innovation in a variety of computing, communication and interaction contexts.

Touch before feel

Before considering what a ‘feelback’ system might be it is important to locate where Touch Sensation has put us so far. Touch Sensation refers to the tactile, finger-to-screen input or output modality that is now a common feature on many devices. Apple’s iPhone and CNN’s Magic Wall stand out as two of the more notable (read: popular/known) touch devices; but, as Bill Buxton points out, both are products of long innovation cycles. The Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research has compiled an impressive list of innovations beginning with the keyboard and including the 1972 Plato IV, the 1981 Tactile Array Sensor for Robotics, and the 1992 Simon from IBM and Bell South- whose design DNA have enabled dudes to make their phones fart and Wolf Blitzer to physically shape the news world. But Touch Sensation is more than technology.

It’s natural. An interactive modality based on relatively simple and commonly understood gestures. Touch removes a layer of the ‘machine’- it brings users closer to the experience of being in control. The ability to touch, drag, pinch, stir, spin, zoom, direct or manipulate an action without using a button, mouse, stylus, pen or other device enables a new, seemingly more direct and almost ‘magical’ form of control.  We like this. To touch with our fingers brings us into a more intimate relationship with our content, information and experiences.

It’s performative. Touch introduces a new set of skills to discover, develop, master and demonstrate to both the world and to others. Like a gamer playing on the cutting edge of information and world affairs by shaping, shaving and sculpting events, TV audiences are captivated by Wolf Blitzer demonstrating his mastery over the interface technology of CNN’s Magic Wall. In similar fashion, the iPhone enables mastery and performance in more intimate ways; scrolling for a contact, pinching and gesturing to scale photos and zooming in on maps have evolved into new and complex forms of social display.

It’s a disruptive, competitive differentiator. Among consumers, touch screen devices elicit greater perceived value. The iPhone oozes a cool factor that makes even the latest non-touch devices seem old fashioned, and Apple has capitalized on defining this new standard of experience and expectation. To the average consumer, touch is a recognizable innovation that demonstrates ‘progress’ and exemplifies a higher level of sophistication on the part of brands that employ it.

Part 2 coming soon- Steps towards feeling

http://blog.ted.com/2009/06/qa_with_clay_sh.php

Download the new #trvsdjam mixtape “Fix Your Face Vol. 2 – Coachella 09″ in exchange for one tweet! http://twitter.trvsdjam.com

Caress is a product platform that combines physical hardware with web and mobile services to provide people living with diabetes a simple set of tools and services to monitor and track their blood sugar levels while providing the opportunity to socialize their experience and educate others. By utilizing an electromagnetic technology developed at Baylor University, users will be able to accurately measure their glucose levels simply by touching or caressing the device, transitioning the blood glucose readings from a painful and awkward, private experience to one that is more naturally habit forming. Hand vein scanning technology will be used to identify and differentiate between the separate users for tracking purposes in order to allow friends, coworkers and family members to participate in the experience and see their blood glucose levels, promoting better understanding and removing some of the isolation that many people living with diabetes feel. It can also operate to ease the concerns that friends or family often have through visibility. Hand vein scanning was decided upon over fingerprints as it is more accurate and studies have shown that fingerprint scanning has a negative psychological effect as it still connotes criminal behavior, which may present a barrier to usage.

Each Caress device will be networked with bluetooth or WIFI capabilities, allowing readings to be transmitted to the web services component of the platform through home or office computers or mobile devices. Users will be able to access through their computers or mobile devices metrics around their blood sugar levels with the opportunity to receive mobile alerts when it is time to take a reading. Over time, the aggregated data will provide users with trend data that will help them and their health care providers identify the optimal approach to dealing with their diabetes.

Phase One – Sculptural Object

As the electromagenetic technology is fairly nascent, Phase One will focus on creating modern sculptural devices (sample shown figure 1.0) that can be placed in high traffic areas within the home or office. Interior displays beneath the touch surface of the device will provide the user with their current levels as well as relevant trend data. When the device is inactive, the display will show color coded (to represent various glucose levels) dynamic abstract visualizations of the most recent data, providing encouragement and reinforcement of positive behaviors while attracting visual interest to initiate the socialization process.

Phase Two – Mobile

As economies of scale are achieved with manufacturing, integration of electromagnetic ainto the skins of mobile devices through a flat radial design will allow for a seamless experience as the skins will be able to get a reading each time the device is used, transmitting readings directly to the mobile device and by extension the online analytics experience. Unique ring tones can also be setup to remind the user when a reading is required. Internet capabilities will allow data to be transmitted to and from the central web servers to either the mobile browser or native application. Integration with other mobile data services can seamlessly provide value add information such as where the nearest grocery or convenience store is or specific recommendation on actions to take to balance sugar levels.

This is a kick off post to a series that will be exploring the shift from touch to feel as both context and concept for the design of new products, services, systems and experiences.  The series will question “touch” and the touch context from a variety of perspectives; and mix, muse, and compare as to why “feel”, feelings, and “feelback” will emerge to compliment, enhance, and surpass the “touch sensation”.

The first/next post in our series will begin with some general musings about the “Touch Sensation” relating, from one perspective, to the explosion and popularity of touch interfaces brought on by the success and attention paid to the latest round of Apple devices and their competitors follow up.  Question: As if touch were new? And what is it with touch anyway? Following up, from a second, lets say “sensational approach” the post will introduce, or set up, a broader perspective on touch, interaction, the senses, human experience, and exchange.

Please stay tuned.