As you may know at Ars Electronica is very difficult to see projects that have some market potentialities, basically just because it is a festival very focused on “art”. But its secondary technology focus permits to have every year at least a couple of hosted projects that would make many costumer happy. Last year one could have been Tenori-On by Toshio Iwai, this year one was definitely CabBoots by Martin Frey.

The actual prototype

CabBoots, basically, is an interface for pedestrian guidance applications that uses the shoes to communicate tactilely with the users instead of using the usual visual or audio signals. The concept is basically to replicate the feeling we have when following a path in the ground, so that we can feel with our feet its borders and react instinctively to keep the right direction.

Illustration of the path concept

The current prototype consists in a pair of shoes connected wirelessly to a computer. The shoes have big and wooden soles with inside different sensors and pretty rough mechanics to simulate, in the case the user is moving away from the path, an uneven ground. The strength of this tactile communication is that it’s totally not invasive for us but also for the others. Can you imagine if everyone had a vocal navigation system what would happen in crowded spots? The intensity of the signal I presume could be easily reduced after the user starts getting used to it.
The creator saw an immediate utility for blind people, and definitely there is, but I’m sure this can have some possibilities also for a broader audience.

Augmented simulation

It’s easy to think how the actual rough aesthetic of the product can become much more attractive after engineering studies, all these mechanical parts, in facts, could be easily replaced with tinier and more sophisticate ones. Instead of using wooden mechanics, its creator talks about “pneumatic or electrorheological fluid driven actuators”. I would prefer to see air cushions and I have in mind a company that could be probably interested, especially if we consider that recently they showed no fear on interfacing shoes with tech devices like ipods, guess who?
The computer also, in the future, could be easily replaced by the cell phone, or pda, if not being able to be embedded in the shoes.
I look forward to see how this projects goes since I really like the subtle concept, but unfortunately I think a very big sponsor is needed to refine it and make it attractive enough for end users. I hope Martin can find it.

Recently the pocket game consoles market has been shocked by a turn that happened. The fancy PSP (Pocket PlayStation) seemed the very favorite for its stunning look and gorgeous display, but the outsider Nintendo DS with a very modest finish, but a totally new user interaction, is overtaken the sells.

Nintendo DS design

Basically Nintendo DS instead of a big but passive screen decided to use two tiny displays, one for each collapsible part. The peculiarity is that one of them, the one at the bottom, is touch sensitive so while this can be used more as data input, the other one can have a more data output functionality. This doesn’t necessary sound great if Nintendo didn’t push so well on re-designing the games taking full advantage of this new feature. Basically Nintendo re-invented many of them, creating a totally new and more compelling game experience. The market so far is already rewarding this new more interactive way of playing that is also offered as a much lower cost than the others, and this could definitely be a strength.

The next frontier for this business challenge is Internet, in facts, these consoles come with an embedded wi-fi connection that permits the owners not only to play at the games in the multiuser mode, but also to have access to the web. A browser could make these consoles become an interesting device also for not hard-core gamers, permitting people to check emails, news, or even chatting, using one of the many open wi-fi spots that can be easily found in offices, bars, or even at the neighbors. So this piece of software probably will play a key role on determining the success for these devices.

Nintendo DS Browser in the zoom mode

If we consider the higher interactivity that the DS offers, it’s clear that Nintendo had good chances to win the battle, but did they manage to not disappointing the high expectations?

Nintendo DS Browser is the, not so original, name of the recent re-invention from Nintendo that uses Opera Mini 2.0 as HTML render engine and despite low performances, unavoidable for devices with so low hardware profiles, it introduces interesting functionalities that are worth a look.

The text needed to write emails, or simply to fill forms, can be entered or typing in a virtual keyboard in the sensitive screen, or handwriting it in it. The handwriting conversion seems good although I don’t see so much point of having all the sensitive screen used to input two letters at the time. Probably there was room to accept more letters and, if not, entering one letter at the time, without having to go backward every two letters seemed more intuitive to me. Anyway, using the virtual keyboard seems the best option, especially if we consider that people are loosing confidence on writing with pens and mistyping can happen easily.

The two text input modalities

As mentioned earlier, Nintendo is pushing on these different functions of the screens, control and display. The solution designed includes the possibility to have the touchscreen as navigation map and the passive screen as zoom for readability. The user is able, pressing a button in the controls bar, to switch the two screens, useful if in the zoomed one there is something to interact with, like links, forms. In this case the user can also move the screen dragging from non-sensible areas. Unfortunately the switch button really isn’t in such a handy place, in fact instead of being in the middle of the two screens is at the very button of the lower one, but of course they had to optimize a lot the few pixels available for the interface. It’s just a shame that the console doesn’t have programmable buttons between the two screens, it this case those would have been very helpful.

Other functions already present in other mobile devices is the scroll by link, basically it is possible pressing a button to go to the next link in the page, of course is not so useful if there are plenty of links, but it remains probably a valid solution for devices that can’t move the cursor so easily and precisely like the DS.

Will be this the key of the success for the DS against the competitors? I personally think so, despite Nintendo browser doesn’t come for free with the console and the user has to pay for it. Higher interactivity will be automatically translated in less frustration when comparing the user experience while browsing on our PCs to the one in these tiny devices, and having so many options to input data in the DS will definitely make the user happier, but the market will be the judge.