Dirty Tangible Interfaces: Expressive Control of Computers with True Grit
Résumé
Dirty Tangible Interfaces (DIRTI) are a new concept in interface design that forgoes the dogma of repeatability in favor of a richer and more complex experience, constantly evolving, never reversible, and infinitely modifiable. We built a prototype interface realizing the DIRTI principles based on low-cost commodity hardware and kitchenware: A video camera tracks a granular or liquid interaction material placed in a glass dish. The 3D relief estimated from the images, and the dynamic changes applied to it by the user(s), are used to control two applications: For 3D scene authoring, the relief is directly translated into a terrain, allowing fast and intuitive map editing. For expressive audio-graphic music performance, both the relief and real-time changes are interpreted as activation profiles to drive corpus-based concatenative sound synthesis, allowing one or more musicians to mold sonic landscapes and to plow through them in an inherently collaborative, expressive, and dynamic experience.