STATEMENT
The tendency in the creation of digital technologies has been to focus on the design of tools which allow digital information to augment the physical: physical first, digital as an added layer. This direction of thinking is evident in early examples such as the garage door opener, which creates convenience through the automation of a previously existing physical object. However, the same trend also continues within more recent explorations of ways to integrate digital tools into the experience of our physical world.
Augmented reality is one example which is a growing area within human-computer interaction and a distinct example of digital augmentation, as the objects augmented are often separate from the augmenting tool. Using screens or glasses, digital information can be overlaid on any object being viewed within the physical world to augment them with additional digital information.
As another example, The Tangible Media Group at MIT has also researched means of augmentation which are more connected to the manipulation of physical. In the Relief project[3], the digitally projected image of a mountain gives added visual information to understand the topographical forms which can be displayed and manipulated on its form-changing surface.
Both of these current examples overlay a digital image over the physical, enabling access to additional information that cannot be obtained directly from the objects themselves. The inclination to explore the digital as an added layer of augmentation follows the development of all new technologies, which are always created in relation to what exists, with overlay being one of the easiest ways to bring digital affordances into the world. However, as we are now increasingly familiar with the digital, it is also important to reverse the question and ask how physical means might also augment a body of digital information in space.
This paper introduces an interface which selectively materializes digital information within space to allow one to tangibly work with a specific portion of a larger body of digital information. The name (re)place refers both to the replacing of abstract digital information by physical tangibility, as well as the adjustable placement of a physical slice within space as a way of deciding what area to materialize.
Contributors:
Sophia Chang - Ideation, Presentation, Content Generation, Physical Prototyping
Jifei Ou - Ideation, Presentation, Physical Prototyping
Sheng Kai Tang - Ideation, Presentation, Software Prototyping, Physical Prototyping