Natural Interaction - EN - ASC

Natural Interaction is a research project of the Centro di Eccellenza per la Comunicazione e l'Integrazione dei Media (MICC, Media Integration and Communication Centre) of the Università degli Studi di Firenze aimed at facilitating the interaction between human beings and new media, through innovative interfaces and sensing technologies.

Sensitive floor in Japan, 2006

English version editable

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Surname name / Pseudonym / Denomination:

Natural Interaction / Interazione Naturale

Biography:

The working group of the Centro di Eccellenza per la Comunicazione e l'Integrazione dei Media of the Università di Firenze, directed by Prof. Alberto del Bimbo, was born from the researches of Alessandro Valli, the group coordinator, inspired to the interdisciplinary studies of Leonardo da Vinci. The purpose of these researches is the creation of innovative interaction schemes and interfaces with a strong aesthetic impact. The group carried out several collaborations with local institutions and offices for Cultural Heritage, such as: Comune di Firenze, Provincia di Firenze and, Museo del Mare of Genoa.

Poetic:

The research of the working group Natural Interaction focuses on natural interaction - intended as the identification of the simplest way to make content usable on digital media. The project of the group of the Centro di Eccellenza per la Comunicazione e l'Integrazione dei Media of the Università di Firenze consists in developing complete digital solutions applicable to the real world, in museum, didactic, communication and entertainment contexts.
The researches from which Alessandro Valli, group coordinator, started are strongly inspired to the interdisciplinary studies of Leonardo da Vinci and are aimed at the creation of innovative interaction schemes and interfaces with a strong aesthetic impact. Natural Interaction is a matter of technology and design at the same time
The Natural Interaction mechanism does not comprise codes but real "handable" objects with which the user is stimulated to interact in order to gain the information he/she is looking for, not as a simple spectator but as an "agent".
For the researchers, in fact, understanding the needs of the user is fundamental in order to develop systems that are easy to use.But it is necessary to "focus the attention on content, without dispersing it for the tool or the technology".
Besides, a particular attention is dedicated to the aesthetic aspect of the interface that, to be captivating, needs to be simple and to give the idea that the user is not interacting with a machine. For this reason they choose the computer vision technology, "through which they do not create an interactive system, but a real interactive space that surrounds the user. To achieve this result they use sensing technologies (...), hidden cameras and pervasive displays guzzled in the environment around the user: tables, walls andeven floors, cast signals that reveal to the passer-by that the environment noticed his/her presence and that it is able to answer in a specific way to any other man/environment interaction".
With regards to the Natural Interaction applications, they "are various and range from pure entertainment to the realization of information or advertisement campaigns about products or services, passing for museum and school didactic".

List of Exhibitions (year, title, curator, location, city):

• Exhibition at Palazzo Vecchio, promoted by Comune di Firenze, in which the citizens could interact with their movements and vocal commands with scenes and objects displayed on a big screen. Through their interaction they could observe the changes the city could have undergone for the construction of the underground line.
• Realization in Palazzo Medici Riccardi, with the support of Provincia di Firenze, of a system that allows to interact with the digital reproductions of Benozzo Gozzoli’s frescos simply by pointing at them with the hand. In this way it was possible to learn their stories and to"browse"them in depth.
• Realization in the Museo del mare of Genoa, in occasion of the exhibition "Transatlantici", of a reproduction of the Atlantic Ocean projected on the floor. The systems could follow the position of various visitors simultaneously and display in front of them different audio-visual effects.

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Links to Augmented Reality Portals

Webliography:

• http://archive.forumpa.it/archivio/1000/1900/1960/1964/natint-vicine.html
• http://www.idemployee.id.tue.nl/g.w.m.rauterberg/Movies/NotesOnNaturalInteraction.pdf
• http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/cambridge/projects/hci2020/pdf/thedesignofnaturalinteraction.pdf
• http://tom.londondroids.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/eva09.pdf

Kind of File:

InteractiveResource

Object (category) from Thesaurus Pico Cultura Italia:

Progetti di ricerca

Object (category, tags) free text:

computer vision, interazioneuomo/ambiente, grafica, cinetica, interattività, tecnologie di sensing.