PerForm explores the intuitive meanings associated with the shape of objects, and how a deformable tool can allow for interaction based on a language of form. How can we use intuitive associations from senses to create intuitive interfaces where the user communicates concepts through shapes? PerForm addresses that question by allowing users to transform a physical tool to fit their intentions. A user can play different musical instruments or take different actions in games, simply by varying the shape of the tool. Since the meanings associated with the shapes would be dependent on context, we are giving special focus to studying mappings of between timbral components of sound and characteristics of shape.
SOUND-SHAPE CORRESPONDENCES
PerForm explores how the associations between visual and auditory perception can be used in interaction design. We developed a physical interface that users can transform by bending to create geometric shapes or symbols. By investigating possible correlations, natural or forged, between perceptual components of shape and its correlates in sound, we enable the tool to become a new instrument, with different sound timbre depending on the geometry of the object.
A DEFORMABLE GAME CONTROLLER
One of the applications of this shapeable device would be to enable different modes of interaction through changes in shape. Instead of having to buy multiple controller devices for each genre of gaming or kind of interaction, or simply using a single, fixed-form controller that limits the embodied experience, a device capable of transformation would enable users to have a more imaginative and creative gaming experience, even enabling new kinds of games in which the user can invent tools by varying shapes.