University portfolio
The Laser Chess – FAQ
This link appeared here and there even got a minor digg, so a lot of people seemed interested into building thier own laser chess game What are we talking about? How the table was made? It was a rather big game, a tabletop size. It had a wooden structure, covered in the outside with plastic (polyesthyrene if I remember well) sheets How you make the laser visible? If you don't make the laser visible you will be rather disappointed, having to search for where the red point had gone since you moved the mirror. You need particles in the air, and anything from clapping a chalkboard or smoking on the board will do. We decided to use dry ice, as we didn't have a smoke machine to spare, and the dry…
Mind the pad
Mind the pad is a mind-tracker application-concept for cell phones and PDAs that is at the same time a scribble & write sketch pad, an address book, agenda and file organizer. The main principle behind the application is that information is not saved on a fixed location, but is stored as separate pieces that are auto organized as the user reach for it. Each piece of information, or meme, is a small text file along with a drawing (superimposed over the text), which can be linked to images or any file. Upon reading the user may underline some words and they will be transformed on special index words. When the user clicks an index word all information is re-organized and every data containing…
Radio Jaba
Free music might change our culture. But only if it creates a culture. We live in a funny paradox. You can hear any music, from anywhere, given you already know it, or at least know how to spell it in a search engine. As a result, most of downloads are the famous artists seen in MTV, which makes the MTV guys very unhappy, as that´s precisely what they don´t want you to do. And at the same time, thousands of ignored musicians out there are actually asking to be heard, but remain in oblivion. The result: recording companies prosecute people who can´t understand what they have done wrong (we´ve all always heard music for free after all), independent unknown artists who remain unknown artists,…
Alchemy of Juices
Experiment the Alchemy! Can we map something as subjective as tastes? Alchemy of juices is a interactive infograph that is helps to choose a juice made with various fruits, by selecting either the fruits, the feeling or the taste. At the same time it tries to foresse those tastes and feelings of juices you mix there, based on user input from previous juices. Just as an alchemic diagram it’s about being a somewhat misterious but beautiful infograph. Yes, we’ve got bananas, and thousands of other tropical fruits. And it is not amazing that in any casual restaurant in Rio de Janeiro you may ask to mix peanuts, banana, and amazonian fruits like Guaraná and Açaí. Best of all, they’ve got…
Muvuca
muvuca is about connecting distant friends through some kind of non verbal sharing. throught their avatar on the movie screen they can sense that their friends have a common focus of attention. It’s a virtual movie theather, where all friends watch the same movie at the same time. The avatar, controlled by a puppet-like remote, allows the users to hav movements without sounds to allow silent comunications. Also, it can act as a passive microfone transforming the audio in semi controlled movements from the avatar. Also see this Bill gate’s comment on the project about: Made for the Microsoft Research Design Expo 2003 contest, along with Rodrigo Rego and Ricardo Bacellar
the Wall Maze
Enter the maze Game design and programming. While figuring out an algorithm for building a maze with only one right path, it became clear that in such a maze the walls would be a labyrinth of it’s own. Then it was a natural evolution transforming it into a maze whith special stairs and bridges so you could walk over walls or on the ground. For centuries labyrinths have been used for meditation. Taking the longest route to go through a short distance, priests would use that time to pray and think. Back then, no one had invented traffic jam. I also used my long hours in traffic jams to read and think. So I found some funny things about them. The first is that in a true maze (a labyrinth with…
Laser Chess
The rule of thumb in the first year of college is: bend the rules to see how far they can go. The teacher asked the students to build a game with resin pieces, just so we would know how to mould in resin. We added dry ice, acr ylic tubes and a laser beam. Laser Chess is a strategy game for two player s. Each one has four semi-spheric pawns (molded after a hlf cutte billir ball) with a mirror face, and the game objective is to reflect the central laser beam until it hits the opponent’s goal, an acrylic tube which glows red when illuminated. The game was constructed on a 1.2 m (4 ft.) high table with a space under which there is a blue light and a solidified carbon dioxide vapour. For the…