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“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

– Steve Jobs

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Featured Projects

Delft AI Toolkit

On 16, Jan 2018 | In | By phil

Delft AI Toolkit

A tool for the design of AI

We are entering an age of pervasive machine intelligence, and there is an urgent need to develop strategies for the design of these new ecologies. The Delft AI Toolkit (GitHub repo) is a platform to easily create working AI prototypes that intelligently behave – see, hear, process, manipulate data, move, and speak.

Work in progress videos at the bottom of the post

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Acura – Race Your Heart Out

On 30, Dec 2016 | In | By phil

Acura – Race Your Heart Out

Race Your Heart Out was the 2015 Acura Winter Sales event, which was a slot car race live broadcast on Periscope to raise money for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation. Hearts on Periscope controlled the speed of the cars and they raced. I consulted for Razorfish on this project and created the Arduino software and interface that received the “heart rate” (how many people were tapping the hearts) for each slot car, and controlled their speed – the more hearts at any moment, the faster the cars would go.
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A+D MuseumA+D MuseumA+D MuseumA+D MuseumA+D MuseumA+D Museum

On 13, Jan 2012 | In | By phil

A+D Museum

Recently a few of my students from the Media Design Program at Art Center and I created an interactive installation for the 10th anniversary of the Architecture+Design Museum. The A+D is a growing institution in the Los Angeles area, and they were having a party for their board and major donors. Two weeks before the event I got a call from museum supporter Garson Yu owner of yU+co, asking to help out in a volunteer effort to create something to show the history of the museum.
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Acura OraclesAcura OraclesAcura OraclesAcura OraclesAcura OraclesAcura Oracles

On 10, Jan 2011 | In | By phil

Acura Oracles

The Acura Oracle project was initiated by MDP alumni Nikolai Cornell at George P. Johnson for the Acura stand at the international auto shows (including Detroit, Chicago, New York, and LA) for the 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 exhibitions. It’s a 4 foot round multitouch table that enables a social experience for a group of people.

I participated as a consultant in the initial creative brainstorming and technical definition.
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Object & Screen Speculations

On 13, Jan 2008 | In | By phil

Object & Screen Speculations

Update, September 2017: I recently watched this after many years, because I randomly came across a SlideShare from a workshop that David Sherwin and Aaron Rincover ran back in 2010. The workshop was called “Prototyping Interaction with Video Scenarios,” and it references my video as an example of rough prototyping and interaction (slide 16).

When I made the video I was thinking about how to use tangible objects as a way to interact with screens. But what struck me watching it in 2017 is how relevant this kind of interaction is for AR and VR.
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On 10, Jan 2008 | In | By phil

Acura Oracles

The Acura Oracle project was initiated by MDP alumni Nikolai Cornell at George P. Johnson for the Acura stand at the international auto shows (including Detroit, Chicago, New York, and LA) for the 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 exhibitions. It’s a 4 foot round multitouch table that enables a social experience for a group of people.

I participated as a consultant in the initial creative brainstorming and technical definition.
Read more…

Infiniti Interactive MirrorInfiniti Interactive MirrorInfiniti Interactive MirrorInfiniti Interactive MirrorInfiniti Interactive MirrorInfiniti Interactive Mirror

On 10, Jan 2006 | In | By phil

Infiniti Interactive Mirror

An installation for Infiniti at the International Auto Shows, the Infiniti Interactive Mirror is a 3 screen interface that uses mirrored glass and rear projection to create a seamless large screen touch interface. George P. Johnson created the project with Nikolai Cornell as creative director (MDP alum, based on his thesis project). Nikolai worked with The Designory, MindFlood, and my company Commotion.
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U2 ZooTV (1993)U2 ZooTV (1993)U2 ZooTV (1993)U2 ZooTV (1993)U2 ZooTV (1993)U2 ZooTV (1993)

On 10, Jan 1993 | In | By phil

U2 ZooTV (1993)

For the U2 ZooTV tour in 1993, I and my MusicWorks team at Philips Media (Brett Spivey, Randy Picolet, Mike Diehr) created two interactive projects for the band to use onstage. It’s fun to think about what it was like to make interactive media back then. Keep in mind, this was the year NCSA released the first real web browser called Mosaic, before Photoshop had layers, and when a 650 meg (not gig!) SCSI hard drive was $2500 and the size of a breadbox.
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