credits Students Jan Barth, Roman Grasy Support Prof. Hans Krämer Prof. Steffen Süpple

Data or data-streams are not tangible for us at all. We just see graphical abstractions of ones and zeros, visualized as folders, files or loading bars on our screens. Also the capacity or the used space on our hard- or flash drives is just visualized digital. We never know for sure, how much memory is used on the data storage, we carry around with us.

We have seen the opportunity to intensify the existing abstraction of real objects, through the haptic channel. This way, we are able to create new metaphors and make technology feel more human.

DataBot Mouse

DataBot Mouse is an experiment of giving data physical properties, to make the communication/interaction between man and data more human and easier to understand.

The mouse is able to communicate three different properties of data. It can show you the weight of files and folders, by braking with different force, according to the file-size. Or you can set a custom weight for files, just like the color marking function in MacOSX. So you can find important files more easily.
The third property, the mouse can show you, is the activity of files and folders. By “breathing” with different intervals, it shows how much a file was opened or how busy a folder has been recently.
You can switch between and adjust those features to make the mouse fit your needs.

The prototype mainly consists of a small servo-motor, inside an optical mouse, which brakes a little ball.
To test the prototype and experience the effects, we’ve developed a test laboratory, where you can try out all the functions of the mouse.

DataBot Harddrive

DataBot Harddrive gives data a physical size. The hard drive grows or shrinks, according to the used space on the medium.
During the file-transmission, it also visualizes the progress with a blinking light, which speed decreases till the transmission is finished. By checking the analog scale on the body, you can always see the current fill level.
If an error occurs when transferring a file, the DataBot communicates this by shaking and blinking red.

With DataBot Harddrive we’ve designed a product-family, containing the DataBot Tower, Flatland and Mini.

The construction consists of a 3D-printed case, a servo-motor and some red and blue LED’s.

Prototype

Both prototypes have been developed with VVVV and Arduino, running on Windows. We have used the working prototypes for shooting the video, but simulated the use-cases on Mac OSX, because some GUI elements like the color marking of files is only available on this operating system.

You can test it
@ Exhibition HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd 15. - 16. Juli, 2011

Hochschule für Gestaltung
Schwäbisch Gmünd
University of Applied Sciences
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Marie-Curie-Straße 19
D-73529 Schwäbisch Gmünd