Yi-Fan Hsieh

Loci of Interface creates new possibilities to extend interaction with computer interfaces to physical objects. This interface leverages augmented reality and utilizes spatial dimensions of objects to attach any object with the corresponding channel of spatial anchors to digital interfaces. With Loci, even non-digital physical objects can be connected to your digital world and act as an adaptive personal interface collection.

Loci anchor is the core of this new interactive interface that links tangible objects to computer user interfaces using spatial intelligence. The anchor can be located on the selected surface of the object recognized by the computer vision. And the computer side of the anchor will be able to define the interactive area of the graphical user interface that corresponds to the Loci anchor. Loci anchors will be created/placed and navigated in the environment by a mouse, which embodies the traditional pointer of the computer peripheral.

The second layer of information is given to environmental objects and spaces and displayed in front of users through computer and smartphone screens. This is currently the primary interface of augmented reality. In the future we imagine, everyone will wear a smaller display screen on their heads, or wear augmented reality filters on our eyes. I am very interested in exploring the transitional stage in the immediate future.

For computer operation, the mouse can only move around on the surface of the interface. In reality, the mouse is also your physical cursor. You can treat the spatial object as a digital icon. Yet the spatial anchors we embed in physical objects require a camera to capture, what if this mouse perceives the world in a way it doesn't just use an IR sensor?

Traditionally, spatial interactions have been about placing a camera on the other side to capture gestures, which I think is different from holding a camera to capture a digital object. The user has more autonomy than trying to fit objects into the camera's field of view.

This project initially started with the idea that the value of digital content is that they have no physical form, can be transmitted, copied, and exist around any of our environments. However, they all need a material representation to convey the information value. By giving the limitation of the space dimension and storing in a specific scope, can we collect those digital content into our pockets like picking up stones on the roadside? Or will it be like the smell, with different information being delivered to people according to different substances and corresponding context?

Assuming that we can physically interact with those digital content existing in space. What sort of feedback will be triggered by people? The approach of this experimental project is to generate hypotheses through a series of imaginations.