Doors 7: Body-Shaped Interface wins Grand Prix

The OpenDoorsDesign Grand Prix 2002 at Doors 7 was won by Jussi Angesleva of Media Lab Europe with "Body Mnemonics", described as a meta-tool for portable devices.

Angesleva's innovation is to give devices such as PDAs and communicators a mechanism for detecting their orientation with respect to their owner's body, so that by tapping a shoulder, say, or a pocket, different functions can be accessed. The examples given included touching the gadget to a back pocket for a wallet function, or holding it to one's breast to retrieve the number of a loved one. Angesleva said that he had conducted research into what associations parts of the body had for different people and concluded that while associations were individual, they were strongly held, making this a good basis for an interface.

His idea sparked considerable discussion amongst attendees, many concerned by implementation issues. While it would be easy to remember one set of controls spaced round the body, Angesleva had also presented sub-menus, such as phone numbers and pieces of music. How would the different menus relate? And how would someone else use a device customised for a particular individual – co-ordinates for functions might relate to striking a shoulder on one person, but require perching directly under a collarbone for someone taller.

There was also a recognition that the mechanism could function in a sphere around a person, determined by each individual's reach, with functions on the periphery, which could ultimately impact on the shape of people's personal space – and could lead to the locations for functions being based on positions on another's body towards whom the individual had a regular physical orientation.

The judging of the Grand Prix took place at the Doors 7 conference "Flow: the design challenge of pervasive computing" (see UN story: Pervasive Computing gets Perceptive Treatment) where 22 finalists presented their ideas for the future use of digital ubiquity. Both audience and jury voted on the 5 minute presentations to conclude unanimously that Angesleva's project should win. The prize is a free trip to India to present at the Doors East conference.

Other stimulating ideas presented as part of the Grand Prix competition included a way of making orientation in underground car parks more closely related to the outside world, a project for homes over motorways creating an Edgetown, and a personal information broker, allowing individuals to sell their collated financial information to the highest bidder through the Web: Loome.

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