Touch Interactive London Product Design, Industrial Design, Interaction Design, Tangible Bits, Web Design,

Project: ti PEN BALL / / Project Type: COMPUTER RELATED INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Design Challenge
Haptic based 3D software systems are expensive to produce and buy. Currently they are only used by a few specialists groups for professions such as medical research, production design, toy manufacturing and industrial design. However, although the advances in human computer interaction in this area has greatly improved the experience of modelling digital objects in 3D, few companies can afford current haptic solutions , in particular those who could use them most: small design companies, digital artists and hobbiests.

However, as haptic technology advances and becomes cheaper to buy, more and more companies and individuals will see the advantages of this more natural way to model and as a result the target market will stretch from high end niche, to a more consumer level. With those changes though, the product and brand will also need to be more accessible, and take into account the new market for which it must be sold.

Touch Interactive developed this concept as an example of our HCI (Human Computer Interaction) design service.

Design Solution
The product here functions as a sensitive haptic input device which allows the user to feel the digital model as it is being built. The object has a stand to sit on, however, unlike a fixed destop device this product can be used remotely, held on one hand and modelled in the other. The object reflects its use with a "wireframe" look where it is held in the palm of the hand. This also reflects its purpose, that it is a product for creating and manipulating digital objects. Others might see it as a metaphorical globe, where the user has full control of that globe.

The pen device is designed to be fully respectful to a users sense of touch, and can be held in a traditional pen like fashion, or held from the top with the users finger tips, for more accurate control.

The overall look is of a product with a technical edge but with a more traditional purpose. By contrasting aluminium with a textured fabric, the product gives a futuristic feel, but a future full of environmental promise, where we live in a world which appreciates the qualities of the past, as well as the advances in the new.