Concept
Humans are very sensitive to be touched and to touch others. There are many rituals linked to the physical contact, such as handshaking, hugging, and giving high-fives. We feel tingling sensation even if we are only in close proximity to others.
Untouched touch
People are very sensitive to touch others. Many people must have felt a kind of tingling sensation on the edge of touching someone. This sensation is so delicate that it varies drastically by relationship with others. Ether Inductor is one trial to design interaction between people utilizing appealing power and diversification of touching.
In this exhibition, two players on a stage will stand face-to-face on either side of a small horizontal monitor. The task for the players is to steer a flock of tiny creatures in the monitor under instruction of particular type of haptic interaction. Never fear, all you need to do is keep a slight distance between yourselves or carefully give a very gentle touch. The motion, color and shape of the creatures will change corresponding to the collaboration history of touches and movements. In other words, players can create their own tactile experience through the assistance of the electronic device.
The aim of the installation is to provide awareness of unexploited feeling — untouched touch. Moreover, we expect that we will become self-aware about subtle changes to our boundary. We have developed an innovative easy-to-use sensing technology for the project. The spatial relationships of users are processed by measuring the electric field around human body (Patent pending). The sensor system also can be applied in marketing research and interactive products as well as game systems.
Related works:
- "Haptic Nature", Electrofringe 2010 | http://www.electrofringe.net/2010/
- "Ether Synthesizer", Laval Virtual 2011 | http://www.laval-virtual.org/