The Interaction Lab was launched at HIT

 

The new interaction lab, headed by Michal Brill, had moved to the Faculty of Design's building and offers students support and guidance regarding integrating digital technology in projects, alongside technical support in software issues.

 

The products of the "IDHOInteractive Design Hands On" course, where students from various departments took part, are a direct result of the lab's capabilities.

 

FiTV – a project which demonstrates well the power of multi-disciplinary cooperation: Bar Ban Zaken from the department of electric engineering and electronics, Gilad Gal from the industrial design department and Ilanit Dorfman from the visual communication department, have created together a TV remote control which encourages physical activity while watching TV. When the user doesn't meet the physical activity goals that he had defined, the volume decreases and vice versa, when he exercises, the volume increases to its normal level.

 

 

The Art Loud project By Omer Lifshitz from the visual communications design department and Yael Riboh from the industrial design department, is a machine which creates visual images according to music that is being played. The project's strength is in the successful combination between the physical and the digital: the images are digitally calculated and are manufactured mechanically while adapting to sound. This project provides a pleasant visual experience as well as a physical product that can be kept as a souvenir from a live concert or a party.

 

 

Another course that is offered in the lab is called "Interactive objects design" and is offered to the visual communications design students studying in the interactive track. The products of this course demonstrate the various fields where digital technology can be incorporated in order to create new interactions. Some students have decided to embed the technology in a popular physical object.

 

In a "wearable computing" exercise, students were asked to integrate technology in a portable object that is wearable, while the technology had to be activated through movement or body gestures. Nataly Aharon and Dor Hershkowitz have designed YEKE-a product which encourages one to sit up straight. A device that is embedded in a set of suspenders recognizes if the person sits up straight or not and activates small vibration engines which send a pulse that reminds him to straighten up.