The display is situated within a circle of interactive boxes.

This week at the University of Glasgow, passers-by may have seen a mysterious installation in the walkway between the Boyd Orr and the Sir Alwyn Williams Building.  The installation involves a spherical touch sensitive display and eight interactive boxes filled with coloured light.  The display is encircled by a ring made up of these boxes.  Passers-by must enter the circle to touch the display and explore the installation’s interactivity.

Each box can be controlled by interacting with the sphere.

The installation explores issues of playfulness in public spaces, environmental control, and discovery of interactivity.  We have placed the installation in this public space in order to understand how passers-by engage with an unknown interface in a public space, what they do when confronted with something playful in nature, and how they explore its capabilities.

This work comes from a five month collaboration between the University of Glasgow and Pufferfish Ltd in Edinburgh.  The project revolves around understanding how novel display form factors influence how these displays are used in public spaces.

People

Dr. Julie R. Williamson, University of Glasgow
Dr. John Williamson, University of Glasgow
Daniel Sundén, Product Designer
Dr. Jay Bradley, Pufferfish Ltd
Ben Allan, Pufferfish Ltd.