Invisible Yet Necessary

I had the opportunity to test the u-texture system that was on demo at Ubicomp 2005 conference in Tokyo.

Basically, u-texture is a home computing / entertainment system developed at Keio University, Japan. It is based on the concept of active furniture where the components are “blocks”. Each block has its own touch screen display and connectivity. Based on its relative and absolute position in regard to the rest of the system. It can perform different tasks, run different applications.

u-texture blocks can be setup in 2 modes: standalone and system. Blocks can be connected together through u-joints to provide interactions. Here is a description of a block:

More info is available at u-texture project page at Keio University

Here is a picture I took of the interaction between a music CD and a music player/ computer (a Sharp Zaurus I believe)

Ubicomp’05 – U-texture demo, originally uploaded by Riad Lemhachheche.

See also: Ubicomp 2005, Tokyo