Ball-Shaped camera and tangible interactions

Posted: September 18th, 2007 | 10 Comments »

Fabien, who is at Ubicomp 2007, just sent me this crazy project: TosPom: a ball-shaped camera that takes pictures while playing catch by Izumi Yagi, Mitsuyoshi Kimura, Makiko Nagao and Naohito Okude:

“TosPom is a ball-shaped camera that takes pictures while playing catch. When the photographer throws TosPom to the object, the object’s face will be taken automatically as the object catches it, and the picture will be shown on the display.
With TosPom, the act of taking pictures becomes a mutual, interactive activity that involves both the photographer and the object while both parties engage in a fun activity of playing catch. Moreover, the photographer can draw out a more natural and relaxed expression from the object.“

Why do I blog this? catch, camera, ball, nice combination of keywords. Beyond that, the sort of data that they can get out of this might be curious to design playful activities. The device is playful but at the same time it records interactions with it and the surroundings. It’s interesting also to think about other affordances of the ball… using the rolling capacity of the device to take picture of certain places, etc.

10 Comments on “Ball-Shaped camera and tangible interactions”

  1. 1 Yves Grassioulet said at 6:18 pm on September 18th, 2007:

    Beware, the one-eyed big brother ball is born… next step might be for the ball to fly around and you’ll get the Big Brother 3D Eyes. From fun to security?!

  2. 2 rb.trends» Blog Archive » Camera activity said at 2:29 pm on September 19th, 2007:

    [...] Ball-Shaped camera and tangible interactions“TosPom is a ball-shaped camera that takes pictures while playing catch. When the photographer throws TosPom to the object, the object’s face will be taken automatically as the object catches it, and the picture will be shown on the display.With TosPom, the act of taking pictures becomes a mutual, interactive activity that involves both the photographer and the object while both parties engage in a fun activity of playing catch.” Pasta&Vinegar [...]

  3. 3 jean-baptiste said at 3:33 pm on September 19th, 2007:

    there is satugo as well http://www.satugo.com/

  4. 4 Nicolas Nova said at 3:39 pm on September 19th, 2007:

    Do you know where to get one j*b?

    (I assumed you some thoughts about this)

  5. 5 jean-baptiste said at 12:47 pm on September 20th, 2007:

    well, to my knowledge this project, satugo, or also another similar projects like the SpyRod are only prototypes … The only one i know you can buy is produced by an IDF (israeli army) spin-off called ODF Optronics. It is like a hand-grenade (!) and resistant to landing, it cost around 2000 dollars. You throw it where you want to see and it broadcasts the signal to you !

    http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2005-12-07-baseball-security-cam_x.htm?csp=34

    cheers,
    j*b

  6. 6 Yves Grassioulet said at 4:54 pm on September 20th, 2007:

    “You throw it where you want to see and it broadcasts the signal to you!” Ze military/security dream per se… Or shall we say military/security illusion?

  7. 7 Riccardo Cambiassi said at 11:29 am on September 21st, 2007:

    Besides, this is going straight toward the Spime concept :)

  8. 8 Anna said at 6:18 pm on September 21st, 2007:

    This ball just reminded me a toy by Chuck Hoberman.
    You have some more information about it and more of his work at:
    http://pingmag.jp/2007/07/13/transformable-architecture/

  9. 9 Nicolas Nova said at 8:09 pm on September 21st, 2007:

    Well, speaking about ball, the Sonyl Rolly is also curious: http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/31/sonys-rolly-revealed/

  10. 10 Pasta&Vinegar » Blog Archive » A list of intriguing digital cameras said at 1:16 pm on November 13th, 2007:

    [...] follow-up to this blogpost, I started making a short list of “curious digital [...]

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