Top 5 Interactive Technologies of the Future

Games may soon be played on 3D touchscreen displays or xBlocks for the ultimate interactive experience. Those aren’t the only interactive technologies of the future, continue reading for more.

Interactive xBlocks

Combining interactive art and gaming, xBlocks delivers a unique experience to say the least. It’s currently on display at Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan, Italy.

Using standard game controllers, two opposing players must help their characters navigate in and around a three dimensional maze. The real challenge comes, not from traditional game mechanics but rather from moving with your character as he sprints around corners and jumps between the installation’s two play surfaces

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Thermopainter

Osaka University researcher Daisuke Iwai has developed a new technology which allows people to paint using thermal vision technology.

ThermoPainter can detect temperature change regions on a sensing surface as touch regions when objects hotter or colder than the surface touch it. In the system, users can use a physical paintbrush with hot water and an airbrush with cold water in spite of paint as they use in the real world, and even use their own fingers, hands, and breaths directly because of their own body heat.

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I/O Brush

At first glance, it looks like your standard brush, but upon closer inspection you’ll find integrated LEDs, touch sensors, and a camera. The I/O Brush basically “lifts up and captures photons”, allowing artists to draw with “special ink” picked up from their immediate environment.

I/O Brush looks like a regular physical paintbrush but has a small video camera with lights and touch sensors embedded inside. Outside of the drawing canvas, the brush can pick up color, texture, and movement of a brushed surface.

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Thermoesthesia – Interactive Art

Thermoesthesia is basically “interactive artwork with an original thermal sense display. It has been developed to allow users feel the temperature of the visually displayed objects, which is cool or warm by directly touching.

What actually fascinated me was the simple idea of being able to create shapes, animation at the simple touch of your finger tips

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Toshiba’s 3D Interactive Display

This followup to Toshiba’s flat-bed 3D display, builds upon that technology and adds touchscreen functionality. Put simply, it employs “an integral imaging system that reproduces light beams similar of those produced by a real object, not its visual representation.”