Hayes Raffle & David Merrill, with Roberto Aimi
Steel, wood, custom electronics, audio processing software running on a PC, and various materials

Sound of Touch is a semi-acoustic instrument for real-time capture and sensitive physical stimulation of sound samples using digital convolution. A hand-held wand can be used to record sound and then playback the recording by brushing, scraping, striking or otherwise physically manipulating the wand against physical objects. During playback, the recorded sound is continuously filtered by the acoustic interaction of the wand and the material being touched.

{website | papers | press | exhibitions}

Freestanding Texture kits invite visitors to sculpt sound by exploring the visual, tactile and acoustic ranges of familiar materials. Their designs are inspired by Mondrian’s mid-career abstract paintings of blocks and lines, and in the texture kits, familiar materials are decontextualized as repurposeable media content.

While an acoustic instrument’s resonance is typically determined by the materials from which it is built, digital audio tools are usually divorced from the world of physical acoustics. With the Sound of Touch, resonant materials can be chosen during the performance itself, allowing performers to shape the acoustics of digital sounds by leveraging their intuitions for the acoustics of physical objects. The Sound of Touch permits real-time exploitation of the sonic properties of a physical environment, to achieve a rich and expressive control of digital sound that is not typically possible in electronic sound synthesis and control systems.

Bring your creations to life! Topobo is a construction toy with kinetic memory, the ability to record and playback physical motion. Snap together Passive (static) and Active (motorized) components to invent your own Topobo creature and animate it by pushing, pulling, and twisting its body. For example, you can make a dog and then teach it to dance and walk by twisting its body and legs. With the push of a button, the dog will dance and walk by itself. The same way children learn how buildings stand by stacking blocks, they can learn how animals walk by playing with Topobo.

Watch the Topobo video.

{website | videos | brochure | press | awards | papers | images}

Topobo has shown in art, technology and science museums and galleries internationally and won a number of presitigous awards. It is also a big hit with children.

Awards
Robots at Play, 2007. Most playful robotic system, Topobo.
iCampus grant. 2005. Grant award from Microsoft Corp. for design, community outreach and education research with Topobo.
ARS Electronica 2004, Honorable Mention, Interactive Art. Topobo.
Design of Interactive Systems Interactive Design Awards. 2004 Honorable mention, Topobo.
I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review, 2004. Design Distinction, Student Work, Topobo.

Exhibitions
Robots at Play. 2007. Odense, Denmark.
SIGGRAPH Emerging Technologies. 2007. San Diego, CA.
Play Innovation. 2007. Kitakyushu Innovation Gallery & Studio inaugural exhibition. Kitakyushu, Japan.
Future Film Festival. 2007. Bologna, Italy.
iCampus Exhibition. 2006. MIT Museum. Six month exhibition of Microsoft-MIT alliance (Topobo). Cambridge, MA.
SIGGRAPH Educational Robotics Demo. 2006. SIGGRAPH conference session on educational robotics (Topobo). Boston, MA.
SIGGRAPH Etech. 2006. SIGGRAPH conference session on emerging technologies (Topobo). Boston, MA.
Threads. 2006. Artspace Gallery, New Haven, CT.
Show Me Yours: a presentation of recent work in the School of Architecture and Planning (MIT). 2004. Cambridge, MA.
Artbots: The Robot Talent Show. 2004. Group exhibition. The Mink Building. New York, NY.
Cyberarts 2004. 2004 Ars Electronica interactive art awards exhibition. OK Centrum, Linz, Austria.
ARS Electronica Center. 2004.One year installation, Topobo. Linz, Austria.
Wired NextFest. 2004. Wired Magazine international technology exhibition. Fort Mason Center. San Francisco, CA.

Jabberstamp is the the first tool that allows children to synthesize their drawings and voices. To use Jabberstamp, children create drawings, collages or paintings on normal paper. They press a special rubber stamp onto the page to record sounds into their drawings. When children touch the marks of the stamp with a small trumpet, they can hear the sounds playback, retelling the stories they have created.

Children ages 4+ can use Jabberstamp to embed names, narratives, characters’ voices and environmental sound effects in their original drawings. Children’s compositions help them communicate their stories with peers and adults, and allow them to record and situate stories in personally meaningful contexts to share with others, before they have mastered writing.

{ website | video | papers | press }

The You’re In Control system uses computation to enhance the act of urination. Sensors in the back of a urinal detect the position of impact of a stream of urine, enabling the user to play interactive games on a screen mounted above the urinal.

While urination fulfills a basic bodily function, it is also an activity rich with social significance. Along with the refreshing release it provides, the act of micturition satisfies a primal urge to mark our territory. For women who visit the bathroom in groups and chat in neighboring stalls, urination can be a bonding ritual. For men who write their names in the snow, extinguish cigarettes, or congregate around lampposts to urinate, urination can be a test of skill and a way of asserting their masculinity.

Flush the urinal to play You’re a Nation, and drown political opposition as they campaign in key swing states.

Patented.

{website | video | paper}

Natura maxime miranda in minimis
(Nature is greatest in little things)

Super Cilia Skin is a literal membrane separating a computer from its environment. Like our skin, it is haptic I/O membrane that can sense and simulate movement and wind flow. Our intention is to have it be universally applied to sheath any surface.  As a display, it can mimic another person’s gesture over a distance via a form of tangible telepresence.  A hand-sized interface covered with Super Cilia Skin would produce subtle changes in surface texture that feel much like a telepresent “butterfly kiss.”

A small object surrounded with Super Cilia Skin could propel itself across the floor, or stop to create
visually expressive changes in surface. Conversely, a Super Cilia Skin surface could propel objects across it using mechanical gestures like the movements of a centipede’s feet.

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Publications

Included in Brownell, Blaine (Ed). Transmaterial 2: A Catalog of Materials That Redefine Our Physical Environment. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (2008).

Raffle, H., and Tichenor, J. Super Cilia Skin: Interfaz de Texturas, Pasajes Construcción: Materiales. Number 31, September 2007, pp. 8-9 and front cover. Madrid: América Ibérica.

Raffle, H., Tichenor, J., and Ishii, H. Super Cilia Skin: A Textural Interface, Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture. London: Berg Publishers. 2004.

Raffle, H., Joachim, M., and Tichenor, J. Super Cilia Skin: An Interactive Membrane, Proceedings of CHI 2003.

ZOOB® is the first construction toy based on things that grow, from DNA to dinosaurs.

Founder, Primordial, LLC. San Francisco, CA. 1995-1999.	Co-developed ZOOB concept Co-designed ZOOB system through production manufacturing.	Award, I.D. Magazine 45th Annual Design Review Design Distinction - Consumer Products.	Department Head, Graphic Design Managed production of all graphic design, including packaging, sales and marketing collateral and corporate ID.
Art Direction Developed methodologies to teach and communicate the Zoob system with printed instructions. Art directed and produced over a dozen unique instruction books.	Product Design Designed and developed Zoob Wheels and related products.	Packaging Design & Production Designed and produced promotional items with partners such as GAP Kids and Disney Corporation.	Video Production & Direction Produced “ZOOB TOONS” stop-motion animated video. Directed and produced “How To Zoob” instructional video. Watch a video excerpt.