I/O Electronic Brush for Painting

karvind writes "BBC is running an interesting story about the I/O Brush developed by Kimiko Ryokai, researcher at the MIT Media Labs. The device allows a person to pick up colours and textures from their environment and paint with them on a large digital screen. At the tip of the brush is a tiny video camera enclosed by a ring-shaped brush. LEDs are used for illumination, and pressure sensors to trigger image capture. The camera captures one frame in the normal mode, and a few seconds of video in movie mode. The brush "paints" the captured image or movie onto a back-projected touch screen."

Comments

Too bad it's just a toy

[Hannah E. Davis]

It looks like an interesting toy, but I don't know how useful it would be to make actual works of art. From what I can see in the pictures, it looks too big and awkward to do any detail work. It's too bad, really, because a much smaller, stylus-sized version of this would be a lot of fun for image manipulation and digital art. It would be a lot easier to get colours right when painting from life anyway :)

Re:Too bad it's just a toy

[logicnazi]

Well prototype/research versions often need to be much larger than a mass market product as you have to combine general components rather than creating an integrated version through dedicated manufacturing/lithography.

In any case while it does sound like lots of fun, and it could be great for doing studies of real objects (copy the color directly) I don't know (I'm genuienly unsure) if it would really be better at color picking in general. I mean are you really able to find color alot better in the real world than by looking at swatches on the computer (perhaps you are I'm curious).

Re:Too bad it's just a toy

[tinpan]

"I don't know how useful it would be to make actual works of art"
That depends on how good you are at working "outside of the box." I've heard great music created with professional instruments, toy instruments and even computers. I've examined awesome sculpture made with marble and some made with Playdoh. I've even seen great paintings made with condiments. Artists are pretty good at figuring out how to use tools to express themselves in a meaningful ways.

"...it looks too big and awkward to do any detail work."
The level of detail you could do with this thing is orders of magnitude beyond traditional brushes. Did you know that many computer art programs can zoom down to a pixel? And dig this: They also let you assign your granularity in something called dpi. Imagine a single brush that could be adjusted from an angstrom thick to a kilometer wide. Cool, eh?

"It would be a lot easier to get colours right when painting from life anyway"
Yeah, too bad there's not a way to calibrate monitors. And we know that the aim of all painters is to create photographic realism in every detail, even when it interferes with the perceptive and emotional realism.

Science/Children's Meuseum Exhibit

[El Royo]

This seems like a fantastic installation for an interactive meuseum. Or, make a USB version and we can set it up on the PC and let Junior go nuts. It'd also do well on consoles, I think. Hmm, this might have more application than I first thought!

I imagine with a little craftwork, a cheap USB camera and a little FOSS you could make one of these yourself.

It looks like

[xquark]

either an oversize painting brush or a normal sized
toilet brush, I'm still deciding.... :)

Arash

Slavish replication of physical tools

[logicnazi]

I have to say I really like the idea and think it's great. However, making an object a paint brush seems to be just an unimaginative copy of the tool for the physical world. It would seem to me that the brush interface would just be silly at best and interfere with usage at worst.

Sure if the idea of this brush is to sell it to artists or other adults mimicking an interface they are comfortable with might be best. However, this is a limitation of adults they project onto children thinking of them like limited innocent versions of adults. Children are exceptionally good at learning new interfaces and ways of controlling things and it is probably a good experience for them as well.

It just seems kinda silly to me that we repeat this same silly duplication of old interfaces each time. When cars were first invented people tried to put reigns on them along with many other examples I can't remember. I'm just surprised we haven't learned yet that new technologies generally demand new interfaces...then again since it usually takes a generation to become familiar with the new interfaces it may be too much to hope that the designers would ever see this.

(Note this isn't a real criticism just a general observation and nit picking)

Re:Slavish replication of physical tools

[BrynM]

making an object a paint brush seems to be just an unimaginative copy of the tool for the physical world

I realize that you may be saying that this is more convergence than invention, but I think a brush metaphor does best illustrate what this thing does. Despite the label, what it does to computing and kids is interesting. If you can call a wand a wang, you can call a brush a wand.

It just seems kinda silly to me that we repeat this same silly duplication of old interfaces each time. When cars were first invented people tried to put reigns on them along with many other examples I can't remember. I'm just surprised we haven't learned yet that new technologies generally demand new interfaces...

Cars weren't a whizbang!-Suddenly-you-have-a-BMW! type thing. You're forgetting that the interface for a car took a long time to settle (especially by today's standards). In fact, it's still evolving quite a bit. Remember saying:

Children are exceptionally good at learning new interfaces and ways of controlling things

I think this may be a good reason to give it to kids right away. Think of it as interface R&D if you have to.

(Note this isn't a real criticism just a general observation and nit picking)

Ditto ;)

Re:Slavish replication of physical tools

[logicnazi]

Yes, I agree that if your goal is to make adults feel immediatly comfortable with something and quickly understand what it is good for a brush metaphor is best. However, it is a different thing to say that a metaphor communicates what something does and what it is good for/how to use it. The brush metaphore doesn't communicate what this device does; it would be a bad idea to try to paint your wall with this or dip it in real paint. You still have to explain what the device does explicitly as slashdot did in the story description (though not necessarily as technically). Just as with the computer desktop or any other control metaphor the point is to give people familiar with the old technology an immediate idea what this device is good for and how they should relate to it.

I agree that it takes a long time to develop a good interface (though I think the basic car interface: steering wheel, gas, break is essentially fixed and will only change again when people no longer manually control the car). However, I think this process is only prolonged by developers telling people how they should think of and relate to a device by using a metaphor of some existing technology. Children are certainly more immune to this implied instruction about what you should and shouldn't use this technology for but I don't know if they are completely.

I mean if your goal was to do UI research and figure out how people used the device the last thing you would want to do is prejudge the issue for them by packaging it just like some other technology.

Still, I suppose it is probably a necessery evil to get funding and potentially have the technology picked up by other adults. Trying to explain you made a stick with a camera in it is probably not going to get you anywhere near the immediate understanding of the benefits of your project as making it a paint brush will. Still, even if it isn't the case here I definatly think adults often impede children by supposing they need the same sort of familiar clues adults do.

High-Tech or Dump

[Cash202]

This appears to be one of two things:

1) Revolutionary way to develop creativity, artistic design, and low level education to children. Would replace wasteful and hectic coloring books, child artbooks, and maybe open gate to accept fully digital books. A world of application.

-or-

2) Another technological development overlooked and not cared for, ending up with countless other technological developments. Though some of which were brought back after years in the garbage pile, when widely or purposeful applicable use appears. However, most remain there, which it seems this would be the destiny of this particular gadget.

That's so 2004

[MSch]

That thing was featured in the Austrian Ars Electronica Festival from 2004.

More information about the Brush from this website

Re:That's so 2004

[horror_vacui]

I work at the Ars Electronica Center and I can confirm that it's not really news, the I/O brush having been exposed there for a rather long time.

Like most exhibits in the AEC, the I/O brush is not meant to be useful in the praxis, but rather to show new ways of interaction that new technologies offer - like 'moonies', a project where you can chase butterflies projected on a screen of vapour, or 'scrapple', a kind of reversal of virtual reality (which is basically a music sampler, only you create music not by editing the track on the screen, but by putting real objects of various shapes on a grid projected on a table). And lots of others, which are along the same lines - 'conspiratio', 'music box' etc. See for yourself on http://www.aec.at/en/festival2005/programm/allproj ects.asp

It seems like especially kids love the I/O brush, resulting in high amounts of tear and wear on the hardware.

Similar to using a pda with an art package

[blackest_k]

I use a Pda Phone with a Paint package to achieve a similar effect.

The phone has a camera built in so I can take a shot of where I am
Load this a background layer and then proceed to draw on a new layer
with the stylus on the touch screen.

Its a very natural way to draw. The alternatives such as a mouse or tablet
simply dont give the direct feedback drawing on a touch screen does.

the pda is pocket sized so makes drawing anywhere simple and discrete along with a battery life that will allow you to sit for hours drawing, its a great tool for anyone who likes to draw.

Cool!

[Anonymous Coward]

So if you wanted:
perfect white - you'd put it on your mac : |
perfect blue color - your windows monitor :P
that elite blue led color, your linux case : D

Silly bristles!

[springbox]

Why did they embed the video camera inside a big load of brush bristles? To make the kids feel "at ease" with the device? I imagine someone is writing their thesis right now on how important the damn bristles are

You're funny!

But seriously, given the nature of the device, which is used for creating art, the gigantic paint brush seems like some sort of artistic expression in itself.

Daniel Rozin

[babymac]

Artist Daniel Rozin has already done something like this.

http://smoothware.com/danny/neweasel.html

You should also check out his other projects such as my personal favorite, Wooden Mirror.