The BloomBeacon is reminiscent of technology most people can only remember seeing in movies (think any hologram scene in Star Wars).
So it makes sense that the device, designed by University of Chicago grad student Willa Yang, supervised by Assistant Professor Ken Nakagaki, is inspired by science fiction.
Yang said the device aims to answer the question: What if screens could appear only when needed?
“This can allow everyday environments to become interactive without being permanently filled with screens,” Yang said in a press release. “The concept broadens the possibility of where interactive content can be placed and tangibly interacted with.”
AxLab
The BloomBeacon consists of a small box with a pair of arms. Together, the two arms spin and create and interactive screen. It can do things like turn materials like paper maps into dynamic surfaces and augment a speaker with album art or touch controls.
“People should be able to shape their environments instead of adapting themselves to fixed technologies,” Yang said.
Yang and Nakagaki are members of the AxLab — a group known for blending technology seamlessly into everyday life and designing technology that adapts to users, not the other way around.
