Semester: Summer 2024
Course Format: Projekt mit seminaristischem Unterricht
Integriertes Produktdesign (B.A.)
Cooperation Partner: Hochschule Coburg, Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Digitus.Art
Hochschule Coburg
Prof. Dr. Michael Markert,
Laura Ankenbauer,
Lukas Bebb,
Nadja Chrystianowicz,
Florian Hartmann,
Lea Kemmelmeier,
Julia Kipke,
Nils Rohlfs,
Johannes Schmidt,
Stella Schrüfer,
Fabian Söllner
Klassik Stiftung Weimar
Dr. Dirk Wintergrün,
Kristina Johannes,
Alexander Methfessel,
Sophia Gröschke,
Annika Schlimm,
u.a.
Thomas Müller (Fotografien)
digitus.art
Ilja Streit,
Enzo Manzano
How to open a drawer virtually, without body, without hands?
The current continuation of the cooperation between Integrated Product Design and Klassik Stiftung Weimar is focussing on this question. With 31 museums and places of experience as well as 12 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the foundation is one of the largest and most important cultural institutions in Germany.
The successful cooperation between Prof. Dr. Michael Markert and Klassik Stiftung Weimar continued this year: In a pilot project of Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s study and workroom was recreated in high resolution in digital space by Digitus.Art. The project, funded by Neustart Kultur, allows visitors to get a hyper-realistic impression of the virtual room in Goethe’s home in an immersive installation on a screen wall. The actual room in the museum can otherwise only be viewed, but not entered. So far, the reconstruction and replication of the digital twin of Goethe’s study has been the main focus.
Together with the design agency Digitus.Art and Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Prof. Dr. Michael Markert and his students are now working on further proposals for a clear and intuitive control system that can be operated easily and effectively by a broad user group. It has been shown that complex VR controllers from the gaming sector are not understandable for all user groups. It is therefore a question of the core issues of interaction, orientation and navigation at the interface between digital, physical and virtual spaces.
How do you move around a virtual room without physical legs? How do I look around without body? Which button should I press? How do I open a drawer, how do I unfold Goethe’s drawing table?
Project Goal
The aim of the project was to design a clear control system for the replica of the digital twin of Goethe’s study that is easy to use for a broad user group. This included analysing existing interactions and deriving new proposals from them.
In present and future Product Design, not only physical, but also digital and hybrid products play a major role. Prof. Dr. Markert and his students are working with partners from the region and beyond on simple, intuitive, sustainable and meaningful forms of interaction in the sense of applied basic research.
Translating inputs with physical, tangible interfaces into movement and actions in a virtual space is not as easy as it seems: »Depending on the perspective, at some point right is no longer left, for example when I turn around« (Markert).
With their background in product design, the students design and model user interfaces, input devices, controllers and panels, evaluate them in trials with test subjects and iteratively improve the product. The Interface Design Lab in Coburg was opened for the Campus.Design Open in May, providing an insight into the ongoing work in the form of a living lab.
Foto: Markert
Results
These works and others were on display on 11 and 12 July 2024 in an exhibition in Goethe’s Wohnhaus (home) at the Goethe National Museum in Weimar.
Works in Focus
Lea Kemmelmeier:
Digital Drawer – Smart Handgrips
Lea Kemmelmeier has designed two smart handgrips whose operation is based on natural movements of the hands and arms for gripping, opening and closing.
Julia Kipke:
Track Ball »Stein des guten Glücks«
Julia Kipke experiments with a sphere control, an intuitive and mouse-like track ball, whose external appearance corresponds to Goethe’s ‘Stone of Good Fortune’, a sculpture from Goethe’s garden that sculpturally thematises his complicated relationship with Frau von Stein.
Fabian Söllner:
Digital Timeline – Parametric Room Setup
With historical representations of rooms in museums, you inevitably have to commit yourself to a specific time, although private and semi-public living spaces change; new furniture is added, a different colour… Fabian Söllner takes up this theme with a digital timeline. Here you select a year or a theme and the room organises itself accordingly.
Laura Ankenbauer & Nadja Chrystianowicz:
AI-based gesture control
Laura Ankenbauer and Nadja Chrystianowicz are pursuing a contemporary approach: they are using an AI-based sensor on a microchip that recognises gestures. This physical form of input enables natural yet high-tech interaction.
Stella Schrüfer:
Tangible Touch Model of the Study
A contrasting approach is a scaled-down tangible model of Goethe’s study room. Stella Schrüfer builds physical models whose objects and surfaces can be touched directly.
Johannes Schmidt:
Touchpad-Masks – Haptic Touchscreens
Johannes Schmidt is experimenting with touch surfaces that can be easily operated without visual control. 3D-printed surfaces mounted above the touchscreen can be intuitively grasped haptically by the user. With this technology, older tablets could also be reused as universal controllers for a wide range of applications.
Nils Rohlfs:
Collaborative Control – Opening Multi-User Drawers
Nils Rohlfs is working on a multi-user input via the visitors’ mobile devices, which will also enable interactions between spectators in the future. This will allow everyone, including bystanders, to open (or close) drawers together.
Fotos: Thomas Müller, alle Rechte vorbehalten.
Further Informations
- Pressemeldung der Hochschule Coburg, Körperlos Schubladen öffnen, 11.07.2024
- Pressemitteilung idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft, 11.07.2024
- Goethe-Apparat, Klassik Stiftung Weimar
- Virtuell durch Goethes Arbeitszimmer, Digitus.Art
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