Carnegie Mellon University: Situationally Appropriate Interaction

Overview
People
Research

Interruption Study

Kandinsky

Portrait

Visualizing Road Information
Publications

Contact

Situationally Appropriate Interaction

Kandinsky

Normally, the primary purpose of an information display is to convey information. If information displays can be aesthetically interesting, that might be an added bonus. The Kandinsky system reverses this imperative. It is designed to create displays which are first aesthetically interesting, and then as an added bonus, able to convey information.

The Kandinsky system generates aesthetic information collages. It works on the basis of aesthetic properties specified by an artist (in a visual form). It then explores a space of collages composed from information bearing images, using an optimization technique to find compositions which best maintain the properties of the artistÕs aesthetic expression. Kandinsky composes images representing information items to be displayed into a collage in that attempts to maintain certain aesthetic properties.

We envision this system being used in a home or office setting to produce the equivalent of a painting or poster hanging on the wall. Like other images we hang on the wall, we would typically choose this display primarily because of its aesthetic properties. To these aesthetic properties, Kandinsky adds the ability to convey ambient information -- information that we may wish to be aware of, but that should not necessarily demand our attention.

Overview | People | Research | Publications | Contact