UI/UX Acronyms

I'm going to start collecting UI acronyms.


UI/UX : "User Interface / User eXperience"

HW/SW : "HardWare and SoftWare"

OOBE: " Out Of the Box Experience"

"10 foot Experience" (no acronym, weird): refers to the living room entertainment experience and its parts (home theater, Xbox, PlayStation, game consoles, PC, media manager, surround sound systems, Virtual Reality, etc.) all these being experienced and controlled from the sofa.

Free Content and the couch experience

Now the topic is how to make all this FREE content be experienced form the comfort of the sofa in the living room.
Google with its "chromecast" is seizing the moment. But still chromecast its restringed to work only with some apps.
The ideal situation is to use the PC power with videos and free games from the sofa.

Ahora el asunto es como pasar o hacer que todo este contenido GRATIS se puede experienciar desde la comodidad del sofa de la sala de entretenimiento.
google con su "Chromecast" esta tratando de aprovechar esta situacion. Pero todavia le falata ya que esta restringido a ciertas apps.
Lo ideal es poder usar el PC con sus videos y juegos gratis desde el sofa.

Free Content and a OVA TV Antenna

The government of some countries guarantee to their people the right to have access to public information. Therefore, the TV broadcasters have to provide free content on signal over-the-air (OVA). The channels that are transmitted by air for free and are the state channels or province and are high definition (1920 x 1080). FREE. It is a matter of using an aerial antenna and one can easily get 6 or 7 free HD channels (at least here in Vancouver, Canada).

Using some info from the internet I designed my own OVA antenna that I can use indoors. Here is a picture of it:

Indoor OVA antenna

There are also free movies on Google. Look for one in YouTube; several classics are free. There are several free anime too.

Many web games are also free:
Kongregate,
Adicting Games,
CartoonNetwork, etc.

Desmaterialization - dematerialization

I'm tired of buying things at all time. And it is a real personal problem specially if one is living in a society based on consumption.

My daily favorite "game" is try to achieve passing the day without spending a dollar. It is very difficult to achieve, because there is always an excuse or a thing where one has to spend a buck or pay a commission of something or buy something online.

Ya estoy cansado de estar comprando cosas todo el tiempo. Y es un verdadero problema personal en especial si uno esta viviendo en una sociedad basada en el consumo.

Mi "juego" favorito diario es tratar de lograr que pase el dia sin gastar un peso o un dolar en este caso. Es bien dificil de lograr, porque siempre hay alguna excusa o cosa en la que uno tiene que soltar un billete o pagar alguna comision de algo, o comprar algo online.

Fantasy interfaces

I've been watching several websites were some UX and UI designers are curating all the user interfaces used in the sci-fi movies. Very interesting, specially watching the possibilities for the future of the human interactions with things and computers.

Here some links for Fantasy Interfaces:

Inventing Interactive,

Ash Thorp - Siggraph 2012

Noteloop - Kit Fantasy Interfaces

VR HAT

Another idea is using a baseball cap with a wire holder. It works and it is very light, It accomplished also that is an open frame.

It needs some tweaking, but it was a relatively successful first step in this direction.

BINOCULUS

Some years ago I developed with some other friends a fold-able 3D viewer, similar to the Viewmaster from the 80's. I got some of the remaining lenses from that product and try to develop a newer version, but in this case using a smartphone instead of printed stereo-grams.

This time I used a plastic cardboard instead of the cardboard or construction paper.

I redesigned the whole frame to hold a smartphone Samsung S3 form factor. It also holds perfectly a Nexus 5.

Earlier prototype

Earlier prototype

Latest prototype without the band strap

ROAD TO OCULUS MOBILE

The Oculus Rift open the way to the rebirth of the VR as a feasible way to have Virtual Reality home entertainment. From that point some others have been configuring different ways to make the Oculus Rift experience portable. The DIVE and some others are the demonstration of that movement.

I tried the Oculus several times, since a friend has it and once in a while he invites to test some of the latest Oculus Rift demos. 

The DIVE option is excellent for the mobile Oculus version and also the google cardboard glasses works nice, but I have a personal design that fits more with what I think improves the mobile oculus version:

-The frame should be open in order to allow touch the phone screen

-Access to the smartphone buttons also are needed.

-A frame that can be folded and send via email, cheaply.

-A material that is waterproof.

-Lightweight, to allow an easy mobility.

Dive Durovis VR frame

Dive Durovis VR frame

Oculus Rift DK 1

For Mobile VR: Cardboard from Google and Samsung GearVR.

Dia de los Muertos

According to Mexican traditions, and also in southamerica, November 1st is the "Day of the Death". Dia de los Muertos.

Minecraft Helmet

We designed a Minecraft helmet with the Creeper skin, so I can sneak inside the creeeper's secret meetings...

Materials: Plastic Cardboard, glue, foam, skin of a dead Creeper.

Air Balloons

Each time that I have something marauding my head, I have to draw it.

Automobile Concept

I'm 3D modeling a version my own concept car Inspired in the american muscle car design. I also want to recreate the style of the car illustrations made with airbrush; I found one of this illustration in an airbrush book and I did it in airbrush in my college years for a "presentation" course.


Initial sketches.

Here are some of the initial approaches playing around with the 3D software:

Front Camera

Back Camera

The style or expression objective is to reproduce that "airbrush" feeling using the cel shaders from 3DStudioMax. 


These are the partial results:

Ortogonal Top Camera

Ortogonal Side Camera

Ortogonal Front Camera

Also did a pass with the Unity3D viewer.

Car 3D

3D PRINTING THE "DIVE" FRAME

I printed the plastic frame that the DIVE website offers for free. The problem is that the printer not always is precise on the sizes. This really didn't work. I wanted to make it work, but nopes.

The printer wasn't helping much.

Don prOculus

My own version of the Oculus Rift, but mobile. hands free, wires free, PC free.
We named it "Proculus" in honor of Don Proculo.

A real working prototype of the idea is here.