Source: Baton Rouge Business Report
Brygg Ullmer spends a lot of time at intersections most people would have a hard time finding—art and biology, for instance—though his primary area of research is something called “tangible interaction.”
If this seems a little fuzzy, that’s OK. It’s a trip. Ullmer, who earned his Ph.D. from MIT and held a post-doctoral position in the visualization department of the Zuse Institute Berlin, is about creating “new kinds of objects” of wood, glass, steel and even stone that are “shot through with the magic of the digital age.”
His goal involves bridging human interaction between the physical and digital worlds. Ullmer also has an eye toward economic development, perhaps “giving voice to digital infrastructure that has a uniquely Louisiana aspect.”
“The underlying core theme of my work is giving physical form to digital information,” he says. “My work is easier to see than talk about.”
A simple way of describing Ullmer’s work is that it allows people to get more out of digital data by giving them something to put their hands on—something more interesting and meaningful to the user than a mouse and a keyboard. Such considerations have been missing from computing for years, he says.
“How can we make things that mean things to people, made by local people, things that don’t have to be made back in China or Korea or other sorts of places?” he asks.
The main thread of Ullmer’s work the past few years has been helping scientists and other experts “talk to each other about their science.” The same devices used in that effort are equally useful in teaching science concepts to children, he found.
Ullmer considers the abacus a “compelling prototype” for his work of creating so-called tangible user interfaces. He also finds inspiration in scientific instruments from the 1700s and 1800s, not only functional and useful objects but also beautiful, inspirational—even romantic.
“Part of the passion is finding the way to marry those together again,” he says. “What are some of the new mediums that are now possible and desirable?”
Age: 35
How do you make yourself heard in the discussion on how to move Baton Rouge forward?
“I’ve found LSU’s wonderful community and smartcityradio.com great places to listen and learn. I’m finding LSU’s AVATAR and Big Arts initiatives, LONI and several K-12 science/technology efforts as compelling forums to engage, which are beginning to reach our city and state.”
Publish Date:
11-18-2008
