Concept-S

Recognition

1st Prize, IIT Kanpur Techkriti 2009 · Awards from IIT Delhi

IP

Patent filed for projection interaction techniques

Touchscreens assume dexterity, visual acuity, and familiarity with graphical conventions – assumptions that break down at the extremes of age. A five-year-old does not yet have the fine motor control for precise tap targets. An eighty-year-old may not have the visual contrast sensitivity to parse a dense UI. Concept-S was designed for both ends of that spectrum, and the constraint shaped every decision.

The interface is a Zoomable User Interface (ZUI) projected onto a 100-foot transparent surface – large enough that navigation is a whole-body activity, not a finger gesture. Media tasks (photo browsing, video playback, drawing, simple games) are grouped into loadable on-screen modules that can be accessed, resized, and dismissed through hand and arm gestures tracked by an overhead camera system. The zoom metaphor replaces hierarchical menus: everything is spatially laid out, and you move closer to what you want.

The transparent projection surface is key. Unlike an opaque screen, it does not create a wall between the user and the environment. The child can see the room through the display; the elderly user can see other people. The interface becomes a layer on top of the world rather than a replacement for it – an idea that connects forward to the augmented reality work in Glassified and Chalkaat.

The projection system and gesture recognition pipeline were patented for the novel interaction techniques they introduced. The project won first prize at IIT Kanpur's Techkriti 2009 and received additional recognition from IIT Delhi. It was an early experiment in designing for the people most underserved by conventional interfaces – not by simplifying the technology, but by changing the physical scale and interaction modality to match human capability rather than device convention.