SICSA DemoFest 2018

Earlier this week I was at SICSA DemoFest in Edinburgh, talking about acoustic levitation and some of the work we’ve been doing on the Levitate project.

For more information about Levitate and the awesome work we’ve been doing, follow us on Twitter (@LevitateProj), check out the project website, and see more photos and videos here.

Want to make your own acoustic levitator? You can build a simpler version of our device using Asier Marzo’s instructables instructions.

Image used in my demo presentation. The image illustrates what a standing wave looks like and has a brief explanation about how acoustic levitation works: small objects can be levitated between high-amplitude areas of the standing sound wave and objects can be moved in mid-air by moving the sound waves.
A close-up photo of our demo booth at the event. We demonstrated a levitation device with a polystyrene bead being moved in a variety of patterns in mid-air.

PhD Thesis and Interact 2015

I haven’t updated my website in months, mostly because I’ve been focusing on finishing my PhD research. In May I started writing my thesis and I’m now approaching the end of it. With 60,000 words written and my first draft almost complete, I am almost there. It’s been an exciting couple of months writing that up and I’m looking forward to finishing. Not because I haven’t enjoyed it, but because it’s the most substantial piece of work I’ve ever undertaken and it’s exciting seeing it all come together into a single piece of writing.

Not much else has happened in that time, although I did get two submissions accepted to Interact 2015: a poster [1] and a demo [2]. Both describe interactive light feedback, something which has featured a lot in my recent PhD research. I describe interactive light feedback in more detail here. Interact is in Bamberg in Germany, this year, which I’m excited about visiting! Nearer to the time (mid-September) I’ll show more photos and maybe a video of the demo I’ll be giving at the conference.

[1] Towards In-Air Gesture Control of Household Appliances with Limited Displays
E. Freeman, S. Brewster, and V. Lantz.
In Interact 2015 Posters. 2015.

[2] Interactive Light Feedback: Illuminating Above-Device Gesture Interfaces
E. Freeman, S. Brewster, and V. Lantz.
In Interact 2015 Demos. 2015.