How does one demonstrate how a new invention works? In Georgia Tech’s Experimental Television Lab, working on a project sponsored by Intel innovation labs, I designed and recorded video clips to ensure continuity with scenes from a popular television series so that users testing a new handheld device could enjoy a seamless experience of the narrative influenced by their choices communicated through the handheld device called a “Universal Threshold Object.” The device provides a tangible interface allowing feedback to the user through a Bluetooth connection to a computer running the Unity Web Player application. The Unity application calls JavaScript functions within an HTML5 application to provide visual feedback on a television screen receiving signals from the computer. Initial user testing suggested some minor revisions to the experience such as adding verbal cues to help the user understand how to use the device to get specific results to appear on the screen. To communicate to a general audience how the device works, I created a demonstration video for the Experimental Television Lab website. The video explains how the device works by showing the electronic components inside the device and showing how users interact with the story presented on a television screen by moving the device. The voiceover written and performed by me completes the demonstration of this experimental device.

 

Universal Threshold Object from Experimental Television Lab on Vimeo.