Bright Hearts is our first ever iOS app, created for the wonderfully patient George Khut. We’re extremely proud of the app, not only for the gorgeous visuals it can generate with ease, but the impact we see this having on the real audience — kids at Westmead Children’s Hospital. We can’t wait to see what happens next, but in the meantime, why not pop by the Bright Hearts installation at the UTS DAB LAB gallery? It’s on show until the 26th November, don’t miss out!
Today is the soft launch for our latest collaboration with George Khut, Bright Hearts.
Bright Hearts is a research project being led by George, focussed on human body bio feedback in the hospital environment, specifically children’s hospitals;
The project’s aim is to design and evaluate the efficacy of a heart-rate controlled interactive artwork to assist in the management and reduction of stress and anxiety experienced by children undergoing painful, recurrent clinical procedures. Currently in its design-research phase, the project will piloted in early 2012, followed by a clinical trial in the second half of 2012.
George has spent many years developing bio feedback as an art practice, introducing Cardiomorphologies in 2004. We teamed up recently to create a modern version of the artwork, which will work on both the Mac and iOS devices. We’re really excited to see it come to fruition, after some months of testing and experimenting with code. Building on the amazing work generated in the open source OpenFrameworks community, we were able to create in record time a fully fledged visualisation app for use in George’s research.
The original cardiomorphologies installation, from 2004.
The artwork is composed of a few small components — a heart rate sensor, a MaxMSP patch used to process the sensor data into information, and the iOS apps which create beautiful visualisations of the heart rate data. I developed the iOS app for George, and Frank designed + built the small sensor case for the installation. It’s beautiful, make sure you check it out if you can.
Images from the iOS Bright Hearts app, launching today.
Bright Hearts is launching at the DAB LAB Gallery at UTS tonight, 6pm. It runs from the 2nd to 26th November.
Level 4 Courtyard, UTS, Faculty of Design, Architecture & Building, 702-730 Harris St, Ultimo.
See Bright Hearts for more.
iOS 5 imposes minor feature limitations on iPhone 3GS, 3G owners still bitter
via Engadget.
Still bitter.
Take a look at this Android OS update chart for comparison — the iPhone 3G was released just over 3 years ago, and now has been dropped for OS updates and support. They’re still functional, just not with the new iOS. By comparison, the Google Nexus One is no longer supported for the OS updates, and it was released just last year! The full chart is a sad story, I for one own an use an android handset, it’s a paltry UX with fragmented app store, little or no documentation for what my version of android (and flavour, for that matter) offers and how I might upgrade should I choose to. I recall an old line from Steve Jobs on Android (a little off topic now), about how Android forced the user to solve these small problems themselves, and that Apple felt the best user experience would be reached by Apple taking the role of systems integrator.
I’m all for it. As a user — I want to forget more and focus on the things I care about. Getting my work done, getting in contact with loved ones, keeping my things in order — the usual things. Which mix of hardware/software am I on? With Android I have no idea! The tools at my disposal are so poorly designed it almost doesn’t even matter.