Physical Filters / 2003 / Media Lab Europe

Process: The mouse is a general purpose input device for most drawing applications. The problem with this is that designers rely on understanding the physical properties of a creative medium in order to express with that medium. The PC tablet pen begins to address this problem by providing the familiar form factor of a pen. Despite this, when drawing with the tablet pen, it still feels the same whether one is drawing with a paintbrush filter or a pencil filter within the drawing program. Physical filters creates a stronger connection between the way the pen feels and the marks that it makes. The pen has two actuators which are programmed to behave in different ways depending on how then pen draws.

Skills: this project involved pic chip programming, hacking a drawing tablet pen and adding actuators to it. Also writing applets with Proce55ing that would receive tablet pen information and output actuator information to the pic chip. I also designed the pen in a manner which would allow the behaviours of the pen to be easy to understand. Video: Physicl Filters - an explanation of the concept and demonstration of the device.

work in process

the earliest prototype had a single motor that would make the pen shake
the darker the area you were drawing over was.

with the early prototype it becomes obvious that the darker the area that is being drawn over,
then the more unsteady the red line becomes.

this shows the early prototype that was created
to test the idea

a second prototype was made that also had a solenoid that would allow
for linear actuation which allowed for new sensations.

with linear motion, interactions were created such as when the pen changed
direction the pen would jump and the linear bursts appear.

with this mapping, the pen was programmed to shake from left to right and the software would make bubble drawing right to left.
When the two mappings are combined the effects are unexpected.