Touch it, feel it, hear it!

This area is devoted to showcasing technology designed to help us experience the world using computers, but through different senses (cross modal design) or more than one sense at once (multimodal design). Multimodal design is also a great way to support people with limited senses who can't hear, or see, or smell, or taste or touch. Some people find lots of sounds, sights, textures, tastes just too much, and we look at how computer science might one day help them too.

With the HapticWave you can hear and feel a sound wave, with the oPhone you smell a coffee and see a coffee even when there’s no coffee anywhere near, the baby birthing monitor lets mums know when to push based on a beep and a graph. We also focus on a research project called DePIC (‘Design Patterns for Inclusive Collaboration’) that is looking for the best ways of using combinations of senses. It is finding the best ways to help people with different senses available work together.

Issue 19 of the cs4fn magazine is all about multimodal design. Download the pdf now. UK teachers can subscribe for free copies of the magazine - just fill out the request form