We live in a world of symbiosis. Although we may be at the top of the food chain, our livelihood depends on the livelihood of others. I'm speaking in the natural sense of course, but what happens when that principal expands into our technological systems?
The Living Interface aims to answer that question; how we can rethink interaction design when it concerns communication between an animal and machine. In this experiment, very tiny animals called daphniens are used. The setup consists of a group of these organisms, a microscope (because they're so small), LEDs, a computer and a digital aquarium.
Daphniens are placed underneath a microscope in water surrounded by 3 LEDs. They're are incredibly photo sensitive and quickly swim to any light source. This movement is tracked via computer and displayed in a digital aquarium as lights. The computer creates a swarm of digital plankton to follow the lights.
The experiment is currently set up to measure water toxicity by measuring how fast the daphniens move and react to get away from the deadly water.
But try and think of this as a computer process. We control he LEDs so we initiate the process. Our goal is to get the organisms to move in the direction we want. There is no predefined circuitry for the daphniens to follow. They biologically know to get to the light source as fast as possible. This process is simultaneously displayed in a digital aquarium so we can view it on a larger scale. The digital plankton we create can be thought of as computer processes that know to follow the daphniens without the need for complex circuitry.
Now image this system on a massive scale. Interacting with devices in the future may mean using organisms that live in a self contained and self-sustaining environment, with both human and organism relying on a symbiotic relationship to control our computers and electronic devices.
More pictures and VIDEO after the jump.
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