Although great progress has been made on the keyboard, monitor and mouse in recent decades, it is always the user who must go to the computer and adjust to the machine’s environment.  Engineer Frédéric Kaplan and designer Martino d’Esposito are determined to reverse the process. They have started designing machines able to identify their user, put forward choices and perform services. A lab prototype – named Wizkid – had a first outing in February 2008 on the occasion of the “Design and the Elastic Mind” exhibition at the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). This coming week, LIFT will display a much more sophisticated computer called QB1. Frédéric Kaplan, working within the EPFL CRAFT Laboratory, applied the findings of his academic and industrial research in the field of advanced interfaces, combining robotics and artificial intelligence. Martino d’Esposito, contributing his joint experience as industrial designer and lecturer at Ecal, created the machine’s formal language to enhance its new status in relations with humans.

QB1 has a sober, articulated design dressed in black material. As soon as someone is identified the screen turns to the user. No need for a keyboard or mouse – you navigate with simple gestures. QB1 is able to simultaneously take into account movements by both hands. The closer the user gets, the more information it provides.

The first application presented is a jukebox. At a distance QB1 fills the user’s desires – choice of records and songs, volume up or down, etc. But it also recognizes who it is interacting with and gradually adjusts its interface making increasingly relevant suggestions. To this end, the system combines several artificial intelligence techniques, each of which is designed for a specific type of prediction.

The type of 3D gesture interaction featured in QB1 is based on several inventions developed at EPFL over the past two years. The related patents have been filed. Completing this machine also involved the know-how of numerous companies in the area, including the robotics firm Bluebotics.

The high potential of this new generation of machines led Frédéric Kaplan and Martino d’Esposito to found OZWE together – a spin-off from EPFL – to open up marketing prospects. The EPFL+ECAL Lab supported the project from its inception. Nicolas Henchoz, the Director of this joint lab, explains that “Design is too often regarded as a step beyond the engineer’s work. This project combines both skills at every strategic stage”.

Those attending the LIFT Conference in Geneva from 25 to 27 February will be the lucky few to start interacting with QB1. This will also provide an opportunity to cast a few “foster families” to test the first models to be produced during 2009. Kaplan explains this next phase of the project: “We need to see how people are going to tame the beast, how the machine will integrate in their homes and in people’s lives in general. We are therefore looking for inquisitive individuals willing to experience living for a while with a wholly novel type of machine”.

QB1 : l'ordinateur attentif à vos désirs
QB1: Der Computer, der auf Ihre Wünsche achtet

By Florence Luy

Contact: Nicolas Henchoz, Head of communication and institutional advancement, EPFL, tel. +41 79 219 84 14

Source: EPA Ecole Poletechnique Fédérale de Lausanne