Blowing “Windows” subverts our preconceptions of the static electronic screen.
The user of the hose can clear their cluttered desktop or breeze icons to new positions. By blowing in one end and angling the other they can control the position and direction of movement of items on the screen.
What’s best (or worst!) is that another person fanning, someone rushing by or a gust of wind can also affect the display.
At one end of the duct a wireless microphone senses the user’s blow and measures its intensity. At the other end, two tilt switches sense the angle it is held at. This information is sent wirelessly to a stamp chip microcontroller, then to the computer where the icons move accordingly, with the file size and strength of the wind dictating the speed of movement: large files drag their weight while small ones fly across the desktop.
By Eriko Matsumura.