Elastic Boston '92

Elastic

Boston '92
Aside from my thesis project, Viewpoints On Demand, I worked on an interactive map of Boston, Elastic Boston, and on an interactive space, The Wheel of Life.

What I developed for that project inspired my thesis, in particular its focus on presenting and browsing opinions. This particular version of Elastic Boston focused on the Boston's South End. Our group videotaped several interviews trying to illustrate and understand the various changes affecting the neighborhood.

A major issue was an interface problem: how to interact with video interviews in a meaningful and attractive way. I proposed first to produce sentences using video sequences (see picture).

This gave me then the idea to connect statements from the various people interviewed with "speech markers" like "but" "and" "or" "because" as here on this picture. It would provide "free" navigation as opposed to random navigation which is too often the case in hypertext and on the Web in particular. The user would build a logical thread by linking statements and opinions.

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Copyright 1994 - Gilberte Houbart - MIT

Elastic Boston '92	Aside from my thesis project, Viewpoints On Demand, I worked on an interactive map of Boston, Elastic Boston, and on an interactive space, The Wheel of Life.

What I developed for that project inspired my thesis, in particular its focus on presenting and browsing opinions. This particular version of Elastic Boston focused on the Boston's South End. Our group videotaped several interviews trying to illustrate and understand the various changes affecting the neighborhood. A major issue was an interface problem: how to interact with video interviews in a meaningful and attractive way. I proposed first to produce sentences using video sequences (see picture).
This gave me then the idea to connect statements from the various people interviewed with "speech markers" like "but" "and" "or" "because" as here on this picture. It would provide "free" navigation as opposed to random navigation which is too often the case in hypertext and on the Web in particular. The user would build a logical thread by linking statements and opinions.