Butt paste on sale at target...

Josephine and sarah performing a vr drama at the epoetry symposium

Wow! I'm blown away by this device, not so much because of what it does (although I think it would be a brilliant sound toy to have), but because of the way it makes me think of interactivity. Here's a link to the video:




view demo video

This thing is so cool, it's basically a little jar that the user speaks into. The audio is captured, and the lid is returned to the jar. Now the user can shake the jar in all different ways to make different sounds based on the recorded sample. Then, when the user is done with that sound, the lid is removed and the jar is tipped to literally pour the sound out of the device. You can hear the sound pouring out...

This is a revolutionary concept. I think a lot about interactivity and how to present a wide variety of choices to the user. This device captures a bit of elegant interactivity that I've never seen before -- it maps analog actions to digital functions in a very unique way.

Think about this: How hard is it to get water into and out of a sponge? Sponges are simple, useful devices, but they are also in many ways the equivalent of RSS feed readers: A sponge soaks up fluids, stores them for the user, then evacuates them on command (when the user squeezes the sponge). An RSS feed reader similarly soaks up information, stores it for the user, and evacuates the information on command (usually with a click of the delete button).

But I bet most people would say that a sponge is easier to use than an RSS feed reader. There is no "squeeze sponge" menu, no sponge preferences, no FAQ or wiki-based support community. The sponge works on basic physical principals, and we can grasp those intuitively once we've seen a single person use one.

I think this sound toy device is very much like a digital sponge: It utilizes a form of interaction that does not require an instruction manual to understand-- a simple demonstration and it is clear how this thing works. The elegance of pouring the audio out to delete it tickles my interactivity bone, and the physical shaking and movement that produces the sampled sounds is very attractive.