With motion sensors now a standard feature in many commercial devices—ranging from the iPhone and iPod Touch to the Kinect—artists and developers are presented with exciting new opportunities for interactive experiences and user interface models. Computer graphics and interaction designer Jean Helfenstein fuses an interest in design and motion in many of his projects. Last summer, he released an an experimental creative sketching tool for the iPhone and iPod Touch called Rot.Sketch, which allows users to create abstract drawings by spinning the device on a smooth surface.The app’s functionality is reminiscent of the kinds of spin art paintings we used to make as kids—you place a few dots on the screen with the touch of your fingertip, then spin the phone to generate abstract designs with those points as an axis of color. Now, Helfenstein is back with a browser-based version of the tool built in HTML5, available here.He writes to tell us about the inspiration behind both projects:Basically, when I was bored I would play with my iPod Touch trying to make it spin as fast as I can on a table and at some point I realized that instead of wasting my time I could try to make an app that would use the accelerometer to draw graphics by spinning the device! I had great feedback on the app and managed to get some pretty interesting images out of it, but only at iPhone resolution. So I decided to make a desktop version so I could get images in better resolution and it was a good opportunity to explore HTML5 possibilities.The browser-based version works much like its mobile predecessor, except that instead of spinning the mobile device, the app features a dynamic “rotation point” that is used to alter the axis of rotation in your digital painting. The tool is deceptively simple to use—just click to add your points of color, set a rotation point and hit the play button to see generative visuals form based around your specifications—but fairly difficult to master. Helfenstein has some amazing looking visuals captured from the app on his Flickr page, but our own efforts were not nearly as refined.Photos courtesy of Jean Helfenstein.
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