Blank (Media) Slate

I stumbled onto (as opposed to actively searched for) a site describing a prototype for an updated desktop metaphor. The project is called the BumpTop and appears to be an outspring from a masters thesis by Anand Agarawala (an interesting fellow based on his personal site). The basic concept is to add a layer of physics modeling to objects displayed on the desktop along with unique file handling techniques.

Looking through his documentation (and watching the video demo) it’s easy to see a comparison with the Looking Glass Project from Sun. There’s a lot to think about from a human factors angle (good and bad), but what intrigues me is how content might be placed within a space like this.

What’s got me thinking is a way to “drop” content onto this type of desktop that wasn’t necessarily placed there by the user. We’ve been exploring various concepts for how we could effectively inform users about relevant content, and the BumpTop model provides an nifty opportunity. I can imagine identifying a corner of my BumpTop to receive recommended content I might otherwise not have requested. This, in my mind, would be similar to my kitchen table on which I drop magazines and catalogs retrieved from the mail for later consumption (see my earlier post about this).

… Maybe I can get a couple minutes of Anand’s time to chat about the idea.