Grasshopper Canvas Real Estate

As we've begun to share definitions within our office, we've found it a challenge to have more than one person interact physically with a definition and thought maybe we just need more space. We're using a rear projection piece of glass as our Grasshopper canvas and the Rhino environment projected on the wall. That alone is great but it also looks like multi touch could have a promising future in Grasshopper.

Follow the link for more info:
http://lmnts.lmnarchitects.com/interaction/ghcanvas-real-estate/

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jon Mirtschin on November 16, 2010 at 11:05pm

Impressive, beats my 10 inch screen netbook handsdown....

Permalink Reply by lmnts on November 17, 2010 at 9:16am

Thanks. We're still trying to figure out the right set of gestures, but it seems like GH is really amenable to multitouch interaction...probably not a big surprise to most people on this site.

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on November 17, 2010 at 11:09am

Wow.

What sort of thing are you looking to do at the same time with multi-touch? Sketching? Connecting wires? Dragging sliders?

--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Seattle, WA

Permalink Reply by lmnts on November 17, 2010 at 11:32am

While we've just begun to mock this up with a single interface point (the pen), we're starting to think of gestures that might work without changing the way GH works. Zooming while dragging/connecting wires is feasible. Zooming will probably be the first use, just translating a standard zoom gesture (two fingers moving apart, or double-tap to zoom to a location) into mouse event. However, there are probably some really good gestures (imploding/exploding clusters) that would require some changes. The question is: which gestures?

It seems like distinguishing between users isn't feasible, and probably not necessary. There's such a sordid history of that in CSCW anyway. Social coding (in the sense of "You work on that part over there, I'll work on this part over here") is probably not a good idea. However, collaborating over the same problem (taking turns) is worth exploring.

Permalink Reply by taka on November 17, 2010 at 11:18pm

This looks amazing...

As far as social coding goes, having a function like xref from Autocad within GH canvas could be another way around.
I could be wrong but I recall David once mentioned somewhere in the one of discussions that they are looking into it...

Permalink Reply by lmnts on November 18, 2010 at 8:54am

Thanks, Taka.

I'm not sure I understand how xref (2D line work or geometry?) within the GH canvas would help with collaboration on scripting. Please explain what you have in mind...

Permalink Reply by Vicente Soler on November 18, 2010 at 10:12am

Probably clusters in the future will offer that functionality. Some people could be working on different files that are linked together as clusters on a main file.

"Social coding"? i don't think that's the right term, unless you are using grasshopper to share pictures of your holidays.

Permalink Reply by lmnts on November 18, 2010 at 10:21am

Vincent:
You're right, "social coding" is the wrong term. "Collaborative scripting" is a better characterization of what we're exploring (in general).

More specifically, we're interested in what sorts of behaviors (gestures for the moment) are most amenable to working on a spatial canvas like GH.

Permalink Reply by Vicente Soler on November 18, 2010 at 10:38am

Besides touch screen interface, I see you also have the spacenavigator (for manipulating the viewport, i guess).

Maybe what's actually happening is that you guys are suffering from Musophobia :)

Permalink Reply by lmnts on November 18, 2010 at 10:45am

You might be right because I almost always use the trackpad on my laptop.

Permalink Reply by lmnts on November 18, 2010 at 10:48am

The space-navigator is a stand-in at the moment for something better. It's a good stand-in though.

Musophobia :) No, we're just tired of mice ;) Those issues aside, control of a mouse in a collaborative setting is a strange social phenomena.

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