Active Mosaic Design + Technology + Mosaic = ?

The Tactile Mosaic

Thanks to the Keyboard Module and to the technological exploration on interactive mosaics that Experiential Design Lab developed with Sara Guberti, a mosaic artist from Ravenna, we have been able to come up with a wide range of designs, that amplify the communication power of mosaics, making them interactive while augmenting their experience.

The Tactile Mosaic is an 80x60 cm mosaic panel, with a possibility to scale up or down, which if touched in a defined sensitive area, reveals animated patterns. The mosaic tiles are of two kinds: the background ones are normal tiles whereas the Light Tiles are translucent mosaic tiles, which light up with power.

The sensitive area is as big as a hand and it is easily recognizable using graphical language of the mosaic. Once touched, the light tiles of the mosaic start brightening up to their maximum luminosity and then start fading down to their minimum. The breathing effect it is not uniform but, as shown in the picture, is organic.

This special mosaic is currently being explored to creating interactive indoor lamps embedded in the wall.

The Pixel Mosaic

The Pixel Mosaic is a mosaic where people can draw any pattern on it, just by touching it with their fingers.

This mosaic has similar properties to the Tactile Mosaic however the interactive part has a special version of Light Tiles, called Tactile Tiles. These kind of tiles light up when touched, so that people can draw their own light patterns on the mosaic itself.

Once a pattern is created on the interactive section of the mosaic using tactile tiles, the pattern is repeated in the whole mosaic using light tiles (as showed in the pictures). To draw a new pattern one needs to simply sweep a hand over the tactile tiles area to render the mosaic blank.

Other examples

Display/projectors

These mosaics are developed allowing them to behave like a screen where multimedia content can be displayed. The mosaic tiles can act like pixels to visualize animations. They can also be developed to control projections for having similar effects.

This kind of solutions allows realizing beautiful environments for lounges, clubs, pubs, hotels, airports etc… as well as functional applications for museums and art exhibitions.