Riquadro

Design and architecture are activities that are highly depending on the ability, at any time in the workflow, to verify the progression of a project both visually and physically.
The tools that we currently use while designing are more and more virtualized and almost every phase of the process involves the use of digital technology; this certainly gives us an advantage in terms of speed, quality, precision and flexibility, but we always need, at some point, to give our work a physical form. This can happen in many ways; for example, we can print a drawing or get a prototype from a digital model.

Riquadro Design Data Contextualization And Analysis System is a tangible interface integrating a display and a SW/HW solution for pattern recognition and graphic visualization. The system displays any digital model or graphic overlaid in real-time on a physical icon positioned in the real space. It allows the user to easily manage and visualize digital models or other data in a real context without the need to translate this data in a physical form (i.e.: print, stereo lithography).

Riquadro is an advanced interaction design study which focuses on possible ways to improve the way we work with digital information in relation to the real world.
The concept addresses some weak areas in the contemporary design process, regarding the communication between the physical-tangible activity and the digital workflow.

The principle behind Riquadro is simple: it consists in a tool that is able to overlay any kind of data from a computer on a real context by showing in real-time, on its display, the digital object naturally “sitting” in real space. The system uses physical icons (small symbols printed on paper) positioned in real space to show the corresponding object and represent it in the correct perspective from the current point of view.