The body as a medium: reassessing the role of kinesthetic awareness in interactive applications

  • Authors:
  • Aaron M. Levisohn

  • Affiliations:
  • Simon Fraser University, Surrey, BC, Canada

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 15th international conference on Multimedia
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

The popularity of Nintendo's Wii is indicative of a fundamental change in the relationship between humans and computers. After decades of subservience to the keyboard and mouse, there is now a reawakening of our kinesthetic and proprioceptive senses. In this paper I am suggesting that the body be understood not merely as the controller of multimedia systems, but as a component within these systems and as a unique medium unto itself. I will demonstrate an application of this idea by describing a mixed reality system that was constructed to assist with the exploration of proprioceptive and kinesthetic awareness. The paper also includes a review of the informal experiments that I conducted using this system to explore possible kinesthetic and proprioceptive illusions.