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Splish Splash, My Computer's Taking a Bath

Goodbye, point-and-click; hello, point-and-splash! This water-based touch screen by Japanese designer Taichi Inoue is more than just clever and ergonomic, it's downright summery.

$Experiment demonstrating refraction in an aquarium.$

In his artist statement, Inoue writes, "It is difficult to say that the interface of mechanical materials like a keyboard, a mouse and so on is very suitable for man. So I made the Minamo interface. 'Minamo' means 'Surface of water' in Japanese. Water is the most intimate material for human body. And I decided to make a touch screen interface on water surface."

Glass tank setup with electronic components for experimentation.

The device—a transparent, water-filled fish tank placed on top of an upturned LCD screen—uses a webcam and Max/MSP+Jitter to keep track of user movement.

See it in action below.

Previously, Fingerpainting for Baby Cyborgs.

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