Story by
Abhimanyu Ghoshal
Managing EditorAbhimanyu is TNW's Managing Editor, and is all about personal devices, Asia's tech ecosystem, as well as the intersection of technology and Abhimanyu is TNW's Managing Editor, and is all about personal devices, Asia's tech ecosystem, as well as the intersection of technology and culture. Hit him up on Twitter, or write in: [email protected].
We may have bid farewell to skeuomorphic design in mobile and desktop interfaces for now, but an ex-Apple engineer is taking another shot at mimicking reality in UIs to great effect.
In a video released earlier this week, Bob Burrough showed off his work in progress on an ‘environmentally-lit user interface.’ Essentially, a fisheye lens attached to an iPhone’s front camera captures a wide-angle shot of the room around him, and that data is used to create a lighting map, complete with reflections and shadows across the environment.
This map informs the lighting effects that you can see on the graphic elements on the screen – and they change when the lighting around the device changes (of if the user moves into a differently lit space). As Burrough notes, that makes the elements look like they’re physical objects just below the display.
Ultimately, it’s a little UI gimmick – but it’s a really inventive one that could open up more possibilities for creating immersive experiences in apps.
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