Conventions of Control: A Catalogue of Gestures for Remotely Interacting with Dynamic Architectural Space

Presented at ACADIA 2012 Conference in San Francisco, CA, November 2012.

In creating a vocabulary for controlling dynamic architectural environments, this research builds upon the current state-of-the-art of gestural control which exists in integrated touch- and gesture-based languages of mobile and media interfaces. The process outlines architecturally specific dynamic situational activities as a means to explicitly understand the potential to build gestural control into systems that make up architectural space. A proposed vocabulary was built upon the cross-referenced validity of existing intuitive gestural languages as applied to architectural situations. Testing was carried out through a test-cell environment with numerous kinetic architectural elements and a Microsoft Kinect Sensor to track gestures of the test subjects.