The video shows how Remigereau used a Microsoft Kinect and the Firefly Skeleton Tracker to “fabricate a custom designed flower vase.”
After a simple solid has been created, the Kinect in conjunction with Remigereau’s gestures is used to pull and push the surfaces of the solid to form a unique geometry that would have taken much longer if it were based on guide curves and profiles.
While the importance of parametric modeling shouldn’t be understated, this type of freeform design should be celebrated for its ability to make creating complex geometries a much simpler process.
I’d really love for this type of interface to become more commonplace, and to have gestural-based design interfaces integrate constraint relationships into their design procedures. While some of the best designs happen by accident (and I think this gestural-based modeling lends itself to these types of accidents), I think it would be very helpful to be able to “lock” these accidental geometries into place by using constraints, reference planes, etc.
And of course, one of the coolest aspects of Remigereau’s video is that once she’s done with her work, she takes it across town to have it printed at her local Fablab. This video is a really excellent example of how the future really is now.
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