In the 1980s I worked in electronics research and software engineering, and built synthesisers in my spare time. I became interested in the new field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and by the late 1990s I was working at Cambridge University - developing an experimental computer system for analysing, visualising, and organising data, knowledge and media objects - using some of the mathematical and modeling techniques now used in modern AI systems - such as PCA, semantic networks, and neural networks. I called this platform a 'Spatial Hypertext Object Manager' - or 'SpaceMan'.
I became frustrated that these data analysis tools and visualisations could not be touched or interacted with directly, and I decided to try to make computer visualisations that were more tangible and tactile. So I moved back into electronics research, and I invented three types of new technology:
1. Multi-touch touchscreen technologies (for tracking fingers and human touches on a computer screen).
2. Real object tracking technologies (so that real objects - such as counters - could be used to directly interact with graphics on a computer screen).
3. Electro-magnetic systems that I called 'Kinetic Surfaces' - for moving and vibrating real objects placed upon the computer screen (in order to provide additional tactility, tangibility, and haptic feedback).
Having invented various multi-touch touchscreen technologies - years before the launch of the Apple iPhone - I was asked to act as both an expert witness and a fact witness in a multi-touch touchscreen patent dispute between Apple and Samsung in 2012 - part of the famous 'Smartphone Patent War'. Apple subsequently lost several key multi-touch and touch-event patent disputes, and ultimately failed to stop its Android smartphone competitors. Here is a link to a BBC News interview that I gave in 2007 - the year that the iPhone was first launched: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7156414.stm
Below are images and links to videos of some of the great many tangible/tactile experimental electronic systems that I have developed over the last 40+ years.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, or if you would like to see material from my large archive of videos documenting the development of various Kinetic Surfaces, multi-touch systems, electronic displays, novel actuators, synthesisers, and smartwatches.
Phone: +44 7840 252115
Email: andrew@andrewfentem.com
Kinetic Surfaces - Displays and surfaces that track and move real objects placed onto them (2001-2022)
- see https://youtu.be/e8KzBefac_Y , https://youtu.be/Q2kijbcrmD0
Flip-dot actuators and tangible displays - Ultra thin and light-weight digital screen technology (2009-2021)
Included in a UK Government showcase of the best of UK Digital Creativity (2015)
- see https://youtu.be/2FNNlfa_a_A , https://youtu.be/fBGfX9G0e7A
Multitouch 3D display screens and the Fentix Cube - Multitouch, motion sensitive, and modular tangible interfaces - cubes, pixels, and other objects (2007-2010)
- see https://youtu.be/V4A_wfaScy4 , https://youtu.be/PJyJHek2laQ
Multitouch Surfaces - Pioneering high-speed multi-touch and multi-object tracking touchscreens and surfaces (employing various sensing approaches - capacitive, ultrasonic, inductive, resistive, magnetic, and optical) (2001-2004)
- see https://youtu.be/u5_RNA6eNIo , https://youtu.be/0cOx7fyNULQ , https://youtu.be/7yXJMt4KKrM
Synthesisers - Pioneering digital synthesisers, music tech interfaces, and toy synths (1982-2025)
- see https://youtu.be/u5_RNA6eNIo , https://youtu.be/7yXJMt4KKrM
Digital fashion and couture electronics - Collaboration with designer Alexander McQueen for his autumn/winter 2004 couture runway show in Paris
- see https://youtu.be/nYxgWYFZn9Q
Internet-based virtual meeting platform - Early 'Zoom-like' multimedia conferencing system with shared audio, video, and whiteboards (1992-1993)
Interviews and writing
Touch cube points to future toys - BBC News
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/11/06/andrew_fentem_on_ai/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/20/andrew_fentem_interview/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/05/13/dominic-cummings-research-baby-likely-crushed-blob/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2523680/How-Britain-iPhone-technology-Apple-Quango-handed-advantage-competition.html
http://www.gizmodo.com/338502/magic-cube-heralds-the-future-of-gaming-and-human-interfaces
https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/future-gaming-multi-touch-platform
http://www.imeche.org/news/news-article/low-cost-actuators-could-work-with-many-materials
Showcase of UK Digital Creativity - UK Government Digital Catapult
http://www.kinetica-museum.org/artists/artist-profiles/andrew-fentem.html
Patent lawyers are guilty of disingenuous AI claims - Andrew Fentem, Financial Times
'Hacking for Dummies' won't cut it, minister - Andrew Fentem, Financial Times
My savings, not government, funded multitouch research - Andrew Fentem, Financial Times
'Obsolete' skills can come back into vogue - Andrew Fentem, Financial Times
US should concentrate on inventing technologies - Andrew Fentem, Financial Times
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Evolving-spatial-representations-to-support-and-the-Fentem-Dumas/38d399c17d192462c5cd901496e984ce2418cd7f
Evolving spatial representations to support innovation and the communication of strategic knowledge - Andrew Fentem, Knowledge-Based Systems journal (1998)
Interacting with Multi-media, Multi-user Systems: Observations on Multi-Media Conferencing Tools - Andrew Fentem and Angela Sasse, ECCE-7 European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics (1994)
Andrew Fentem YouTube Channel
