Pictan: interacting through free-hand images

Pictan is a digital device which allows users to communicate purely with free-hand images. Hand-drawn images are very rich as a medium. Needless to say, a hand-writing of a person shows not only textual information but also his or her personality, and graphics can carry even more. Unfortunately, a large portion of the expressions evaporate in digital mediums, where quantification of analog data has been the main concept heretofore. The aim of Pictan is to achieve a digital medium of free-hand images, treating them without losing any essence in expression. The full benefits as a digital medium must also be retained. A direct interaction between images will happen by this medium. The core idea of Pictan is GRAFFITI-LITERACY. The fact every human being has the ability to express and understand images, shows the existence of a rule, pervasive but necessary to communicate through graphics. We discovered some basic rules of graffitiliteracy through our ethnographic observation. By applying the rules in design, Pictan provides a vivid interaction where personalities intertwined in the form of free-hand images.