Komandor: television remote control and human interface

Komandor is the new user interface for television, home theatres, media centers and any other audio or video devices connected to a TV set. It's controlled by a remote with just two buttons, which is called waver. Komandor tracks waver’s position and movements.

Yes

Three simple rules to use the waver are:

Select an object on the screen by pointing and pressing the

button

Cancel or go back by pressing the

button (no need to point the waver)

Turn down the volume or scroll the menu by holding down (again, without pointing) the

button and dragging in the desired direction.

Having all the controls moved to the screen makes figuring out the remote buttons in the darkness a thing of the past.

Television

When the waver is pointed at the TV set, channel number and volume level appear on the screen (no more INFO or DISPLAY buttons):

But it is not necessary to point at the screen to turn up the volume. Holding down the button and raising the waver increases the active slider value accordingly.

To switch the channel push the

button. The picture will zoom out quickly but smoothly, exposing other currently playing shows:

Channel list may be dragged smoothly or thrown around with the waver with the

button held down

Pointing the waver at a specific channel makes the picture go live. Pressing the

button opens it full screen.

Picking an interesting picture from a given set is easier and faster than the usual sequential switching.

Video

All the needed controls appear when the waver is pointed at the TV set. Exit to menu with

On-screen menus

The menus are designed with a single guideline in mind: “show more, aim less”. Why hide all the settings in the menu maze, if everything can be presented on a single screen?

Note to user interface professionals: yes, you may please both ole' man Fitts and ole' man Tufte.

More waving

Advanced users will memorize simple gestures performed with the

button held down:

Go to the main menu

Go into TV mode (from DVD, for instance)

Video mode (V)

Turn off the TV set

About the project

Komandor is a user interface concept developed at Artem Gorbunov Design Bureau. User interface of the future is not the one to necessarily use new technology and ideas. Electronic pointers and zoomable user interfaces were invented at least twenty years ago. But the ideas and technology will help make the user interface unnoticeable and build subconscious habits of use.

We are good at designing simple and elegant human interfaces for complex objects and devices. We are willing to collaborate with your engineers on new products.

Human interface designed by Artem Gorbunov

Drop us a line: mail@artgorbunov.ru