Gravilux app for Windows 8: A complimentary moment of cosmic calm

Microsoft News Center’s current App of the Week is Gravilux, a touch-based interactive art app for Windows 8 that lets you move and shape a serene starfield with your fingertips. Originally created as an installation for museums and galleries, it’s an elegant little dose of art and science for your Start Screen, and you can download the app free for a limited time in the Windows Store.

Gravilux is just one of many projects from entrepreneur, digital artist and Kinect pioneer Scott Snibbe, who took part in a discussion panel about NUI that I moderated at the last Seattle Interactive Conference. His work includes plenty more cutting-edge creative explorations like Gravilux (see for example his collaborations with musicians Bjork and Philip Glass), but also a variety of innovative NUI applications for retail, entertainment and health care, many of which are showcased on the website for Snibbe Interactive.

Just one impressive example at this end of the Snibbe spectrum is Character Mirror, a Kinect for Windows digital experience that makes cancer treatment for young patients more friendly and effective by transporting them into interactive environments where they can inhabit characters like a teddy bear, frog or robot.

The range of Scott Snibbe’s work shows the broad power of NUI in action – from transforming a health care treatment to bringing you a complimentary moment of cosmic calm.

You can download Gravilux now in the Windows Store. Usually $1.99, right now it’s free for a limited time.