A platform for structural navigation
Polyopticon reimagines the relationship between human attention, digital information, and physical form. It treats computing not as screen-based representation, but as navigable structure—spatial, temporal, and embodied.
The core insight
Traditional computing presents information as flat representations on rectangular screens. We navigate by switching between windows, tabs, and applications—each transition breaking context and fragmenting attention.
Polyopticon inverts this paradigm. Information exists in spatial relationship to the user. Navigation happens through physical manipulation of the device. Actions accumulate as temporal structures that can be captured, replayed, and shared.
The result: computing that preserves continuity instead of fragmenting it.
What Polyopticon is
A polyhedral computing device
A multi-faced physical form factor where each face provides a distinct view, context, or tool. Rotating the device navigates information space. The geometry itself becomes the interface.
A temporal-haptic interaction model
Touch, pressure, motion, and orientation combine with time to create a rich vocabulary of meaningful actions. These actions can be captured as “timeprints” and encoded as reusable behaviors.
A software architecture for capture and replay
The platform captures significant actions with enough context to reproduce reasoning. Timeprints become the unit of work—reviewable, editable, shareable, and composable into agents.
What Polyopticon is not
Not a VR/AR headset replacement
Polyopticon occupies physical space in your hands, not virtual space around your head. It augments rather than replaces your environment.
Not a “universal remote” gimmick
The polyhedral form isn’t decorative. Each face, edge, and vertex participates in a coherent interaction language tied to workspace structure.
Not a cosmetic UI layer
This isn’t a skin over existing apps. It’s a new computational substrate where spatial relationships and temporal sequences are first-class primitives.
The paradigm shift: Representation → Structure
Representational computing (typical)
- Screens display pictures of work
- Windows as independent containers
- Navigation = switching views
- Context lost at every transition
- History as undo stack
- Collaboration = file sharing + narration
Structural computing (Polyopticon)
- Workspaces as navigable objects
- Capsules with stable spatial relationships
- Navigation = physical manipulation
- Context preserved through movement
- History as scrubable timeline
- Collaboration = sharing timeprints + state
Deep dive: Why structure matters more than representation+
When we represent work on screens, we create pictures that must be interpreted, remembered, and mentally reconstructed each time we return. The cognitive load accumulates: where was I? What was I thinking? How did I get here?
Structural computing externalizes these relationships. The workspace itself remembers. Capsules maintain their positions relative to each other. The timeline preserves not just what happened, but why—the context, the decision points, the alternatives considered.
This isn’t just efficiency. It’s a different relationship with information. Instead of managing representations, you navigate structure. Instead of reconstructing context, you return to it. Instead of describing your reasoning, you share the path itself.
32 degrees of presence
The polyhedral form creates a finite topology of attention—a structured space where information can be arranged, navigated, and manipulated through physical gesture.
Faces as contexts
Each face of the polyhedron can host a distinct view, stream, or tool. Rotating to a face brings that context into focus while maintaining awareness of adjacent contexts.
Edges and vertices as transitions
The geometry defines natural transition points. Rolling across an edge shifts context gradually. Vertices mark decision points where multiple contexts meet.
Foreground
The face currently in primary view receives full resolution and attention. This is the active workspace.
Periphery
Adjacent faces remain visible at reduced resolution. Context persists without demanding focus.
Background
Hidden faces continue processing. Agents run, streams update, state persists—ready when you return.
Temporal-haptic interaction
Polyopticon treats time, touch, and physical motion as unified design primitives—not separate input channels but coordinated dimensions of a single interaction language.
Haptic vocabulary
Touch carries meaning beyond mere selection:
- Pressure intensity modulates action strength
- Touch duration distinguishes tap from hold
- Multi-touch patterns encode complex commands
- Surface location maps to spatial function
Temporal structure
Time becomes a navigable dimension:
- Actions accumulate as timeline entries
- Gesture speed affects temporal resolution
- Scrubbing replays action sequences
- Branching preserves alternative paths
The timeline manipulation interface
At the heart of Polyopticon is US Patent 12,197,471—the timeline manipulation interface. This enables users to capture significant action sequences, scrub through them like video, edit and annotate them, branch into alternatives, and share them as reproducible paths.
The timeline isn’t just history. It’s a first-class object you can manipulate, compose, and reuse. Combined with the device’s physical affordances, it creates a new kind of computing where your work becomes navigable structure.
Core vocabulary
Poly-capsule
A manipulable workspace object that encapsulates a stream, tool, dataset, or task context. Capsules maintain spatial relationships as you navigate, preventing the fragmentation that occurs when switching between conventional windows.
Timeprint
A captured sequence of meaningful actions with enough context to reproduce reasoning. Timeprints are not screen recordings—they capture the structure of what happened, enabling replay, editing, branching, and composition.
Agent
A reusable behavior pattern encoded from timeprints and triggerable through haptic/spatial input. Agents transform personal technique into shareable capability—your workflows become executable by others.
Timeline
The navigable history of your work session. Unlike undo stacks, the timeline preserves context, supports branching, allows annotation, and can be scrubbed, edited, and shared as a complete reasoning path.
Enactive computing
Polyopticon draws on enactive cognition—the insight that understanding emerges through action, not passive reception. We don’t just view information; we navigate, manipulate, and transform it.
Sensorimotor coupling
Physical manipulation of the device directly affects information state. The body’s spatial intuitions transfer to digital navigation.
Situated meaning
Information takes meaning from its position in the workspace topology. Location matters. Relationship matters. Context is structure.
Enacted knowledge
Expertise becomes encoded in gesture patterns and spatial arrangements. Skill lives in the body-device coupling, not just in memory.
Deep dive: From perception to enaction+
Traditional interfaces assume a perceptual model: information is displayed, the user perceives it, decisions follow. This treats computing as a kind of reading—passive intake followed by mental processing.
Enactive interfaces recognize that understanding is active. We grasp concepts by manipulating them. We navigate ideas by moving through them. We learn procedures by enacting them.
Polyopticon is designed for enactive computing. The physical form invites manipulation. The spatial layout externalizes relationships. The timeline captures enacted sequences. The agent system makes enacted knowledge transmissible.
This isn’t metaphor. It’s architecture. The platform is built to support cognition that happens through action, not despite it.
Why now?
The attention crisis
Multi-stream work has become the norm. Knowledge workers juggle dozens of tabs, applications, and communication channels. Traditional interfaces compound the problem—every switch costs context, every notification fragments focus.
The AI agent moment
As AI agents become capable collaborators, the interface question becomes acute. How do we direct complex behaviors? How do we review agent reasoning? How do we capture and refine what works? Polyopticon provides a native substrate.
The reproducibility gap
From scientific research to financial analysis, the ability to trace and reproduce reasoning is increasingly critical. Screen recordings and written notes capture outcomes, not process. Timeprints capture the path itself.
The collaboration bottleneck
Handoffs between knowledge workers require extensive narration. Context decays. Expertise remains tacit. Agents and timeprints make workflows transmissible—share the technique, not just the result.