Off topic: 134 Launches in 134 Minutes - video clip of space shuttle launches over the years

Today I had the chance to watch the final launch of the space shuttle Atlantis. After the shuttle was safely launched, CNN broadcasted the video "134 Launches in 134 Minutes". While I watched the video, I thought about the thousands of people who have worked for NASA, and all of the technology and scientific advances that have taken place over the years.


Here is a version of the video I found on YouTube:




My hope is that we will continue to make scientific gains in the future, but with continued economic problems, this might take place at a much slower rate.

RELATED

Reflections about the last space shuttle launch by Jeremy Perez-Cruz (Tea and Letter blog)

Interactive Mirror, by Interference Inc. (Video)

Via Seth Sandler, who worked on this app for Interference Inc.

RELATED
Interactive Mirror (2008)

Interactive Mirror from Alpay Kasal on Vimeo.

CNN's Interactive Map and Timeline of Iraq and Afghanistan Casualties "Home and Away"

Via Flowing Data and CNN

Nathan Yau, of Flowing Data, posted information and a link to CNN's interactive Casualties: Home and Away website. This website allows you to visually explore the casualty statistics of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, beginning with the first of the fallen in 2001. You can zoom into a region and see pictures and names of people.  The website provides a way for friends and family to share memories about their loved ones.

Home and Away also provides a "list view" option, shown in one of the pictures below.  Visitors to the site can sort by name or year of death.  Sliders on the map view provide a way of looking at the pattern of deaths over time.  It is sad, but this website makes us remember that war is real.  Deaths are not simply statistics.

CNN Afghanistan Crossroads Blog

Flowing Data
Home and Away

CNN's Holographic Technology: Wolf Blitzer and Jessica Yellin, Anderson Cooper and Will.I.Am, and the music video.

CNN is doing a good job of exposing the masses to emerging technology!

Here is a video clip of CNN's holographic technology used to transmit a 3-D video image of Jessica Yellin, speaking with Wolf Blitzer on Election Day, November 2008. A partial transcript is included below. Before you get too excited about this technology, know that the correspondents see the image on a plasma TV, not in "real" 3-D, according to Gizmodo.



Jessica Yellin:
"There are 35 high-definition cameras ringing me, in a ring around me, I'm in the center, and they shoot my body at different angles, and I'm told that transmits what looks like an entire body image back there to New York. These cameras, I'm told, talk to the cameras in New York. So they move, and they know when to move when the cameras in New York move, and it looks a little different from a real person there, but it is pretty remarkable."

Wolf Blitzer:
"It's still Jessica Yellin, and you look just like Jessica Yellin, and we know you are Jessica Yellin....You're a terrific hologram, thanks very much Jessica Yellin is in Chicago, she's not here in New York with us... but you know what, it looks like she was right here with us, it is pretty amazing technology."


Here is the clip of Anderson Cooper interviewing Will.I.Am's hologram, beamed in from from Grand Park in Chicago.



Anderson Cooper:
"Let's see if we can beam him in now. There we go. Will, thanks very much for being
with us. How is this night for you?"

Will.I.Am:
"Ah, this is great. We're at an eve of a brand new day in America, and it feels great being here in Chicago. All this technology, I'm being beamed to you, like in Star Wars and stuff..."

Anderson Cooper:
"Yeah, it looks like, especially like, exactly like in Star Trek, when they'd beam people down, that's what it looks like here....We are doing this interview with you this way because it is a lot quieter than having you in the crowd, its very hard to hear in this crowd, and we appreciate you being with you..."

Will.I.Am goes on to discuss the song he created from an inspirational speech by Obama.

Related
How the CNN Holographic Interview System Works
-Gizmodo

Election Night TV: Networks Aim to Dazzle With Gagetry
-Edward C. Baid and Jon Swartz, TechNewsworld

Behind the hologram:
Vizrt
"Vizrt creates leading-edge content production tools for the digital media industry - From award-winning 3D graphics & maps to integrated video workflow solutions."
SportVU


FYI: Here is the video of the song, We Can Change- (My first view of this video was today, after the election.)





picture via engadget

Searching for Multi-Touch Info? Drivers for Windows 7 Available from NextWindow & HP TouchSmart...More about N-Trig..Multi-Touch Resources

Multi-Touch News and Links

Next Window Releases Touch Screen Drivers for Microsoft Windows 7

"The technology to build multi-touch applications for next year's operating system is available today."

Pleasanton, CA (PRWEB) November 4, 2008 --

"NextWindow, the leader in optical touch technology, released a touch screen driver for Windows 7 developers this week. The introduction of multi-touch gestures to this operating system will generate applications giving users more flexibility when engaging with content."

"NextWindow introduced this technology at Microsoft's Professional Developer's Conference (PDC) in October and will be presenting it at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) November 4 - 6, 2008. At this event, NextWindow will be showcasing their latest in optical touch solutions including the integrated touch display found on the HP TouchSmart All-in-One computer."

"Providing a touch screen solution for Windows 7 will give end-users an intuitive method to interact with their computers," said Anthony Uhrick, VP of Sales, NextWindow. "We've created a driver that enables developers to take full advantage of multi-touch functionality."

Software developers interested in touch solutions for Windows 7 are invited to contact NextWindow or download the driver directly from http://www.nextwindow.com/windriver. " More information about NextWindow is available at nextwindow.com."

Contact:
David Villarina, NextWindow
dvillarina @ nextwindow.com

N-trig Delivers Innovative Hands-On™ Computing to PC Industry

"Multi-Touch and Pen Technology to Humanize the Computer Interface and Create New Markets"

KFAR SABA, Israel & AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--"N-trig, providers of DuoSense^TMTM evolution. With the industry’s only combined pen and multi-touch capabilities, N-trig is transforming the way people interact with computers. technology, combining pen and capacitive touch in a single device, brings the power of technology and the human touch together to begin a new era in interface technologies and lead the Hands-on computing evolution. With the industry’s only combined pen and multi-touch capabilities, N-trig is transforming the way people interact with computers"
"...Realizing the power of the human interface, N-trig’s DuoSense digitizers are designed to integrate easily, support any type of screen, keep devices slim, light and bright, and can support numerous applications from small notebooks to large LCDs. Combined, pen and touch enables users to open files, manipulate pictures and browse the desktop as they would the files on their desk...Currently available on the Dell Latitude XT and additional OEM designs planned to come to market in early 2009, N-trig is opening a window onto a world where multi-touch is the accepted standard for computer interfaces."
Related

N-trig

Microsoft WinHEC 2008 Conference

NextWindow's Optical Touch Screen Technology

N-trig's Capacitive Touch Technology

All you ever wanted to know about Multi-Touch:
Bill Buxton's Multi-Touch Systems that I Have Known and Loved

All you ever wanted to know about interactive tables that support collaboration:
Pasta & Vinegar's List of Interactive Tables
(From 2005, but has been updated.)

All you ever wanted to know about tangible user interfaces:
5 Lessons About Tangible Interfaces (pdf) - Nicolas Nova

All you ever wanted to know about interactive gestures:
Interactive Gestures (wiki)

All you ever wanted to know about open-source multi-touch & related technology:
NUI Group (Natural User Interface)

Resources and Links about Touch Screens, Tables, and Multi-touch

Note: I highlight news, thoughts, and reflections about interactive multimedia, multi-touch, and related emergent technologies on this blog.

If you don't see what you are looking for on this post, feel free to do a search on this blog, or my other blog, Technology-Supported Human-World Interaction.

For Multi-Touch Interaction Humor:
Multi-touch Parody of CNN's Magic Map Wall: Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update MegaPixel Giant Touch Map

Microsoft Surface Parody

Multi-touch Parody of CNN's Magic Map Wall: Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update MegaPixel Giant Touch-map

Most viewers familiar with CNN news know about the "Multi-Touch Collaboration Wall", or Magic Wall, used by John King. David Borhman, a CNN producer, was describes the purpose of the Magic Wall in a quote in a Washington Post article:

"It's a stupendous way to explain a lot of complicated data"..."Fundamentally, our job is to explain things to people, and we need it visually. This lets us do it naturally, without a keyboard or mouse getting in the way....Once you see it, you get it instantly."

This would be fun to play with- for just about everyone! If you don't have ready access to a "magic wall", take a look Fred Armisen's playfulness in a recent Saturday Night Live parody of the CNN Magic wall:


Video clip via Hulu

Update:  Transcript from the 2008 SNL Show

Partial Transcript:

"One thing we are going to look at is Pennsylvania..Have a very good look at Harrisburg.....Get in really close to this. Back a bit, back a little bit, excellent"

"Now the country can be moved up and down, like so....We can also shrink it and put it in your pocket if you need to."

"You can always change the colors. You got blue, blue again, a little bit of red...right over there, a little bit of blue of course, if you want to make something out of green, you got a little face there, some whiskers, we can ..... make a cat. Notice the triangle nose!"

"Let's look at Ohio. Lets look at the Cleveland area. Lets look really really close. Really close. Really really close, You can see the top of a warehouse. We're really going to want look at that. Very, very important, were going to want to look at that."

"You can take Oregon, lets move it out into the ocean. It will be completely surrounded by water. That's very, very dangerous."

"And here is New York.... New York was there in 2004, and you can shake it around like that.. (shakes New York)"

"Actually, what I'm doing is very important, and informational"

"OK, Fred, stop goofing around..."

Fred turns to the map, and with both hands, moves all of the states out of place.


Photo via engadget

"Check out Michigan... I can make it bounce!" (Drags down Michigan on the map, it bounces up and down once it reaches the bottom of the map.)

Rumor has it that Jeff Hans, of Perceptive Pixel, was responsible for the SNL version of the Magic Touch-Wall map.

Update 11/4/08:

CNN article confirms that Jeff Hans is the inventor behind the election 'Magic Wall'.

Jeff Han's 2006 demo of his multi-touch applications at TED.

Update
I thought I'd add the video clip that makes a little fun of Microsoft's Surface: