Photo via engadget About four years ago I almost rolled out on the floor laughing at Fred Armisen's parody of CNN's Magic Map Wall during the Weekend Update segment of Saturday Night Live. When I came across the video clip, I couldn't resist sharing it on my blog, and thought I'd share the video clip once again in honor of Election Day:
My 10/25/08 post, Multi-touch Parody of CNN's Magic Map Wall by Fred Armisen on SNL's MegaPixel Giant Touch-map, was written when large touch-screen displays were beginning to gain steam in a variety of markets. At the time, not all of the kinks had been worked out, and there were few people around who knew much about developing programs for use on these displays. Since then, there have been many improvements in both hardware and software. Jeff Han, of Perceptive Pixel, provided the multi-touch screen system for CNN and the SNL parody. He recently sold Perceptive Pixel to Microsoft and now works as a general manager for Microsoft Office. He's spreading the word about Microsoft's venture into large multi-touch displays- (55 and 82 inches), powered by Windows 8. For more information about Jeff Han and Microsoft Office, take a look at my blog post featuring a recent video of Jeff Han's presentation about Windows 8 for large displays, Microsoft's new multi-touch, pen, and ink technology. The video also includes a presentation about experience design considerations for large displays, by Nathan Fish.
"I needed to find a screen-free environment!" -John Oliver "It's good to be King." - John King, after disposing of John Oliver...
I just took a look at a hilarious episode about interactive multi-touch screens and a conspiracy theory on the Daily Show. The episode features Jeff Han, the creator of CNN's Magic Wall, John Oliver, John King, and others from CNN.
If you are interested in multi-touch technology, feel free to do a search for additional information on this blog. The following post includes Jeff Han's demonstration of his multi-touch applications from TED 2006, along with resources and links:
Despite the increase in interest in systems that support multi-touch, multi-user multimedia interaction, there is a need for creative, tech-savvy types to develop innovative applications. Why? This technology has the potential to make a powerful impact on how people learn, communicate, solve "big picture" problems, and do their various jobs.
CNN's Magic Wall was one of the first applications to gain the attention of the masses, as it was used as an interactive map during the US presidential election process. Touch-screen interaction gained even more notice after the recent SNL parody by Fred Amisen.
If you think about it, the multi-touch applications you see on the news aren't much different than what you'd get from a "single-touch" program.
Fancy, yes. Truly innovative, no.
Just imagine a 3D multi-touch, multi-user, multimedia version of Google Search. I did. I put my sketches in my idea book and hurt my brain thinking about how it could be coded. Jeff Han, the man behind Perceptive Pixel and CNN's magic wall, had much more up his sleeve when he demonstrated his work at TED 2006. Even if you've previously seen this video, it is worth looking at again. (I've provided a link to the transcript below.)
This video presentation had a transformational effect on me as I watched for the first time. Jeff Han brought to life ideas that were similar to my own as a beginning computer student thinking about collaborative educational games and multimedia applications that could be played on interactive whiteboards.
Here are some selected quotes from the video:
"I really really think this is gonna change- really change the way we interact with the machines from this point on." "Again, the interface just disappears here. There's no manual. This is exactly what you kind of expect, especially if you haven't interacted with a computer before."
"Now, when you have initiatives like the hundred dollar laptop, I kind of cringe at the idea that we're gonna introduce a whole new generation of people to computing with kind of this standard mouse-and-windows pointer interface. This is something that I think is really the way we should be interacting with the machines from this point on. (applause)" "Now this is going to be really important as we start getting to things like data visualization. For instance, I think we all really enjoyed Hans Rosling's talk, and he really emphasized the fact that I've been thinking about for a long time too, we have all this great data, but for some reason, it's just sitting there. We're not really accessing it. And one of the reasons why I think that is, is because of things like graphics- will be helped by things like graphics and visualization and inference tools. But I also think a big part of it is gonna be- starting to be able to have better interfaces, to be able to drill down into this kind of data, while still thinking about the big picture here."
So now what?
A recent post by "Alex", on the AFlex World blog discusses a few solutions. Alex had a chance to meet with Harry van derVeen and Pradeep George from theNUI Group, and Georg Kaindl, a multi-touch interaction designer from the Technical University of Vienna. The focus of the discussion was to come up with ideas to encourage Adobe/Flash designers and developers to learn more about multi-touch technology and interaction, and take steps to create innovative applications.
I especially like the following quote from the post:
"...A quick quote from our conversations: “When our children will walk up to a display, they will touch it and expect to do something.”
As a techie and a school psychologist, I see an immediate need for innovative applications. I know that there is a built-in market in the schools, at least for low-cost applications. Despite economic constraints, many school districts continue to invest in interactive whiteboards (IWB's). They are cropping up in preschool and K-12 settings, and teachers are searching for more than what's currently available.
Interactive, collaborative applications are needed in fields such as health care, patient education, finance & economics, urban planning, civil engineering, travel & tourism, museums & exhibitions, special events, entertainment, and more.
Smart Technologies, the company behind SmartBoards, has a new interactive multi-touch, multi-user table designed for K-6 education, the Smart Table. Hewlett Packard has several versions of theTouchSmart PC, which can support at least duo-touch, if not multi-touch, multi-user applications. There are numerous all-in-one large screen displays on the market that support multi-touch and multi-user interaction.
Quotes from Harry van der Veen, of Multitouch NL:
"In 10 years from now when a child walks up to a screen he expects it to be a multi-touch screen with which he can interact with by using gestures."
"...multi-touch screens will be as common as for children is the internet nowadays, as common as mobile phones are for us."
Here is a quote from a conversation I had with Spencer, who blogs at TeacherLED. "It was interesting this week as I was in a classroom with a teacher who I've not worked with before... he had 2 students using the whiteboard who kept touching it together by mistake. The teacher, exasperated, said to himself, "Why can't they make these things to accept 2 touches without going crazy!"
Proof of the demand! I think you are right when teachers spot the limitations and then see the technology on visits to museums, that might stimulate demand." Spencer creates cool interactive mini-applications, mostly for math, using Flash, that teachers (and students) love to use on interactive whiteboards. (He's interested in multi-touch, too.)
