Blast from the 2009 past: News, Videos, and Links about Multi-touch and Screen Technologies

One of the things I like to do is share updates about the world of multimedia, multi-touch, gesture, screen, surface, and interactive technologies, focusing on off-the-desktop applications and systems. When I started this blog, I had to put forth quite a bit of effort just to FIND interesting things to blog about.  


These days, there are so many sources that focus on emerging - and now commonplace- interactive technologies, my main challenge is to filter the noise.  Where do I begin?

My archives are vast.   I randomly picked the year 2009 and came across one of my previous posts, "News, Videos, and Links about Multitouch and Screen Technologies."   The post is long, and contains a number of videos and links that probably will be of value to a future curator of the history of technology.


I welcome comments from readers who might be able to help me update information about various applications and systems I've featured on this blog in the past. 

The pictures are screenshots from the results of an  image search for "interactivemultimediatechnology".  Over the past 6 years, I've posted quite a few!

More posts coming soon!

My regular followers might have notice a drop in the number of posts recently. All for good reason.


I recently had a close encounter with a wasp, resulting in an allergic reaction, just as I was wrapping things up for the school year.  I now carry an Epipen with me at all times.


I'm back on track and look forward to blogging regularly in the near future!

Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn - an awesome book by Cathy "HASTAC" Davidson. (Her blog is awesome, too!)

Who is Cathy Davidson
According to her most recent bio, Cathy "served from 1998 until 2006 as the first Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke University, where she worked with faculty to help create many programs, including the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and the program in Information Science + Information Studies (ISIS).  She is the co-founder of is the co-founder of Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory, HASTAC ("haystack"), a network of innovators dedicated to new forms of learning for the digital age.  She is also co-director of the $2 million annual HASTAC/John D. and Catherine T. MacAuthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competition."


Here is Cathy's book: Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn
 

Note: I am almost finished with the book. Sadly, it went missing for several weeks, so I have about 50 more pages to read, now that it is found!   I didn't want to wait too long before writing my review, so I thought I'd highlight it here, since it will make a great read-or gift, for the holiday season!   It is well worth reading, as Cathy is a deep thinker who transcends disciplinary confines.


Here are a few Cathy Davidson's blog posts:
So What Again is HASTAC? Post #HASTAC2011 Reflections on a Network Founded on a Theory That's Practice 12/4/11
Why is the Information Age Without the Humanities Like the Industrial Revolution Without the Steam Engine? 1/24/10
Five Ways the Open Web Can Transform Higher Education
12/4/11


RELATED
HASTAC website, where you can discover a number of excellent blogs and interesting links.

Revisiting Good Blogs: Eager Eyes (Robert Kosara, UNC-C)

Robert Kosara is a professor at UNC-Charlotte, responsible for opening my eyes to the world of information visualization and visual communication when I was a student in his graduate course a few years ago.  He is a deep thinker and his blog/website, Eager Eyes, is well worth taking the time to explore!


Here are some links to his posts:


You Only See Colors You Can Name "While color is a purely visual phenomenon, the way we see color is not only a matter of our visual systems.  It is well known that we are faster in telling colors apart that have different names, but do the names determine the colors or the colors the names? Recent work shows that language has a stronger influence than previously thought."

What is Visualization? A Definition

Understanding Pie Charts

Protovis Primer:  Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Chart Junk Considered Useful After All

Six Niche Visualization Blogs

Linear vs. Quadratic Change

Revisiting Good Blogs: Nathan Yau's Flowing Data

One of my favorite blogs is FlowingData, Nathan Yau's labor of love for the past several years. Nathan is a UCLA PhD candidate in statistics with a focus in data visualization.  He shares interesting tidbits of information on his blog, including those that relate to his main interests, social data visualization, self-surveillance, and data for non-professionals.  He supports accessible and useful data visualization.


Nathan is the author of  the book, Visualize This: The FlowingData Guide to Design, Visualization, and Statistics,  nicely explained in the video below:

Revisiting Good Blogs: Innovative Interactivity (II) - A Digital Watering Hole for Multimedia Enthusiasts

One of the blogs I enjoy following is Innovative Interactivity (II).  Here is the description from the "About" section of the blog:


"Innovative interactivity serves as an open forum for multimedia producers, interactive web developers, and new media professionals. Content focuses on the dynamics and theory of how people receive and react to different forms of information on the web, both through visual, multimedia storytelling and interactive information design."


"The goal is that this blog will provide an outlet for those in the online realm, whether you are interested in learning about multimedia storytelling, interactive web development, programming languages, software tools, data visualization, or all of the above.  Hopefully you will be inspired from what you read here to surpass your current standards in order to develop highly effective multimedia interactives for the digital community."

Tracy Boyer Clark is the founder & managing editor of Innovative Interactivity.  She is finishing up her MBA/MSIS dual master's degree at UNC-Chapel Hill. 


Here are a few links to recent II blog posts:
Behind the scenes of NFB's One Millionth Tower
Lessons learned from Internet Summit 2011
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg delivers monumental speech for women in tech

Mind/Shift Blog Post: Read, Hear, or Create a Story: Apps for Traveling with Kids - and great related links!

Today is Thanksgiving, and one of the things I'm thankful for is the opportunity to share interesting ideas and links with readers of this blog! 


The following post was written by Tina Barseghian, who is an editor/blogger at KQED/NPR for the Mind/Shift blog. Mind/Shift  focuses on ideas and technology that will impact the future of how we learn.  
Read, Hear, or Create a Story: Apps for Traveling with Kids Tina Barseghian, Mind/Shift, 11/23/11

Link to other Mind/Shift post collections:
Children and Social Media
Tech Tools
Mobile Learning
Digital Divide
School Day of the Future


RELATED 
Boredom Busters: 50 Fantastic Play-and-Learn Apps, Sites, and Toys
Tina Barseghian, Mind/Shift, 6/17/11
Libraries and Museums Become Hands-On Learning Labs 
Audrey Watters, Mind/Shift. 11/23/11
"A new competition sponsored by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has just announced 12 winning libraries and museums that will receive $1.2 million in grant money to help push the boundaries of what these institutions look like, specifically helping to create facilities that are  better "learning labs" for teens"
Lauren Britton Smedley (Transliteracy Development Director a the Fayetteville Free Library)
IDEO's Design for Learning (Sandy Speicher, Duane Bray, Rachel Switzky)
K12 Laboratory at D. School (Stanford)
Books Should Be Free
Storynory, Storynory iTunes Library:  Podcasted stories for children, offers a free audio story every week, has some online multimedia activities.

Revisiting Good Blogs: Space and Culture

Take a look at the Space and Culture  journal/weblog. Below are links to a few posts:

WiFi Measuring Rods, Oslo School of Architecture
Making WiFi Visible - Network City
Robert Shields, 10/6/11
Note: The above post provides a link to Making 'Immaterials: Light painting WiFi', a post written by Einar Sneve Martinussen the YOUrban blog. YOUrban is a research project at the Institute of Design within the Oslo School of Architecture and Design.


Sound, Space and the City
Catherine Scheelar, 10/10/11


Sound, Space, and the City:  Civic Performance in Downtown Los Angeles
"In Sound, Space, and the City, Marina Peterson explores the processes-from urban renewal to the performance of ethnicity and the experiences of audiences--through which civic space is created at music performances in downtown Los Angeles."


Mapping Flickr Photos and Twitter Tweets
Rob Shields, 7/20/11


RELATED/SOMEWHAT RELATED
Cognitive Cities Conference
Adam Greenfield's Presentation


I've cross-posted this to The World is my Interactive Interface blog - a blog I wish I had time to keep up!

Quick link: Edublogger Bill Ferriter's posts about technology and education

I just discovered edublogger Bill Ferriter's blog, "The Tempered Radical" today. He is a fellow North Carolinian who is part of the Teacher Leaders Network. He teaches 6th grade science at a middle school.


Here are a couple of his posts:


Lessons Learned on Cell Phones in School
How Limited Technology Budgets Failed My Students

Play with Dynamic Views of my Blog: Snapshot, Mosaic, Timeslide, Sidebar, and Flipcard via the Chrome Browser

I've never been comfortable locked into the linear format of a blog.   Although I get excited about the latest emerging technologies, interfaces, and interaction design, and want to keep up with the breaking news,  I am also very much interested in the stories behind the technologies.  I want to share history of ideas leading up to innovative research and new ways of conceptualizing the way people create (and use) technology.    I want to share stories about the people related to the technology - those who create it, and those who use it.  I also want to share stories related to context-  including ways various technologies are transforming and converging, and how all of this mix is impacts the bigger picture.


I have often wondered how I could provide visitors to my blog an opportunity to discover the depth, breadth, and richness of my labor of love for the past 5 years.  From what I can tell, this might be possible through the use of the new Dynamic Views extension for the Chrome browser.   


If you are interested in exploring this topic further, take a look at the links and video below. I've also provided screenshots of my blog, with corresponding links to the various dynamic views of the Interactive Multimedia Technology blog.


Fresh new perspectives for your blog
Antin Harasymiv, Blogger Buzz, 3/31/11
Dynamic Views, the Chrome Extension
Mike Lawther, Blogger Buzz, 4/4/11


Information about dynamic views from Blogger:
All about dynamic views for readers
All about dynamic views for authors






Here are examples of the various views of my blog provided by the Dynamic Views extension for the Chrome browser.  I've included direct links for each view for those of you who do not have the extension.  (I am not sure if the links will work in other browsers.)


SNAPSHOT
http://interactivemultimediatechnology.blogspot.com/view/snapshot

MOSAIC
http://interactivemultimediatechnology.blogspot.com/view/mosaic
TIMESLIDE
http://interactivemultimediatechnology.blogspot.com/view/timeslide
SIDEBAR
http://interactivemultimediatechnology.blogspot.com/view/sidebar
FLIPCARD
http://interactivemultimediatechnology.blogspot.com/view/flipcard

RELATED
Quotes from the Dynamic Views extension page:

"Blogger now provides five new dynamic views for public blogs. These new views use the latest in web technology, including AJAX, HTML5 and CSS3, to deliver a host of benefits:


Infinite scrolling: read more posts without having to reload or click to a second page
New layouts:       different views suited to different types of blogs
Speed:                 download images as you view them, not all at once in advance
Interactivity:         there are now more ways to experience and engage with blog content"


"This extension notifies you if you're on a Blogger blog and lets you quickly view the blog content in one of the new five dynamic views. Simply click on the Blogger icon when it appears, select the view, and you'll be redirected appropriately."

FYI: Top Interactive Multimedia Technology blog posts of the month

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