According to a recent article from the Microsoft News Center, "statistics from high schools and universities suggest that percentage won’t change any time soon. Only 17 percent of Advanced Placement (AP) computer science test-takers in 2008 were women, even though women represented more than half of all AP test-takers. At the college level, fewer than one in five computer and information science degrees were awarded to women."
Microsoft's Imagine Cup competition is a way to encourage female students that they can use technology to help make the world a better place, and that computer science is a field that provides an outlet for creativity a innovation.
One of the teams that participated in the Imagine Cup Competition was "Team Blob". The young women in this team attend South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Their work can be seen in the video presentation of Team Blob's Multi-touch Designer, which allows teachers to create multi-touch presentations for their students. The application was written in C# using Windows Presentation Foundation.
The team developed a interactive timeline to highlight history's famous women in math and science, and demonstrated it on a 40-inch multi-touch table to girls who visited their university campus. The time-line can be seen in the video clip at about 3:34.
"Team Blob members, from left, Lori Rebenitsch, Robyn Krage and Jaelle Scheuerman demo their application that aims to bring emerging multitouch technology into K-12 classrooms. The all-woman team is from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology."
Lately I've been thinking deeply about ways new multi-touch technologies, running on screens and surfaces of all sizes, can support learning and collaboration, in and outside of the classroom. Microsoft's Courier and Apple's iPad are two tools I'd love to test out in the digital mix in the schools. Here's the latest information about the Courier, via Engadget:
The applications running on this demo look useful!
Apparently the Microsoft Courier, a dual screen 7-inch notebook, accepts multi-touch and stylus input:
-via Deeper2K's YouTube channel
According to Engadget, the Courier is "built on Tegra 2 and runs on the same OS as the Zune HD, Pink, and Windows Mobile 7 Series...We're also hearing that there will be a built-in camera, and there's a headphone jack for media playback. Most interestingly, it looks like the Courier will also serve as Microsoft's e-book device...."
By the way, you can pre-order your shiny new iPad from the Apple Store right now!
-Apple Store
For the Techies and the Tech-Curious:
The iPhone SDK 3.2 beta includes what you'll need for developing applications for the iPad. You can go to the iPad webpage and dowload the SDK, which includes an iPad Simulator, programming guide, sample code, human interface guide, and more. But first, you must be a member of the iPhone Developer Program. The fee is $99.00 a year.
I will share my thoughts about these devices and their use for learning/education in future posts.
How It Works: Microsoft's Project Natal for the Xbox 360 video from Scientific American
Microsoft gathered a wealth of biometric data to recognize the range of human movement in order to develop an algorithm for the next generation of controller-less gaming. "Natal will consist of a depth sensor that uses infrared signals to create a digital 3-D model of a player's body as it moves, a video camera that can pick up fine details such as facial expressions, and a microphone that can identify and locate individual voices."
The technology behind Natal has the potential for a range of uses beyond gaming.
Professor Patrick Baudisch and his student researchers at the Haaso Plattner Institute in Germany have focused on Human-Interaction for a quite a while. One look at the research project page of Dr. Baudisch says it all. Over the past few years, the human-computer interaction (HCI) teams at Hasso Plattner have explored multi-touch and tangible computing, with very interesting results.
Take a look at the following video from Design Boom's YouTube Channel, and follow the related links for more information!
Lumino Team: Professer Patrick Baudisch, Torsten Becker, Frederik Rudeck Human Computer Interaction, Hasso Plattner Institute "The Human Computer Interaction group headed by Prof. Dr. Patrick Baudisch is concerned with the design, implementation, and evaluation of interaction techniques, devices, and systems. More specifically, we create new ways to interact with small devices, such as mobile phones and very large display devices, such as tables and walls."
I really want to go to Australia next year and attend this conference! Below are links to the conference, along with an excerpt from the conference description:
"Participation is the complex, contested, changing, creative and celebratory core of participatory design. We invite you to explore what participation can and needs to mean in the design contexts where we are working now and those we are likely to encounter soon. While current ‘best practice’ in many areas of interactive technology design now at least pays lip service to people’s participation, how is this participation being negotiated and defined, and by whom? And if Participatory Design methods developed some 20 years ago are claimed to have become standard design practice, how do we go about developing the methods that will define standard design practice 20 years from now?"
REFLECTION
Judging from what I've experienced as a consumer/user, there are many things that are floating around in the form of electronics, software, and related gadgets that are examples of the absence of participatory design.
My daily pet peeve is the remote control for my entertainment set-up, which includes DVR and a small but growing number of interactive TV channels. Another pet peeve is the usability of productivity software, including the software I must use for work.
At any rate, below are links to some of my thoughts related to usability topics that might be of interest to people who are thinking about or practicing participatory design or user-centered design.
I came across the video of the following "5 Rules" presentation on Long Zheng's "I Started Something" blog. This presentation created by Duarte, a company that focuses on visual stories and corporate branding. The presentation can be found embedded in the public beta version of Microsoft Office 2010 Microsoft Office 2010. The new version of PowerPoint features a DirectX-powered graphics engine, which supports smooth animations.
The concepts shared in the presentation are useful for students, teachers, and anyone else who has the challenge of creating an engaging and meaningful presentation. At the end of the video, the last slides provide more specific "how-to" information regarding the nuts and bolts of putting together a quality presentation. You'll probably need to view the presentation Office 2010 Beta in the PowerPoint format if you have the urge to dig deeper. You can find it in the Sample Templates section.
Duarte's Five Rules for Creating World-Changing Presentations
Ever since I explored the Hard Rock Cafe Memorabilia website on my HP TouchSmart PC, I've been on the look-out for other great touch-friendly applications created with Microsoft's Deep Zoom and Sliverlight. Today, I came across an example that holds some promise, although it needs some tweaking before it is truly touch-ready.
352 Media Group is a web development firm that has been experimenting with Microsoft's Deep Zoom in Silverlight. The results can be seen on the 352 Media Group Deep Zoom Page. On this page, you can interact with the deep zoom wall. You might need to install a Silverlight plug-in on your browser. Scroll down and read the "How Did We Do It?" section for specifics.
Note: I tried this in three browsers on my HP TouchSmart PC, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Firefox. At the top of the viewing box, it says, "Click inside to zoom in". Clicking the picture or touching my touch screen did not activate the zoom. However, it did enable me to zoom in the wall through scrolling with my mouse.
If you touch the picture with your finger, you can move it around, and you can do this with your mouse as well. At the upper left-hand corner of the frame, there are tiny icons that will allow you to zoom in or out. If the icons were just a little bit larger, with just a little bit more space between them, it would be easy to activate the zoom feature with my finger.
I came a couple of interesting links to a couple of articles from the Putting People First blog. The links are articles written by Microsoft Research principal scientist, Bill Buxton. If you've never heard of Bill Buxton, he's the guy that was doing multi-touch research way back in the 1980's.
The Mad Dash Toward Touch Technology
Bill Buxton, Business Week, 10/21/09
"True innovators need to know as much about when, why, and how not to use trendy technology as when to use i."
The Long Nose of Innovation
Bill Buxton, Business Week, 1/2/08 "The bulk of innovation is low-amplitude and takes place over a long period. Companies should focus on refining existing technologies as much as on creation."
I came across Bill Buxton's Multi-Touch website in early 2007 when I was taking HCI and Ubicomp. I was searching for information about large touch-screen displays and applications for a couple of class projects. The website was the answer to my graduate student prayers. On the site, you'll find a fantastic overview of the history of "multi-touch", including gesture recognition and related surface technologies.
The website has interesting links. If you have the time, take a look at Buxton's main websitehttp://www.billbuxton.com/. You'll find loads of interesting links. I especially like the links to his Business Week articles.
I'm sure I'm not alone in my present dilemma. I have a burning desire to experiment with multi-touch and Adobe's products, since I used to use Macromedia Studio quite a bit several years ago. Instead of learning ActionScript 3.0, I decided to learn C# and XNA Game Studio, and then went on to play with Windows Presentation Foundation, Expression Blend, and Silverlight.
According to Priya Ganapati's recent article in WIRED, only 3% of all PC's and notebooks have interactive touchscreens. More are coming to market, such as Sony's Vaio L Touch HD PC, Dell's all-in-one, and Lenovo's tablet PC and ThinkPad laptop. HP came out with the TouchSmart PC and touch-enabled laptops, and will be adding updated versions soon.
This is a great opportunity for developers interested in touch, multi-touch, and gesture interaction applications. I think there will be even more opportunity for web developers to create websites that are touch-enabled, or at least optimized for touch screen interaction.
Will the multi-touch web might be right around the corner?
At the moment, there is some confusion about what designers should consider when developing applications. There is not standard system of touch or gesture interaction, and researchers are still very busy figuring things out. Some companies have rushed out and patented gestures, which in my opinion, is like patenting how we breath. But that is another story.
If you are a designer or developer, you might be interested in the Touch First Microsoft Surface Developer Challenge. It is a chance to win your very own Microsoft Surface! Hurry, the deadline is October 12th.
If you are curious and would like to dig deeper into this topic, take some time to look at some of my blog-posts about multi-touch, touch screen news, innovations, and related musings:
YouTube Description: "A preview demonstration of modeling in 3D using a SpaceClaim's prototype multi-touch user interface that will be added to SpaceClaim this fall. Also includes clips of ANSYS Workbench, Blue Ridge Numerics CFdesign, and Bunkspeed Hypershot, showing some finger dancing that you can do without multi-touch."
"Courier is a real device, and we've heard that it's in the "late prototype" stage of development. It's not a tablet, it's a booklet. The dual 7-inch (or so) screens are multitouch, and designed for writing, flicking and drawing with a stylus, in addition to fingers. They're connected by a hinge that holds a single iPhone-esque home button. Statuses, like wireless signal and battery life, are displayed along the rim of one of the screens. On the back cover is a camera, and it might charge through an inductive pad, like the Palm Touchstone charging dock for Pre."
Finguistics created educational applications for Microsoft Surface. Watch how engaged the students are in this video as they work in groups, and look at the excitement on the faces of the teachers!
The teachers and students have lots of positive things to say about it. Play = Learn
I would like to have the chance to convert my single-touch prototypes to multi-touch for use on the Surface or something similar, but for now, I'm happy with the newly-installed SmartBoards at my favorite school and the two existing Promethean boards, which are used to deliver interactive, rather than passive learning activities for students with multiple special needs, including autism.
Multi-touch, multi-media, multi-modal... the Fujitsu LIFEBOOK T4310 looks like it provides multiple possibilities for people from all walks of life: -GestureWorks
The LIFEBOOK T4310 comes with an integrated web cam and fingerprint reader, and a variety of I/O options, including HDMI, USB, Firewire, BlueTooth, LAN, analog video output, SD card reader, line in/out, a wireless switch for the integrated 3G and UMTS, and an express card reader. There is an optional modular bay that can accommodate an additional drive or battery.
The fun part is that the Fujitsu LIFEBOOK T4310 hands-on comes with Microsoft's Touch Pack applications, which are demonstrated in the video below:
Microsoft Surface globe
Surface Collage
Microsoft Rebound touch game
Surface Lagoon screensaver, which provides a water-ripple effect and little fish that respond to touch interaction.
As demonstrated in the video, the LIFEBOOK supports gesture interaction, multi-touch interaction, stylus interaction, and traditional keyboard interaction. The capacitive display has a bi-directional hinge, allowing it to be turned 360 degrees, and also positioned so that the display can be set facing up horizontally over the keyboard. (This feature would be welcomed in educational settings, if the notebook was used in education settings, as it could support paired and group collaborative learning activities.)
What I like about the LIFEBOOK is that it has an integrated ambient light sensor, which automatically adjusts the brightness of the display according to the level of light in the environment. This feature is important for people like me who are on the go and must use their computing devices under a range of lighting conditions.
I would love to get my hands on the Fujitsu LIFEBOOK T4310 for a month and test the system in-depth in my day-job as a school psychologist, and in my leisure pursuits as a UX/designer/developer/musician/gamer/etc, "hobbyist".
UPDATE: Video of Hard Rock Cafe's Memorabilia Multi-touch Wall
I came across the updated Hard Rock Cafe website and found that it provides an awesome interactive experience! Visitors can explore the extensive Memorabilia collection in detail. This site is almost ready for inclusion in my UX/Interactive Hall of Fame!
According an article posted on the Hospitality Technology website, ""Tech, Love, and Rock 'n' Roll, the website was built using Silverlight, and is part of an initiative to expand the reach of the Hard Rock Cafe's extensive memorabilia collection.
"It all started last year with what we call 'Memo 2.0,'" [for memorabilia 2.0] and the rollout of Microsoft's new Silverlight (www.silverlight.net) technology, explains Joe Tenczar, senior director of technology and CIO for Hard Rock International. Silverlight is a web application framework, similar in scope to Adobe flash, that lets companies build custom apps. Hard Rock partnered with its brand agency Duncan/Channon (www.duncanchannon.com) and software developer Vertigo (www.vertigo.com) to create a custom Silverlight application for www.hardrock.com."
Below is a video of the website when it was still under development, unveiled during a MIX08 keynote:
The website is a companion project that is part of a bigger vision that includes an 18-foot interactive multi-touch wall that mirrors the Memorabilia website. The article goes on to mention that the "Rock Wall can be used by one person to blow up a piece of memorabilia as large as the screen, or optimized for six different user experiences at one time, though the technology has been tested for responsiveness to hundreds of simultaneous touches. "Imagine seeing Bob Dylan's Harley at more than life size; big impact," says Tenczar....Rock Wall uses a single piece of Stewart projection glass, custom-made at the factory for Hard Rock, along with three Christie projectors, numerous lasers, and multiple IR cameras to create a unified projection and touch experience. "The graphics are driven by a Nvidia Quadro Plex and there are two other dedicated servers for localized content and physics. I have seen a lot of cool technology, but this still makes my jaw drop whenever I see it in person." And the technology is smart. "If I walk up to the screen, it will blow up where I am."
According to information from the Hard Rock Cafe's press release, the interactive wall was created by Obscura Digital, a company located in San Francisco, along with Technomedia Systems was also involved in this project. Here's a quote from the press release:
"We were excited to work with Hard Rock on this revolutionary project," said Obscura Digital CEO Patrick Connolly. "This is the longest, largest and most technologically sophisticated multi-touch wall we’ve built. It utilizes our newest Fireframe technology, and the result is the highest resolution, seamless multi-touch display we have ever seen. We are delivering a 6000 x 1000 pixel display, so that multiple users at a time can enjoy the vast Hard Rock Memorabilia collection in stunningly high resolution. With this display, customers can literally zoom so deep into the images, that things like a scratch on Buddy Holly's glasses can be seen 3 feet wide. The graphic quality of this system is something the public has never seen, and the impact on the customers is something they will not soon forget." Hard Rock Cafe Multi-Touch
In addition to the website and Rock Wall, booths at the Hard Rock Cafe provide customers with access to music videos from a video distribution server, or VDS, created by Coleman Technologies. Each booth's touch screen display terminal has its own computer, and this allows guest control over the music videos that are played at the cafe. Content from the memorabilia system can be explored by customers right from the booth, from what I understand.
Microsoft's Surface tables were installed in the cafe, running a custom application created by Vertigo. that allows customers to interact with a spinning globe to locate and explore other Hard Rock Cafe's around the world.
Memorabilia Website UX:
Unfortunately, I am not in Las Vegas, so I haven't had a chance to interact with the Hard Rock Cafe's Rock Wall or any of the Microsoft Surface installations, which are the centerpiece of this project.
Not to worry. The companion Hard Rock Cafe Memorabilia website, experienced from the comfort of my home on an HP TouchSmart PC, provides a great user experience, even thought it is not fully optimized for touch navigation.
One of the things that I like about the site is that it uses Microsoft's Deep Zoom feature. When you zoom in, you can explore each photo without sacrificing resolution, and explore everything in minute detail.
If you want to try your hand at touch navigation, you will be pleasantly surprised, even though you will have to rely on your mouse at times. To zoom in, tap the initial presentation screen, and use your fingertips to pan around. What you touch and release won't go flying about the screen, which is a good thing.
If you lightly tap an item of interest, you will get a translucent information box on the right side of the screen. The information box might include video clip of an interview with a musician, a story, and a means to share the experience through embedding a widget on your website or blog, posting a link, or emailing a link.
After poking around the site using Firefox, I switched to Internet Explorer, turned the zoom setting to 125%, and had no difficulty using my right index finger to navigate through the information box. (It was more difficult to do this using Firefox.)
The directions for traditional navigation are simple:
"Turn on, zoom in, zoom out. Use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out. You can also zoom in by clicking and zoom out by shift-clicking. To pan, click and drag."
Featured artists on the Memorabilia site include The Who, The Beatles, James Brown, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Guns N'Roses, Buddy Holly, Madonna, Motley Crue, Elvis Presley, Queen, and The Rolling Stones. You can sort the main presentation page by artist or year, and explore the collection by artist, type of item, genre of music, decade, and location.
This website provides an interactive, user-friendly means of exploring the history of rock music. (It would be cool if the site offered some form of interactive sound track.)
I'm impressed.
I embedded the widgets below from the Memorabilia site. I wasn't sure exactly what might turn up. The interactive widgets, created with Silverlight, went beyond my expectations. You can explore the content right from this post, if you have Silverlight installed:
I shot some HD video of my touch interaction of the website and will post the videos as soon as I can. For now, take a look at some of the screen shots:
Main portal:
Eric Clapton's Guitar and Backstory:
Screen shot of memorabilia sorted by type - instruments:
If you are interested in programming, software development, UI design, or if you are a student/technology "hobbyist", a recent panel discussion .NET Rocks! podcast is a must-listen. Even for even if you are NOT a Microsofty.
"Recorded live at devLink in Nashville, Tennessee. Billy Hollis, Kathleen Dollard, Jim Holmes, and Josh Holmes (no relation) discuss the issue of the complexity of software development. Several .NET celebrities in the audience also chimed in." If you listen carefully, and take notes, you will find several gems of wisdom. It is well worth the time. If you don't have 78 minutes to listen to the podcast, listen to it while you do your laundry or something! (Lots of people in the podcast's audience still write programs using in .NET 2.0)
The real question:
How do we develop usable, elegant software to support a complex society, and at the same time, meet the demands of a world that holds high expectations about what technology can do the future?
A couple of quotes from the panel discussion:
"They've all seen CSI Miami!" "Ohmygod, what do I have to learn NOW?" "Microsoft, stop the insanity!"
Ron George, an interaction designer, recently posted a comment on my blog. So I visited his blog and found that he has a great set of resources that many of my readers would appreciate!
For starters, take a look at Ron's Interaction Design Toolbox page, and then spend some time browsing around the rest of his site/blog.
Ron works at Microsoft on a team that is exploring Natural User Interface/Interaction (NUI). He previously was on the Surface team.
Above is a link to my TechPsych post about the Cook Children's Health Care System's use of multi-touch technology for children and teens who have suffered traumatic brain injuries or have other significant neurological disorders.
