Settlers of Catan Game by Vectorform Game Studio, on a Microsoft Surface

Vectorform worked with Catan to develop the digital version of the Settlers of Catan for Microsoft's Surface:

The game supports a range of gestures and interactions that are similar to the real game, but without the need to keep up with all of the parts and pieces!



RELATED
A New Frontier for the Settlers of Catan
Vectorform to Launch "The Settlers of Catan" for Microsoft Surface"
Lindsay Ruthven, Vectorform Blog 8/2/10
"Features:
• Full multi-touch from the Microsoft Surface allows all players to interact with their elements of the board at once.
• A digital playing surface breathes new life into the Catan experience through graphics and animations.
• “State-free-trade” allow players to swap cards without entering modes or pressing buttons, keeping the experience as pure as possible.
• Customized art unifies the multi-touch interface with Mayfair’s 4th Edition release of The Settlers of Catan to create a seamless play experience.
• Integration with real-world objects to maintain the original Catan board game feel."

Settlers of Catan

A little off-topic: Video parody of the Facebook friending ritual, only in real life - (and more serious thoughts about social software apps)

Facebook in Real Life is a short parody of the Facebook "friending" ritual by theBritish comedy sketch group, Idiots of Ants



I came across this video featured in a blog post on the Core77 website, "Software: The Other "Design for Social Impact", by Gentry Underwood, after following a link from Experientia's Putting People First blog. 

Gentry Underwood works at IDEO, and he's spent some time thinking deeply about social software design and everything that surrounds it.  His article is long, but in my opinion, very important to read, even if you are not a designer or developer.  

After you finish the article, you might be interested in visiting Underwoods' new Designing Social Software website.

Keepon, BeatBot's robot: Potential to promote social behavior in children with autism spectrum and developmental disorders.

The BeatBots project develops rhythmically intelligent robots for research and entertainment. In the video below, the responsive robot, Keepon, dances to the Spoon song, "Don't You Evah".

Keepon was developed by Hideki Kozima and programmed by Marek Michalowski, from Carnegie Melon.


(The video is available to the public under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 license.)


According to an article by David Templeton in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

"While the videos have proven Keepon's human appeal, the double-bubble yellow fellow's key role is to interact with children. Keepon has shown promise in encouraging social behavior in children with developmental disorders, including autism."

"Keepon's simple appearance makes children comfortable, and its lifelike movement makes it attractive to them," Mr. Michalowski said. "This combination creates an environment in which social interaction is encouraged.""

"While the robot can dance to almost any song, it also can identify visual and other sensory rhythms, helping to prove how rhythm and synchronization in body language are paramount in human interaction. As such, Keepon has schooled roboticists in how to improve human interaction with robots."

An example of Keepon's attentive and emotive actions:



Another example of Keepon's entertainment value - Spoon's "I turn my camera on":



More videos can be found on the BeatBots website.