INTERACTIVE TABLETOPS AND SURFACES 2011 CALL FOR PAPERS AND NOTES (6th Annual ACM ITS 2011 - Nov. 13-16)

Thanks to Johannes Schöning for sharing this information!

CALL FOR PAPERS AND NOTES

6th Annual ACM Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces 2011

ITS 2011

November 13-16, 2011

Portopia Hotel, Kobe, Japan

http://its2011.jp/

The Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces 2011 Conference (ITS) is a premiere venue for presenting research in the design and use of new and emerging tabletop and interactive surface technologies. As a new community, we embrace the growth of the discipline in a wide variety of areas, including innovations in ITS hardware, software, design, and projects expanding our understanding of design considerations of ITS technologies and of their applications.

Building on their success in previous years, ITS again features Papers and Notes presentations, as well as tutorials, posters, demonstrations tracks and a doctoral symposium. ITS 2011 will also include workshops.

ITS 2011 will bring together top researchers and practitioners who are interested in both the technical and human aspects of ITS technology. On behalf of the conference organizing committee, we invite you to begin planning your submissions and participation for this year's conference!

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: PAPERS AND NOTES

The use of interactive surfaces is an exciting and emerging research area. Display technologies, such as projectors, LCD and OLED flat panels, and even flexible display substrates, coupled with input sensors capable of enabling direct interaction, make it reasonable to envision a not-so-distant future in which many of the common surfaces in our environment will function as digital interactive displays. ITS brings together researchers and practitioners from a variety of backgrounds and interests, such as camera and projector based systems, new display technologies, multi-touch sensing, user interface technologies, augmented reality, computer vision, multimodal interaction, novel input and sensing technologies, computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), and information visualization.

The intimate size of this single-track symposium provides an ideal venue for leading researchers and practitioners to exchange research results and experiences. We encourage submissions on (but not limited to) the following topic areas as they relate to interactive tabletops and surfaces:

* Gesture-based interfaces

* Multi-modal interfaces

* Tangible interfaces

* Novel interaction techniques

* Data handling/exchange on large interactive surfaces

* Data presentation on large interactive surfaces

* Software engineering methods

* Computer supported collaborative work

* Middleware and network support

* Virtual reality and augmented reality

* Social protocols

* Information visualizations

* Hardware, including sensing and input technologies with novel capabilities

* Human-centered design & methodologies

* Applications

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE

Conference Co-Chairs

Jun Rekimoto, The University of Tokyo / SonyCSL, Japan

Hideki Koike, University of Electro-Communications, Japan

Kentaro Fukuchi, Meiji University, Japan

Program Co-Chairs

Yoshifumi Kitamura, Tohoku University, Japan

Daniel Wigdor, University of Toronto, Canada

SUBMISSIONS

Papers/Notes: We invite paper submissions of two kinds: Papers (10 pages) and Notes (4 pages). Papers must present original, highly innovative, prospective and forward-looking research, possibly in one or more of the themes given above. Notes must also report novel and complete research, but where the scope and scale of the contribution is more focused and succinct than papers. Submissions must be submitted as a single PDF file in the ACM format through the submission system. A template for submissions can be found on the ITS

website (http://its2011.jp/).

All accepted submissions will be presented at ITS 2011 and appear in the ITS digital proceedings and be archived in the ACM digital library.

IMPORTANT DATES

Paper/Note Submissions: June 30, 2011

Paper/Note Author Notifications: September 2, 2011

Paper/Note Camera-Ready Deadline: October 21, 2011

The calls for the posters, demos, tutorials, workshops and the doctoral symposium will be published soon, please check our website for further information.

RELATED

ITS 2010 Proceedings

ITS 2010 Awards

Best Paper:	Proxemic Interaction: Designing for a Proximity and Orientation-Aware Environment by Till Ballendat, Nicolai Marquardt, Saul Greenberg
Best Note:	MudPad: Tactile Feedback and Haptic Texture Overlay for Touch Surfaces by  Yvonne Jansen, Thorsten Karrer, Jan Borchers
Best Poster:	A Multi-Touch Alignment Guide for Interactive Displays by Mathias Frisch, Ricardo Langner, Sebastian Kleinau, Raimund Dachselt
Best Demo:	MudPad - A Tactile Memory Game by Yvonne Jansen, Thorsten Karrer, Jan Borchers

Best Paper:	Proxemic Interaction: Designing for a Proximity and Orientation-Aware Environment by Till Ballendat, Nicolai Marquardt, Saul Greenberg
Best Note:	MudPad: Tactile Feedback and Haptic Texture Overlay for Touch Surfaces by Yvonne Jansen, Thorsten Karrer, Jan Borchers
Best Poster:	A Multi-Touch Alignment Guide for Interactive Displays by Mathias Frisch, Ricardo Langner, Sebastian Kleinau, Raimund Dachselt
Best Demo:	MudPad - A Tactile Memory Game by Yvonne Jansen, Thorsten Karrer, Jan Borchers

Who's Who

ITS 2010Conference General Chairs 

Johannes Schöning, DFKI GmbH
Antonio Krüger, DFKI GmbH 

ITS 2010 Organization Committee

Daniel Wigdor, one of the ITS 2011Program Co-chairs, co-authored the following book with Dennis Wixon. The book has not yet been released.
 
Brave NUI World: Designing User Interfaces for Touch and Gesture

Note: This post includes links, please let me know of anything I should correct.

New Version of Surface from Microsoft?

Next Gen Microsoft Surface 'Imminent'
Seamus Byrne, Gizmodo  11/11/10


Here is a quote from the Gizmodo article:

"Iain McDonald of agency Amnesia Razorfish, owned by Microsoft until late 2009 and now part of the Publicis Groupe, told Gizmodo the next generation Microsoft Surface will indeed be a flat surface concept, not the entire coffee table system with cameras and projectors living underneath. The new Surface will also have higher resolution cameras so that special codes will no longer be required to identify objects. And the new Surface will also be around $8,000 (whether this was USD or AUD wasn’t specified)." - Seamus Byrne


More to come...

Light Space: Interaction with digital content across all sorts of surfaces! (Demo video: Hrvoje Benko and Andy Wilson, Microsoft Research)

Hrvoje Benko and Andy Wilson from Microsoft Research demonstrate a system that uses 3D depth support tracking and interpreting the interaction between people,  It also allows for manipulating digital content across a variety of surfaces.

Information Visualization Meets Augmented Reality?

Watch the video to find out:

For Multi-Touch Techies and the Tech Curious- Touch and Retouch article, with code samples, by Charles Petzold

Thanks to Josh Blake, I came across a good article by Charles Petzold  in the September 2010 issue of MSDN Magazine:
Touch and Response


In this article,  Charles Petzold continues his discussion of the multi-touch support in version 4 of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).  I like the introduction to his article:
"Programming is an engineering discipline rather than a science or a branch of mathematics, so rarely does there exist a single correct solution to a problem. Varieties and variations are the norm, and often it’s illuminating to explore these alternatives rather than focus on one particular approach." -Charles Petzold
I also appreciate Petzold's discussion about smooth Z transitions, his thoughtful code samples and related links.

RELATED
Multi-touch Manipulation in WPF 
Charles Petzold (August, 2010, MSDN Magazine, UI Frontiers)
"Just within the past few years, multi-touch has progressed from a futuristic sci-fi film prop to a mainstream UI. Multi-touch displays are now standard on new models of smartphones and tablet computers. Multi-touch is also likely to become ubiquitous on computers in public spaces, such as kiosks or the table computer pioneered by Microsoft Surface."

"The only real uncertainly is the popularity of multi-touch on the conventional desktop computer. Perhaps the greatest impediment is the fatigue known as “gorilla arm” associated with moving fingers on vertical screens for long periods of time. My personal hope is that the power of multi-touch will actually provoke a redesign of the desktop display. I can envision a desktop computer with a display resembling the configuration of a drafting table, and perhaps almost as large." -Charles Petzold

Exploring Multi-Touch Support in Silverlight
Charles Petzold (March 2010, MSDN Magazine, Finger Style)


Comment:
I agree with Charles about the need for a re-design of desktop displays.  I like the drafting table as a form factor.  Here are a couple of my previous posts related to this topic:
Emerging Interactive Technologies, Emerging Interactions, and Emerging Integrated Form Factors (2008)
DigiBoard Multi-Touch Mixed Reality Game; Ideas for future design of a flexible, adjustable multi-touch surface (June 2008)

Osmosis: Multi-touch systems for... everywhere!

Not long ago I had the opportunity to chat with Stuart McLean, the founder of Osmosis, a company that delivers customized multi-touch systems of hardware and software that support human-centered natural user interaction.   Stuart has many years of experience working in more traditional IT/business roles, and knows from this experience that there is  better way to support  human computer interaction, including interaction between people.

Like many of us in the "NUI" community, Stuart was impressed by the video of Jeff Han's 2006 TED Talk, which demonstrated a variety of awesome multi-touch, multi-user applications on a high-resolution drafting table.  Stuart saw the importance of natural user interfaces and interaction and became involved with the NUI Group, a "global research community focused on the open discovery of natural user interfaces". 

Unlike traditional tech companies, Osmosis is a collaboration between a global network of engineers, designers, and developers who share the "NUI" vision. This collaboration enables the company to provide solutions for clients across a range of countries, cultures, and domains.


Below is a photo-gallery of some of the applications and systems developed by Osmosis:


Multi-touch by Osmosis

GALLERY

As you can see from the gallery photos, Osmosis provides a range of possibilities for their clients and potential clients.  All of the displays are high-definition.  Some are projection-systems, and others are displays with multi-touch sensing technology.  Since the construction is modular, a variety of form factors are available.  High-quality surround and domed sound systems are available.  Applications include information kiosks, point of sale/digital signage, hospitality, presentation and training, education, and audio-visual performance and production.  Osmosis also provides applications that support interaction with tangible objects.

Below are two videos that give a taste of what Osmosis is all about:

OSMOSIS DEMO REEL

Demo Reel from Osmosis on Vimeo.

MULTI-TOUCH EVERYWHERE

MT Everywhere from Osmosis on Vimeo.

I can see where some of these applications would be great in K-12 educational settings.  Just look at the joy on the faces of the kids in the Multi-Touch Everywhere video!

(Short video clips of the Osmosis applications in action can be found in the showcase page of the company's website.)

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

Interactive Technology in the Carolinas: T-1 Visions Update

Interactive off-the-desktop technologies are taking off in many regions, including the Carolinas. I'd like to share some of this "post-WIMP" goodness with my readers.  There are lots of interesting things developing in my own backyard!

About a year ago, I wrote a post about T1 Visions, the company behind the interactive technology at the T1 Tapas restaurant in Huntersville, NC.  In May of this year (2010), Mike Feldman, the president of T1 Visions, LLC, and inventor of the T1 Connection Booth, participated in a panel discussion about innovative technologies for the restaurant sector at the National Restaurant Association (NRA) Show in Chicago, Illinois.

The T1 Connection booth is an integrated system that includes a durable interactive multi-user touch screen table, powered by a mac. It also includes a high-quality audio system and high-definition video screen. It can accommodate a variety of mobile devices, such as iPods, iPhones, MP3 players, and laptops.  If you have digital photos, you can easily connect to the system and view them on the video screen.

The T1 Connection Booth was designed for use in restaurants, bars, and nightclubs. In the Charlotte area, booths can be found at Harper's Restaurant in South Park, and soon will be ready for action at a new restaurant, Cowfish. According to a press release, the system is more affordable than the Microsoft Surface, and can be

The T1 Connection booth looks like it could be re-purposed for a variety of settings. I've experienced the T1 Connection Booth "hands on" a few times while visiting T1 Tapas, and I'm sure that it has potential for use in museums, libraries, and other public spaces.  T1Visions also provides high-definition display systems that coordinate with the T1 Connection booths.   T1 Vision's displays and digital signs are in use at the newly-opened NASCAR Hall of Fame museum, and also at the Charlotte Convention Center.


T1 Visions Touchscreen Experience


2009 Five Ventures Conference: T1 Visions, Inc.


The TechnoFiles, CNN Video Feature of T-1 Vision's High Tech Restaurant, T1 Tapas (2009):


RELATED
T1 Visions Website
T1 Tapas Website
Connection Booth Brochure (pdf)
High Definition Display Systems Brochure (pdf)
Post-WIMP links


Previous IMT post about T1 Tapas, July 16, 2009:
T1 Tapas, a restaurant north of Charlotte, N.C., in the Birkdale Village in Huntersville, has majority owners with a technology background. Mike Feldman and Jim Morris started up Digital Optics Corporation, which focused on optics for computers and imaging, and after they sold their company, they teamed up with Denise Feldman to establish their company.
T 1 Connection Booth with Multi-User Touch Screen, HD TV, Sound System, Computer, & more:

"T1 Connection Booth seating gives you access to music, photos, and videos through built-in touchscreen tabletops, brilliant monitors, speakers, and computers." -Picture and taken from the T 1 Tapas website

The restaraunt serves as a test bed for T 1 Visions to try out their software and hardware designed to enhance the digitally connected dining experience. The restaurant was featured in May of this year on CNN.

Collaborative Travel Planning App for Microsoft Surface, by Object Consulting

Information from the Microsoft Surface YouTube Channel:
"Object Explore is a collaborative travel planner for use by travel consultants and consumers on Microsoft Surface. Explore deep levels of interactive content through intuitive navigation, ensuring the customer doesn't get lost in the process. All content is tailored to the current client and can be taken away through mobile or email. Object Explore is built upon Object Consulting's Object Zoom framework, which brings intuitive Zoom exploration to sectors including retail, finance and museums." - Object Consulting


SOMEWHAT RELATED
I worked on a collaborative travel planning application a few years ago for an HCI class project- before the Surface was unveiled by Microsoft.  It would have been fun to implement it in a Surface environment, since applications on the Surface can easily interface with mobile devices.

Below is a screenshot of a working prototype of "navSmart", a mash-up using photo-overlays linking to travel related information, including YouTube videos of related travel videos and information. You spin the globe around to explore possible destinations and vacation activities.   This concept worked best on a large touch-screen display.

Want to make some multi-touch? Try PyMT- Python Multitouch. Featured in Make. (via Sharath Patali)

Sharath Patali, a member of the NUI-Group, has been working with Python Multitouch, otherwise known as PyMT, to create multi-touch applications.  He shared a link to a recent post in Make, featuring PyMT.  Sharath is the author of the UI Addict blog, and is currently doing his internship at NUITEQ (Natural User Interface Technologies).

I've been told that the beauty of PyMT is that it makes it "easy" to create multi-touch prototype applications using very few lines of code, which is great for trying out different ideas in a short period of time.  It helps if you already know Python!


PyMT - A post-WIMP Multi-Touch UI Toolkit from Thomas Hansen on Vimeo.

"PyMT is a python module for developing multi-touch enabled media rich applications. Currently the aim is to allow for quick and easy interaction design and rapid prototype development. PyMT is written in Python, based on pyglet toolkit."


PyMT Programming Guide


PyMT Website

Note: 
Christopher, author of The Space Station blog, is a member of the NUI-Group, and is building his own multi-touch table running his PyMT-based applications. Christopher is a student in Koblenz, Germany, studying computational visualistics, known as information visualization in the US.

VisWeek 2009: Information Visualization in a 2.0 World

I've been too busy this year to attend conferences, so sadly, I missed the IEEE VisWeek 2009 conference that was held in October in Atlantic City, NJ.  The VisWeek program included members of three related IEEE groups,  IEEE Information Visualization (InfoVis),  IEEE Visual Analytics Science and Technology (VAST), and IEEE Visualization (Vis).  

I was hoping to include a range of videos and graphics in this post, but  decided that it would be best if I devoted a few future posts to information visualization when I had time to select the best digital representations of this vibrant and exciting field.  

I've organized this post by presenting descriptions of the three IEEE groups that participated in the VisWeek conference, and then highlighting the various panels, workshops, tutorials, and paper presentations that I would have attended.   There were many more topics that caught my attention than I have time to share in this post.  I promise to dig deeper and include stories about  about the people behind the data and information, along with their work, in future posts
The descriptions below were taken from the Vis 09 website:
IEEE InfoVis
"Computer-based information visualization centers around helping people explore or explain abstract data through interactive software that exploits the capabilities of the human perceptual system. A key challenge in information visualization is designing cognitively useful spatial mappings of abstract datasets that are not inherently spatial, and accompanying the mappings with interaction techniques that allow people to intuitively explore the data. Information visualization draws on the intellectual history of several traditions, including computer graphics, human-computer interaction, cognitive psychology, semiotics, graphic design, statistical graphics, cartography, and art. The synthesis of relevant ideas from these fields with new methodologies and techniques made possible by interactive computation are critical for helping people keep pace with the torrents of information confronting them."

"IEEE VAST is the science of analytical reasoning supported by highly interactive visual interfaces. People use visual analytics tools and techniques to synthesize information into knowledge; derive insight from massive, dynamic, and often conflicting data; detect the expected and discover the unexpected; provide timely, defensible, and understandable assessments; and communicate assessments effectively for action."
"Visual Analytics requires interdisciplinary science, going beyond traditional scientific and information visualization to include statistics, mathematics, knowledge representation, management and discovery technologies, cognitive and perceptual sciences, decision sciences, and more. Your submission should help develop and/or apply the science of Visual Analytics, clearly showing an interdisciplinary approach."
"IEEE Vis is the premier forum for visualization advances in science and engineering for academia, government, and industry. This event brings together researchers and practitioners with a shared interest in techniques, tools, and technology. The year 2009 marks the20th anniversary of IEEE Vis and it will celebrate the maturation of visualization into an established scientific discipline."

Here are the workshops, panels, and paper presentations I would have attended if I was at the VisWeek conference: 

Changing the World with Visualization

Organizer: Robert Kosara

 Sarah Cohen, Jerome Cukier,  Marten Wattenberg

"With large amounts of data becoming available, and being accessible more easily,  visualization has to step in to provide means to explore and understand that data.  How can we enable people to explore the data that is of importance to them?  how can we present data in a way that is not detached, but rather prompts a reaction (but yet does not distort the data)? How can visualization change the world (and what good is it if it cannot)?  And how do we do all that so it still has academic value?"

(Note: Robert Kosara was my Info Visualization and Visual Communication professor at UNC-Charlotte.  He is the author of the Eager Eyes website and blog. He has great links related to his passions.)

Putting Visualization on the Web

Organizers:  Robert Kosara, Nathan Yau, Andrew Van de Moere

"The World Wide Web is a primary source of information for many people, but not everything that can be found online when searching for "visualization" would be recognized as such by VisWeek attendees.  there is clearly a place for data art, information graphics, mash-ups, etc. -- but what is generally considered the core for visualization research (or visual analytics, for that matter) seems underrepresented.  And while it is not difficult to find images of many techniques, there is little material that explains, demonstrates, compares, and critiques them. All this is even more true for scientific visualization than for information visualization.  To reach more people in the real world, we need to understand the mechanisms for disseminating knowledge outside of the conference or journal paper. A few examples exist where academic visualization research has become successfully poipularized, e.g., TreeMaps, ThemeRiver (used in last.fm), StreamGraphs (a well-received New York Times chart of box office revenues).  More examples like these are clearly needed, as is more open and accessible information from the people in the field.  A blog or website is not just a place for dispensing wisdom, it can provide a platform for experiments and interaction.  It also makes it possible to get feedback from readers about real-world problems that might be tackled in research projects.  And it can even become the subject of research;  Many Eyes is a wonderful example of this.  The proposed workshop will give participants the opportunity to learn about experiences, get hints, and discuss issues.  Such issues include academic blogging (talk about research before it is published?),  finding an audience,  promoting a site, etc.  The goal of the workshop is to collect ideas and best practices, and to come up with useful solutions to problems posed."
Comment: The topics covered in the two workshop listed above interest me, since I get so much information from the web, and I particularly enjoy taking in information visually, especially if it conveys meaning in an efficient, elegant way.  In my opinion, web-based information "social" information visualization has the potential to embed the human story behind the numbers, trends, and factoids that bombard us every day.   This is not simply "information overload".  It is information numbness.   As consequence, it is sometimes difficult for us to tell the difference between what is important or essential, what is true, and what is not.   
VisWeek Workshop: Video Analytics

Organizers:  Nancy Chinchor, William Ribarsky, Michael Christel

"The workshop will focus on tools for analyzing videos whose content ranges from persuasive videos (ads, propaganda, news) to YouTube videos. The purpose of video analysis is to gain insight into the contents of large collections of video and to focus detailed analysis on a smaller set of videos out of that collection. The capability to explore, categorize, and annotate videos is required by multiple types of analysts. User interfaces and techniques that support these activities including techniques in image processing are all central concerns of this workshop. However, the workshop goes beyond retrieval of images to interacting with a large video collection that one may have received from a query." 

(Note:  Dr. Ribarsky is the director of the Charlotte Visualization Center.  "The VisCenter leads the latter effort through the development of the Renaissance Situation Room, located in the VisCenter, which includes a multi-touch table, tiled display, immersive stereoscopic environment, and integrated interaction for all these tools. New interactive visualizations of the urban growth model and related models are displayed and used within this environment." RENCI at UNCC )

Comment I thought this would be an interesting workshop, because as a school psychologist, I use digital video in my work with students who have special needs, including severe autism.  As a consequence, I have an assortment of digital video files to analyse, organize, and retrieve. I need some tools to help me do this in an efficient and meaningful way.  I work with a team of people, and making this information easy for my colleagues to access and share would be important to me. Collaborative Visualization on Interactive Surfaces (CoVIS) Organizers: Petra Isenberg, Michael Sedlmair, Dominikus Baur, Tobias Isenberg, Andreas Butz "It is common for small groups of people to gather around visual displays of information to discuss or interpret the information to form decisions.  Groups can share the task load of exploring large and complex datasets and can share various interpretations of a dataset when working together.  However, tools to support synchronous collaboration between several people in their data analysis are still relatively scarce.  Traditionally,  visualization and visual analytics tools have been designed from a single-user perspective and for desktop computers.  While hardware such as multi-touch displays and network capabilities have emerged that lend themselves especially well to collaboration, software support for collaboration around visualizations is still relatively scarce.  One of the reasons is that single user systems do not necessarily translate well to collaborative scenarios or interactive surfaces and require specific re-design.  The design of digital systems, therefore, poses additional challenges:  we need to understand (a) how people collaboratively work with visual representations of data and which methods they use to solve information analysis tasks as a team, and (b) what the exact design requirements are for collaborative visual analysis scenarios.  In this workshop we would like to discuss these challenges and discuss the role of interactive surfaces as an emerging technology for supporting collaborative visualization and visual analytics settings." Comment If I was at VisWeek, I'd attend this workshop because I've been thinking about topic for a while. One idea I've been toying with is the concept of sharable data widgets that people could use at the table to do real-time data analysis, as well as capture real-time data from external sources (such as information from outdoor videocams, motion sensors, etc.), and data sent from colleagues who are remotely located.  This would allow people to work collaboratively as a group, but also provide a means to distribute some of the data analysis tasks during the session.   VizWeek Tutorial:  Exploring Design Decisions for Effective Information Visualization Organizers: Jo Wood, Jason Dykes, Aldan Slingsby "This tutorial provides an opportunity for participants to design their own information visualization of some sample datasets. Using interactive software and data provided by the instructors, issues of color, layout, symbolization and animation are explored. Results from participants’ visualizations are compared along with those from the presenters allowing insights into the data and good practice in information visualization design to be gained. Participants should be equipped with their own laptop capable of running Java applications. Prior to the session participants are strongly encouraged to download the free software and data that will be used in the tutorial. The tutorial is suitable for anyone working with complex datasets who wishes to improve their data visualization design skills, in particular designing visualization solutions that match the research questions asked and the data to be analyzed." Comment This workshop caught my eye because it provides an opportunity to participate in hands-on visualization activities.   There are plenty of free educational, mental health, and public health data sets that I'd like to play around with, if I had the time and the tools! VAST Capstone Panel: How Interactive Visualization Can Assist Investigative Analysis:  Views and Perspectives from Domain Experts Organizer:  John Stasko Panelists:  Sarah Cohen, Lawrence Hunter, Joe Parry "Interactive visualization could become an essential tool in the work of investigative analysts.  Visualization could help analysts to explore large collections of data and documents, supporting the analysts' investigative sense-making processes.  This panel gathers recognized leaders  from three important domains,  investigative reporting, biosciences (genomics), and intelligence analysis, all that include a fundamental investigative analysis component.  The panelists will provide a glimpse into their worlds, describing and illustrating the data they examine, the goals and methods of their analysts, and the culture of their respective professions.  In particular, the panelists will explore how visualization could potentially benefit investigators from their domain and they will provide guidance for visualization researchers seeking to collaborate with their colleagues." Comment: I think that the topics covered by this panel are important.  Much of the important work that needs to be done by computer scientists and related technologists is interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary.   More disciplines rely on technology than ever before, and this is not limited to academia.    In my opinion,  I think the research and statistics courses that are mandatory for most graduate students should also include content related to information and data visualization related to the domain.  Often these research and statistics courses are taught by domain experts who also specialize in research and statistics. Why not take it to the next level?! The IEEE Visualization & Graphics Community website has links to most of the VisWeek 2009 conference abstracts.  There are some videos and slides available on-line.  Here are a few more topics that I thought were interesting: FinVis: Applied Visual Analytics for Personal Financial Planning (pdf) Stephen Rudolph, Anya C. Savikhin, David S. Ebert,  Purdue University Connecting the Dots in Visual Analysis (pdf) Yedendra B. Shrinivasan, Eindhoven University of Technology;  David Goetz, Jie Lu, IBM Research  Proximity-based Visualization of Movement Trace Data (pdf) Tarik Crnovrsanin, Chris Muelder, Carlos Correa, Kwan-Liu Ma, University of California, Davis Visual Analysis of Graphs with Multiple Connected Components (pdf) T. von Landesberger, M.Gorner, T. Schreck,  Technische Universitat Darmstadt I'm marking my calendar and hoping I'll have the opportunity to attend the 2010 conference: IEEE VisWeek 2010 Salt Lake City, Utah October 24-29, 2010

IntuiLab's Interfaces: Multi-touch applications/solutions for presentation, collaboration, GIS, and commerce

This is a company I've been meaning to write about!   Here is the plug from the IntuiLab website:

"Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Toulouse, France, IntuiLab is a leader in the design and development of surface computing-based applications. Through IntuiFace, the company’s portable, scalable and extensible software surface computing platform, IntuiLab delivers and deploys applications that bring tangible returns on investment to its clients by providing their customers and users with a more natural, immersive and memorable interactive experience. IntuiLab is a Microsoft and Adobe partner and has clients in a wide variety of industries such as retail, food and health, banking, aerospace and defense, telecoms and hospitality."

"We are able to deliver such benefits to our customers thanks to a unique blend of skills (our multidisciplinary IntuiTeam), technology (the IntuiFace Surface Computing Software Platform), process (the IntuiSign design process) and a wide range of partners."

R.U.S.E. on Intuilab's Interface

IntuiLab lets you blow things up with your hands (Jimin Brelsford, CrunchGear 10/09/09)
 It is not all for fun and games:


Amazon Multi-touch Clinet on the IntuiFace Platform

"This video shows an example of how to access to an online retail catalogue (such as Amazon) from a Surface Computer rich client, and create, browse and merge lists of queried or selected items in a natural way." -Intuilabs



 Multi-user Web Browsing on a Windows 7-based 19" 3M Multi-touch




Pictures from the Intuilab website:

If you take a look at Intuilab's "the team" page, you'll find that they look like...graduate students! They probably are, or were, given the size of list of published papers. This tells me that they must have their heart, mind, and souls poured into the business!

IntuiLab's Partners

I should brush up on my French and pay them a visit!

Eric Havir's Microsoft Surface in Education Links

I cut and pasted the following information about Microsoft Surface in Education from Eric Havir's Microsoft Surface blog. I've posted about some of these applications, but in light of the plea for Microsoft to listen to educators concerning the development of multi-touch applications, I thought it would be a good idea to share these links.

I hope that Eric won't mind mind this "re-blog"!

"Here are some applications by Microsoft, our Microsoft Surface partners and others."

• Churchend Primary School shows how teachers and students react to Surface in the classroom. There's also a great behind the scenes for developers.
• I had a few visits with Dr. Neil (1 2 3) talking about his firms edu apps for primary and secondary school kids.
• A paint application called Paint Touch that shows how even pre-schoolers can be engaged with Microsoft Surface.
• Wales Education Suite is a set of applications for primary schools
• Play together, learn together mixes fun with education
• Surface Math shows primary school kids engaged with Surface
• Magnification Ring has applications in education and museums
• The Local Impact Map used by Microsoft to educate representatives of governments and NGOs on corporate social responsibility
• History at your Fingertips is an adult focused application used at the national conventions last fall during the US presidential race
• The Pits is used at trade shows for sales, but has great educational applicability.
• Calculation Game by Ohio State's Computer Science & Engineering students and Geography faculty
• This clip from Microsoft Research UK show's how magical Microsoft Surface is for primary school students. It's fun to see the kids reactions.
• This video by Max is a music creation application, but imagine the possibilities with the objects to create educational applications linked with the physical world.
• Neuro-rehab is focused on healthcare, but can easily be applied to education as well.

We've had a number of higher education institutions buying Microsoft Surface as well, so if you're at college you may see curricula including Surface in markets where it's available. Education developers - don't forget that MSDN-AA has the Microsoft Surface SDK Workstation Edition for subscribers to get you started. Let me know if I've missed anything in my list above. I'll make future posts on healthcare, financial services, etc.

Cheers.
Eric

Thanks, Eric, for sharing information about these Surface applications.

More from Multitouch Barcelona!

Multitouch Barcelona is up to more great work!

Multitouch Space Invaders XL

Multitouch Space Invaders XL from Multitouch Barcelona on Vimeo.

Guten Touch, by Multitouch Barcelona

GUTEN TOUCH from Multitouch Barcelona on Vimeo.

"Designed for the Red Bull Music Academy 08, Guten Touch is an interactive installation that involves people into a natural relationship with technology. A two projected display system plus a 3m x 2m multitouch wall showcase applications designed to engage us into human friendly experiences rather than flashy and jaw-dropping visualizations. Space Invaders hit by foam balls, pixel paintings created with brushes and digital objects held by hands try to blur boundaries between real and digital."

Multi-touch Barcelona (new site)
"Multitouch Barcelona is a recently born interaction design group that explores natural communication between people and technology. They design touch sensitive environments where real world interactions move to a digital context. Interfaces where people touch, play, move, feel...Where senses play their natural role, where everything just 'happens" as it does in the real world. "




RELATED
Offf 2009: International Festival for the Post-Digital Creation Culture

More Multi-Touch and Surface Computing...

The concept of multi-touch/gesture/surface computing is spreading.

Here's more evidence:

Panasonic Touch Air Hockey


The game was demonstrated at ISE 2009 (Integrated Systems) Amsterdam. The interface was developed by UI Centric, a Soho, London company.

Microsoft's SurfaceWare at the Tangible Embedded Interactions Conference (TEI 2009):

SurfaceWare is a level-sensing software that alerts waitstaff when glasses need refilling.


Photos from Nachiket Apte, via Ru Zarin

More to come...

SPARSH: DYI demo of an open-source multi-touch table and applications by NUI-group members

The following video is a demonstration of "Sparsh", an interactive multi-touch FTIR table built in eight weeks by a group of engineering students in India. Most of the information regarding the hardware and software you see running on this low-cost system can be found on the open-source NUI-group website, forums, and wiki.


Sparsh Multitouch Display from anirudh on Vimeo.

I especially like the multi-touch DJ application!

For more information, view the posts related to the NUI group on this blog.

Sparsh Website

Touch Screen Interaction in Public Spaces: Room for Improvement, if "Every Surface is to be a Computer"

Via Technology Supported Human-World Interaction

With Win7's "multi-touch" capabilities, Bill Gate's statement that every surface will be a computer might come true, but from what I can see, we have a long way to go before we get it right!

One of the concerns I have about "touch" screen interaction in public spaces is that not much thought is given to the environmental factors surrounding the system. The system that is tested for the first time after installation might work just fine, but not when it is put to use under a variety of conditions or situations.

EXAMPLES (I've recycled a few of these from previous posts.)

Touch Screen Kiosk/Display in Upscale Shopping Area, St. Thomas(?)

I came across this system when I was walking around in St. Thomas with my husband. I wasn't sure what to make of it. There wasn't anything on the large display, and I couldn't tell from a short distance if the two smaller displays were active. I noticed that the display had an awning of sorts, so the fact that the display would be used in a sunny location had been considered. Unfortunately, the awning didn't solve this problem, as you can see from the pictures below:

CLOSER UP

As we approached the display, it was almost impossible to see what was on the screen. In fact, we weren't sure what the display was all about. It looked like something you'd see at an airport check-in, not in a lush tropical setting.

Below is a shot of my husband, trying to see what is on the screen. This photo shows exactly what the screen looked like at the time:

The next picture tells it all. You can see that there is some sort of alphabet on the right side of the screen, but the reflection of my husband is easier to see. We couldn't figure this one out.

The following clip demonstrates how environmental concerns, such as wind and "sideways" rain, can make an interactive display at a shopping center difficult to use. During this clip, you can hear me muttering about the difficulties I had interacting with the information on the touch-screen display. It is possible that the system wasn't working well because of the exposure to the elements.

WIND AND SIDEWAYS RAIN

You can see that the navigation system was confusing. At the end, the entire screen turned red, and I gave up.

The next video-clip is of a touch-screen map at the Cleveland Clinic hospital. I was with my elderly aunt and my sister, and we were trying to figure out how to get to a restaurant. We never found it.

Although the screen was easy to see, the application was... crazy!

In my opinion, an interactive wayfinding application should run on a larger display and support two or more people, since many hospital visitors often run in pairs or small groups.

More Interactive Physics: Crayon Physics Deluxe - Trailer from Kloonigames

Kloonigame's Crayon Physics Deluxe is a fun, interactive physics game that works well on a touch screen. It is not as complex as Algodoo, as it doesn't require the player to interact with lots of settings.

The above video is of the commercial version of the game. It is a labor of love by Petri Purho, of Helsinki, Finland. You can find Petri's games on the Kloonigame's website, including the free version. Crayon Physics won an award at the 2008 Independent Games Festival.

Website: Kloonigames
Article: Indulge your inner child with 'Crayon Physics': Wonderful game looks like it was plucked from a 5-year-old's coloring book (Winda Benedetti, MSNBC 1/13/09)

Bloom - Play Music with Colors: Seth Sandler's relaxing little on-line application!

Bloom: Play music with colors (link to application)

For more information about Seth Sandler's work, visit his AudioTouch website.

Here are a few pictures of his applications:








Seth integrates music into his multi-touch applications, as he has a background in both music and art. He is a member of the NUI-Group.