More touch screen "surface" display musings...

I had my first chance to use an interactive touch-screen SmartBoard, by Smart Technologies in 2002-03. Since I work mostly with kids and teens, I wondered why large-display touch screen technology wasn't more widespread, since there are so many free, interactive websites that provide pretty engaging activities for users.

One of the things I learned was that large-display touch-screen technology is in the preschool stage. There are problems with screen responsiveness, screen resolution, durability, and input.

In recent years, the idea of a touch screen has evolved to table-tops and drafting boards, embedded within wireless systems that allow for interoperability with mobile devices and remote applications.

Great technology exists, but no-one has pulled all the components together in a way that can easily scale for the people who would benefit from this sort of technology the most - people who spend most of day time teaching, learning, or both. I had a great experience using a NextWindow Human Touch large-screen display for some of my projects last semester. It was difficult for me to track one down, but once I got my hands on it, I liked it, even though it did not have multi-touch capabilities.

One laptop for each child? That was a good idea for the late 1990's and early 2000's. One high-quality, affordable, large touch-screen display or table for each classroom would be more effective.

One touch-screen display/table for every 4-6 students would be better. Is there anyone out there who is up for the challenge?

Next Post: Updated links to interactive multimedia websites appropriate for large touch screen surfaces.

Women in Technology: My editorial on the NCWIT blog -UPDATE

The above link is to my editorial, "Gender Beneath the Surface", posted on the NCWIT blog.

Although women make up half the population, they are under-represented in computer science and related technological fields. If your are interested in issues related to women and technology, the National Center for Women in Information Technology -NCWIT- is a great place to start.

I wrote the post on the day I learned that all of the members of the executive team for Microsoft Surface (Madrid) were male.

UPDATE:

The Microsoft Surface website now includes photos and bios of other team members, including women.  One woman,  Gretchen R., was originally hired to develop games for children on the Surface. 

(dually posted - techpsych and interactive multimedia technology blogs)

Interesting discussion about interactive multi-touch displays and surfaces

The above link is to an interesting discussion about scenarios for multi-touch displays.

IxDA is an organization of people involved in interactive design. Although this group's focus is not primarily on interaction design for technology used in education or psychology/counseling, many of the ideas shared by the groups membership are worth some thought.

This is from the Interactive Design Association's website:

What is Interaction Design?

"Interaction design (IxD) is the branch of user experience design that defines the structure and behavior of interactive products and services. Interaction designers strive to create useful, usable and desirable products and services that satisfy specific user needs, business goals, and technical constraints."

Usabililty guidelines for touch screen or surface applications from SAP

Here is a link to usability design guidelines for touch-screen applications on the SAP design guild website, posted by Gerd Waloszek, of the Product Design Center.

Although these guidelines were written in 2000, they still hold true in 2007, especially now that larger touch-screen applications such as Microsoft Surface (Madrid) have recently been unveiled.


Touch Screen Design Guide

Google Earth with photo overlays on a touch screen 2

Here is another demo videoclip of a globe created in GoogleEarth using photo-overlays, with links to video clips uploaded to YouTube and embedded in individual posts on a blog. The above photo and the video clip show the application on a NextWindow Human Touch large-screen display.

This application would be great on a touch-table or touch-table set up on a drafting board. Although it was designed for a travel-planning application, it would work well in educational settings in subjects such as geography.

Multimedia: Interactive touch-tables and large displays

This semester I'm taking a class in Human Computer Interaction and another class called "Ubiquitous Computing". I'm working on two projects that involve the use of interactive touch-screen displays. One is for travel-planning, and the other is for games that are located in social gathering places.

I've come across lots of interesting applications during the course of my research that I'd like to share on this blog. (Check back for more information!)

Right now, my dream is to get my hands on an interactive touch table that has multi-touch capability. The table needs to be wi-fi enabled, with an adjustable surface so that it can function horizantally, vertically, or in any position in between, like a drafting table.

Here is the "Multi-Touch Interaction Experiments" video demo of Jeff Han's work with a multi-touch interactive table/screen. I know this was included in an earlier post, but if you haven't seen it, you have to take a look!




Here is a link to Jeff Han's multi-touch wall, his latest work.

Stefano Baraldi's blog, "onthetabletop" is a good resource for people interested in interactive tables. He has a link to the recent Classroom of the Future conference, which focuses on collaborative learning spaces.

Here is one of Stefano Baraldi's demo videos:

Concept Matching



Working with photographs:



Here are more links about the use of interactive tables:

Interactive Tables: Supporting Collaborative Casual Learning

SIDES: A Cooperative Tabletop Computer Game for Social Skills Development


SIDES is a game that was designed for use on a MERL DiamondTouch tabletop. The researchers studied the use of social skills games for middle school students who have Asperger Syndrome.

Google Earth on a touch screen table - video demo

The interactive table used in this video demonstration is Diamond Touch, from MERL. In this application, navigation through Google Earth is controled through speech.

Here is a picture of how the table works:

Link to info about a "super touch screen" for Google Earth - it has multiple uses.

Watch this video about a "super touch screen" for Google Earth from Perceptive Pixel! More information about this can be found on the TechPsych blog, and from the Google Earth Blog. I think this application would be great for visual learners.

Applications like this are immersive and engaging. If you are an educator, think about the ways you could use this application in your classroom!

Link to related article.

-Lynn