"Right here, in your web browser, you may contribute to anyone's creation and steer it in any direction you choose, or start a story of your own, by creating a seed animation for a new tree. Our hope is through the collective creativity of the web, an ever-expanding forest of narrative paths will grow." -Chris Milk/Aaron Koblin This Exquisite Forest is a collaborative art project by Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin, creators of the online Johnny Cash collaborative project. The Johnny Cash Project was a crowd-sourced music video for Johnny Cash's final album (see below). What I like about this project is that it provides viewers with the opportunity to create animations that link with those of other people, online. All of the tools to create animations and music are on the website, along with clear instructions and FAQs. You can even curate your own tree. For those who take a less participatory approach to art, the project's website offers something called "The Endless Theater", where viewers can watch the most popular branches of This Exquisite Forest.
The project makes use of Google's App Engine. Google's Cloud Storage handles the accounts and data storage. To access the project, you need Google's Chrome browser, as the project takes advantage of JavaScript and HTML5. RELATED
Earlier this year, Microsoft bought Jeff Han's company, founder of Perceptive Pixel. Jeff Hans now works for the Microsoft Office division of the company, where there is a push to bring new and improved large multi-touch displays to the corporate world. With this off-the-desktop move, developers are challenged to develop applications for Windows 8 that will be geared towards supporting collaboration in corporate settings. Jeff Han and Nathan Fish were at Microsoft's "Build" conference recently to give a presentation about the nuts and bolts of the new technology - how it works, and suggestions for design. Although the video presentation is over an hour long, it is worth setting aside some time to watch!
Here is the description of the presentation: "Develop solutions that flow with your customers business - starting with individuals and information workers on their phones, desks or virtual offices, moving into conference rooms, brainstorm areas, boardrooms and common areas. Learn how Microsoft's new pen and touch capabilities, software and hardware will enable you to develop products that will help businesses be more efficient. Have a sneak peek on what our large multi-touch displays (82' and 55') can bring to your solutions." -Microsoft Build Jeff Han emphasized that touch interaction is everywhere and is a fundamental requirement in applications. Windows 8 apps should be designed for all screen sizes, saying "It's all about collaboration of people and a collaboration of devices that gets your work done....this is the real thing, and it is about to happen. Devices (referring to large displays) are coming... we do have a mechanism for early access hardware."
During the second half of the video (38:00), Nathan Fish discusses guidelines for designing experiences on large displays, including optimization, handling various interactions via pen, touch, and gestures, the use of application bars and context menus, and more.
At the beginning of his presentation, Nathan Fish briefly discusses the uncharted territory of designing for collaborative large displays, and tells the audience that the guidelines are just suggestions, " nothing is written, we are figuring this out as we go."
My fear is that Windows 8 developers might not have the inclination to think past the smaller screens of smartphones and tablets, resulting in touchy-feely variations of PowerPoint and other Office applications that have been around for too long.
What happened to the Surface Table? I was surprised that Jeff Han's company was not folded into PixelSense, formally known as Surface, the division of Microsoft that focuses on large multi-touch tables. In my opinion, the tables had some potential to support collaborative work in the corporate world. It will be interesting to see how things unfold! PixelSense Take a look at the video clip below for more information:
Discover the Samsung SUR40 (with PixelSense) Samsung SUR40 with Microsoft PixelSense PixelSense Development Partners Insights on Interactive Tabletops: A Survey of Researchers and Developers(pdf) Hrvoje Benko, Meredith Ringel Morris, A.J. Bernheim Brush, and Andrew D. Wilson 2009, Microsoft Research SOMEWHAT RELATED I've been interested in large screen displays and how they interact with smaller devices for a very long time. In 2007, I was taking graduate courses at UNC-Charlotte and planned to pursue further research and work related to this area. At the time, I prepared a paper to present at a conference, but was unable to present due a serious health emergency in my family. The abstract is below: "Large screen displays support the collaboration of two or more people, especially when the nature of the content is visual. These displays, in the form of walls, windows, boards, and touch-tables, will become ubiquitous in the future, and can be found in workplaces, educational institutions, museums, and other public spaces. New display systems have been developed that allow for co-located communication between groups of people, and also allow for collaboration with individuals in remote locations, using mobile computing or communication devices. This paper will provide an overview of the technologies that support this new way of communication, discuss the challenges involved in establishing "interoperability" within these new systems, and examine the possibilities for the future."
If this topic interests you, take a look at one of my Flickr collections: Ubiquitous Sightings of Urban Screens: Interactive Displays in Public Spaces, Digital Signage, and Screens of All Sizes Description: "All kinds of displays are cropping up in shopping centers, malls, banks, stores, airports, schools, businesses, and meeting places. What is the purpose of all of these displays? Displays and mobile devices, everywhere we go. It doesn't look like we've really figured out how to harness the potential of the technology that surrounds us."
If you live in the US, and haven't yet heard, the U.S. government is encouraging K-12 schools to adopt interactive digital textbooks within the next five years. Are we ready? I don't think so. There is a battle of the tablets going on as I type this post. Traditional, "old-school" textbook publishers appear to be key players in this game, but I am not sure if they have the know-how to create interactive content that is fresh, "touchable", engaging, and meaningful to young people. A boring textbook, tweaked tweaked for a bit of interactivity and multimedia content will not suffice. Feel free to take your time and visit the links I've shared so far. I'm still reflecting on what I've learned so far and will share more of my thoughts in future related posts. Leaders Discuss Transition to Digital Textbooks The LEAD commission
I will be devoting a few upcoming posts to tablets, larger smartphones, and other mobile computing devices. I'll be hearing from the folks at Stantum later today. This morning I woke up and turned on the TV as I was getting ready for work, and the first thing I saw on my local station was this cute family-focused ad for the new Google Chromebook, which at $249.00, is affordable: I especially like the scene were a toddler stomps on a Chromebook left on the floor.
Today I attended Web Afternoon Charlotte and was impressed by many of the presentations, including a talk by Nick Finck, of Deloitte Digital. Throughout the day, common themes emerged, centered around facing our fears and creating a better (digital) world that includes a good measure of disruption. As I reviewed information for this post, I came across a
nicely-prepared video by Deloitte Australia. It provides a number of animated infographics to highlight key factors related to digital disruption. Although the narrator focuses on the business world in Australia, given our global economy, the concepts ring true for the US and other countries. (An infographic on this topic, created by Deloitte Digital can be found at the end of this post.)
I haven't had a chance to play with the Kurio, a 7 inch Android tablet designed for children and their families, so I haven't formulated an opinion about the device, or the applications that it runs. I thought I'd share the promotional video and related information/links:
Kurio Tablet from CIDE on Vimeo. Parents can view a number of "how-to" videos to get the tablet up and running. Developers can apply to be part of the Kurio store. From what I can see, the Kurio is in need of some creative, child-friendly apps. Below is a hands-on demo:
It seems that the weekend is ripe for sharing interesting things on Facebook, judging from what I've seen from my FB friends. These are just a few that came my way:
This picture below is from the World is Beautiful FB page. Where? The Igloo Village of Hotel Kakslauttanen, in Finland. The igloos are made of glass, and according to the description, provide views of the Aurora Borealis:
In case you missed this--- at about 1:45 the dolphins appear. Beautiful!
Patent application for "peripheral treatment for head-mounted displays", for the above device. Michael Husted's post: Shared by Barbara Bray, via Smart Apps for Kids, via Success in Learning: My comment: "It doesn't hurt to take a few self-defense classes. I took kickboxing for the exercise and I do not feel defenseless. As adults, we encounter criminals who are beyond the bully stage, who don'e care if they hurt (or kill) when they want to engage in illegal activities. It makes sense to do the things that make us strong, healthy, fit, and safe. This means having the strength to help others during a crisis, such as the shootings at the movie theater and other seemingly "random" acts of local terrorism." I shared the following picture on Facebook: I set up the XBox 360 and the Kinect in the Activities of Daily Living room (it is also the music room), and when I went to take a picture of my rafting adventure, the system took a picture of me!
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!
I was browsing at a Barnes & Noble in Charlotte, N.C. this weekend and was surprised when I looked up to see that I was in the "Men's Interest" section. Is this the message the bookseller wants to give to half of its potential customers?
I don't think it was intentional. It was just one of many subtle- and not-so-subtle - reminders that our society has a long way to go to encourage females, of any age, to consider computing and related technical fields of work and study.
Although women have made inroads in fields such as law and medicine, this is not true for many technical fields. According to a thoughtful article written by Rane Johnson-Stempson, of Microsoft Research, a study by the Computing Research Association indicated that female students were only 14% of computer science graduates in the U.S. in 2011. The under-representation of women in computer science and related technical fields in 2012 continues to be a problem, on many levels. RELATED Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computingwas published about ten years ago. The book was an outgrowth of the research of Allan Fisher and Jane Margolis, of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, and is still worth reading.
Getting more women into computer science Connie Glasser, Atlanta Business Journal, 5/11/12 "Just when we need every available gifted mind to help business recover from the Great Recession, we can't afford to overlook the contributions that women could make if CS environments were more inclusive."
Marissa Mayer on Women in Tech: CNET's CES 2012 Panel (January, 2012) "Right now it is a good time for women to be in tech, but there are not a lot of women in tech..."
Tonight's episode of 60 Minutes included a repeat of a segment about the use of iPad apps with young people who have autism spectrum disorders. I missed it, but I found it on the CBS website.
Along with the segment, I found several related videos and transcripts. If you have a moment, take the time to look!
RELATED Interview of Temple Grandin about autism Temple Grandin's Unique Brain SEN Classroom: Ideas and Tech in a SEN Classroom (James Winchester's blog) James is a special educator who has a wealth of "how-to" knowledge about technology and special needs. If you are interested, take a look at his blog's archive. He writes about iPad apps, the use of the Kinect with students at his school, and more. He specializes in a Life Skills curriculum, which focuses on social, communication, and vocational skills that the students will need as they become members of the community.
I recently wrote a post about Po-Motion, an interactive tech start-up based in Winnipeg, Canada, and learned that the system is used as an interactive wall display in a sensory room at a school for children who have severe disabilities, including autism. More information about the use of this system, including a video, can be found on James Winchester's blog post, Po-Motion Interactive Wall in the Sensory Room.
Comment: In my work as a school psychologist, I use technology with students who have severe autism several days a week, along with my colleagues. I plan to share more information on this topic from time-to-time in future posts.
I am putting together a web page with resources about autism and technology. My resources include descriptions of systems and applications, videos, and presentation slides from a variety of researchers, developers, and practitioners. Suggestions are welcome!
I've been neglecting my musical experiments for too long. My Yamaha Motif 8 is about 9 years old, and my last copy of MOTU Digital Performer is on a computer that died in 2007 or so. In the past, I found that immersing myself in wave forms and playing around with sound synthesis was quite relaxing. I miss it.
Since I'm not a performing musician, I told myself not to trouble with researching electronic keyboard/workstations and fancy software. The practical thing to do is to stick with Garage Band to give life to the musical ideas that pop into my head. I've played with music-making on my iPhone and iPad, hoping it would dampen my electronic music urge, but wasn't quite right.
What to do? I still am not sure what I will do. However, a link from a tweet by the Tornado Twins caught my eye today. It led me to a short video that put me back into the music-creating groove. Even if you aren't into music technology or electronic music, you might enjoy the opportunity to view musical creation visualized in the video, and appreciate the enthusiasm of the twin.
HOW TO MAKE DUBSTEP IN 10 MINUTES (Using the Dubstep Master Kit)
Comment: I plan to devote periodic posts to music technology in the future a bit more frequently than in the past. It is a topic that is dear to my heart. A little "history": In the early 1990's, I bought an Ensonic KS-32 weighted-action keyboard. I was exasperated by the 250-page manual that came with my keyboard. It was time to upgrade the computer, so I got a Mac Performa 600 CD, and purchased the very first version of MOTU's FreeStyle software to ease the music creation process. I have been pleased with all of my MOTU products over the years, as well as the excellent tech support.
This little guy "plays" iPad about once or twice a week. The video shows him with the My PlayHome app. It is interesting to see how much he remembered from the previous week!
In the near future, I plan to write a few posts about the apps that I've used with students with special needs. I will also touch on a few apps that are great for toddlers and "twos".
I have been waiting for Design for Emotionto come out, and I look forward to reading it soon. Below is information about the book from the Affective Design website:
"After seven years of research and almost one and a half years of writing, I’m very pleased to announce that the book I’ve co-authored with Microsoft’s Edie Adams on designing for emotion and personality is available on Amazon."
"Drawing on our combined experience of over 30 years in graphic, interactive and industrial design, human factors, and product management, Design for Emotion explores the what, when, where, why and how of designing emotion and personality. We define and model emotion and personality in a way that relates directly to design practice." -Trevor van Gorp
Yesterday evening I attended a meetup of TechCrunch and Charlotte-area techies, held at the uptown Packard Place entrepreneurial center. It was jammed-packed with people all abuzz with tech start-up fever, fueled by awesome food provided by Zen Fusion. Although my main purpose for attending the TechCrunch meet-up was to learn more about innovative technology start-ups in my region, I also was hoping to capture a few shots of interesting people. I like to keep my eye open for tee-shirt slogans, and one worn by a young gentleman caught my eye, proclaiming that he'd seen the future, and it is in his browser. On the back of his tee-shirt was a bright HTML5 logo, something that is dear to my heart, as I am moving from HTML4 to HTML5. He was polite and agreed to pose for a couple of photographs:
It turned out that the HTML5 guy was at the TechCrunch event with one of his colleagues from T1 Visions, a social touchscreen solutions company that I've featured previously on this blog. They caught me up on the growth of this start-up company, which now has 15 employees and has broadened its reach beyond table-top restaurant applications to the healthcare, education, corporate, retail, and broader hospitality sectors.
What I like about table-top systems is that they provide support for "natural user interaction". It allows for multiple modes of interaction with and presentation of multimedia content. Over the past several years, these systems have been proven to be useful to a wider range of people and settings. Interfaces that support touch and gesture interaction are no longer viewed as novelties, given the pervasiveness of touch-phones and tablets and their ease-of-use for most people.
A useful product from T1 Visions is the T1 Collaboration Table. It supports touch-screen interaction and can also handle up to four simultaneously connected laptops. The table system provides a media viewer that supports sharing of photos across screens, devices, and surfaces. It also contains a web browser, a presentation viewer, and a whiteboard that is compatible with video conferencing. The company provides customized applications for its clients. In the Charlotte area, some of the tables can be found in restaurants, such as the Mellow Mushroom, Cowfish, and Harpers. A few were recently installed in the Atkins library at UNC-Charlotte, to support group-work among students.
To learn more about what T1 Visions has to offer, take a few minutes to view the following videos and follow the links at the end of this post!
Demonstration of how the collaboration table can work within a business environment:
NOTE: TechCrunch is a technology media group founded in 2005 that focuses on innovative technologies. This summer, a group of TechCrunchers are visiting cities in the south that were previously not under their radar, such as Savannah and my home region, Charlotte, N.C. The Charlotte TechCrunch meetup was held on Wednesday, July 11, 2012. I plan to devote a few more blog posts to share what I learned.
I've been looking over my enormous archive of links and resources for this blog and thought I'd share some of the things that I planned on posting, but never did. I have small collection of resources from organizations that provide support for young women who are preparing for careers in computing and related technological fields.
The Dot Diva website is part of the New Image for Computing (NIC) initiative, a joint effort between the Association for Computing (ACM), Sandhandle Workshops/SandBlast! DBG, and WGBH. According to promotional information, "Dot Diva's mission is to create an exciting and positive image of computing for high school girls. Our nationwide survey revealed that not only do the majority of girls think of computing as "boring" and "hard," but they believe it fails to deliver two crucial benefits: "working with others" and "making a difference in other people's lives." Our ultimate goal is to transform this negative perception."
In the following video, two young women apply for jobs working at a mostly-male video game company. They both are hired and the viewer is presented with some interesting characters and interactions. The video makes light fun of all sorts of people in order to convey some important messages:
Info from the Image of Computing website: Taskforce Director, Jill Ross, Image of Computing Task Force Co-Chair, Rick Rashid, Sr. VP Research, Microsoft Co-Chair, Dr. James Foley, Georgia Institute of Technology and Past Board Chair, CRA Microsoft Corporation,www.microsoft.com Hewlett Packard,www.hp.com Intel Corporation,www.intel.com CRA, Computing Research Association,www.cra.org ACM, Association of Computing Machinery,www.acm.org SIAM, Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics,www.siam.org IEEE-CS,www.computer.org/portal/site/ieeecs USENIX,www.usenix.org NCWIT National Center for Women in Information Technology,www.ncwit.org ATLAS Institute,www.colorado.edu/ATLAS/ Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence,www.aaai.org
I recently learned more PO-MO, a relatively new start-up tech company based in Winnipeg, Canada. According to the company's information, PO-MO "specializes in interactive digital display solutions, including gesture and motion based interactivity, interactive display content creation and management, and large interactive display and projection services for advertisers, educators, and events."
Po-Motion was afinalist in an elevator pitch video contest last fall. It has several advantages over potential competitors. The system is easy to use, and priced within the range that is affordable for schools, museums, and other cost-conscious groups who would like to provide technology-supported immersive interactive experiences for people of all ages. The PO-MOtion software designed for interactive floors and walls starts at $39.99, and works on any computer, using any USB web camera and a projector. Other applications make use of Kinect sensors.
I especially like one of PO-MO's recent projects, the Impossible Animals Museum Exhibit, created using Unity 3-D, for the Manitoba Children's Museum. How does it work? Children create a colored egg using crayons and paper, which is then scanned into the exhibit and digitally embedded into the system, which includes an interactive wall and floor. When the egg is touched, it is activated to hatch, and then becomes a motion reactive animal. The environment includes things like water, landscapes, and even a spaceship. The system has a "reset world" button for museum staff to use when needed.
The following video explains how the PO-MO system works:
PO-MO is also involved in promotional projects, assisting retailers, ad agencies, and brand managers with creative ways to engage customers and clients:
Other products and services provided by PO include mobile app development. I especially like the augmented reality business card depicted in the following video clip:
Imagine if your local shopping centers, museums, libraries, or even schools offered this level of immersive interaction on a regular basis!
RELATED The PO-MOtion system has a wide range of uses. It is currently used in an educational setting in a sensory room for students with special needs, something that I'd like to try out in the near future with students at Wolfe School. I plan to share more about this in another post.
"Meghan has been a professional designer and animator since graduating from Red River College in 1997. After graduation, she moved to Calgary, where she spent almost two years directing projects at Aurenya Studios, a start-up animation company. In 2001, Meghan was engaged by Community Connections to support community-based IT development projects in rural Manitoba and in Winnipeg’s inner city. In 2008, Meghan joined Manlab, developing educational interactive games and resources for Immigrate Manitoba. She also launched Meghan PO-MO Project, a sole proprietorship which provided sound reactive visuals for DJs and venues across Canada. In 2009, Meghan was contracted as the User Experience Designer at Tipping Canoe, a multinational internet marketing company.
In 2010, Meghan formed PO-MO Inc. in partnership with Curtis Wachs. She began working exclusively for the company in December, 2010. Today, Meghan is the driving force behind PO-MO Inc." Curtis Wachs – Technical Director/COO, PO-MO Inc. "Curtis graduated from Assiniboine Community College in 2003 where he studied object oriented programming. Directly upon graduating, Curtis was hired by Assiniboine Community College to help design and develop software for online classes. Curtis relocated to Winnipeg in 2006 to create interactive training material for sales staff at E.H. Price. During the course of his work, Curt was apprenticed in 3D modelling and animation by Liem Ngyuen, a former Frantic Films resident. In 2008, Curtis joined Manlab, where he created online educational games for Travel Manitoba, Immigrate Manitoba, and other clients. In 2010, Curtis formally joined PO-MO Project, and the company became a partnership. In June 2010, PO-MO Inc. was founded.
Curtis is currently the technical director at PO-MO Inc., overseeing the project management and workflow of contracted and R&D development projects."
