Interactive Ear: A Guide to Human Hearing, by Amplifon, link to Pearltrees site.

The Interactive Ear: A Guide to Human Hearing

This interactive ear was created by Amplifon, a hearing aid company based in the UK and in 20 other countries.  Until recently, interactive "learning modules" were designed with Flash, and out quick reach of people with iPads.  After playing around with the Interactive Ear using my iPad, I'm pretty sure that it was designed for use with touch-tablets in mind.

If you are an educator looking for something effective to use for a unit on the senses, the Interactive Ear looks like it would be great on an interactive whiteboard or large touch-screen display.   It provides ways to explore the workings of the outer, middle, and inner ear.

The Interactive Ear is presented by Amplifon

Thanks to e-Learning Examples for sharing this link! 

At the time of this post, I had not discovered who worked on the development of the Interactive Ear.  I'll post the information here in an update.

RELATED
While looking up information about the Interactive Ear, I came across the Pearltrees website.  It is sort of like Pinterest, but in a much more interactive and playful format. Information is represented by small icons called "Pearls", which are navigational tools that designed to support organization and sharing of information. It

I think the Pearltrees interface is also a good way to support memory of the "stuff" we have come across online!  Like any free site, if you sign up, the folks at Pearltrees will have access to some of your information, most likely for future advertising purposes. Pearltrees also can be accessed via apps for the iPad/iOS  and Android.  Pearltrees is recruiting, btw.

Below is a screenshot from the someone's Pearltree page that had the Interactive Ear in as a pearl inside of a pearl:

NOTE TO FOLLOWERS
For a number of reasons, including my work obligations-I have a consuming "day" job as a school psychologist- I have had less time to post blogs and have a huge backlog of content, ideas, and thoughts I have yet to share.  Here are some of the topics that you are likely see in the future.  

I appreciate your support and patience!

Future Topics:

Update on interactive multimedia learning modules
Update on latest interactive display technology, systems, and software, across the spectrum of uses
Interactive mobile technology in the wild and in the home 
eTextiles in art, music, and dance
Interesting conferences 
Update on human-computer interaction research and innovative technologies
Update on games for learning, serious games, and new technologies for gaming
Usability (or lack of) of systems, applications, devices across all spectrums, including education, government, health care, automobiles, mobile, etc.
Update on my own technology experiments --- I still haven't finished that interactive multimedia timeline!

Little Digits Counting and Early Math App, by Cowly Owl - Chris O'Shea

Fun with Early Math:  App by Chris O'Shea - Cowly Owl

Chris O'Shea is an artist and designer who uses technology in creative, playful ways. Over the past year or so, he's devoted some of his attention to designing engaging iPad apps and digital toys.  Below is a video of his Little Digits app in action:


Little Digits from Cowly Owl on Vimeo.

Here is the information from the Vimeo site:

"Little Digits is a fun educational app that teaches children about numbers by putting a new spin on finger counting. Using the iPad multi-touch screen, Little Digits displays number characters by detecting how many fingers you put down.  Children can learn to associate the number on the screen with the number of fingers they place down, whilst enjoying the unique characters and animations of the Little Digits world...They are also games that introduce small addition and subtraction calculations, where you can work out the answer using the same multi-touch finger detection."

RELATED
Cowly Owl
Chris O'Shea's Website
My iPad Pinterest Board

Disney Research: Touche, Touch and Gesture Sensing

The following video is a demonstration of something called Swept Frequency Capacitive Sensing. It recognizes various configurations of hands and body during interactions.  This system is different than conventional capacitive touch sensing, as it senses a range of frequencies to develop a capacitive profile that provides a significant amount of data that can be analysed and utilized in an application.

At 1:23, the SFCS is demonstrated on a table, sensing body posture or body configuration. It is a wireless system and can be used on smaller touch screens, such as mobile devices.  It can recognize interactions in liquids.


Touche was awarded Best Paper at ACM CHI 2012:

RELATED
Touche: Touch and Gesture Sensing for the Real World
Disney Research
Sato, M., Poupyrev, I, and Harrison, C. Touché: Enhancing Touch Interaction on Humans, Screens, Liquids, and Everyday Objects. In Proceedings of CHI’12. 2012. ACM.
Paper [PDF, 10Mb]
Touche with Arduino
Swept Frequency Capacitive Sensing (SFCS)
Audrey Cropp, Responsive Landscapes, 2/18/13

SOMEWHAT RELATED Synthetic Ecologies Course Reading List
Responsive Environments Course
Allen Sayegh, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Gesture Markup Language (GML) for Natural User Interaction and Interfaces

Quick post:

Gesture ML Wiki 

"GML is an extensible markup language used to define gestures that describe interactive object behavior and the relationships between objects in an application.  Gesture Markup Language has been designed to enhance the development of multiuser multi-touch and other HCI device driven applications." -Gesture ML Wiki

GestureML was created and maintained by Ideum. 

More information to come!

Photo credit: Ideum

RELATED
Ideum Blog

OpenExhibits Free multitouch and multiuser software initiative for museums, education, nonprofits, and students

GestureWorks  Multi-touch authoring for Windows 8 & Windows 7

Ideum's GestureWorks Platform Will Let Developers Create Complex Gestures for Ultrabook Apps  -Alex Williams, Tech Crunch, 11/18/12

5 Perspectives On The Future Of The Human Interface -Alex Williams, Tech Crunch, 11/4/12

NUI Group

More to come!

Quick Link: Comparison of Interactive Whiteboards

This is a good review of a few interactive screen options for educators.  If you are just dipping your toe into the ocean of interactive screen choices, don't feel overwhelmed.  Know that the decisions you make will focus on hardware as well as interactive digital content. 


The article below provides screen shots, a comparison chart, and information about interactive tabletops in addition to whiteboards.


TechLAB Shoutout:  5 Interactive Whiteboards
Brian Nadel, Scholastic Tech Tools, 11/7/12






Note:
Although I enjoy sharing news related to interactive technologies and applications, I often dig in deep, and include links to primary sources, research, and related scholarly articles when I can.  I view my blog as a repository or archive.

If you do a search on this blog, you will likely find yourself pleasantly surprised, even if the post was written a few months - or years ago.  

LINK: Mobile's Role in a Consumer's Media Day: Smartphones and Tablets Enable Seamless Digtal Lives -Study by ABIresearch (IAB Mobile)

I've been reflecting on how much I do things differently, now that I'm surrounded by digital devices throughout the day - and also surrounded by other people, who are also linked to more than one device or screen.

More often than not, we are all connected to the web, or at least one person/device away!

I don't think we've figured out the "seamless digital lives" part!

MOBILE'S ROLE IN A CONSUMER'S MEDIA DAY: Smartphones and Tablets Enable Seamless Digital Lives (pdf)
(An IAB Mobile Center of Excellence Research Project)

Web Version

Press Release:
Tablets & Smarphones Generate Strong Ad Engagement, According to IAB Mobile Research
IAB Media Contact:  Laura Goldberg  7/16/12



Credit:  IAB, via Flat World Business

Jeff Han Discusses Windows 8 for Large Displays, Microsoft's New Multi-touch, Ink & Pen Tech; Experience Design for Large Displays (2012 Microsoft Build)

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! 

New multi-touch, ink, and pen technologies that can revolutionize your apps on any size of screens (10/30/12, Microsoft Build)



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.

RELATED
Microsoft Welcomes Perceptive Pixel to the Office Division
The Official Microsoft Blog, 7/30/12


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."

Tablet and Mobile Day (or Era): Lots of upcoming news about tablets and mobile devices. New Chromebook, too.

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.

Lenovo's Touchy-Twisty Tablet-Laptops (Video)

I plan to get my hands on the IdeaPad Yoga and ThinkPad Twist someday soon. I'm curious to see how Windows 8 plays out the new touch-tablets.

In the following video, David Schmook, of Lenovo, demonstrates the new IdeaPad Yoga and Twist, running Windows 8.  


IdeaPad Yoga and ThinkPad Twist: Windows 8 Computers Bend and Twist
Joanna Stern, ABC News, 10/09/12


FYI: Lenovo will be manufacturing the "Think" family of computer products in my home state, North Carolina starting January, 2013. 

Photo Credit: Lenovo

Blast from the 2009 past: News, Videos, and Links about Multi-touch and Screen Technologies

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!

Musings about NUI, Perceptive Pixel and Microsoft, Rapid Creative Prototyping (Lots of video and links) Revised

It just might be the right time for everyone to brush up on 21st century tech skills. iPads and touch-phones are ubiquitous. Touch-enabled interactive whiteboards and displays are in schools and boardrooms.  With Microsoft's Windows 8 and the news that the company recently acquired Jeff Han's company, Perspective Pixel, I think that there will be good support - and more opportunities- for designers and developers interested in moving from GUI to NUI.    


In the video below, from CES 2012, Jeff Han provides a good overview of where things are moving in the future.  We are in a post-WIMP world and there is a lot of catching up to do!

CES 2012  Perceptive Pixel and the Future of Multitouch (IEEE Spectrum YouTube Channel)



During the video clip, Jeff explains how far things have come during the past few years:

 "Five and 1/2 years ago I had to explain to everybody what multi-touch was and meant. And then, frankly, we've seen some great products from folks like Apple, and really have executed so brilliantly, that everyone really sees what a good implementation can be, and have come to expect it.  I also think though, that the explosion of NUI is less about just multi-touch, but an awareness that finally people have that you don't have to use a keyboard and mouse, you can demand something else beside that.  People are now willing to say, "Oh, this is something I can try, you know, touch is something I can try as my friendlier interface"."

Who wouldn't want to interact with a friendlier interface?  Steve Ballmer doesn't curb his enthusiasm about Windows 8 and Perceptive Pixel.  Jeff Han is happy how designs created in Windows 8 scales for use on screens large and small. He explains how Windows 8 can support collaboration. The Story Board application (7:58) on the large touchscreen display looks interesting.

I continue to be frustrated by the poor usability of many web-based and desk-top applications.  I like my iPad, but only because so many dedicated souls have given some thought to the user experience when creating their apps.  I often meet with disappointment when I encounter interactive displays when I'm out and about during the day.  It is 2012, and it seems that there are a lot of application designers and developers who have never read Don Norman's The Design of Everyday Things!

I enjoy making working prototypes and demo apps, but my skill set is stuck in 2008, the last year I took a graduate-level computer course.  I was thinking about taking a class next semester, something hands-on, creative, and also practical, to move me forward. I can only do so much when I'm in the DIY mode alone in my "lab" at home.  I need to explore new tools, alongside like-minded others.  


There ARE many more tools available to designers and developers than there were just four years ago.  Some of them are available online, free, or for a modest fee.  I was inspired by a link posted by my former HCI professor, Celine Latulipe, to her updated webpage devoted to Rapid Prototyping tools. The resources on her website look like a good place to start for people who are interested in creating applications for the "NUI" era.  (Celine has worked many interesting projects that explore how technology can support new and creative interaction, such as Dance.Draw.) Below is her description of her updated HCI resources:

"New HCI resource to share: I have created a few pages on my web site devoted to Rapid Prototyping tools, books, and methods. These pages contain reviews of various digital tools, including 7 different desktop prototyping apps, and including 8 different iPad apps for wireframing/prototyping. I hope it's useful to others. Feel free to share... and please send me comments and suggestions if you find anything inaccurate, or if you think there is stuff that I should be adding. I will be continuing to update this resource." -http://www.celinelatulipe.com (click on the rapid prototyping link at the top)

IDEAS
Below are just a few of my ideas that I'd like to implement in some way. I can't claim ownership to these ideas- they are mash-ups of what comes to me in my dreams, usually after reading scholarly publications from ACM or IEEE, or attending tech conferences. 

• An interactive timeline, (multi-dimensional, multi-modal, multimedia) for off-the-desktop interaction, collaboration, data/info analysis exploration.  It might be useful for medical researchers, historians, genealogists, or people who are into the "history of ideas".  Big Data folks would love it, too. It would handle data from a variety of sources, including sensor networks. It would be beautiful to use.
• A web-based system of delivering seamless interactive, multi-modal, immersive experiences, across devices, displays, and surfaces. The system would support multi-user, collaborative interaction.  The system would provide an option for tangible interaction.
• A visual/auditory display interface that presents network activity, including potential intrusions, malfunctions, or anything that needs immediate attention that would be likely to be missed under present monitoring methods. 
• Interactive video tools for creation, collaboration, storytelling.  (No bad remote controllers needed.)
• A "wearable" that provides new ways for people to express and communicate creatively, through art, music, dance, with wireless capability. (It can interact with wireless sensor networks.)*
• An public health application designed to provide information useful in understanding and sepsis prevention efforts. This application would utilize the timeline concept describe at the top of this list. This concept could also be useful in analyzing other medical puzzles, such as autism.

Most of these ideas could translate nicely to educational settings, and the focus on natural user interaction and multi-modal i/o aligns with the principles of Universal Design for Learning, something that is important to consider, given the number of "at-risk" learners and young people who have disabilities.

I welcome comments from readers who are working on similar projects, or who know of similar projects.  I also encourage graduate students and researchers who are interested in natural user interfaces to and move forward with an off-the-desktop NUI project.  I hope that my efforts can play a part in helping people make the move from GUI to NUI!  



Below are a few videos of some interesting projects, along with a list of a few references and links.

SMALLab (Multi-modal embodied immersive learning)

PUPPET PARADE: Interactive Kinect Puppets(CineKid 2011)



MEDIA FACADES: When Buildings Start to Twitter

HUMANAQUARIUM (CHI 2012)

 

NANOSCIENCE NRC Cambridge (Nokia's Morph project)






 
Examples: YouTube Playlists
POST WIMP EXPLORERS' CLUB
POST-WIMP EXPLORER'S CLUB II

Web Resources
Celine Latulipe's Rapid Prototyping Resources 
Creative Applications
NUI Group: Natural User Interface Group
OpenFrameworks and Interactive Multimedia: Funky Forest Installation for CineKid
SMALLab Learning

Microsoft Research Natural User Interface 

OpenExhibits: Free multi-touch + multiuser software initiative for museums, education, nonprofits, and students.
OpenSense Wiki 
CINEKID 2012 Website 
Multitouch Systems I Have Known and Loved (Bill Buxton)
Windows 8
Perceptive Pixel
Books
Natural User Interfaces in .NET  WPF 4, Surface2, and Kinect (Josh Blake, Manning Publications)
Chapter 1 pdf (Free)
Brave NUI World: Designing Natural User Interfaces for Touch and Gesture (Daniel Wigdor and Dennis Wixon)
Designing Gestural Interfaces (Dan Saffer)
Posts

Microsoft's"Magic Wall" Tech on Windows 8 Laptops and Tablets by Next Year

Bill Snyder, ReadWrite Web, 7/20/12

I noticed some interesting tools on the Chrome web store - I plan to devote a few more posts to NUI tools in the future.

Interactive Technology from CHI 2012 Supporting Literacy, Storytelling, and Narrative

I spent the last several days at CHI 2012 and was so immersed in the experience, I held off blogging until I arrived home.  


I was pleasantly overwhelmed by the experience at CHI 2012, There was so much to see, hear, and touch, there were so many bright, creative people all around - I was on mind/sensory overload.  Omar L. Gallaga, the author of Digital Savant (Austin 360), attended the conference, and the quote below from his recent post nicely sums it up: "When your mind gets blown multiple times in a very short period of time, it begins to feel as is your brain is quickly rewiring itself to accept that the reality is that anything is possible and that the continual, pleasurable surprise of discovery is the new norm."


For this post, I'm sharing a few things that were presented at CHI 2012 that focus on literacy, storytelling, and narrative.  I'll share more in future posts.


Creating and Using Interactive Narratives: Reading and Writing Branching Comics 
The short video below provides a good overview of the project, which was presented at CHI 2012 during the Out of the Box" session, chaired by Shahram Izadi, of Microsoft Research USA

"We employ comics and combine paper with a multi-touch interface to explore an approach to reading and writing interactive narratives."
Dan Andrews and Chris Baber from the University of Birmingham (UK) 
Sergei Efremov and Mikhail Komorov from the Moscow State Institute of Electronics and Mathematics (Russia).


If you are interested in learning more about this process, take a look at the references that were reviewed in the paper about this creative, thoughtful work.

Tap & Play: An End User Toolkit for Authoring Interactive Pen and Paper Language Activities 
The following video was created several months before CHI 2012:




Tap & Play:  An End User Toolkit for Authoring Interactive Pen and Paper Language Activities
Ann Marie Piper, Nadir Weibel, James Hollan, 


The following video is related to the Textual Tinkerability paper, presented during the Literacy on the Margin session, chaired by Juan Pablo Hourcade, at CHI 2012:
 


Textual Tinkerability:  Encouraging Storytelling Behaviors to Foster Emergent Literacy    Angela Chang, Cynthia Breazeal, Fardad Faridi, Tom Roberts, Glorianna Davenport, Henry Lieberman, Nick Montfort, Massachusetts Institute of Technology


Related: TinkRBook: Shared Reading Interfaces for Storytelling (IDC 2011)
TinkRBook

RELATED

CHI 2012:  brain expanding bits of brilliance
Omar L. Gallaga, Digital Savant, 5/11/12


FYI:   I was one of the organizers for the EIST (Educational Interfaces, Software & Technology) workshop, held on May 5th and 6th. The participants came from all around the world to spend two days of presenting, sharing, and brainstorming.  Everyone worked hard to make the workshop a success. (I'll share more about EIST soon, but if you are curious, the above link will provide you with more information about the program and papers that were presented.) 

iMac Touch Concept Video - in case you missed it.

Here is an interesting concept demo of a touch-screen iMac, via Joakim Ulseth, via Cult of Mac: 



iMac Touch concept mockup ''Power at your fingertips'' from Joakim Ulseth on Vimeo.


RELATED
Introducing the iMac Touch (Video)
John Brownlee, Cult of Mac, 4/25/12
Joakim Ulseth's Website
Cult of Mac
Is This What Future TouchScreen iMacs Will Look Like?  [CES 2012]
Buster Heine, Cult of Mac

Creating Responsive HTML5 Touch Interfaces (Stephen Woods -Video and Slides)

Here is an interesting video I came across during my HTML5 explorations - Stephen Woods, from Flickr, shares his words of wisdom about HTML5 and touch interfaces:


Stephen Woods (Flickr): Creating Responsive HTML5 Touch Interfaces




Here are a few links from the presentation:


Slides:  Creating Responsive HTML5 Touch Interfaces
http://www.slideshare.net/ysaw/creating-responsive-html5-touch-interfaces

Responsive Web Design 
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/responsive-web-design/

Jason Silva's multimedia review of ABUNDANCE. Exponential Technological Progress. Less than two minutes.

ABUNDANCE from jason silva on Vimeo.

RELATED

ABUNDANCE book website
Authors:  Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler



Here is a quote from Jason Silva's website:
"The adjacent possible is a kind of shadow future, hovering on the edges of the present state of things, a map of all the ways in which the present can reinvent itself" - Steven Johnson


Jason Silva is a Fellow at the Hybrid Reality Institute:
"A Research and Advisory Group Focused on Human-Technology Co-Evolution and Its Implications for Global Business, Society, and Politics".



SOMEWHAT RELATED 
My husband DVR'd the pilot of "Touch", a new offering from Fox that appears to incorporate some of the concepts in the above review. We watched it last night, before I came across Jason Silva's review of ABUNDANCE.  Coincidence?  Maybe not : )


(I'm an armchair futurist. I work with kids with autism spectrum disorders. This stuff probably interests me more than it should!)


Here is the trailer:

Interactive Technology: Take a look at Corning's "Day Made of Glass 2: Unpacked" Video !

The videos below tell it all:

"Watch and share "A Day Made of Glass 2: Unpacked," to see how Corning's highly engineered glass, with companion technologies, will help shape our world. Take a journey with our narrator for details on these technologies, answers to your questions, and to learn about what's possible -- and what's not -- in the near future." -Corning Incorporated





Here is the first "Day Made of Glass":



RELATED
A Day Made of Glass 2: Same Day. Expanding Corning Vision

iBooks Textbooks for iPads, iTunesU App -and links to info about 1:1 iPad initiatives in public schools

There is a lot of buzz about iPads in education. 


I'm convinced that tablet technology will be adopted by schools at a faster rate than anticipated a year or so ago, now that Apple has launched iBooks Textbooks for iPad and the iTunesU app.


Parents, teachers, students, administrators, and school IT specialists, hold on to your hats!

RELATED
Learning Together: The Evolution of a 1:1 iPad Program
Carolyn Foote, Internet@Schools, 1/1/12
The Swiss-Army Knife of Education
Mr. Hooker, The WIFI--Eanes ISD iPad Pilot Project, 10/3/11
iPads in Education
John Evans, Curator
iBooks Textbooks
iTunesU App

iPad for Art: Sketchbook Express, via the Montlieu Academy of Technology, a public K-5 magnet school that adopted a 1:1 iPad initiative in August, 2011.


COMMENT
I have been planning on devoting more posts in the future about the iPad and related interactive technologies for learning- and for fun.  When I have a chance to write my mega-post, you won't be disappointed!

Quick Post: Interactive 3D Plug-in for SMARTBoard (Video) Notebook

T(ether): Next-Gen Data Gloves + iPad - just what I need for the colder weather! (quick post)

"T(ether) is a novel spatial aware display that supports intuitive interaction with volumetric data. The display acts as a window affording users a perspective view of three- dimensional data through tracking of head position and orientation. T(ether) creates a 1:1 mapping between real and virtual coordinate space allowing immersive exploration of the joint domain. Our system creates a shared workspace in which co-located or remote users can collaborate in both the real and virtual worlds. The system allows input through capacitive touch on the display and a motion-tracked glove. When placed behind the display, the user’s hand extends into the virtual world, enabling the user to interact with objects directly." -Vimeo

For more pictures and information, see the following post on the Creative Applications Network website: 
T(ether) [Cinder]
Filip Visnjic

Hacking Autism: Touch Technology for Young People with Autism Spectrum Disorders (October 11 is the Hackathon!)

October 11, 2011 is a special day. A number of software programmers will be working to develop "innovative, touch-enabled applications for the autism cimmunity and make this software available for free on HackingAutism.org." Take a moment to watch the following video clip, and then explore the Hacking Autism website!
"When touch-enabled computing was introduced to the world, no one could have anticipated that this technology might help open up a new world of communication, learning and social possibilities for autistic children. Yet it has. Hacking Autism is a story of technology and hope and the difference it's making in the lives of some people who need it most.Hacking Autism doesn't seek to cure autism, but rather it aims to facilitate and accelerate technology-based ideas to help give those with autism a voice." -hackingautism.org
Touch technology + people with autism spectrum disorders = 
One of the reasons why I returned to school to take computer courses and explore natural user interfaces and interaction.   

RELATED
Interacting with HP TouchSmart Notes: Photo, Video, Audio and More
Interactive Visual Supports for Children with Autism:  Gillian Hayes' Work at the Social and Technology Action Research Group
Open Source Multi-touch Software for Young People with Autism
Interactive iPad Apps for Kids with Autism: Could some of these be transformed for multi-touch tabletop activities?
iPad Apps: Supporting Communication for Young People with Autism (links to Moms with Apps)
Reflections about interactivity in my present world (Aug. 2010)
Interactive Multi-touch for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Research and Apps by Juan Paplo Hourcade, Thomas Hanson, and Natasha Bullock-Rest, University of Iowa
Open Autism Software "Where Social Skills and Interest in Computers Meet"
Sen H. Hirano, Michael T. Yeganyan, Gabriela Marcu, David H. Nguyen, Lou Anne Boyd, Gillian R. Hayes vSked: Evaluation of a System to Support Classroom Activities for Children with Autism. In CHI 2010 (Atlanta, GA, 2010).(pdf) Gillian R. Hayes, Sen Hirano, Gabriela 
Marcu, Mohamad Monibi, David H. Nguyen, and Michael Yeganyan. Interactive Visual Supports for Children with Autism. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing. April 2010. 
Monibi, M., Hayes, G.R. Mocotos: Mobile Communication Tools for Children with Special Needs. Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children, pages 121-124 ACM, 2008 
SOMEWHAT RELATED
Hope Technology School
Do2Learn JobTips
Autism Research Group at Georgia Tech
Immersive Cocoon Interaction"  "It's people who are now the interface"
Today I hooked up a Will to the IWB in the school's therapy room.  Next, a Kinect? 
(IWBs + Games + Social Skills)