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!
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.
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!
Overview One of the primary goals of teaching is to prepare learners for life in the real world. In this ever-changing world of technologies such as mobile interaction, cloud computing, natural user interfaces, and gestural interfaces like the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Kinect, people have a greater selection of tools for the task at hand. Given the potential of these new interfaces, software, and technologies as learning tools, as well as the ubiquitous application of interactive technology in formal and informal learning environments, there is a growing need to explore how next-generation technologies will impact education in the future.
As a community of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and educational researchers, we need to theorize and discuss how new technologies should be integrated into the classrooms and homes of the future. In the last three years, three CHI workshops have provided a forum to discuss key issues of this sort, particularly in the context of next-generation education. The aim of this special issue of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing is to summarize the potential design challenges and perspectives on how the community should handle next-generation technologies in the education domain for both teachers and students.
We invite authors to present position papers about potential design challenges and perspectives on how the community should handle the next generation of HCI in education. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
Submissions should be prepared according to the Word template located at the bottom of this page. All manuscripts are subject to peer review. Manuscripts must be submitted as a PDF to the easychair submission system. Submissions should be no more than 8000 words in length.
Guest Editors and Contact Information
Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed, Cornell University
Quincy Brown, Bowie State University
Jochen Huber, Technische Universität Darmstadt
Si Jung “Jun” Kim, University of Central Florida
Lynn Marentette, Union County Public Schools, Wolfe School
Max Mühlhäuser, Technische Universität Darmstadt
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."
Jessica Vascellaro, of the Wall Street Journal, reports about gesture, motion. and even object control for computers, highlighting the work of Leap Motion and Flutter.
Apparently the Leap Motion sensor is less expensive than Microsoft's Kinect. It can track movements down to 1/100 of a millimeter and can track fingers and movement. It handles interaction with 8 cubic feet of space.
I have been a fan of Johnny Chung Lee since 2007 or 2008, before he finished his Ph.D in Human-Computer Interaction. Johnny went on to work at Microsoft (Kinect) and then Google, where he works as a Rapid Evaluator.
Johnny is known for his experiments with the Wii Remote, which he introduced to the world during a TED Talk in 2008. He continues to maintain his Procrastineering blog, and from time-to-time, uses his blog to share his take on the world of technology. The following quote is a good example of his viewpoint, taken from his post, "Technology as a Story":
"...what saddens me is when I encounter technologists with the brilliance to create new and wonderful things, but lack a sense of what is beautiful to people. Technology is most often known for being ugly and unpleasant to use, because technologists most often build technology for other technologists. ...But to touch millions of people, you have to tell a story - a story that they can believe in, a story that can inspire them. Technology is a tool by which new stories can be crafted." -
If Johnny Chung Lee thinks that this is "probably the most interesting code library" that he's had a chance to work with, it probably has some value.
Even if if you don't have a clue about the Ceres Non-Linear Lest Squares Solver, you might appreciate Johnny's examples of how would it would useful. In today's rapidly-accelerating technology-supported world, you just might need it in your future!
RELATED Johnny Chung Lee's Website Excerpt from a post I wrote about Johnny Chung Lee four years ago: I wish I could be Johnny Chung Lee for a Day! 3/2/08 I've mentioned in previous posts that I am a fan of Johnny Chung Lee, a Ph.D. student in the Human-Computer Interaction department at Carnegie-Mellon University. Johnny expects to complete his Ph.D this year. Johnny recently presented his innovative work at TED 2008.
What impresses me about Johnny is the way that he has documented his intellectual journey in a very accessible way, by using YouTube and his well-organized, appealing website. Johnny has taken interesting ideas that most would dismiss as silly or impractical, and transformed them into useful, usable applications that hold great promise for future work.
In my opinion, many of Johnny's "hacks" will spark ideas related to the design and development of universally designed technologies and applications that will meet the technology needs of a wider range of people. This is important, especially now that an increasing number of "connected" interactive displays and kiosks (known by the marketing industry as interactive digital signage) in public spaces.
You know you've secretly wanted to learn to code. Just do it!
"Make your New Year's resolution learning to code.Sign up on Code Year to get a new interactive programming lesson sent to you each week and you'll be building apps and web sites before you know it." -Code Year http://codeyear.com/
BTW, coding skills are needed beyond the world of apps and websites. Take a look at some of the posts and links on this blog - your imagination just might be sparked! If you already know how to code, why not commit to learning something new?
COMMENT: There is much more to coding than what you'll learn through Code Academy's Code Year process. If you are serious about learning more about coding, computer science, and software systems, take an introductory course at your local community college or university extension program, preferably with a friend. Ask the instructor if some of the assignments can be done through the "paired programming" technique. It is more fun and social than the traditional way of coding!
Of all the textbooks, videos, and coding/programming self-help books I've come across, the series that has made the most sense to me is the brain-friendly "Head First" publications from O'Reilly. It explains things well for beginners. Although it contains text and code, there are many pictures, diagrams, and humorous visual representation of basic concepts that are much more engaging than traditional "learn-to-code" tomes.
It is not too late to learn to code! There are so many great resources available to us now, in 2012, there is no excuse to ignore your inner geek. If some (or all) of your hair is grey, why do crossword puzzles or Sudoku when you can be creative with code?
I took my first programming class about 8 years ago, when my youngest daughter was in high school. It was daunting at first, because the textbook was dry, the programming labs were tedious, and some of my mostly-male classmates already knew how to code. In my case, I was motivated to learn to code because I wanted to create games at the time, and this got me over the hump. I soon learned that coding is both a science and an art, and learning to code opens up a whole new way of thinking. (See the video of Jeanette Wing's presentation about computational thinking, at the end of this post.)
For 2012, my goal is to brush up on my previously learned coding skills and learn a few new ones related to the Kinect. I also want to become comfortable with HTML5.
Jim Spadaccini, of Open Exhibits, recently told me about a project that involves the real-time, interactive 3-D capture of people in a room. As the viewer moves around the screens, the depth-detecting feature of the Kinect is harnessed to set the stage for a realistic telepresence experience.
Take the time to view the video, which contains some interesting views of how the system works:
Maimone, A. and H. Fuchs. "A First Look at a Telepresence System with Room-Sized Real-Time 3D Capture and Large Tracked Display." The 21st International Conference on Artificial Reality and Telexistence (ICAT) (Osaka, Japan, November 28-30, 2011) [paper] [video]
Maimone, A. and H. Fuchs. "Encumbrance-free Telepresence System with Real-time 3D Capture and Display using Commodity Depth Cameras." The IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) 2011 (Basel, Switzerland, October 26-29, 2011) [paper] [video]
Although I'm currently exploring the world of interactive HTML5, interactive video, etc., I think I just might make "kinecteducation" the focus of my tech-hobbies. I have some experience with game programming-one of my computer courses required a project using XNA- and I know quite a bit about gesture and multitouch, multi-user interactio, so it would'nt be too much of a stretch.
My motivation?
As a school psychologist, my main assignment is a school/program for students with disabilities, including about 40 or so who have autism spectrum disorders. Yesterday, the principal of the school attended a demonstration of the Kinect and requested that our school be considered for piloting it. One of my other assignments is a magnet high school for technology and the arts, and rumor has it that it will be offering a game programming curriculum. I'd love to co-sponsor an after-school game club and encourage the students to program educational apps for the Kinect sometime in the near future!
I'm also working as a client, in collaboration with come of my educator colleagues, with a team of university students who are creating a communication/social skills game suite geared for students with autism and related disabilities....
I'm inspired by the possibilities!
We have large SMARTboards in each classroom and in other locations around the building, and we have a Wii set up in the large therapy room adjacent to my office. The Wii has proven to be very useful in helping the students develop social and leisure skills that they can use in and outside of the school settings, but some of the students have difficulty manipulating the buttons on the controllers.
This will be our third annual workshop in conjunction with CHI 2012.
One of the primary goals of teaching is to prepare learners for life in the real world. In this ever changing world of technologies such as mobile interaction, cloud computing, natural user interfaces, and gestural interfaces like the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Kinect, people have a greater selection of tools for the task at hand. Teachers and students can leverage these tools to improve learning outcomes. Educational interfaces and software are needed to ensure that new technologies serve a clear purpose in the classrooms and homes of the future.
Since teachers are always looking for creative ways to engage 21st century learners, there needs to be an academic venue for researchers to discuss novel educational tools and their role in improving learning outcomes. This workshop aims at filling this void: combining the pedagogical expertise of the cooperative learning, and learning sciences communities with the technical creativity of the CHI, UIST and interactive surface communities. The objective of this workshop is to become a conference within two years
We invite authors to present position papers about potential design challenges and perspectives on how the community should handle the next generation of HCI in education.
Submission: The deadline for workshop paper submissions is Dec 20, 2011. Interested researchers should submit a 4-page position paper in the ACM CHI adjunct proceedings style to the workshop management system. Acceptance notifications will be sent out February 20, 2012. The workshop will be held May 5-6, 2012 in Austin, Texas. Please note that at least one author of an accepted position paper must register for the workshop and for one or more days of the CHI 2012 conference.
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.
