Mozilla's Concept Series: A call for collaborative participation. Demos look like they would work well on a touch screen...

Mozilla labs has a call for participation in the development of nextgen web interaction design. "Be bold. Be radical. The crazier, the better. Let’s explore the future together."
-Mozilla Labs

The following videos give a good overview of the innovations initially created for this new endeavor:

Aurora, created by Adaptive Path, is an adaptive browser interaction concept, incorporating radial and wheel menus, data visualization objects, a 3D navigation system, and more.

Aurora (Part 1) from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.



Bookmarking and History Concept Video from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.



Firefox Mobile Concept Video from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.



Excerpt about this collaborative project, from the Mozilla Labs website:

"Today we’re calling on industry, higher education and people from around the world to get involved and share their ideas and expertise as we collectively explore and design future directions for the Web.

You don’t have to be a software engineer to get involved, and you don’t have to program. Everyone is welcome to participate. We’re particularly interested in engaging with designers who have not typically been involved with open source projects. And we’re biasing towards broad participation, not finished implementations.

We’re hoping to lower the barrier to participation by providing a forum for surfacing, sharing, and collaborating on new ideas and concepts. Our goal is to bring even more people to the table and provoke thought, facilitate discussion, and inspire future design directions for Firefox, the Mozilla project, and the Web as a whole."

-via Putting People First

This will be an interesting trend to follow. I'd like to work on web navigation systems optimized for multi-touch and large screen displays. Is it now possible?

iPhone: Multitouch control of a laptop screen!

The Media Computing Group at RWTH-AACHEN University has developed an application to allow users to control a laptop via a multi-touch iPhone. Although the demo shows how to rotate and resize images, the "multiple views" section is interesting. Like an Etch-a-Sketch, you shake the iPhone to reset the images.

I've been toying with ideas about ways to create user-friendly interactions between screens of all sizes. This approach intrigues me.



You can find more information about the iPhone and Cocoa on the Multi-touch Framework website. The contact for this project is Stefan Hafeneger, a student assistant

Catchyoo's Interactive Touch-screen on the Panasonic Road Show

Lm3Labs/Catchyoo's application was featured on a giant Panasonic interactive touch-screen display. The ripple effect looked intriguing:


Cathyoo on Panasonic's national roadshow from Nicolas Loeillot on Vimeo.

Lm3Labs focuses on interactive applications that harness the power of computer vision. Although much of what I've seen has been retail and market-related, they are also involved with innovative interactive museum displays:
Lm3Labs: Interactive Museum Solutions featuring ubiq'window and Catchyoo

Wouldn't this sort of interactivity be fun in our schools? How about at the public library? It is a leap or two ahead of the interactive whiteboards.

Microsoft's Multi-Touch Sphere "Photo Globe"

I just had to post about this, even though this news has been rapidly circulating around the blogSPHERE.

The sphere could support an interactive travel planning/travel memory application.

Imagine if you were on a cruise ship, and uploaded your photos to the globe, and voila, they'd show up on the sphere in your mother's living room! Geo-tagged, cross-referenced, synched with your 2.0 apps, and linked to your vacation video-clips you previously uploaded to YouTube.

Visualization software used to create Radioheads "House of Cards"- no cameras used.

Take a look at my recent Technology Supported Human-World Interaction post, "We were rolling computers all day: The making of Radiohead's House of Cards Video". The music video was made without the use of cameras, and relied on visualization software and scanner/sensors. Follow the links from the post for additional information. ( I came across the video on the Kinetic Interface blog)

Natural User Interface: Overview of multi-touch technology and application development by Harry van der Veen,- Business to Buttons

Harry van der Veen from Natural User Interface Europe AB, was one of the keynote speakers at the Business to Buttons: Designing for Effect conference, held in June 2008. In this presentation video, Harry discusses the past, present, and future of multi-touch technology, and reviews the importance of multi-touch over single touch displays. He also provides a good overview of gesture interaction, something that he researched when he was a student. This presentation includes several video examples of multi-touch applications in action.

The presentation is well worth the 30-minute view!

"Harry van der Veen is a Bachelor of Multimedia, derived from the Dutch education Communication, Multimedia and Design, focused on Interaction Design and Project Management. He is CEO, co-founder and co-owner of the Sweden based commercial company Natural User Interface Europe AB, which focuses on delivering standardized and customized multi-touch hardware / software solutions and services to the global market. In addition to that, he co-founded the NUIGroup community, which is the worlds largest online platform where a global network of people share their ideas and information in an open source community, focused on multi-touch hardware and software solutions."


NUIGroup Community


Harry van der Veen's blog

Natural User Interface Europe AB (Harry van der Veen's company)

NUIGroup Wiki: This wiki includes tutorials for developing multi-touch applications, building your own low-cost multi-touch table, and information about current projects that are in progress.

Related Information:

The Business to Buttons: Designing for Effect conference was held on June 12-12 in Malmo, Sweden, organized by Malmo University and inUse, a user experience consultancy. Partners in this conference included Adaptive Path, a product experience strategy and design company, Patrick W. Jordan, a design, marketing, and brand strategist, the cocktail, a user experience and interaction design studio, cooper, a product design company, and OresundIT, a non-profit network.

Don Norman, the author of books such as "Design of Everyday Things" and "The Design of Future Things", presented at this conference. Don Norman is one of the founding fathers of the Human-Computer Interaction and related fields, and is the co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, a consultant firm that helps company create human-centered products.

Videos of Don Norman's Presentations:
Emotional Design: Total User Experience
Cautious Cars and Cantankerous Kitchens

Other:
Business to Buttons 2008 Recorded Sessions
Business to Buttons 2008 Downloads

My posts about the work of NUI Group members:

Multi-Touch Plug-in for NASA World Wind?!

More Multitouch: NUI Group's Christopher Jette's multi-touch work featured in Engaget ; Croquet?

More Multi-Touch from members of the NUI group!

Multi-touch Crayon Physics from multitouch-barcelona, inspired by Crayon Physics by Kloonig Games

Cross Post: Seth Sandler's YouTube Video, "How to Make a Cheap Multi-touch Pad" goes viral

NUI-Group Member Bridger Maxwell Receives High School Science Fair Award for Multi-Touch Screen Project

Look, touch, listen, and play: Seth Sandler's interactive Audio Touch Table video; NUI Group and Google's Summer of Code

Link: Interactive Ubiquitous Maps? Not Yet.. Charlotte recently spent 3.8 million on STATIC maps!

Here is a link to a recent post on my Technology-Supported Human-World Interaction blog:

Interactive Ubiquitous Maps? Not yet.. Charlotte recently spent 3.8 million dollars on STATIC city maps! The post includes a link to an excellent in-depth article from Adobe Think Tank: The invisible city: Design in the age of intelligent maps.

My photo of one of the static information and wayfinding displays in uptown Charlotte, NC:

More Multi-touch: Dell's Latitude XT tablet now comes with a multi-touch upgrade!

This is exciting news for multi-touch enthusiasts. Dell's Latitude XT tablet now offers a free multi-touch upgrade, according to a recent Engadget post, written by Paul Miller. Here is some information from Dell's website:

Dell Propels Laptop Innovation with First Multi-touch Convertable Tablet, Larger Solid State Drive

A word of caution about the following video demonstrating the mutli-touch capabilities of Dell's Lattitude XT. The guys presenting aren't related to Jeff Hans. You won't see the "Wow" factor that creative multi-touch applications can provide.




Photo from NotebookReview.com:


"The new capabilities include:

Scroll – by placing two fingers on the screen and moving them horizontally or vertically customers can easily navigate in web browsers and productivity applications. Zoom – by touching the screen with two fingers and moving them together customers can zoom various content in and out, such as pictures or Web pages. Programmable double-tap – customers can program a command, such as launching a Web browser or turning the screen off to save power, that will respond to two taps with two fingers." From an earlier post on the Dell website: "The Latitude XT is designed with the future in mind with the capability to support multi-touch. As the technology matures, the system can serve as a premiere development platform for applications that can take advantage of multi-touch." “By integrating our DuoSense technology into the Latitude XT, Dell creates the ultimate machine destined to lead the tablet PC market,” said Amihai Ben-David, CEO of N-trig. “Customers using the new Latitude XT will find that the zero pressure touch combined with the accurate stylus changes the usability of tablet PCs. Once they try it, they won’t want to go back.” The multi-touch gesture upgrade should be available by Tuesday, July 15th, 2008, at http://support.dell.com. No need to wait until Microsoft unleashes Windows 7, right? I think we'll need developers to create cool interactive websites that are fully optimized for multi-touch interaction, don't you? I have a few ideas for online games and more. Multi-touch technology certainly has a place in education. I would love to use this with some of the students with autism that I work with. (A donation towards my multi-touch technology fund would be greatly appreciated.)

V12's Dual-Touch-screen Canova: Multi-touch could support applications for universal design, education, and assistive technology.

V12 Design is a company with offices in Italy and Australia. It is developing the second-generation version of Canova . Since the product will not be on the market for at least 16 months, no pictures of the newest version were available. The first version is depicted in the photos below:

Canova Generation 1#


(Photo via Gizmodo; depicts the first version of the dual LCD laptop.)

According to information from LaptopMag, Conova was..The first-generation model....was envisioned to transform from a sketch pad, to a writing pad with an electronic pen, to a newspaper."



From the Gizmodo AU website:

"An interview with Valerio Cometti, the founder and managing director of V12 Design, confirmed that the upcoming version would support multitouch input and that a microphone would be built into the design for voice commands."

With multi-touch and audio input, this device would be a godsend for young people with learning difficulties and others who require assistive technology. It would also be very useful for people in various fields of work. I assume that the Canova will come with speakers, a DVD player, a video camera, Blue-tooth and Wi-Fi capabilities.

I was excited about the new dual-touch screen laptops in development for the One Laptop Per Child project. I'm even more excited about the Canova. Hopefully, the company is devoting attention to usability studies with a wide range of people, using a variety of interactive demo applications.

I wonder if I can get my hands on a second-generation prototype of Canova to test out my touch-screen application "experiments". I'm bursting with ideas to try out, including gaming applications.

I want one now!

The second version will be developed by a US manufacturer. If anyone knows more about this leave a comment!

Related:
V12 Designs' Dual-Touchscreen Notebook Coming Within Two Years

V12 DEsign Dual-Touchscreen Notebook will make ebook readers drool

V12 Design Delivering Dual Touchscreen Laptop Within Two Years

Link to post: Assisting young people with autism spectrum disorders through the use of digital media

If you have an interest in digital media and interventions for young people with autism disorders, take a look at my recent TechPsych post:.

Cognitive Bursts; Sense of Self: Assisting young people with autism spectrum disorders through the use of digital media.

Highlight: Gavin McLean's Blog;

One of my favorite blogs is Gavin McLean's Global Mantra: "Using Media in education, Fostering Media Literacy, Music Technology, Games in Education, Arts Technology & Music".

In his June 9th post, Gavin discusses his experience using Stimulated Recall in his research. To explain the concept of stimulated recall, Gavin quotes Dr. John Edwards:

"The way we get this data is by using a technique called stimulated recall (Marland: 1984, O'Brien: 1993). A video camera placed at the back of the room follows the teacher wherever the teacher goes. A second camera at the front of the room is focused on the children we are studying, and a microphone is placed so that the talk of both students and teacher is recorded. The two images are put through a video mixer so that both appear on the same screen. At the end of the lesson we make rapid copies of that split screen tape and use it to interview individual children about what they were thinking during the lesson."

Basically, from the student's perspective, traditional teachers are teaching from the "sea of blah". We all have experienced it. "Blah, blah blah, blahhhh, blah BLAHH". This brings to mind the voice of the teacher in the Charlie Brown specials- "wanhh wawwh wanhh waahhh wah.." What really is going on in the minds of "learners" when the teacher is speaking?

Gavin takes the concept of stimulated recall to the next level, to perform a social-cultural analysis of teens playing a multi-player game, as part of his research. While doing so, Gavin applied principles developed by James Gee, outlined in his book, "What Video Games have to teach us about Learning and Literacy" , to the interactions and transactions of the players.

Gavin's initial findings are fascinating, and make sense, if you are a gamer, or if you have spent a significant amount of time seriously observing a child or teen play a challenging game.

For more about Gavin's research in this area, take the time to read his June 9th post - You might need to scroll down the page to find it. While you are there, take a look at more of his blog!

Lm3Lab, Nicolas Leoillot, and Multimedia Interaction

A Look Nicolas Leoillot's Videos

I came across a link to a few videos uploaded to Vimeo by Nicolas Leoillot, of Lm3Lab, in Japan. Lm3Lab is responsible for a variety of new interactive multimedia technologies. At first glance, the applications appear to be geared for the commercial market. Upon deeper inspection, the applications have many characteristics that would translate nicely to the world of education. Take a look!


Holographic Google Earth from Nicolas Loeillot on Vimeo.

Catchyoo.tv

Interactive Book Catchyoo
by Catchyoo

Lm3Labs UbiqWindow

UbiqWindow

"UbiqWindow is a touchless optical technology which lets users experience a unique interactivyt with digital content through natural gestures...Ubiqwindow is open to any type of software applications, legacy website, or brand new applications. Ubiq window can even be applied to real objects."

Catchyoo iTable at Teikoku Data Bank, in Japan: http://www.tdb-muse.jp/:



More on this topic coming soon....

Cross post: Technology Supported Human World Interaction

Here is a link to two recent posts on the TSHWI blog:

Why not adopt the Google User Experience Team's principles for off-the-desktop digital interactions?

Off-the-desktop musings about future interactions: User experience, user-driven design, Universal Usability, Airports, and the "Internet of Things"

Hands-On Computing: InfiniTouch's Innovation

In response to the comment I received about my last post, I did some hunting and posted about QSI's InfiniTouch products on the Technology Supported Human-World Interaction blog. The post contains a couple of videoclips about InfiniTouch, as well as links about the various uses of the application/system.

If you are interested in touch interaction, it is worth exploring!

Hands On Computing: How Multi-Touch Screens Could Change the Way we Interact with Computers and Each Other (link to Scientific American Article)

More Multi-Touch!

Scientific American, June, 2008 Hands On Computing: How Multi-touch Screens Could Change The Way We Interact With Computers and Each Other "The iPhone and even wilder interfaces could improve collaboration without a mouse or keyboard. "

"It is easy to imagine how photographers, graphic designers or architects—professionals who must manipulate lots of visual material and who often work in teams—would welcome this multi-touch computing. Yet the technology is already being applied in more far-flung situations in which anyone without any training can reach out during a brainstorming session and move or mark up objects and plans." -Stuart Brown

Link: Emotiv System's Neural Game Controller Headset: Human-Computer Interface of the Future?

If you are looking for information about brain-computer interfaces, follow the link to my post about Emotive Systems neural interface on the Technology-Supported Human-World Interaction blog.

Emotiv System's Neural Game Controller Headset: Human-Computer Interface of the Future?

Also see:
Game Interaction via Thoughts and Facial Expressions: EPOC - Emotiv Systems Neural Interface

Oculusia, an Interactive Multi-Touch Table Game for Four People

The following video is a nice demonstration of a multi-touch table game, Oculusia. The game was created by four students from the Aalborg University, Copenhagen, for Medialogy 2008. The students, Jens Fursund, Thomas Frohlich, Thomas Miksa, and Tobias Brogaard, also created the table.



More Information:
Students Explore Multi-touch with Oculusia

Related:
The "Workbench" used in the Medialogy Lab at Aalborg University, Copenhagen:


"The Workbench displays 3D stereo images and the tracking system allows for interaction with virtual objects on the display surface. The tracking system uses infrared light to illuminate the display surface and the camera is only sensitive to infrared light. Basic image processing techniques are then applied to acquire position of the hand."

A Multi-Touch DigitalPainting Application pdf (Søren Støvlbæk, Larsen Gavin, Francis Murray & Jesper Højgaard Pedersen:Institute of Electonic Systems, Computer Vision, and Graphics, Aalborg University 2007)

The ReacTable: A Tangible Musical Instrument pdf(Martin Kaltenbrunner, Music Technology Group, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 2006)

DigiBoard Multi-Touch Mixed Reality Game; Ideas for future design of a flexible, adjustable multi-touch surface..

This video is a demo of a multi-touch table, called the DigiBoard, running a game application called "Tower Defense". This multi-modal game takes input from physical tokens, touch, and provides auditory feedback.

According to the credits on the video-clip, the creators of this application were Andreas Hesel, Birna Run Olafsdottir, Dann Sandgreen, and Osk Hilmarsdottir. When I can track down more information about this group, I'll post it!

For more information about interactive display technologies, see Gizmo Watch's Top 15 Interactive Display Technologies. The list is full of photos and video clips of a variety of systems. It was created last year, so it might need some updating.

I am still looking for some examples of good multi-touch table games for use in education. I've created a few prototypes that are not fully fleshed out over the past year, but I haven't had the time or money to build the type of adjustable table that I want.

I'd like my table surface to adjust horizontally, vertically, and angles in-between, like a drafting table. I don't want my table to rely on a projector, since I don't want unnecessary occlusion. A rear-projection system would be heavy and bulky. My design is light and sleek, and it is mobile.

The advantage of an adjustable design is that it allows for flexibility in use, within a single environment, and across a variety of settings. It could work well in schools, libraries, museums, convention centers, exhibit halls, hospitals, visitor centers, airports, public transportation stations, board rooms, data centers, malls, supermarkets, community centers, coffee houses...just about anywhere.

I've written about this topic a few times. For more information, see "Emerging Interactive Technologies, Emerging Interactions, and Emerging Integrated Form Factors"

If you know of anyone who is creating an adjustable, multi-functional touch surface, please let me know.

I am playing around with ideas for a suite of multi-modal, adaptive game for use with young people who have suffered traumatic brain injuries, and others who have special needs. A stationary surface would not provide the flexibility my applications will require.

Fingertapps and NextWindow's Multi-Touch Firmware on the New HP Touchsmart PC,

Fingertapps is working on an application that utilizes NextWindow's multi-touch firmware, running on the second-generation HP Touchsmart PC. Fingertapps will be demonstrating their work in the NextWindow booth at Infocomm 2008 in Las Vegas, June 14-20.

Off-topic: Now I know why some people think I'm a Microsoft shill!

A while ago, I posted a response on another blog, and someone mistakenly thought that I was a Microsoft shill. Me?!

Now I know why.



When I was looking at my blog stats, I noticed that one of my visitors found a recent post via a Google search on microsoft new interactive technology. Curiously, the post was at the very top of the list:

New Interactive Technology: Tag Galaxy, Windows 7, PaperVision 3D, Microsoft Surface, Touch Screens, and Blog Posts Revisited

Results 1 - 10 of about 29,600,000 for microsoft new interactive technology. (0.12 seconds)

How did my post beat out over 29 million pages on the web?!

I've had an Apple computer, in one form or another, since 1985. When I decided to take a programming class a few years ago, I soon realized I had to adapt to the Windows world. I like C#, Silverlight, WPF, and XNA Game Studio. This does not make me a Microsoft shill.

I just happen to be overly passionate about interactive displays of all sizes, and fascinated with the possibilities of mult-touch. iPhones, touch-tables, touch-walls, devices that interact with displays (think Johnny Chung Lee), gesture + touch, urban screens, interactive exhibits, interactive way-finding... and the multimedia applications that support this sort of interaction.

I've written several posts about Apple's new technologies, like the iPod Touch and the new 3G iPhone. I'll be writing more about Apple as they research and develop flat panel displays:

"Apple is looking for a Senior Panel Process Engineer to lead the engineering activities to develop the new process and design for the multi-touch panel used in Apple products. This individual will serve as a focal point in the designing and the process development of advanced multi-touch panels from the concept to the product ramp."

I'd say I'm more of a cheerleader for all of those out there who are working so hard to create useful+cool technology for the future.

Update:
The Next Generation HP TouchSmart PC
The new TouchSmart PC's, which can display high definition content, aren't out on the market yet. HP is taking pre-orders.

NextWindow, a company that produces large interactive touch-screen displays, including those with multi-touch capabilities, was responsible for the touch-screen embedded in the TouchSmart PC.

Related:

HP Redefines Home Computing, Putting the Digital Lifestyle at People's Fingertips with New TouchSmart PC's

HP Introduces World's First Affordable Color-critical Display