Take a look!
INTERNET OF SURFACES: Photo Examples of Screens of All Sizes
More pictures will be added.
Aug 30, 2008
Aug 28, 2008
Surface Computing, Health, and Hands-on Science Education
"....from the first time I saw surface in Andy Wilson's lab at Microsoft Research, I knew it had healthcare written all over it. It has taken some time to bring together the right developers and partners to apply Surface technology in health, but we are finally there." -Bill Crounse, MD, Microsoft HealthBlog
As I've previously suggested, surface computing would be useful in education K-12 settings. One look at the graphics posted below at a demonstration about Microsoft Surface in Health.
We know that one of the challenges in our public schools is to to encourage more students to take STEM-related courses. (If you are not familiar with the acronym, STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.) One look at the hands-on graphics below might convince reluctant students to sign up for class!
The video of the 3D interactive heart simulation can be found at the bottom of the following post:
Microsoft Health Blog
As I've previously suggested, surface computing would be useful in education K-12 settings. One look at the graphics posted below at a demonstration about Microsoft Surface in Health.
We know that one of the challenges in our public schools is to to encourage more students to take STEM-related courses. (If you are not familiar with the acronym, STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.) One look at the hands-on graphics below might convince reluctant students to sign up for class!
The video of the 3D interactive heart simulation can be found at the bottom of the following post:
Microsoft Health Blog
Aug 27, 2008
Digital Lighbox for Hospitals - The Multi-touch Future of Electronic Medical Records?
Is this what the future holds for electronic medical records?
I came across this on Richard Bank's blog, rb.trends. This multi-touch display is from BrainLAB AG, a company located in Germany. Here is a quote from Ubergizmo:
"Digital Lightbox replaces the conventional light box used to observe analog x-ray images. Connected to the hospital PACS, the new digital platform can be installed both in meeting rooms and in operating rooms, where clinicians can then access, manipulate, and utilize data for surgery planning. By displaying the human body in 3D, Digital Lightbox helps clinicians to more clearly demonstrate to patients what effects a disease can have and which procedures may be necessary. Digital Lightbox enables clinicians to select the most valuable images from large amounts of existing medical data. Ergonomic touchscreen technology with zoom functionality makes working with data easy and effective. Clinicians can intuitively navigate within pictures and between settings. Image scrolling can be performed with one finger; zooming in and out of images with two. Images from different sources can also be fused easily. A measure functionality enables clinicians to set size and other dimensions."
Something like this would be good for high school science classrooms.
Update:
For more photos of the Digital Ligthbox and the iPlan Net software that supports remote collaboration, visit the Future-Making Serious Games blog.
I came across this on Richard Bank's blog, rb.trends. This multi-touch display is from BrainLAB AG, a company located in Germany. Here is a quote from Ubergizmo:
"Digital Lightbox replaces the conventional light box used to observe analog x-ray images. Connected to the hospital PACS, the new digital platform can be installed both in meeting rooms and in operating rooms, where clinicians can then access, manipulate, and utilize data for surgery planning. By displaying the human body in 3D, Digital Lightbox helps clinicians to more clearly demonstrate to patients what effects a disease can have and which procedures may be necessary. Digital Lightbox enables clinicians to select the most valuable images from large amounts of existing medical data. Ergonomic touchscreen technology with zoom functionality makes working with data easy and effective. Clinicians can intuitively navigate within pictures and between settings. Image scrolling can be performed with one finger; zooming in and out of images with two. Images from different sources can also be fused easily. A measure functionality enables clinicians to set size and other dimensions."
Something like this would be good for high school science classrooms.
Update:
For more photos of the Digital Ligthbox and the iPlan Net software that supports remote collaboration, visit the Future-Making Serious Games blog.
Aug 23, 2008
Digital Students@Analog School videoclip from 2004: Do the sentiments of the students still ring true?
It is the beginning of the school year, the best time of the year to for educators to seriously reflect on the many ways they can play an important role in engaging and inspiring their students.
My hunch is that many educators still do not feel comfortable keeping up with world of the tech-savvy. To do so takes quite a bit of effort, time, and determination. And frustration. If you've worked in public schools for a while, you know what I mean. Much of the technology that educators have been handed over the years has been teacher-unfriendly.
.
Things are changing.
It has been six years since CAST and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development created an on-line "how-to" book about technology and the concept of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). This online multimedia book, Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age, still provides a good foundation for teachers who plan to integrate technology into teaching and learning activities to support all learners.
It is exciting to know that many school districts have initiated study groups provide on-line resources for their teachers to support the implementation of UDL. . At the university level, the concept of using technology to support universal design for instruction is not as alien as it might have been 10 years ago.
Mindful, reflective use of technology, including interactive multimedia technology, can support multiple means of learning, communication, collaboration, and knowledge sharing among among all learners, no matter what age. In turn, an engaging and meaningful environment for learning can be sustained.
So what now?
If you are an educator, it wouldn't hurt to see what new educational applications have arrived at your school. Volunteer to be the teacher who teaches with the new interactive whiteboard. Sign up for the Wi-Fi laptop cart once a week for a semester. Hunt down the digital video cameras and do a search for where the video editing software might be hiding. Don't let the tech-savvy teacher down the hall hog it all, even if you consider yourself to be a technophobe!
Most importantly, establish a relationship with the technology "go-to" person at your school or university department, and see if it is not too late to order a few new technology tools. Find a few other people who have decided to do more with technology this year. Then sign up for a few workshops before your calendar is filled. There are no guarantees, but you just might have the best school year ever.
If you are new to this blog, do a search for what might interest you. I am sure you will find links to information that will help. Be sure to visit C.C. Long's Tech and Integration blog for specific technology related activities you can implement right away.
For reflection, take the time to watch the video clips on C.C. Long's blog that were used during Thinkfinity training.
For more inspiration, you might enjoy following a few of the links below:
Visual Literacy and Multimedia Literacy Quotes - Odds and Ends PART TWO
Engaged Learning and Social Physics: Phun, an Interactive 2D Physics Sandbox
Updated MegaPost - Resources For All: Interactive Multimedia and Universal Design for Learning
I learned about the above video today from "Back-to School Tech Ideas for K-5", written by C.C. Long on her Tech Integration in Schools blog, and I thought it was worth sharing. The video was created by several college students in 2004, and can be found on TeacherTube. It is similar in spirit to the videos I included on a post about engaged learning earlier this year.
Here are a few quotes from the students in video:
Here are a few quotes from the students in video:
"We are more visual learners, we use different technologies to express ourselves, we don't use just pen and paper".
"99 % of the teachers do it the old fashioned way of ...sit down, you listen to someone lecture for 40-50 minutes...
"Just lectures, it limits my learning."
"There are several options in expressing yourself and expressing your viewpoints. And I think the university limits that."
"I was given one way, and that was how I had to do it."
"The professor still wants to teach it the same way they learned.."
"I figured I'd have to to write papers, I figured I'd have to do problem sets, but I thought there would be more options."
"It is frustrating, because it doesn't seems that college is accommodating the visual learner"
"Anywhere you go outside of the classroom, the technology is being used. I don't understand why we aren't applying it to class."
"Listen. Sit down and talk with me. Give me a choice to express myself in their class."
"I think it would make it more exciting for them."
"99 % of the teachers do it the old fashioned way of ...sit down, you listen to someone lecture for 40-50 minutes...
"Just lectures, it limits my learning."
"There are several options in expressing yourself and expressing your viewpoints. And I think the university limits that."
"I was given one way, and that was how I had to do it."
"The professor still wants to teach it the same way they learned.."
"I figured I'd have to to write papers, I figured I'd have to do problem sets, but I thought there would be more options."
"It is frustrating, because it doesn't seems that college is accommodating the visual learner"
"Anywhere you go outside of the classroom, the technology is being used. I don't understand why we aren't applying it to class."
"Listen. Sit down and talk with me. Give me a choice to express myself in their class."
"I think it would make it more exciting for them."
"When I become a teacher, I am going to have to learn and assess that students are going to have even more that is accessible to them. And if I don't adapt to that, I'm going to start to lose my students."
My hunch is that many educators still do not feel comfortable keeping up with world of the tech-savvy. To do so takes quite a bit of effort, time, and determination. And frustration. If you've worked in public schools for a while, you know what I mean. Much of the technology that educators have been handed over the years has been teacher-unfriendly.
.
Things are changing.
It has been six years since CAST and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development created an on-line "how-to" book about technology and the concept of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). This online multimedia book, Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age, still provides a good foundation for teachers who plan to integrate technology into teaching and learning activities to support all learners.
It is exciting to know that many school districts have initiated study groups provide on-line resources for their teachers to support the implementation of UDL. . At the university level, the concept of using technology to support universal design for instruction is not as alien as it might have been 10 years ago.
Mindful, reflective use of technology, including interactive multimedia technology, can support multiple means of learning, communication, collaboration, and knowledge sharing among among all learners, no matter what age. In turn, an engaging and meaningful environment for learning can be sustained.
So what now?
If you are an educator, it wouldn't hurt to see what new educational applications have arrived at your school. Volunteer to be the teacher who teaches with the new interactive whiteboard. Sign up for the Wi-Fi laptop cart once a week for a semester. Hunt down the digital video cameras and do a search for where the video editing software might be hiding. Don't let the tech-savvy teacher down the hall hog it all, even if you consider yourself to be a technophobe!
Most importantly, establish a relationship with the technology "go-to" person at your school or university department, and see if it is not too late to order a few new technology tools. Find a few other people who have decided to do more with technology this year. Then sign up for a few workshops before your calendar is filled. There are no guarantees, but you just might have the best school year ever.
If you are new to this blog, do a search for what might interest you. I am sure you will find links to information that will help. Be sure to visit C.C. Long's Tech and Integration blog for specific technology related activities you can implement right away.
For reflection, take the time to watch the video clips on C.C. Long's blog that were used during Thinkfinity training.
For more inspiration, you might enjoy following a few of the links below:
Engaged Learning Revisited: Four videoclips for reflection....
Response to Intervention, Universal Design for Learning: Resources for ImplementationVisual Literacy and Multimedia Literacy Quotes - Odds and Ends PART TWO
Engaged Learning and Social Physics: Phun, an Interactive 2D Physics Sandbox
Updated MegaPost - Resources For All: Interactive Multimedia and Universal Design for Learning
Natural User Interface new website shares information about the company's innovative multi-touch solutions...
Frequent visitors to this blog know that I've been following the development of the NUI multi-touch system since it was in the gestational stage, a university project of Harry van der Veen. I'd like to mention that as the NUI multi-touch table has evolved, so has the NUI website.
Take a look at the user-friendly, visually appealing website that showcases the Natural User Interface company's accomplishments, new products, and services. Here is some information from the site:
- "Natural User Interface (NUI) is an innovative emerging technology company specializing in advanced multi-touch software and service solutions. NUI's solutions can convert an ordinary surface into an interactive, appealing and intelligent display that creates a stunning user experience."
- "NUI provides both standardized as well as customized horizontal, vertical and angled multi-touch hardware solutions. With the wide variety of market leading suppliers and partner, NUI gives warranty on all our products."
For those of you who can't wait to dive into programming multi-touch, collaborative applications, take a look at NUI's Snowflake 1.0 software for OEM partners:
- "NUI Suite 1.0 Snowflake is an easy to use, robust, fast and reliable gesture recognition, computer vision, image processing, motion sensing multi-touch software package.It has been tested and developed for over 1,5 year and valued as best in the industry by our global hardware partners."
Aug 20, 2008
The Hidden Geometry of Hair: Computer Generated "Hollywood Hair" Unveiled at SIGGRAPH 2008
I came across a link to an article in the UCSD School of Engineering News today and just had to post it.
"HOLLYWOOD HAIR IS CAPTURED AT LAST: DETAILS IN SIGGRAPH 2008 PAPER"
Technology now exists that will enable animators, video-game makers, and film-makers the opportunity to capture images of real hairstyles that look and behave realistically. Below is a series of side-by-side comparisons of computer generated heads of hair and the real thing.
From the article: "By determining the orientations of individual hairs, the researchers can realistically estimate how the hairstyle will shine no matter what angle the light is coming from. “You can’t just blend the highlights from two different angles to get a realistic highlight for a point in between,” said Chang.
“Instead of blending existing highlights, we create new ones.”
....One possible extension of this work: making an animated character’s hair realistically blow in the wind. This is possible because the researchers also developed a way to calculate what individual hair fibers are doing between the hairstyle surface and the scalp. They call this finding the “hidden geometry” of hair.
“Our method produces strands attached to the scalp that enable animation. In contrast, existing approaches retrieve only the visible hair layer,” the authors write in their SIGGRAPH 2008 paper. An animation of a hairstyle is available as a download from the “hair photobooth” Web site created by Sylvain Paris: http://people.csail.mit.edu/sparis/publi/2008/siggraphHair/
What we need is a real-life hair photobooth. Have a bad hair day? No problem. Walk in, "zap!", and walk out with real Hollywood hair. Maybe the hair scientists are working on it....
SIGGRAPH 2008 Paper citation: “Hair Photobooth: Geometric and Photometric Acquisition of Real Hairstyles,” by Sylvain Paris and Wojciech Matusik from Adobe Systems, Inc., Will Chang, Wojciech Jarosz and Matthias Zwicker from University of California, San Diego; and Oleg I. Kozhushnyan and Frédo Durand from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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