If you haven't seen this video yet, take a look. It is a great example of interactive TV at the gas station pump! Pumpcast News is a segment featured on Jay Leno's Tonight Show that catches people by surprise at the gas pump as they try to ignore the TV blaring away.
In the following video clip, Pumpcast news anchor Jack Rafferty offers free gas if the customer, Will Sims, will sing karaoke. Will sings "Living on a Prayer", by Bon Jovi, with all of his heart and soul. Later, his wife, Monifa, joins in and belts out Sweet Dreams, by the Eurythmics.
I especially liked Will's "living on a free tank of gas" improvisation at about 2:28.
I don't think this segment was staged, but even if it was, the interactive TV is a great concept. It certainly engaged the customers. Who knows? Would you purchase one brand of gas over another if you knew you'd have a random chance to get a free tank of gas and 15 minutes of fame? RELATED Will and Monifa Sims were invited to sing on The Tonight Show:
Human-Glass Interaction: SNL Weekend Update parody by Randall Meeks, looking full of himself wearing his Google Glasses. Are we there yet?
"Peacock, Peacock, Peacock.... go back, go back, go back....Italian, Italian, Italian" "See how simple that was!" "Mute, mute, mute, mute... I have to reboot it. Reboot, reboot, reboot.." RELATED Google Glass 16 Funny Google Glass Comics and Parody Videos Daniel Zeevi, Dashburst, 3/1/13
My Leap Motion dev kit arrived in March. With excitement, I installed it on my new 27-inch iMac. I decided that this would be the time to take the "leap" into Objective-C and explore the mysteries of Xcode. I had planned to make a simple iPad app for my 2-year-old grandson, but this inspired me to change my plans.
Why not learn Objective-C to make a simple music/art/dance Leap Motion app for little ones? My progress so far? Slow. I updated Xcode. I installed the Leap Motion SDK. I updated the Leap Motion SDK. I played with the samples that came with the Leap Motion kit. When it came time for me to try something on my own, I thought I had everything set up in Xcode. I got error messages that I did not understand. My attempt to figure things out led me to the Stack Overflow website, and by then, I had to get back to my paperwork in order to prepare for the next work day. Today I realized that I missed the link about installing the Leap API docs for Objective-C in XCode. Other things needed to be updated, so at that point, I decided to write this post....
Reflection: After writing some code and making repeated errors, I realized how much I had let Microsoft take root in my head. Until 2003, the coding part of my brain was a pristine slate. It wasn't cluttered with bits and pieces previous coding languages.
Since I tend to be a knowledge junkie, my brain soaked up more than I needed when I was taking computer courses. If you could peek inside, you'd see C# code snippets for multi-touch and NUI, a few algorithms for A.I. and data visualization, trivia from MSDN, and images of the Visual Studio workspace. There would be odds and ends from VB.Net, JavaScript, ActionScript, CSS, Java, C++, and pseudocode for a variety of computational thought experiments. A lot of stuff, and for most of it, no place to go, except for an occasional technology dream.
What's ahead? In the short term, I'll be doing what I always do this time of year. For many school psychologists, the last couple of months of the school year is sort of like tax season for accountants. I have lots of students to see, lots of psychological evaluation reports to write, and meetings to attend. The paperwork will crowd up many evenings and weekends, but there is an end in sight. Summer. This will be my summer of code. I'll be in NYC for one week in June, attending the Interactive Design for Children conference (IDC 2013). Many of the workshops I'd like to attend will be held at the same time. Take a look at the program and you'll see why! I
Decisions to be made... Although I am pretty good at keeping a lid on my desire to design and code during my day-to-day life as a school psychologist, I'm finding that it is getting more difficult to ignore. I have some thinking to do. In the not too distant future, it is possible that I'll leap out of my K-12 cocoon. I don't think I'll leap too far, because I'd like to focus my work on projects that enhance the lives of children and families. I will ensure sure that some of my work will benefit people of all ages who have disabilities or encounter barriers in their lives.
SOMEWHAT RELATED
Joy of Computing, 1985
My daughter, who was just two years old in the above picture, returned to school to take computer courses after working in the non-profit arts management field. I'm happy about this, but I know that she'll face many hidden barriers when she starts working in a male-dominated environment. She is not alone.
I'm working on a future post about computer and technology-related careers. Things have changed rapidly over the past several years and there are many new ways to learn how to code, and over time, more opportunities for creative computational thinkers - male and female, to take the lead. In Google's Inner Circle, a Falling Number of Women Claire Cain Miller, NYT, 8/22/13
Pixel Press is an early stage video design platform that supports the creation of DIY video games, without requiring coding skills. The project was recently approved by Kickstarter, with an initial funding goal of $100,000.00. The first version targets the iPad.
Robin Rath, the creator of Pixel Press, was inspired by his memories of creating his own drawings for games when he was a kid in the 1980's, and it shows. Pixel Press might appeal to gamers across generations, and looks suitable for use in school settings.
According to the Pixel Press website, there are just a few things to learn in order to create a basic video game within the Pixel Press environment, making it an ideal activity for kids and others aspiring game designers:
"You are designing five floors of a video game level. Your hero will start at the bottom and attempt to overcome the obstacles you create to reach the elevator at the end of each floor to advance up to the next floor. Your objective is to create a five floor level that is progressively more challenging from top to bottom."
Pixel Press: Draw your own video game Pixel Press: Draw Your Own Video Game from Robin Rath on Vimeo.
The video below provides an overview/tutorial of how it works:
A team from Cornell's Creative Machines Lab have been researching simulations of evolutionary robots, and as a result, have come up with an entertaining video of what they've discovered so far. According to the project's website, the work was inspired by developmental biology, to use evolutionary algorithms as a tool to develop locomotion. The following description of the video was quoted from Jeff Clune's YouTube site: "Here we evolve the bodies of soft robots made of multiple materials (muscle, bone, & support tissue) to move quickly. Evolution produces a diverse array of fun, wacky, interesting, but ultimately functional soft robots. "
LEAP Motion + Google Earth Meg, from PO-MO, has a LEAP Motion developer kit. Earlier this week, LEAP Motion provided support for Google Earth integration, and asked developers to submit videos of their experiments. I like the Superwoman theme of this video!
I have the Leap Motion dev kit and can't wait until I can use it with Google Earth. Hopefully I'll find time tonight after I get home from work! For now, here is the promotional video:
