The Interactive Displays Conference, sponsored by Intertech Pira, will highlight an interesting mix of existing and emerging interactive display technologies and applications. The conference will be held at the Hilton in San Jose, California, from Tuesday, April 21st through Thursday, April 23rd.
The pre-conference seminar will feature Sakuya Morimoto, of CANESTA, who will present his company's innovative single-chip 3D image sensor technology that supports gesture interaction.
Keynote speakers will be Jeff Han, of Perceptive Pixel, and Steven Bathiche, of Microsoft US.
Some Highlights:
Pre-conference Seminar: Gesture Navigation in the World of Digital Contents, Enabled by a Single-Chip 3D Image Sensor Presenter: Sakuya Morimoto, Senior Director, Business Development in Asia, CANESTA, Japan
Related:
Hitachi at CES 2009: Use of Canesta's 3D sensor to control television and home systems using hand gestures.
"With the wave of a hand, with the shake of a hand, you can control volume, you can actually change the channels, watch your favorite program...the most exciting thing, I think, is that you can actually control your temperature and the lighting in the room, the environmental lighting. So..it is very unique technology that is out there.."
Another demonstration of Hitachi's gesture interaction using the Canesta's 3=D Depth camera:
When a TV Remote is Just Too Much Effort, Wave -Jennifer Bergen, PC Magazine
CANESTA Corporate Fact Sheet (pdf)
How does Canesta's Electronic Perception Technology Work?
"Canesta’s electronic perception technology forms 3-D, real time moving images in a single chip through patented methods which use light photons to “range” the image, similar to radar. The silicon sensor chip develops 3-D depth maps at a rate in excess of 30 frames per second, and then performs additional processing on these depth maps to resolve the images into application specific information that can easily be processed by embedded processor(s) in the end-use device or machine. Since Canesta’s software starts with a three-dimensional view of the world, provided immediately by the hardware, it has a substantial advantage over classical image processing software that struggles to construct three-dimensional representations using complex mathematics, and images from multiple cameras or points of view. This dramatic reduction in complexity makes it possible to embed the processing software directly into the chips themselves so they may be used in the most cost-conscious applications."
I will highlight some of the featured presentations in future blog posts:
Steven Bathiche, Director of Research, Applied Sciences Group, Entertainment and Devices Division MICROSOFT, US
Guillaume Largillier, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder, STANTUM, France
Jeff Han, PERCEPTIVE PIXEL, US
Mark Fihn, Publisher, VERITAS ET VISUS, US
Derek Mitchell, Conference Producer, INTERTECHPIRA, US
Vinita Jakhanwal, Principal Analyst, Small/Medium Displays, ISUPPLI CORPORATION, US
Joseph Carsanaro, President and CEO F-ORIGIN, US
Tommi Ilmonen, CEO MULTITOUCH OY, Finland
Stephen Sedaker, Director of Component Sales WACOM TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION, US
Brad Gleeson, Managing Director, Business Development TARGETPATH GLOBAL LLC., US
Henry Kaufman, President and Founder, TACTABLE, US
Christophe Ramstein, Chief Technology Officer, IMMERSION CORPORATION, US
Mary Lou Jepsen, CEO, PIXEL QI, US
John Newton, Chief Technology Officer, NEXTWINDOW, New Zealand
Herve Martin, CEO, SENSITIVE OBJECT, France
Scott Hagermoser, Gaming Business Unit Manager 3M TOUCH SYSTEMS, US
Bob Cooney, Vice President, Business Development, ECAST, US
Brent Bushnell, Chief Technology Officer UWINK, US
Stephan Durach, Head, Technology Office, BMW GROUP, US
Jeff Doerr, Senior Manager, Business Development Self Service Solutions Group, FLEXTRONICS, US
Andy Wilson, Senior Researcher, Adaptive Systems and Interaction Group, MICROSOFT, US
Mats W. Johansson, Chief Executive Officer, EON REALITY, US
Lenny Engelhardt, Vice President for Business Development, N-TRIG, Israel
Dr Paul Diefenbach, Director, RePlay Lab, DREXEL UNIVERSITY, US
Andrew Hsu, Technical Marketing and Strategic Partnerships Manager, SYNAPTICS, US
Dean LaCoe, Business Development Manager, GESTURETEK, Canada
Keith Pradhan, Global Director of Product Management, TYCO ELECTRONICS, ELO TOUCHSYSTEMS, US
Jerry Bertrand, Managing Member/Acting CEO, MICROSCENT, LLC, US
Frederic Kaplan, CEO and Co-Founder, OZWE, Switzerland
Related
Visionary Jeff Han and Microsoft's Steven Bathiche to Keynote at Interactive Displays 2009
Focused on interactive multimedia and emerging technologies to enhance the lives of people as they collaborate, create, learn, work, and play.
Showing posts with label +. Show all posts
Showing posts with label +. Show all posts
Feb 15, 2009
Interactive Displays 2009 Conference: Tuesday, April 21 -Thursday April 23, Hilton San Jose, California
Posted by
Lynn Marentette
Feb 13, 2009
Tangible Embedded Interaction '09 Conference - Wish I could go!
I really wish I could attend the Tangible and Embedded Interaction '09 conference in the UK! All of the sessions look intriguing:
Session One: "Embedded Artifacts, Garments, and Environments"
Session Two: "New Perspectives and Theories on Tangibility"
Session Three: "Tangible and Embedded Interaction - in the Lab and in the Wild"
Session Four: "Tabletop Tangibles and Augmented Surfaces"
Session Five: "Enabling Technologies and Design Techniques"
Demo and Poster Session 1
Demo and Poster Session 2
Keynote Speakers
Tom Igoe (Physical Computing, NYU) (I'd love to take Igoe's Physical Computing class.)
Tom Igoe on Physical Computing at Ignite NYC
Durrel Bishop (Luckybite)

Durrell Bishop's interview in Bill Moggridge's book, Designing Interactions, Chapter 8: Multisensory and Multimedia
Invited Talk
Ayah Bdeir
Bdeir's littleBits Intro:
littleBits intro from ayah bdeir on Vimeo.
Tangible Embedded Interaction '09 Program Guide (pdf)
Session One: "Embedded Artifacts, Garments, and Environments"
Session Two: "New Perspectives and Theories on Tangibility"
Session Three: "Tangible and Embedded Interaction - in the Lab and in the Wild"
Session Four: "Tabletop Tangibles and Augmented Surfaces"
Session Five: "Enabling Technologies and Design Techniques"
Demo and Poster Session 1
Demo and Poster Session 2
Keynote Speakers
Tom Igoe (Physical Computing, NYU) (I'd love to take Igoe's Physical Computing class.)
Tom Igoe on Physical Computing at Ignite NYC
Durrel Bishop (Luckybite)
Durrell Bishop's interview in Bill Moggridge's book, Designing Interactions, Chapter 8: Multisensory and Multimedia
Invited Talk
Ayah Bdeir
Bdeir's littleBits Intro:
littleBits intro from ayah bdeir on Vimeo.
Tangible Embedded Interaction '09 Program Guide (pdf)
Posted by
Lynn Marentette
Feb 11, 2009
Update on Accessibility and Interactive Games
It has been a while since I shared information about accessible games. If you are a parent of a child or teen with a disability, if you have a disability, or if you hope to keep on gaming through your golden years no matter what ails you, keeping an eye on innovations in this field is worth your time.






The following descriptions are from the IGDA Game Accessibility Special Interest Group blog:
Global Assisitive Technology Wiki - AbilityNet Gate
Via One Switch:
"AbilityNet have put together a wonderful open project called the Global Assisitve Technology Wiki or GATE for short. In their words:








Global Assisitive Technology Wiki - AbilityNet Gate
Via One Switch:
"AbilityNet have put together a wonderful open project called the Global Assisitve Technology Wiki or GATE for short. In their words:
"A really good place to start is their Switch Systems entry here. They are lacking their own accessible games section so hopefully someone (maybe me) will take up the gauntlet for that soon.""GATE is actually a Wiki, which is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. It's a little like Wikipedia, but just concentrating on assistive technology. GATE is very simple to use, with a control panel enabling you to add content and more. More about Wikis . . .
This wiki has been created by AbilityNet, the UK's largest provider of advice and information on all aspects of Access to technology. The purpose of the wiki is to provide live and up to date information on all aspects of Assistive Technology."

Mystic Mine Multi-player One Switch Game
"Just released this February - Mystic Mine is now available to buy on-line at Koonsolo for $19.95 (use www.xe.com for a currency conversion). It is massive fun as a multi-player game and highly recommended by OneSwitch.org.uk. If I had an all time top 10 list of one-switch games this would be a strong contender to make the list. Free demo version available here. Sweet." -posted by One-Switch Games on the Game Accessibility blog

"Pantech is one of three giant mobile phone manufacturers in Korea, among them Samsung and LG. Pantech sold over 10 million phones internationally in 2008, and under the "Sky" brand in the local market. Now, it's about to launch a blow-controlled mobile phone, the IM-S410K, which is also known as the Sky Wind." "Looks like it's got potential for some fun accessible games using sip/puff control." Link Via: Thomas Westin at IGDA GASIG Mailing List, via OneSwitch Games
Stevie Wonder calls for accessible technology
"Stevie Wonder is calling for greater access in technology: "[technology] being more accessible is always a plus and I think really, for various companies ... making it exciting and accessible for people who can see, it would take very little to make it accessible to everyone. So I encourage all the manufacturers to do that."
"When you can ... make it accessible and make it possible, you should just include that in the overall picture. ". Link via: Mike Taylor of Excitim.
Accessible Games Controller Video
Games for Health Trailer

"Pantech is one of three giant mobile phone manufacturers in Korea, among them Samsung and LG. Pantech sold over 10 million phones internationally in 2008, and under the "Sky" brand in the local market. Now, it's about to launch a blow-controlled mobile phone, the IM-S410K, which is also known as the Sky Wind." "Looks like it's got potential for some fun accessible games using sip/puff control." Link Via: Thomas Westin at IGDA GASIG Mailing List, via OneSwitch Games
Stevie Wonder calls for accessible technology
"Stevie Wonder is calling for greater access in technology: "[technology] being more accessible is always a plus and I think really, for various companies ... making it exciting and accessible for people who can see, it would take very little to make it accessible to everyone. So I encourage all the manufacturers to do that.""When you can ... make it accessible and make it possible, you should just include that in the overall picture. ". Link via: Mike Taylor of Excitim.
Accessible Games Controller Video
Games for Health Trailer
GASIG Links
- IGDA
- IGDA GASIG
- IGDA GASIG Mailing List
- AbleGamers
- Accessible Gaming Shop
- AGRIP
- Audio Games
- D-Gamer
- Deaf Gamers
- Game-Accessibility.com
- Games[cc]
- Help You Play
- OneSwitch.org.uk
- OneSwitch.org.uk Blog
- Pin Interactive
- Retro Remakes
- Robert Florio
- UA-Games
- 7-128 Software
Game Accessibility Forums
Other Links from the GASIC blog:
Posted by
Lynn Marentette
Interactive Virtual DJ on a transparent pane, by lm3labs and Brief-Ad
LM3LABS offers wide range creative interactive applications/systems. This Virtual DJ was developed in collaboration with Brief-Ad, of Romania, utilizing the ubiq'window. Wouldn't this be fun to have in schools!
Here is the video:
Virtual Touchless DJ from Nicolas Loeillot on Vimeo.
LM3LABS Blog
Posted by
Lynn Marentette
Feb 8, 2009
Interaction & User Experience Design and Adaptive Path's UX 2008
For more information, see my recent post & related video clipson the Tech Supported Human-World Interaction blog:
Internet of People, Things, Surfaces, and Interactions: Insights from UX 2008 & Adaptive Path
Feb 4, 2009
Ideum's High Resolution Multitouch Table for Museum Exhibits, running NUI's SnowFlake Software Package.
The Don Harrington Discovery Center in Amarillo, Texas, and the Vulcan Park and Museum in Birmingham, Alabama will both have large, high resolution multi-touch table exhibits provided by Ideum.
Below is a demonstration video from Ideum:
Ideum's Portfolio Site
Ideum's multi-touch, multi-user mashup, created with NUI Suite 1.0 Snowflake, a gesture recognition multi-touch software package.
Ideum's mt2 Table Information & Specs (pdf)
Ideum's mt2 Table was tested at a hands-on museum during the development process.
Below is a demonstration video from Ideum:
Ideum's Portfolio Site
Ideum's multi-touch, multi-user mashup, created with NUI Suite 1.0 Snowflake, a gesture recognition multi-touch software package.
Ideum's mt2 Table Information & Specs (pdf)
Ideum's mt2 Table was tested at a hands-on museum during the development process.
Posted by
Lynn Marentette
Stamp out mindless note-taking with DyKnow...
I'm always on the look-out for interactive technology that can support engaged learning. This application is much richer than a basic note-taking solution! (via TechPsych)
Take a look at this videoclip about DyKnow, an application developed to combat mindless note-taking and enhance classroom learning. Although the video demonstrates the benefits of this technology in a university classroom, it is clear to see that this would be a great asset in high school classes conducted in computer labs or have access to classroom sets of laptops.
The "retro" effect of this black-and white clip is entertaining.
DyKnow provides a means for teachers to control the way the laptop is used during class, which in a high school environment is important. Watch the DyKnow Monitor video to learn more about the features of this application, which includes a means of instant progress monitoring. The software provides for collaborative interaction between students and between the students and the teacher's work space.
In my opinion, this looks like it would be an effective resource in high schools that are adopting data-driven decision-making and Response to Intervention (RTI) models. It provides students - and teachers- with immediate feedback, and monitors progress electronically.
We know that most students do not learn best auditorily at the high school level, yet much of the high school curriculum is delivered through traditional means that involve lectures, note-taking, and some discussions. In this set up, it can be easy for some of the students to become disctracted in class, with lower grades and test scores as a consequence.
For many struggling students, traditional means of instruction opens the door for task avoidant behaviors and an increase in discipline events. They simply are not often fully engaged in the learning process.
Video: DyKnow in a high school setting: DyKnow in Action: Auburn City Schools
Article: High School Students, Teachers Learn Long-Term Benefits of Tablet PC's in the Classroom
The DyKnow video highlights some of the ways that the curriculum be delivered in a more on-task, visual, and 'hands on" way that engages a higher percentage of students.
If your school is using DyKnow, feel free to leave a comment about your thoughts!
Take a look at this videoclip about DyKnow, an application developed to combat mindless note-taking and enhance classroom learning. Although the video demonstrates the benefits of this technology in a university classroom, it is clear to see that this would be a great asset in high school classes conducted in computer labs or have access to classroom sets of laptops.
The "retro" effect of this black-and white clip is entertaining.
DyKnow provides a means for teachers to control the way the laptop is used during class, which in a high school environment is important. Watch the DyKnow Monitor video to learn more about the features of this application, which includes a means of instant progress monitoring. The software provides for collaborative interaction between students and between the students and the teacher's work space.
In my opinion, this looks like it would be an effective resource in high schools that are adopting data-driven decision-making and Response to Intervention (RTI) models. It provides students - and teachers- with immediate feedback, and monitors progress electronically.
We know that most students do not learn best auditorily at the high school level, yet much of the high school curriculum is delivered through traditional means that involve lectures, note-taking, and some discussions. In this set up, it can be easy for some of the students to become disctracted in class, with lower grades and test scores as a consequence.
For many struggling students, traditional means of instruction opens the door for task avoidant behaviors and an increase in discipline events. They simply are not often fully engaged in the learning process.
Video: DyKnow in a high school setting: DyKnow in Action: Auburn City Schools
Article: High School Students, Teachers Learn Long-Term Benefits of Tablet PC's in the Classroom
The DyKnow video highlights some of the ways that the curriculum be delivered in a more on-task, visual, and 'hands on" way that engages a higher percentage of students.
If your school is using DyKnow, feel free to leave a comment about your thoughts!
Feb 3, 2009
New SMARTBoard Touch Recognition from SMART Technologies: The YouTube Video
Here's the plug:
"SMART's new Touch Recognition feature allows the SMART Board to recognize your touch and switch modes automatically. You can write with a pen, erase with the palm and move objects around with your finger without having to access other tools, buttons or on-screen menus."
Related
Learning Through Touch: The story behind the SMART Table pdf (Heather Ellwood, EdCompass, January 2009)
SMART Table Website
Feb 1, 2009
PICNIC 2008: Media, Technology, Entertainment, Art & Science
PICNIC, an interdisciplinary conference, is held each year in Amsterdam, with delegates who come from a variety of countries. "PICNIC spotlights cutting-edge products and services at the intersection of media, technology, arts and entertainment, and brings together entrepreneurs, investors, creators as well as scientists, and other industry leaders." PICNIC 2008 was attended by over 8000 people.
One of the fun highlights of the conference: Participants were encouraged to use a RFID-enabled tag, linked to their online profiles, which enabled them to participate in a variety of interactive Social RFID games.
Videos of the 2008 PICNIC presentations and panels can be found online on the Vimeo website. I've selected a few that I found interesting, especially the ones from the "Can You See What I Know" strand about data visualization.
Some themes and videos from Picnic 2008
Can You See What I Know?
"Artist, scientists and designers are exploring a new world of software aesthetics and developing new languages for interactive and visual expression. How can we make information intuitively meaningful?" Presenter: Paul Wouters, program leader of the Virtual Knowledge Studio for the Humanities and Social Sciences at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
Paul Wouters at PICNIC08: Can you see what I know? from PICNICCrossmediaweek on Vimeo.
Quotes:
"How do you mediate the relationships between the arts and sciences, and in fact, more specifically, between academy and commerce?"
"Data is not the end of theory, nor is it the beginning, a mistake made by many social scientists. Data are the result of theory...Massive, bottom-up annotation of our physical and symbolic environment exemplifies therefore not for the end of theory, but for it's proliferation. This does, of course, considerably raise the stakes. It intensifies the social responsibility for all knowledge creators...The answer will be given by how we shape visual knowledge".
"The trouble of cross disciplinary work is difficult. It is a nightmare, and there are reasons for it."
Design as a Collaborative Process Presenter: Bill Moggridge, founder of IDEO, a design firm.
"New interactions develop into new design practices; new processes induce new forms of creativity. How can creators involve the people they want to create for in their work?"
Bill Moggridge at PICNIC08: Design as a Collaborative Process from PICNICCrossmediaweek on Vimeo.
Celebrating Collaborative Creativity-Showcase of Creative Production
Presenter: Ton Roosendaal, founder of Blender, an open-source, cross-platform suite of tools for 3D creation
Ton Roosendaal at PICNIC08: Celebrating Collaborative Creativity - Showcase of Creative Production from PICNICCrossmediaweek on Vimeo.
Emerging Real-Time Social Web: Philip Rosedale, founder of 3D online world of Second Life
Philip Rosedale at PICNIC08: The Emerging Real-Time Social Web from PICNICCrossmediaweek on Vimeo.
What Will Google Do? How Google Innovates
Gisel Hiscock, Director of Business development, Google EMEA
Gisel Hiscock at PICNIC08: What will Google do? from PICNICCrossmediaweek on Vimeo.
From presentation:
This is what Google DOES
Start with a clear mission that withstands time:
Visualizing Knowledge Spaces - Marco Quaggiotto
Knowledge cartographies / Trailer from Marco Quaggiotto on Vimeo.
Knowledge Cartography (pdf)
Knowledge Atlas: A cartographic approach to social structures of knowledge (pdf)
One of the fun highlights of the conference: Participants were encouraged to use a RFID-enabled tag, linked to their online profiles, which enabled them to participate in a variety of interactive Social RFID games.
Videos of the 2008 PICNIC presentations and panels can be found online on the Vimeo website. I've selected a few that I found interesting, especially the ones from the "Can You See What I Know" strand about data visualization.
Some themes and videos from Picnic 2008
Can You See What I Know?
"Artist, scientists and designers are exploring a new world of software aesthetics and developing new languages for interactive and visual expression. How can we make information intuitively meaningful?" Presenter: Paul Wouters, program leader of the Virtual Knowledge Studio for the Humanities and Social Sciences at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
Paul Wouters at PICNIC08: Can you see what I know? from PICNICCrossmediaweek on Vimeo.
Quotes:
"How do you mediate the relationships between the arts and sciences, and in fact, more specifically, between academy and commerce?"
"Data is not the end of theory, nor is it the beginning, a mistake made by many social scientists. Data are the result of theory...Massive, bottom-up annotation of our physical and symbolic environment exemplifies therefore not for the end of theory, but for it's proliferation. This does, of course, considerably raise the stakes. It intensifies the social responsibility for all knowledge creators...The answer will be given by how we shape visual knowledge".
"The trouble of cross disciplinary work is difficult. It is a nightmare, and there are reasons for it."
Design as a Collaborative Process Presenter: Bill Moggridge, founder of IDEO, a design firm.
"New interactions develop into new design practices; new processes induce new forms of creativity. How can creators involve the people they want to create for in their work?"
Bill Moggridge at PICNIC08: Design as a Collaborative Process from PICNICCrossmediaweek on Vimeo.
Celebrating Collaborative Creativity-Showcase of Creative Production
Presenter: Ton Roosendaal, founder of Blender, an open-source, cross-platform suite of tools for 3D creation
Ton Roosendaal at PICNIC08: Celebrating Collaborative Creativity - Showcase of Creative Production from PICNICCrossmediaweek on Vimeo.
Emerging Real-Time Social Web: Philip Rosedale, founder of 3D online world of Second Life
Philip Rosedale at PICNIC08: The Emerging Real-Time Social Web from PICNICCrossmediaweek on Vimeo.
What Will Google Do? How Google Innovates
Gisel Hiscock, Director of Business development, Google EMEA
Gisel Hiscock at PICNIC08: What will Google do? from PICNICCrossmediaweek on Vimeo.
From presentation:
This is what Google DOES
Start with a clear mission that withstands time:
- Democratising access to the world's information
- The best search engine should give you exactly what you want
- People should have access to information whenever they want and however they want it
- Keep it open
- The litmus test: does it stand the test of time?
- Traditional product management; incremental features, ROI/Finance-driven, pie charts, etc.
- Think small, niche solutions, short-term thinking, incremental improvement, vertical solutions
- Go it alone- At Google, all information and vision must be shared across all teams
- Forget our guiding principle: users come first, not money.
- Hire the best
- Create a culture of "Do's"
- Everyone can contribute - ideas come from everywhere and all people
- Share all information - objects and plans are posted on line.
- Share your vision at every level. Vision must be shared with the team
- Morph ideas, don't just kill them
- Speed matters (Google Labs with feedback from users and customers)
- Data driven:"We are fully data driven...there is no decision that is made without pure data, and real numbers to back it up.
- Users come first
- "You really have to focus on what the user wants, what is it that they want to do on line,
- 20% is at our core- everyone in the company has time to work on their individual projects.
Visualizing Knowledge Spaces - Marco Quaggiotto
Knowledge cartographies / Trailer from Marco Quaggiotto on Vimeo.
Knowledge Cartography (pdf)
Knowledge Atlas: A cartographic approach to social structures of knowledge (pdf)
Posted by
Lynn Marentette
Reflections: Need for Interactive Infoviz for the Financial Biz, Business Leaders, Government Officials, Educators and the Rest of Us...
If you follow this blog because you are interested in emerging multimedia technologies such as multi-touch and gesture-based displays and tables, you probably know that there is a huge void in terms of content -rich applications for these systems.
Most of the demos show how you can zoom, rotate, and resize photographs, sort through your "stuff", or bat things around the surface as a game. There is so much more power behind surface technology that needs to be realized!
Here are some of my reflections...
As I write this post, leaders of the financial industry, large corporations, and governments are in Davos, Switzerland at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. It is interesting to note that all of these bright men and women are struggling to grasp the enormity of the world's financial crisis and come up with strategies that hopefully will work.
The graphic below depicts how much has changed in the world economy between the 2008 annual meeting of the World Economic forum and the present. It lacks the "wow" factor that one would expect for an application running on an interactive display. With some tweaking, it could be transformed into an application that supports two people interacting with the data at the same time.

This makes sense.
There simply is too much data to absorb, explore, analyze, understand, and act upon. It is difficult to know if you have all of the data that you need, because some of it is difficult to access. It doesn't matter if you are a banker, a stock broker, a CEO, a CFO, a government leader, an economist, a shareholder, or a student. The current state of world economic affairs is the strongest evidence that our methods simply aren't working.
The work of Hans Gosling provides a good example of how information visualization can help increase our understanding of large quantities of data over time. Hans Gosling is a Swedish professor of development and one of the founders of Gapminder. ("Unveiling the beauty of statistics for a fact-based world view".)
The following video is Rosling's latest presentation, focused on debunking the myths regarding population growth:
What stops population growth? from Gapminder Foundation on Vimeo.
Here are some thoughts:
I started keeping up with the current economic on a more serious level in October. I was becoming numb from information overload. My knowledge about the economic and financial fields was lacking, so I decided to create a blog that I entitled "Economic Sounds and Sights" as my personal on-line repository of searchable content.
The blog has lots of pictures, info-graphics, embedded video clips, and links to a wide range of web-based resources. In my quest for information, I came across interesting quotes, jokes about economists, and tales of greed and scandals. I even found one blogger who has responded to each unfolding event of our economic crisis by re-writing lyrics to popular tunes.
For an example of one of my posts, read "Celestial Economic Sphere, Data Viz for the Finance Biz..." It is my hope that the content I've collected and shared on the blog will become part of an interactive information visualization/timeline designed to support two or more people on a large display or table.
11/4/09: Update: The economic crisis got a bit complicated, so I stopped posting. The blog still remains on-line. Interactive Infoviz for the Health Care Biz will be the topic of an upcoming post.
RELATED
Three Mirrors of Interaction: A Holistic Approach to User Interfaces (Bill Buxton)
Andreas Nicolas Fischer (Berlin-based artist who works with data, sculpture, and code.)
Google Spreadsheets Data Visualization Gadgets
Google Motion Chart (like Gapminder)
Panopticon
Death and Taxes (Wallstats.Com: The Art of Information)
2009 Index of Economic Freedom (Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation)
Visual Business Intelligence Stephen Few's Blog
Sunlight Foundation
Transparency Timeline - A History of Congressional Public Access Reform
"The Sunlight Foundation is committed to helping citizens, bloggers and journalists be their own best congressional watchdogs, by improving access to existing information and digitizing new information, and by creating new tools and Web sites to enable all of us to collaborate in fostering greater transparency."
MapLight.org "Money and Politics: Illuminating the Connection"
Free Our Data Blog (Guardian Technology campaign for free public access to data about the UK and its citizens)
2009 Death and Taxes Interactive Graphic (Click to explore.)
Mark Lombardi
Take the time to listen to NPR's Lynn Neary's interview with Robert Hobbs, curator of the an exhibit of the late Lombardi's "conspiracy" art/visualizations linking global finance and international terrorism. Lombardi's background as an archivist and reference librarian served him well in his art depicting interesting large-scale networks. Although his art was not interactive, his techniques have inspired the development of computer-based interactive information visualizations.
FYI:
To satisfy my curiosity about Mark Lombardi, I followed a link to "Obsessive-Generous": Toward a Diagram of Mark Lombardi, by Frances Richard, posted in the 2001-02 section of the WBURG website.
The examples below are of Lombardi's work connecting the relationships between George W. Bush, Harken Energy, and Jackson Stephens:

George W. Bush, Harken Energy and Jackson Stephens
c. 1979-90, 5th Version 1999
Enlarged Version
Close-up of network detail
Most of the demos show how you can zoom, rotate, and resize photographs, sort through your "stuff", or bat things around the surface as a game. There is so much more power behind surface technology that needs to be realized!
Here are some of my reflections...
As I write this post, leaders of the financial industry, large corporations, and governments are in Davos, Switzerland at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. It is interesting to note that all of these bright men and women are struggling to grasp the enormity of the world's financial crisis and come up with strategies that hopefully will work.
The graphic below depicts how much has changed in the world economy between the 2008 annual meeting of the World Economic forum and the present. It lacks the "wow" factor that one would expect for an application running on an interactive display. With some tweaking, it could be transformed into an application that supports two people interacting with the data at the same time.
Via the Wall Street Journal
Here are more examples related to the current economic crisis:

Annus Horribilis in 3D
Financial chart by artist Andreas Nicholas Fischer via Dan Pink

Life in the Left Tail
(Click for a larger image) via Greg Mankiw's Blog:
Random Observations for Students of Economics, via Daily Kos
I've been thinking about interactive information visualization and how it can support our understanding of the current economic crisis a bit lately, inspired by what I learned in Dr. Robert Kosara's InfoViz class I took last year. In a recent post on the Eager Eyes blog, Dr. Kosara floats the idea of the establishment of a "National Data Agency".Here are more examples related to the current economic crisis:

Annus Horribilis in 3D
Financial chart by artist Andreas Nicholas Fischer via Dan Pink

Life in the Left Tail
(Click for a larger image) via Greg Mankiw's Blog:
Random Observations for Students of Economics, via Daily Kos
"On this chart each block represents a year and each column represents a range of return on the S&P index. Over on the right side are those lucky years where the index has soared upward from 50-60%. In the middle are the more typical years, where the market has risen less than 10%. That little box on the far left? Yeah, that's this year..And hey, how many of you knew the S&P had been around since 1825?." - Devilstower of the Daily KOS
"What we need is a National Data Agency (NDA). This agency would be tasked with collecting data that all other agencies collect and produce, and making it available in a central place and in electronic, machine-readable form. There could and should be a reasonable data presentation on its website, perhaps even a National Data Dashboard (showing data of interest like debt, spending, jobless rate, etc.). But the bulk of data analysis would be left to third parties: analysts, journalists, citizens (and also aliens like me). Easily available data would make for more insightful reporting, more informed decisions, and endless business opportunities." -Robert Kosara
This makes sense.
There simply is too much data to absorb, explore, analyze, understand, and act upon. It is difficult to know if you have all of the data that you need, because some of it is difficult to access. It doesn't matter if you are a banker, a stock broker, a CEO, a CFO, a government leader, an economist, a shareholder, or a student. The current state of world economic affairs is the strongest evidence that our methods simply aren't working.
The work of Hans Gosling provides a good example of how information visualization can help increase our understanding of large quantities of data over time. Hans Gosling is a Swedish professor of development and one of the founders of Gapminder. ("Unveiling the beauty of statistics for a fact-based world view".)
The following video is Rosling's latest presentation, focused on debunking the myths regarding population growth:
What stops population growth? from Gapminder Foundation on Vimeo.
"Gapminder is a non-profit venture promoting sustainable global development and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by increased use and understanding of statistics and other information about social, economic and environmental development at local, national and global levels. We are a modern “museum” that helps making the world understandable, using Internet."
The visual representation of economic data, if done well, packs a powerful punch. To me, images form a kernel in my memory related to the messages conveyed, and when recalled, also bring up a range of related conceptual details. It is sort of like what happens when I hear the first few notes of a tune from the past.
This doesn't seem to be the case for me when thinking about related text, or even thinking about "boring" charts and graphs.
This doesn't seem to be the case for me when thinking about related text, or even thinking about "boring" charts and graphs.
The world needs effective and efficient data and information analysis and interactive visualization tools in order to solve problems that are on such a colossal scale.
The use of collaborative gesture and multi-touch display systems for data and information visualization is something that I believe will support better methods of decision-making in a variety of fields. Now is the time for the interactive information visualization community and related disciplines such as interactive multimedia and HCI to assist in this effort.
Here are some thoughts:
- Those who are coding gesture-based or multi-touch programs need to understand what sort of content people will explore, and make sure that applications provide flexibility in use.
- Human-computer interaction specialists will need to continue the study a range of interfaces and interactions in order to determine what supports human cognition of larger amounts of data and information.
- Creators of interactive multimedia content, web developers, and others will need to re-examine their work and think about ways their content can support new ways of thinking and problem-solving within the context of "surface" computing.
- Computer Supported Cooperative Work researchers will need to figure out what needs to be in place so that information can be effectively shared and analyzed between pairs or teams of people, and how this information can best be communicated to others within a business, agency, or organization, as well as the public.
One of the challenges facing this effort is that few people have an in-depth understanding of what it will take to make it happen. We will need to take an inter-disciplinary effort requiring a much higher level of communication and collaboration between people not accustomed to working within this context.
We will also need to take a "big picture" approach.
Because of the world's economic crisis, I think that interactive information/data visualization applications should target the needs of people who are working to understand the crisis and who have the power to do something constructive about it. This can not happen if they rely on the models and data analysis techniques of our recent past.
At the same time, these tools should be available to the rest of us, via the Internet, so that we may do our part to move us forward.
Back Story:
We will also need to take a "big picture" approach.
Because of the world's economic crisis, I think that interactive information/data visualization applications should target the needs of people who are working to understand the crisis and who have the power to do something constructive about it. This can not happen if they rely on the models and data analysis techniques of our recent past.
At the same time, these tools should be available to the rest of us, via the Internet, so that we may do our part to move us forward.
Back Story:
The blog has lots of pictures, info-graphics, embedded video clips, and links to a wide range of web-based resources. In my quest for information, I came across interesting quotes, jokes about economists, and tales of greed and scandals. I even found one blogger who has responded to each unfolding event of our economic crisis by re-writing lyrics to popular tunes.
For an example of one of my posts, read "Celestial Economic Sphere, Data Viz for the Finance Biz..." It is my hope that the content I've collected and shared on the blog will become part of an interactive information visualization/timeline designed to support two or more people on a large display or table.
11/4/09: Update: The economic crisis got a bit complicated, so I stopped posting. The blog still remains on-line. Interactive Infoviz for the Health Care Biz will be the topic of an upcoming post.
RELATED
Three Mirrors of Interaction: A Holistic Approach to User Interfaces (Bill Buxton)
Andreas Nicolas Fischer (Berlin-based artist who works with data, sculpture, and code.)
Google Spreadsheets Data Visualization Gadgets
Google Motion Chart (like Gapminder)
Panopticon
Death and Taxes (Wallstats.Com: The Art of Information)
2009 Index of Economic Freedom (Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation)
Visual Business Intelligence Stephen Few's Blog
Sunlight Foundation
Transparency Timeline - A History of Congressional Public Access Reform
"The Sunlight Foundation is committed to helping citizens, bloggers and journalists be their own best congressional watchdogs, by improving access to existing information and digitizing new information, and by creating new tools and Web sites to enable all of us to collaborate in fostering greater transparency."
MapLight.org "Money and Politics: Illuminating the Connection"
Free Our Data Blog (Guardian Technology campaign for free public access to data about the UK and its citizens)
2009 Death and Taxes Interactive Graphic (Click to explore.)
Via Stephen Few: Example of Horizon Graphs, developed by Panopticon. (Year's worth of prices of 50 stocks in 2005 and comparisons between them, click to enlarge)
Mark Lombardi
Take the time to listen to NPR's Lynn Neary's interview with Robert Hobbs, curator of the an exhibit of the late Lombardi's "conspiracy" art/visualizations linking global finance and international terrorism. Lombardi's background as an archivist and reference librarian served him well in his art depicting interesting large-scale networks. Although his art was not interactive, his techniques have inspired the development of computer-based interactive information visualizations.
FYI:
To satisfy my curiosity about Mark Lombardi, I followed a link to "Obsessive-Generous": Toward a Diagram of Mark Lombardi, by Frances Richard, posted in the 2001-02 section of the WBURG website.
The examples below are of Lombardi's work connecting the relationships between George W. Bush, Harken Energy, and Jackson Stephens:

George W. Bush, Harken Energy and Jackson Stephens
c. 1979-90, 5th Version 1999
Enlarged Version
Close-up of network detail
(missing)
Close up depicting a profit made by Bush, 2 weeks before Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait
via Frances Richard
Close up depicting a profit made by Bush, 2 weeks before Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait
via Frances Richard
"...though he possessed the instincts of a private eye and the acumen of a systems-analyst, Lombardi was of course an artist, and from the raw material of wire-service reports and books by political correspondents, he drew not only chronicles of covert, high-stakes trade, but technically pristine and sensually compelling visual forms"-Frances Richard
Update:
Lombardi's Narrative Structures and Other Mappings of Power Relations
Fosco Lucarelli, SOCKS, 8/22/13
Learning from Lombardi
Ben Fry, 9/2009
Update:
Lombardi's Narrative Structures and Other Mappings of Power Relations
Fosco Lucarelli, SOCKS, 8/22/13
Learning from Lombardi
Ben Fry, 9/2009
Posted by
Lynn Marentette
Jan 28, 2009
Details about gesture and free-air interaction from LM3LABS an Ubiq'window
Ubiq'window, by LM3LABS, is a gesture-based system that is used for interactive show windows, interactive in-store marketing, museum installations, and more.
The slides provide details of the Ubiq'window's system specifications, including a gesture recognition set. The slides also higlight "Airstrike", a system that allows for free-air, touchless interaction.

RELATED
Lm3lab's Blog
The slides provide details of the Ubiq'window's system specifications, including a gesture recognition set. The slides also higlight "Airstrike", a system that allows for free-air, touchless interaction.
RELATED
Lm3lab's Blog
Posted by
Lynn Marentette
Jan 26, 2009
SPARSH: DYI demo of an open-source multi-touch table and applications by NUI-group members
The following video is a demonstration of "Sparsh", an interactive multi-touch FTIR table built in eight weeks by a group of engineering students in India. Most of the information regarding the hardware and software you see running on this low-cost system can be found on the open-source NUI-group website, forums, and wiki.
Sparsh Multitouch Display from anirudh on Vimeo.
I especially like the multi-touch DJ application!
For more information, view the posts related to the NUI group on this blog.
Sparsh Website
Sparsh Multitouch Display from anirudh on Vimeo.
I especially like the multi-touch DJ application!
For more information, view the posts related to the NUI group on this blog.
Sparsh Website
Posted by
Lynn Marentette
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