LUMO, by PO-Motion: Projection system for children that transforms kid's designs into interactive creations (Kickstarter)

I'd like to give a shout-out to Meghan Athavale, Curtis Wachs and the other interactive minds at PO-MO for their Kickstarter project.  LUMO is an interactive system that allows any room - not just a kid's room - to be transformed into an environment that encourages play, interaction, and creativity.

From what I know about PO-MO-s other creative projects, LUMO is deserving of financial backing. Although this is the company's first venture into a hardware solution, it looks promising.  If it can be produced on a larger scale, children - as well as kids at heart - will have a new opportunity use technology to create interactive mixed reality play-scapes, right in their homes.

Watch the video, and then head over to LUMO on Kickstarter and make your pledge!

"LUMO turns a kid's room into an interactive playground, encouraging movement and imaginative play in children of any age."


Screen shot of the creation tools for children to use when creating their LUMO interactive effects:

Credit: PO-MO

ABOUT PO-MO

The following information was taken from the Kickstarter website:

PO-MO Inc. creates interactive experiences for museums, retail environments and events.

They also offer SaaS platform Po-motion.com, a website which enables people all over the world to create their own interactive floor and wall installations.

In 2010, Meghan Athavale and her business partner Curtis Wachs decided to quit their day jobs and design interactive experiences for a living. They launched PO-MO Inc. in July 2010. Within a few months, Keith Otto and Matt Gillies joined PO-MO. Meghan and the PO-MO team launched Po-motion interactive floor and wall projection software as a beta in early 2011. In 2012, the full version of Po-motion was launched and Meghan won many awards at investment pitch contests, was one of 12 people chosen to participate in Tech Women Canada in Silicon Valley, and closed the year with an amazing advisory board, another member of the team (Joss Le Leannec) and a profitable, global company.

Meghan Athavale (CEO) and partner Curtis Wachs (CTO), along with Matt Gillies, Keith Otto, Jocelyne Le Leannec and Dave Kelly spend their days making, playing with, and dreaming of interactive surfaces.

RELATED

PO-MO Website
LUMOPlay
PO-MO interactive effects for special events and parties:
PO-MO Inc. interactive visuals for parties from PO-MO Inc. on Vimeo.

Interesting Videos I Almost Missed (Future/Emerging/Creative Tech)

Creative Tech Videos I Almost Missed

I admit that sometimes I just don't have the time to hang out and watch interesting or quirky tech/future tech videos on the web.  Here are a few that passed me by the first time around.  

Enjoy!


The first video for this post is of an interactive game installed permanently for children at the Royal London Hospital.  Woodland Wiggle is a work commissioned by Vital Arts, in collaboration with Nexus Interactive Arts, Chris O'Shea, Felix Massie, and Brains & Hunch.  The game was created in C++ using openFrameworks, and relies on an Xbox Kinect camera.   The installation is part of play and garden spaces designed as healing environments for young patients.  (See links in the "Related" section for more information.)

The next video is the creation of Igor Labutov, Jason Yosinski, and Hod Lipson, of the Cornell Creative Machines Lab.

AI vs. AI:  Two chatbots talking to each other


I liked this video because I once created a chatbox video game for an AI for Games class I took several years ago, and have fond memories of the hours I spent reading the textbook supporting the display on the right- Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach)

Tom Jenkins and Simon Sharp, of thetheory, created the following two video shorts. Address Is Approximate is a stop-motion video about a lonely desk toy who makes a journey across the US via Google Maps Street View.   Speed of Light uses a pocket projector, a video feed, and creativity to create an augmented reality-like police-chase short.  According to information from the Vimeo website, Speed of Light was filmed using a Cannon 5d Mkll + HD MiniCam, with MicroVision projectors.

Address Is Approximate, from The Theory

Address Is Approximate from The Theory on Vimeo.


Speed of Light / aka / The World's Tiniest Police Chase from The Theory on Vimeo.

RELATED
Woodland Wiggle:  Interactive games on a giant television at the Royal London Hospital
Interactive Woodland at Royal London Hospital (Nexus Productions Website)
Giant tigers and rooftop teepees: the Royal London Hospital play space
Oliver Wainwright, The Guardian, 2/21/13
Note: I especially liked that in his article about the Royal London Hospital's play space, Oliver Wainwright shared this quote from Florence Nightingale's 1859 Notes on Nursing: "variety of form and brilliancy of colour in objects presented to patients are an actual means of recovery".
Cornell Creative Machines Lab
Robot-To-Robot Chat Yields Curious Conversation
Robert Siegel, Host, All Things Considered, 9/1/11
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (Udacity Course)
Meet the Creators: Tom Jenkins and Simon Sharp Trade Viral Shorts for A Studio Film
Joe Berkowitz, Co.Create

Listen

Call for Papers: Human-Computer Interaction and the Learning Sciences

Below is the call for papers for a workshop that I'd like to attend!   (The information below was copied from the Surface Learning website.)

If you are interested in the intersection of learning and interactive surfaces,  the Surface Learning website provides an interdisciplinary forum for like-minded explorers.

Human-Computer Interaction and the Learning Sciences

Full-Day Pre-Conference Workshop, in conjunction with CSCL 2013, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA

Submission deadline:	15 April 2013
Notification of acceptance:	29 April 2013
Early registration deadline:	TBD
Workshop registration deadline:	TBD
Workshop:	15 June 2013

Motivation

Both Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and the Learning Sciences (LS) are active research communities with established bodies of literature. As both have an interest in using computing technologies to support people, there is a natural synergy. However, the practices and values of the two fields are substantially different, leading to tensions felt by researchers who actively participate in both fields. They also make it harder for researchers in either field to move towards the other.

Recently, there has been increased interest in LS to acknowledge the importance of HCI. In his keynote at ICLS 2012, Pierre Dillenbourg made the case that many of the important problems of learning / education are not primarily addressed through innovations in learning theory (a particular emphasis in LS) but of addressing important problems through useful, usable, perhaps innovative designs (a particular emphasis in HCI). At the "Interactive surfaces and spaces: A learning sciences agenda" symposium later that day, the relationship between HCI and LS was heavily debated. That discussion continued in email form. What became clear is that the relationship is complex, viewed differently by different groups (LS researchers interested in HCI, HCI researchers interested in LS and interdisciplinary researchers) and needs to be improved.

Intended Audience

This workshop is intended to be both interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary:

• For researchers at the intersection of the two fields (i.e., active participants in both communities), this workshop provides a forum for discussing interdisciplinary research with the aims of supporting the connection between the fields.
• For HCI researchers interested in LS, this workshop provides an introduction to the learning sciences community (values, practices, literature, venues, etc.), an opportunity to receive LS feedback on your work and support for becoming part of the LS community.
• For LS researchers interested in HCI, this workshop provides an introduction to Human-Computer Interaction (both the fundamentals taught in an introductory course and the research community), an opportunity to receive feedback on your work from HCI researchers and connections to experienced interdisciplinary researchers.

Participation

We offer two paths to participate in the workshop based on the CSCL 2013 theme: "To See the World and a Grain of Sand: Learning across Levels of Space, Time, and Scale." Send submission in either category tosubmit@surfacelearning.org by 15 April 2013. Submissions are not anonymous and should include all author names and contact details.

The World
We seek position papers on the critical issues in interdisciplinary HCI / LS work or visions of how to advance the relationship between HCI and LS. Topics include, but are not limited to: 

• What core methods and principles of HCI might be of use to LS researchers?
• How can LS researchers piggyback on the efforts of HCI research to make the newest technology available for development?
• What theoretical foundations can LS offer to HCI researchers interested in using technology to support learning?
• How do we better support true interdisciplinary researchers?
• How do we promote academic exchange between the communities?

Position papers should be 2–4 pages in CSCL proceedings format. They will be publicly posted on the workshop website and should serve as a resource or discussion point. During the workshop, the position papers will be briefly presented (<10 minutes per presentation) to the entire group at the closing panel. The panel will use these presentations to reflect on the day's work and discuss possible future directions.

A Grain of Sand
One of the core values of HCI is that design (both the product and the process) matters. A great study of a lackluster, ill-conceived system is relatively useless. The time to reflect on and improve a design is during its formative stages (i.e., before it is finished). Here, we give attendees an opportunity to discuss design work in progress. We seek papers on preliminary projects, either before a system has been built (outlining the motivation) or during active development. Design papers should include motivation for the project (why is this necessary research?), related work (what are you building upon?), and a sketch of how you will proceed. The projects can be based in either an HCI or LS tradition of research.

Design papers should be 2–4 pages in CSCL proceedings format. They will be publicly posted on the workshop website. During the workshop, the papers will be briefly presented (<10 minutes per presentation) to a small group who will have time to give concrete feedback on the design / research from both HCI and LS perspectives (e.g., suggestions for improvement, related work).

Organizers

Jochen “Jeff” Rick is research associate / lecturer in the Department of Educational Technology (EduTech) at Saarland University, Germany. He received his PhD in the area of "Learning Sciences and Technologies" from the College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology in 2007. This will be his ninth ISLS conference. He has published in both JLS and ijCSCL and is on the editorial board of ijCSCL. He is also active in the HCI community, particularly the Interaction Design and Children community, serving as a full papers chair for the 2012 conference. He has experienced multiple perspectives on this interdisciplinary area: LS graduate student at an HCI powerhouse, postdoc in an HCI lab and junior faculty in an LS department. He has helped to organize four workshops, including one at CSCL 2002 and one at ICLS 2010. For two workshops, he successfully employed Open Space Technology, an organizing technique we plan to employ in this workshop.

Michael Horn is an assistant professor at Northwestern University, USA where he directs the Tangible Interaction Design and Learning (TIDAL Lab). Michael holds a joint appointment in Computer Science and the Learning Sciences, and his research explores the role of emerging interactive technology in the design of learning experiences. His projects include the design of a tangible computer programming language for use in science museums and early elementary school classrooms; and the design of multi-touch tabletop exhibits for use in natural history museums. Michael has presented work at cross-disciplinary conferences including Interaction Design and Children (IDC), Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI), Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), ICLS, and AERA; he is on the editorial board for the Journal of Technology, Knowledge, and Learning; and he is the program committee co-chair for ACM Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces (2012 and 2013). Michael also co-organized a workshop on Technology for Today’s Family at CHI 2012.

Roberto Martinez-Maldonado is a PhD candidate in the Computer Human Adapted Interaction Research Group at The University of Sydney, Australia. His research focuses on analysing data generated when groups of students collaborate using shared devices to help teachers to be more aware about their learning processes and take informed decisions. His research grounds on principles of Human-Computer Interaction, CSCL, Educational Data Mining and Learning Analytics; he makes use of a number of technologies including multi-touch interactive tabletops, tablets, kinect sensors and databases. He has presented work at interdisciplinary conferences that include Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS), Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED), Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces (ITS) CSCL, ICLS and Educational Data Mining (EDM). He lead the organisation of the workshop held in conjunction with ICLS 2012 titled Digital Ecosystems for Collaborative Learning. He has published papers at CSCL 2011, ICLS 2012 and other communities related with HCI and Artificial Intelligence in education.

Documents

• Call for Participation (.txt)
• Call for Participation (.pdf)
• CSCL 2013 Proceedings Template (.doc)

The Children's Interactive Library: User Experience Design and the Library!

The Children's Interactive Library was a collaboration between Interactive Spaces, the Department of Computer Science, University of Aarhus, the Department for Design, Aarhus School of Architecture, and others.

(Please excuse the audio - there are two narrators, each speaking a different language.)

"The Children's Interactive Library project was an untraditional interdisciplinary research and innovation project exploring the children's library of the future.

The objective was to create spaces for children in the library that offer new experiences, learning, events, sense impressions and physical activity. And at the same time acknowledging the library's unique capacity of being the place where children come in order to acquire information and knowledge."

The video shows how pervasive computing and natural interaction, and a child-centered focus were combined to create rich "user experience" at the library.

The Story Surfer:





Inspiration: Strategies and Prototypes for the Future (pdf)
Abstract from Children's Interactive Library Project, 2004-06, with lots of pictures and diagrams depicting the design process and products.

The following video provides a good overview of how user-focused HCI strategies were used a means to develop innovative plans for cool new libraries, otherwise known as "Media Spaces".
From what I can see, these strategies were used by the Aarhus Public Libraries,in Denmark, during the development of the Children's Interactive Library project, highlighted in the previous video.


Thanks, Matt Gullet, for the link to the video.



FYI: The Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, in North Carolina, is pretty cool.

Pictures from ImagineOn, the main library in Charlotte, N.C. for children and teens (Spangler Library & PLCMC):


ImagineOn, the LibraryLoft for Teens, and the Spangler Children's Library


Video production and editing at ImagineOn


Making games with Game Maker at the library


Lan Party at the Library