CRISTAL: One Giant Remote Control Multi-Touch Coffee Table; ACM Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces 2009 in Banff, Canada

Via Wired Gadget Lab Priya Ganapati 8/14/09

What is CRISTAL ? Control of Remotely Interfaced Systems using Touch-based Actions in Living Spaces and acronym for a project at the Media Interaction Lab at the Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences, Digital Media.

Watch the videos:




"CRISTAL simplifies the control of our digital devices in and around the living room. The system provides a novel experience for controlling devices in a home environment by enabling users to directly interact with those devices on a live video image of their living room using multi-touch gestures on a digital tabletop." -mediainteractionlab, YouTube

The CRISTAL project is a collaboration between several people, spanning across a few universities, according to the Media Interaction Lab website:

Christian Rendl
Media Interaction Lab
Florian Perteneder
Media Interaction Lab
Thomas Seifried
Media Interaction Lab
Michael Haller
Media Interaction Lab
Daisuke Sakamoto
University of Tokyo
Jun Kato
University of Tokyo
Masahiko Inami
Keio University
Stacey D. Scott
University of Waterloo

CRISTAL received the Best Emerging Technology Award at the 36th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH 2009)

Below is a sample of the Interactive Media Lab's publications:

M. Haller, P. Brandl, C. Richter, T. Seifried, J. Leitner, and A. Gokcezade, 2009.
"Interactive Displays and Next-Generation Interfaces." Springer, 2009. [bibtex]




C. Köffel, W. Hochleitner, J. Leitner, M. Haller, A. Geven, and M. Tscheligi, 2009.
"Using Heuristics to Evaluate the Overall User Experience of Video Games and Advanced Interaction Games." Springer, 2009. [in press] [bibtex]


M. Haller, C. Forlines, C. Koeffel, J. Leitner, and C. Shen, 2009.

"Tabletop Games: Platforms, Experimental Games and Design Recommendations." Springer, 2009. in press [bibtex]

J. Leitner, C. Köffel, and M. Haller, 2009.

"Bridging the gap between real and virtual objects for tabletop games," International Journal of Virtual Reality, vol. 7, pp. 33-40, 2009. in press [bibtex]




J. Leitner, M. Haller, K. Yun, W. Woo, M. Sugimoto, M. Inami, A. D. Cheok, and H. D. Been-Lirn, 2009.
"Physical Interfaces For Tabletop Games," Computer Entertainment, vol. XX, p. XX, 2009. [bibtex]

M. Haller and M. Billinghurst, 2008.
"Interactive Tables: Requirements, Design Recommendations, and Implementation."

D. Leithinger and M. Haller, 2007.
"Improving Menu Interaction for Cluttered Tabletop Setups with User-Drawn Path Menus," Horizontal Interactive Human-Computer Systems, 2007. TABLETOP 07. Second Annual IEEE International Workshop on, pp. 121-128, 2007. [bibtex]




D. Regenbrecht, M. Haller, J. Hauber, and M. Billinghurst, 2006.
"Carpeno: interfacing remote collaborative virtual environments with table-top interaction," Virtual Reality, vol. 10, iss. 2, pp. 95-107, 2006. [bibtex]

One of the people involved in the CRISTAL project is Stacey D. Scott, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of systems design engineering at the University of Waterloo. She is also the director of the Collaborative Systems Laboratory. The Collaborative Systems Laboratory focuses on fundamental interfaces and interaction techniques for shared large-screen displays, such as multi-display environments and social-supporting digital tabletop interfaces, and also collaborative and decision support interfaces for complex, time-critical team environments.

Dr. Scott is also one of the program co-chairs of the upcoming ACM Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces 2009 Conference will be held November 23-25 in Banff, Canada.

Mark your calendars!

The following topics, as they relate to interactive tabletops and surfaces, will be presented:

• Applications
• Gesture-based interfaces
• Multi-modal interfaces
• Tangible interfaces
• Novel interaction techniques
• Data handling/exchange on large interactive surfaces
• Data presentation on large interactive surfaces
• User-interface technology
• Computer supported collaborative systems
• Middleware and network support
• Augmented reality
• Social protocols
• Information visualizations
• Sensing and input technologies
• Human-centered design & methodologies

Here is the "who's who" of interactive tabletops and surfaces- the Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces program committee:

Patrick Baudisch	Hasso Plattner Institute Potsdam, Germany
Francois Berard	University of Grenoble, France
Peter Brandl	Media Interaction Lab, Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences, Austria
Andreas Butz	University of Munich, Germany
Francois Coldefy	Orange Labs, France
Morten Fjeld Chalmers	University of Technology, Sweden
Kentaro Fukuchi	University of Electro-Communications, Japan
Tovi Grossman	Autodesk Research, Canada
Mark Hancock	University of Calgary, Canada
Petra Isenberg	University of Calgary, Canada
Yuichi Itoh	Osaka University, Japan
Karrie Karahalios	University of Illinois, USA
Hiro Kato	Osaka University, Japan
Hideki Koike	University of Electro-Communications, Japan
Frank Maurer	University of Calgary, Canada
Max Mühlhäuser	TU Darmstadt, Germany
Christian Muller-Tomfelde	CSIRO-ICT Centre, Australia
Miguel Nacenta	University of Saskatchewan, Canada
Patrick Olivier	Newcastle University, UK
Jun Rekimoto	Sony / University of Tokyo, Japan
Meredith Ringel Morris	Microsoft Research, USA
Daisuke Sakamoto	Tokyo University, Japan
Yoichi Sato	University of Tokyo, Japan
Chia Shen	Harvard University, USA
Masahiro Takatsuka	University of Sydney, Australia
Lucia Terrenghi	Vodafone Group R&D, Germany
Bruce Thomas	University of Southern Australia, Australia
Melanie Tory	University of Victoria, Canada
Edward Tse	SMART Technologies, Canada
Fred Vernier	South-Paris University, France
Andy Wilson	Microsoft Research, USA
Massimo Zancanaro	Bruno Kessler Foundation (formerly ITC), Italy

If you are a university student researching interactive tabletops, multi-touch surfaces, and/or gesture interaction, I hope this post helps!

Tom Barrett, a teacher, demonstrates Durham University's SynergyNet Multi-touch Networked Tables

"It is about how children can work together and communicate and how the multi-touch technology can facilitate this."




In this video, Tom Barrett demonstrates multi-touch networked tables, which were designed to be part of an immersive classroom environment. The multi-touch tables are the result of a collaboration between the Technology Enhanced Learning research group at Durham University and colleagues from the Education and Psychology departments.

Tom is a teacher and edublogger. Like me, he has a passion for multi-touch technology. He has been fortunate to have the chance to work with a SMARTTable in his classroom, and also compare the SMARTTable experience with the tables at Durham University, which were not from SMART Technologies.

Tom was one of the first teachers to have the opportunity to try out the SMART Table in his classroom. He was a bit disappointed with the outcome. Even so, he believes that multi-touch technology will be important in education in the future.

From Tom's point of view, there is a need to have more in-depth content for the SMART Table, even at the earlier grades. The following quotes are taken from Tom's "SMART Table in my Classroom- My Conclusions" blog post:

"In my opinion there are three things that contribute to this: poor content; poor creation software and a straight jacketed approach to multi-touch functionality...There seems to be too much residual SMART Notebook thinking and not enough innovative software design. Maybe the product has preceded the necessary thinking behind it all."

"The one shining ray of light that emerges from amidst this all is the Media application. I have posted videos of some of my children working with this program in the past. It remains the only application that offers teachers and children an open environment to learn, and couples it with a unique interface with media. When you use this application you actually feel like you are using something innovative, multi-touch, gestural driven. As a teacher there is the capacity to use rich content of your choice (video) and then layer on top questions that engage the children in a much deeper way"

RELATED

Flickr Group: Multi-touch Interactive Desk: Applications and Gesture Ideas

(Note: I have plenty of ideas for content and software design for multi-touch tables in education, and also cognitive and educational assessment. I'm only missing a table or two!)

Seth Sandler's "Slider" Dynamic Multi-player Game using Reactivision + Flash

Seth Sandler, known for his MT Mini, an inexpensive DIY interactive multi-touch pad, is looking for input and ideas that will help him improve or enhance Slider, a game he created about two years ago. Take a look at the demo:



"This game uses reactivision software, along with Flash, to detect symbol fiducial block movements. The game is played by moving these symbols on a table. Players can enter and exit the playing field at any time. The game adapts to the number of players. The lower the score the better; the first player with a score of 12 ends the game. Future plans include: Projecting directly on the surface. Implementing multitouch so users can play with their fingers and objects instead of only object symbols."

Music: Waterdrops by Yohan Shin

Do you have an HP TouchSmart, Dell Studio One, or NextWindow touch-screen? NUITech's Snowflake Suite upgrade provides a multi-touch plug-in.

If you have a NextWindow touch screen display, HP TouchSmart PC, or Dell Studio One PC, you might be interested to know that NUITech has upgraded their multi-touch software, Snowflake Suite. There is an evaluation download available on the NUITech website created for the NextWindow platform. (The TouchSmart and Studio One have NextWindow touchscreens.)

Here is a short clip of Snowflake 1.6 in action:

Snowflake Suite 1.6 provides users with an opportunity to change the standard content that is delivered with the software, which includes images, videos, 3D models, and backgrounds, so it can be customized according to need.

RELATED

Natural User Interface AB has adopted new branding and a new name, Natural User Interface Technologies AB, or NUITech.

Press Release (8/12/09)

Evaluation version of Snowflake Suite for NextWindow systems (including TouchSmart, Studio One)

Snowflake Suite running on multiple NextWindow 2150 overlays for 22-inch screens:

(The previous version of Snowflake, depicted in the above video, was a finalist for the 2009 Stevie Award, "Best New Product or Service of the Year- Media & Entertainment)



Singapore's Public Utility Board display, Singapore International Water Week, featuring NUITech systems and software.

SOMEWHAT RELATED
Press Release: Next Window Earns Coveted Windows 7 Logo Certification pdf

Touch Screen and Interactive Displays Biz News, Part 1: NextWindow; Schematic

Here is more news from the interactive touch-screen industry:

NextWindow Introduces 2700 Touch Screen Overlay for New Wave of Education and Entertainment Applications

NextWindow Touch Screen News 2009 - Earns Windows 7 Certification

NextWindow Multi-TouchCreativity

Schematic Multi-touch Wall for Cannes

Multi-touch with Microsoft's Silverlight 3 and Windows 7

Tim Heuer's post on his Method~ of ~Failed blog provides a good overview of Microsoft's Silverlight 3, Windows 7, and multi-touch.

PookyTouch & PookyTooth: Multi-Touch & BlueTooth plug-ins for Mozilla Firefox!

PookyTouch- Enabling Multi-Touch in Mozilla Firefox- A good demonstration of what the Pooky Firefox plugins can do.
(Thanks, Maarten for the info- the people in the video are speaking in Dutch, not German, as I'd previously guessed.)


Here is the information from duskmage's YouTube channel:

"PookyTouch enables the use of Multi-Touch events in HTML (or XUL) pages in Mozilla Firefox. PookyTooth enables the use of bluetooth in webpages. For more information, downloads and some hands-on Multi-Touch experience, please view our website at http://pooky.sourceforge.net/"

Thanks to Seth Sandler (AudioTouch) for the link.

Links to posts about Singularity University, Designing for the Internet of Things, etc.

Here are a variety of links from the The World Is My Interface blog:

Singularity University? What about a Singularity Community College, with a mobile/distance learning option?

David Orban's Internet of Things & Spime Design presentation at the Singularity University 2009

The IBM Web or Internet of Things: "A Smarter Planet"

News about Smart Grids and Smart Kitchens

LTE vs WiMax: Trying my best to understand emerging technologies....

Pervasive Computing, DOOH, Intelligent Buildings, Programmable Nano-based Sensors, Privacy & Security, & Ethics...hmmm

Still a dream: Ubiquitous Women in Technology

Update on Multi-Touch, Multi-User NuMTyPYsics

A few months ago, I wrote a post about multi-touch "NuMTyPYsics". Here is an update:

Below is a video that shows how two use two single-touch Nokia Internet tablets to provide an emulation of multi-touch input for NuMTyPYsics, a drawing game that based on Numpty Physics:


Here's the description from Perlinet's YouTube channel:
"Using two single-touch tablets and a laptop running NuMTyPYsics, it's possible to emulate multi-touch input (max. 2 cursors - one from each tablet). This allows for precise input control and testing multi-touch applications. More info: http://thpinfo.com/2009/mt/"


The game is also based on Crayon Physics, using the Box2D engine.

RENCI at UNC-Charlotte has a Multi-Touch Table in the Visualization Center!

The Urbanization Explorer Touch Table at UNC-Charlotte
(Pictures from the RENCI blog)

I wish this multi-touch table was around when I last took a class at UNC-C! With help from the RENCI Europa team, this table that was only a dream was finally built.

The following information was posted on the RENCI Vis Group Multi-Touch Blog:

"Jason Coposky and Warren Ginn from RENCI Europa delivered UNC-Charlotte’s Multi-touch Table to the Charlotte Visualization Center last week. Dubbed the Urbanization Explorer Touch Table, the device’s first role will be to display the Urban Growth Model, developed by the Center for Applied Geographic Information Science (CAGIS) and UNC-Charlotte’s Urban Institute. By accessing historical patterns of growth in the region, this application will provide forecasts on how much growth is expected to take place based on these historical patterns. Using satellite imagery for the 24-county region around Mecklenburg, for four time periods: 1976, 1985, 1996 and 2006, the Urban Growth Model tracks the advance of impervious surfaces, a key indicator of development, in expansion across the area since 1976, and estimates the extent of urbanization through 2030. With interfaces developed by collaborators at the Charlotte Visualization Center, multiple users will be able to select areas of interest, zoom, pan, and navigate the colorful, large-format maps using only their fingertips and on-screen digital tools."

"First introduced at North Carolina State University’s Institute for Emerging Issues annual forum this past Februrary, this multi-touch table represents the next leap in performance in touch tracking. As opposed to the previous Direct Illumination (DI) technique employed in the original table, this table employs Diffused Surface Illumination (DSI). By employing a sheet of Cyro Acrylite EndLighten with polished edges and LED Edge-View Ribbon Flex from Environmental Lights, we’ve been able to distribute the IR illumination more evenly."


"Infrared LEDs on a trip from Environmental Lights is applied to the inside perimeter of the frame where the polished Endlighten acrylic sheet will be installed."

I want one to try out my touch-screen experiments!

RELATED
RENCI Displays the Urbanization Explorer Touch Table

At the 0:48 mark, you can see the RENCI Charlotte Urbanization Explorer Tool:

RENCI - Emerging Issues Forum 2009, Raleigh, NC in HD from Renaissaince Computing Institute on Vimeo.

UNC-Charlotte RENCI website

Hierarchical multi-touch selection techniques for collaborative geospatial analysis (pdf)
Thomas Butkiewicz, Dong Hyun Jeong, Zachary Wartell, William Ribarsky, and Remco Chang
University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Multi-Touch Musical Instruments- Surface Editor: Post via the NUI-Group Forum

Multi-touch Everywhere Technology in Action

Below is the video from Future Instruments, a company formed through Geneva's Conservatory of Music and the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland. It is worth watching the entire video clip.

The following information was posted in the NUI-Group Forum:
"The research group at Geneva’s Conservatory of Music presents the Surface Editor and Surface Tracker software applications for turning ordinary surfaces into multi-touch musical instruments. The Surface Editor allows users to custom design interfaces by dragging and dropping components, such as buttons, sliders, keyboards, and many others, onto the interface. The surface can then be used to control digital audio workstations, virtual instruments, hardware synthesizers and samplers, VJ software, and other applications, via either the MIDI or OSC protocol. The Surface Tracker is a multi-touch tracking application created for tracking movements on a surface using high speed infrared OptiTrack cameras. These cameras have on-board image processing, which allows them to process 100 frames/sec while sparing the host computer’s CPU. The applications are available at http://www.surface-editor.com."

Here are more details from the Future Instruments website:

Surface Tracker

"The Surface Tracker is an open source application for low latency multi-touch finger tracking. It was designed initially for our Multi-Touch Everywhere system (MUTE), but it should work more generally as well to track fingers which have been illuminated using the laser light plane method. It only supports low latency OptiTrack cameras; these cameras have frame rates of 100 frames per second, but due to their onboard image processing, these cameras only consume 3-5% of your computer's CPU (depending on your processor)."

"The Surface Tracker is a standalone application, which sends Open Sound Control messages to any connected client application at a user defineable IP address and port. It implements the TUIO protocol, which was specially designed for transmitting multi-touch events on a table surface."

"The Surface Tracker is currently only available on Windows. This is due to the fact that the driver for OptiTrack camera's is currently only available on Windows. We are, however, currently having discussions with the makers of the OptiTrack camera about extending support of their cameras to OS-X."

You can download the Surface Tracker from the Future Instruments download page.

I wish this system was around when I was taking a computer music technology class!

RELATED
Greg Kellum's Website: Surface Editor

A Flexible Mapping Editor for Multi-touch Musical Instruments(pdf)
Greg Kellum, Alain Crevosier (9th International Conference for New Interfaces for Musical Expression - NIMES

Sneak Peek: Musical Instruments of the Future
Eliot Van Buskirk, Gadget Lab, Wired 2/25/09

More Multi-touch! Rumor of the Mobile Apple iTablet; Adobe XD & Multitouch; 10-Finger Mobile Multitouch

I heard that Apple is coming out with a larger iPhone, an "iTablet".



This is a rumor I've heard for a while. Here are a few articles:

Tech Rumor of the Day: Apple, Verizon Team Up on Tablet
Scott Moritz, TheStreet.com, 7/21/09

Apple to Release Subsidized Tablet Through Verizon Later This Year?
Eric Slivka, MacRumors, 7/22/09


I also heard that lots of things are happening at Adobe.

Wouldn't it be fun to paint like this?

The interface on the left is multi-touch and allows you to effortlessly fine-tune color selection as you paint. This interaction is described in the Adobe XD video below.



Senior Experience Designer Julie Meridian and Senior Computer Scientist Tim Kukulski discuss the future of multitouch, and showcase XD's cutting-edge multitouch R+D effort.


XD is the acronym for Adobe Experience Design, a multi-disciplinary group that numbers over 100. This group is focusing on multi-touch applications for a wide range of uses.

FYI: The Adobe Experience Design Team offers an on-line publication, "Inspire". I think that the website could use a re-design...




Ten-finger multitouch headed to mobile gadgets this year
Jacqueline Emigh, BetaNews, 7/22/09
"Synaptics, the creator of touchscreens already embellishing the iPhone and G1 Android phone, today rolled out new multitouch technology for mobile gizmos which rivals that of Microsoft-'s table-sized Surface."

-photo from BetaNews

"For people interested in building their own multitouch-driven mobile applications, Synaptics plans a Microsoft Windows .NET-based development kit for the end of 2009, to coincide with the first 3000-driven handheld gaming machines, personal navigation devices (PNDs), and other gadgetry from Synaptics' OEM partners."

For more information, see the video.

RELATED

TechOnline's On-Demand Webinars:

Designing Compelling User Interfaces with Multi-touch All-Point Touchscreen Technology
Touch Screens: The Magic Behind Multi-Touch

Note: I haven't had a chance to see the above webinars. If you've viewed them, please leave a comment!

The new iPhone icons can speak: "Voiceover" makes it accessible to people with vision impairments - Via David Pogue

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This is good news. According to David Pogue, in his Pogue's Posts column in the New York Times, "You’d never suspect that the iPhone 3GS, which has no physical keys at all, is one of the easiest smartphones in the world for a blind person to use. But now it’s true, thanks to VoiceOver."

Apple is mindful of people with disabilities. The virtual tour of the new 3GS has a closed-captioned option.

The iPhone 3GS. I want one.

Convergence: Mobile content, Interactive Displays, Digital Out of Home, & Danoo

Danoo: "Location scouting and scalable web technologies combined to create a targeted DOOH experience".

If you are tech-savy and a member of the digital signage/interactive display/AV end of things, you probably know what this means. If not, you should. Things are pairing, merging, and converging in the world of "out and about" technology.

Technology, especially digital signage, is ubiquitous, and has targeted you and your neighborhood.

So what's the fuss? A company from Danoo, from China, is ramping things up in the Digital Signage/DOOH (Digital Out of Home) arena. Fast.

Danoo has rapidly up with exisiting companies, such as National CineMedia, Blue Bite, Electronic Arts, and the HISTORY channel to create and push off-the-desktop and off-the-TV content and interactive user experiences. Bill Gerba, of Wirespring, and Manolo Almagro, CTO of Show + Tell in NYC (think Times Square digital signage experiences), and others have recently written about this phenomenon, right after Danoo released the following press announcement:

Danoo Inc Announces a Breakthrough in Mobile Content Delivery (7/11/09, Business Wire)
"Danoo partnered with mobile technology company Blue Bite to enable the campaigns, and is actively rolling out its mobile interactivity capability to all of its venues. The first 200 Danoo locations will be live in Los Angeles and New York by July 1^st. At full deployment, Danoo will give advertisers the ability to get their content into the hands of more than 200,000 consumers in an average two-week campaign. In addition to content downloads, Danoo offers multiple ways to pair its screens with mobile interactivity to maximize campaign effectiveness, such as SMS call-to-actions, social gaming and mobile application promotion."

"Visitors to Danoo locations viewed video content on Danoo’s digital screens accompanied by an on-screen prompt to download exclusive content such as sneak peeks and ringtones from their Bluetooth or Wi-Fi-enabled devices via the Danoo network."



Here are a few related articles:
How Significant is the Danoo-IdeaCast-National CineMedia Deal?
(7/14/09, Bill Gerba, Wirespring)
A Watershed Moment for DOOH Media
(7/12/09, Bill Collins, Daily DOOH)

Pictures from Danoo's Website:
Danoo's IdeaCast- "Captive TV".


I've probably encountered Danoo's technologies numerous times, judging from my archive of pictures of displays and related technologies that have crossed my path. The TV screen on the treadmill looks just like the one I saw on a treadmill in the fitness center of a Princess cruise ship last year. The picture in the middle looks like it was taken in an airport. The picture on the right is of a system in a coffeehouse. According to information on the Danoo website, the system is interactive and includes "content downloads, social gaming, mobile couponing and more via SMS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi".

Blue Bite's website is worth looking at. It demonstrates their concept very well through animation:

Blue Bite: "Take the Ad With You"



Things are ramping up in my region, too.
T1 Tapas, a restaurant north of Charlotte, N.C., in the Birkdale Village in Huntersville, has majority owners with a technology background. Mike Feldman and Jim Morris started up Digital Optics Corporation, which focused on optics for computers and imaging, and after they sold their company, they teamed up with Denise Feldman to establish their company.

T 1 Connection Booth with Multi-User Touch Screen, HD TV, Sound System, Computer, & more:

"T1 Connection Booth seating gives you access to music, photos, and videos through built-in touchscreen tabletops, brilliant monitors, speakers, and computers." -Picture and taken from the T 1 Tapas website

The restaraunt serves as a test bed for T 1 Visions to try out their software and hardware designed to enhance the digitally connected dining experience. The restaurant was featured in May of this year on CNN:

Here is the link to the video: "High Tech Tapas"

"Wake Up Your Feelings" ad campaign for the HP TouchSmart PC: Harnessing interactive digital story-telling.

I am not sure if this is an ad campaign for the HP TouchSmart PC, or just a pitch that was entered into the New York Festivals competition. It won a Silver and a Bronze.

This is the scoop from XM Asia Pacific (RGM Connect) about the campaign:

"Our clients came to us for a campaign to launch the HP TouchSmart Desktop PC, the first-ever touch-screen computer for the home that is sleek and stylish as it is powerful. Targeting style-conscious young aults who are fully immersed in the digital lifestyle, we created an emotional pull that focused on the product’s core USP (i.e. the touch-screen) by spinning the big idea/line/message “Wake Up Your Feelings” into a fun and interactive story in which our feelings (in the form of cute personalisable characters) had fallen into slumber as a result of neglect due to our busy lifestyles – and only through the power of touch could we wake them up again to get our feelings back. The result was a wonderful world of whimsical animation that was magical to behold and brought the campaign messaging to life."

Since I'm a school psychologist in my "day" job, I appreciate interactive applications that help people understand and communicate feelings. It would be nice if this concept could be transformed for use in school counseling and social skills/coping skills intervention groups!

You can access the video from the Motion Graphics website, or click on the picture below to link to the video and additional information. The concept is great, and the video is worth watching.

Mun Hoe Tung was responsible for the animation and art direction of the campaign.

Screenshots:



Just think of how fun it would be to manipulate the items on the screen!

Haptic Tactile Feedback for the iPhone? MacRumors says, "YES!"

According to a recent MacRumors.com article written by Arnold Kim, Apple's future versions of the iPhone may offer haptic tactile feedback:

"Multi-touch display screen with localized tactile feedback"

"Apple proposes including a grid of piezoelectronic actuators that can be activated on command. By fluctuating the frequency of these actuators, the user will "feel" different surfaces as their finger moves across it. As an example, a display could include a virtual click wheel which vibrates at a different frequency as the center. Users could easily sense the difference and use the click wheel without having to look at it."

Arnold links to another patent application that will enable use fingerprint signatures to control and interact with a device. Apple will have all devices cornered, from what I can tell...

According to the description, "The present invention can be employed in any electronic device or system that permit user control, including any portable, mobile, hand-held, or miniature consumer electronic device. Illustrative electronic devices or systems can include, but are not limited to, music players, video players, still image players, game players, other media players, music recorders, video recorders, cameras, other media recorders, radios, medical equipment, calculators, cellular phones, other wireless communication devices, personal digital assistances, programmable remote controls, pagers, laptop computers, printers, computer mice, other computer accessories, cars or portions thereof, or any combination thereof. Miniature electronic devices may have a form factor that is smaller than that of hand-held devices. Illustrative miniature electronic devices can include, but are not limited to, watches, rings, necklaces, belts, accessories for belts, headsets, accessories for shoes, virtual reality devices, other wearable electronics, accessories for sporting equipment, accessories for fitness equipment, key chains, or combinations thereof."

There is a provision for multi-user interaction:

"Furthermore, while the processes described above illustratively register, detect, and respond to the fingerprints of one user per device, a device of the present invention can be configured to register, detect, and respond to the fingerprints of multiple users."

Arnold links to a third patent application:

Touch Screen RFID Tag Reader

Comment:
The US Patent Office & Trademark Patent Application Full Text and Image Database is a great place to explore if you have lots of time on your hands!

(Cross-posted on the Technology-Supported Human-World Interaction blog).

Human Media Lab's Organic User Interfaces and Interactive Sphere

The following video is of an interactive sphere prototype created by Josh Marble and John Bolton (members of NUI Group), from Human Media Lab at Queens University in Canada:

"DYI Multi-Touch Spherical Display"


I shared some information about the Human Media Lab's emerging technology in a previous post,
My Summer Emerging Technology "Wish to Play" List. Here is some more information about the lab:

"The Human Media Lab is Canada's premier media laboratory. Its mandate is to develop disruptive technologies and new ways of working with computers that are viable 10 to 20 years from now. We are currently working on the design of Organic User Interfaces (Oui!), an exciting new paradigm that allows computers to have any shape or form."

I would love to visit this lab. Perhaps they are working on flexible haptic interfaces, or other stuff of dreams.

(I'm on a cruise ship with limited Internet access, so I'll post more when I have the opportunity!)

Updates about NextWindow and Stantum; Upcoming Emerging Displays Technologies Conference

Here is a brief update about two companies that I follow:

NextWindow Granted Key Optical Touch Screen Patents (pdf)
Pleasanton, CA – June 1, 2009 – "NextWindow, the leader in optical touch screens for all-in-one PCs and large-format displays, has been awarded two key technology patents, one in the US and another in China. The newly granted patents which refer to optical touch systems incorporating light emitters, reflectors and detection methods, help cement NextWindow’s leadership positions in the important Chinese manufacturing and US sales markets"

"The US patent, number 7,538,759, issued by the United States Patent & Trademark Office on May 26, 2009, is titled, “Touch Panel Display System with Illumination and Detection Provided from a Single Edge.” NextWindow previously was granted this patent in Australia , and a request for patent is pending in Canada , Europe, Hong Kong and Japan ..."

You can follow NextWindow on Twitter

Stantum Granted Key Patents on Its Multi-Touch Technology

BORDEAUX, France, June 1, 2009 – "Stantum, a pioneer developer of multi-touch solutions and systems since 2002, announced today that both the European Patent Office and the China Patent & Trademark Office have granted patents (EP1719047 and CN100447723C, respectively) to Stantum on its multi-touch technology."

"In 2004, under its former name, JazzMutant, Stantum became the first company ever to develop and bring to market a multi-touch electronic device – the award-winning Lemur remote controller for creative professionals. The recently granted European and Chinese patents extend the original patent filed in France in February 2004."

"The patents describe a method and a system for controlling electronic devices by manipulating graphic objects on a transparent multi-contact touch panel. Beyond the process enabling the detection and tracking of an unlimited number of simultaneous contact points on a touch screen, the patents disclose various multi-touch interaction techniques, such as applying specific behavior to graphic objects according to finger gestures...."

Stantum's Quarterly Newsletter

Here is an industry-related 1-day conference that looks interesting!

2009 Emerging Display Technologies Conference: Innovation for the Next Wave of Growth

"Emerging display technologies offer alternative performance, cost, design, and business models to mainstream display technologies. From touch screens, flexible displays, OLED displays, e-paper displays, and pocket projectors to 3D displays, this 1-day conference will explore how new display technologies can bring innovative form factors, attractive visual performance, power saving, and potentially drive growth in the near future."

Thursday, September 3, 2009 8:00 AM - 5:30 PM

San Jose Marriott

301 S. Market Street

San Jose, California 95113

USA

408-280-1300