LM3Labs' Catchyoo Interactive Koi Pond; release of ubiq'window 2.6 Development Kit and Reader

Catchyoo Koi FX, from LM3Labs

Catchyoo Koi FX from Nicolas Loeillot on Vimeo.

The music on the video clip is by the band Remioromen, from Japan.

LM3Labs recently released ubiq'window 2.6 Pack, a development kit and reader that handles gesture interaction for proximity touch-less technology based on computer vision.  It includes a calibration mode, usage statistics, and is compliant with Windows 7.  In the near future, LM3Labs will release new software for their partners and ubiq'window developers.

About LM3Labs:
"Focused on fast transformation of innovation into unique products, LM3Labs is a recognized pioneer in computer vision-based interactivity solutions. LM3Labs is a fast growing company based in Tokyo, Japan and Sophia-Antipolis, France."  -LM3Labs Blog 

Children and Technology: "A 2.5 Year-Old Has A First Encounter With An iPad"

Handing his daughter a new iPad, the daddy says, "We have a new toy. Are you ready for a new toy?!" Of course she's ready!


Info from Todd Lappin's YouTube Channel:

"A fascinating UI experiment. My daughter likes playing with my iPhone, but this was her very first encounter with an iPad. As you'll see, she took right to it... although she too wonders why it doesn't have a camera! More critical comment on her user-interface test here: http://laughingsquid.com/a-2-5-year-old-uses-an-ipad-for-... PS: The spelling apps she uses in the video are FirstWords Animals and FirstWords Vehicles. They're great... except for the fact that the splash screen UI is non-intuitive for her. ;-)" -Todd Lappin (the dad in the video)

RELATED

Todd Lapin's Laughing Squid post: A 2.5 Year-Old Uses an iPad for the First Time

"If you’re good at understanding kid-speak, you’ll also notice that she immediately saw its potential as a video-display device. She lamented the lack of a camera, and wondered about its potential for playing games"

CHI 2010 Course 

New Methods for Designing for and with the iChild: Strategies for Today's Mobile, Social, and Internet Technologies

I took this class when I attended the recent CHI 2010 conference. We worked in groups and I was assigned the role of a 7 year-old child, designing an iPad app for "kid reporters".  It was fun.  Note:  For the iPad to be used this way in education, it really needs to have a camera/video camera.

The Children of Cyberspace

(Brad Stone, New York Times, January 9, 2010)

"...But these are also technology tools that children even 10 years older did not grow up with, and I’ve begun to think that my daughter’s generation will also be utterly unlike those that preceded it.   Researchers are exploring this notion too. They theorize that the ever-accelerating pace of technological change may be minting a series of mini-generation gaps, with each group of children uniquely influenced by the tech tools available in their formative stages of development."... “People two, three or four years apart are having completely different experiences with technology,” said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project. “College students scratch their heads at what their high school siblings are doing, and they scratch their heads at their younger siblings. It has sped up generational differences.”..." -Brad Stone

... (more info)  

More Multi-touch: Multi-touch Table at Schlossmuseum Linz, by Strukt Design Studio

Schlossmuseum Linz / Multitouch Installation from Strukt Studio on Vimeo.

Info from the Strukt website:
"The first game Strukt produced is called “Solar Land”. The visitors can place solar panels on a map of Upper Austria, guessing where they would be most efficient according to the altitude of the sun in the area. After all items are placed, the participants can start a simulation of the insolation over the duration of an entire year. The game shows how much energy is produced during that period of time, and the top simulations are listed in a high-score. The results encourage people to discuss their decisions and to play the game once more, using the knowledge they gained to reach a better score."





-Picture from the Strukt website


Strukt studio is located in Vienna, Austria, and is a design agency that specializes in interactive media for events and exhibitions.  Strukt has an innovative portfolio of interesting work.

3D Projectors in the Classroom: The kids are ready--but what about the textbook-bound curriculum?

Recently several companies have unveiled 3D DLP projector systems for use in K-12 settings.   Why 3D in the classroom?

To provide students with immersive learning experiences, according to information from a press release from Texas Instruments:
DLP Technology Enhances Interactive Learning by Demonstrating Industry's Only 3D-Enabled Single-Projector: "Immersive learning provided by 3D displays shown to increase test scores, close the gender gap and increase knowledge retention."

Here are a few quotes from the students who had a chance to try out a 3D learning experience in their classroom:

"I think it would really stay in your brain more, because you're having fun with it."
"It's really interactive and exciting"
"It lets you focus on the details of it."

Students usually don't give this sort of reaction when they are asked to open up a traditional textbook!
"Book work is boring. (With 3D) you get into it...and then you can play back that picture in your mind when you're taking a test" - Student, Rock Island, IL (track 3).


DLP Enables 3D in the Classroom at FETC (Promotional video)






RELATED:


The Classroom in 3D
THE Journal, February 2010
"In assessing the classroom potential of 3D, experts point to its capacity to enhance visualization. That could prove useful in classes such as geometry, in which the third dimension could illustrate complex spatial concepts, and biology, where 3D could be used for frog dissections or to show images of cells.  Subjects such as astronomy, history, geography, art history, and earth sciences would be enriched as well."

One barrier to the adoption of 3D technology in the classroom is the lack of appropriate 3D content.  According to the THE Journal article,  content providers working on 3D content include Safari Montage, BenQ, AVRover, Discovery Education, Promethean World, Eon Reality, and RM Educational Software.  Texas Instruments is involved with some of these companies.

3D Enabled Projectors
Texas Instruments (also see DLP Link & Active Glasses)
BenQ
Mitsubishi
Sharp
ViewSonic


SOMEWHAT RELATED:
Teachers Increasingly Value Media and Technology (pdf)
PBS and Grunwald Associates, LLC, 2009

Multimedia Storytelling; Brian Storm & Scott Strazzante (info via Innovative Interactivity)

Brian Storm, the founder and president of MediaStorm, recently was a presenter during UNC's Photo Night, an event that celebrates various forms of photo-journalism. Tracy Boyer, author of the Innovative Interactivity blog, recently posted about her experience attending the presentation and her chance to chat with Brian Storm over lunch.


Tracy's post provides a good overview of MediaStorm's business model, which has four main components - multiple platform publication, project-specific multimedia agency, an interactive production studio, and evangelism/training.  I think that MediaStorm's business model will hold well for the future, given the rapid changes in technology, journalism, and cross-platform interactive media. Despite the economic downturn, MediaStorm had their best year, according to Tracy.


Below is an example of what you'll find on the MediaStorm website:


Common Ground  (excerpt)
Photographer: Scott Strazzante

The full Common Ground project can be viewed at http://mediastorm.org/0023.htm


"On July 2, 2002, Jean and Harlow Cagwin watched as their home — the last remnant of their 118-acre cattle farm in Lockport, Illinois — was torn down clearing the way for a new housing development. Several years later, Ed and Amanda Grabenhofer and their four children moved into the new Willow Walk subdivision, their house just yards from where the Cagwin's home once stood.

Common Ground introduces us to the lives touched by this land, as photographer Scott Strazzante takes us on a visual journey exploring the differences and similarities of these two families while simultaneously asking us to look at what is common among us all."





What I liked about the videography and photography is how the photography juxtaposed similar pictures depicting the commonalities between the older couple who once lived on the farmland that was transformed into the suburban home for young families.


RELATED
ABOUT MEDIASTORM (from the MediaStorm website)

"Originally founded in 1994 at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, MediaStorm relaunched in March of 2005 with a focus on creating cinematic narratives for distribution across a variety of platforms.
In November 2005, MediaStorm premiered its award-winning multimedia publicationhttp://mediastorm.org. Utilizing animation, audio, video and the power of still photography, we publish diverse narratives that speak to the heart of the human condition.

MediaStorm is widely recognized for the quality editorial work we've produced for our many clients. We have created award-winning multimedia projects, interactive applications, and web sites for media companies, foundations and advocacy groups. Our clientele includes Starbucks, Council on Foreign Relations, and National Geographic Magazine. MediaStorm projects have also appeared on numerous websites including MSNBC, Slate, NPR and Reuters and have been broadcast on PBS..."

"MediaStorm is a multimedia production studio based in Brooklyn, New York and collaborating virtually with creative resources around the globe. MediaStorm's principal aim is to usher a new era of multimedia storytelling, via our  publication, our advanced workshops and our industry-leading production and consulting services. The people we hire and the culture that we have created for quality and innovation at MediaStorm are the keys to our success."

MediaStorm Founder Brian Storm advises journalism community to partner and collaborate
Tracy Boyer, Innovative Interactivity,  2/17/10
Bloggers: If you link to MediaStorm, be sure to send an email to info@mediastorm.org with your URL.


Some of my previous posts about multimedia/digital storytelling:
Visual Literacy and Multimedia Literacy Quotes
The Importance of Storytelling and Multimedia Content-Updated
Digital Storytelling Platforms and Multiple Perspectives: A look at the work of Jonathan Harris - food for thought for interactive timeline design.
Two Interesting Posts:  Colin Mulvany "Will the touch tablet save professional journalism?" & Michael Arrington -"The End of Hand Crafted Content"
Umajin Creative - Digital Storytelling for Interactive Whiteboard or Touch Screen- free demo available.
Resources for the (therapeutic) use of digital and multimedia storytelling & social stories for children and teens.

The Importance of Storytelling and Multimedia Content (UPDATED)

Storytelling has been an important part of human culture for centuries and remains important, even thought it has been transformed by advances in technology.

It is transforming how young children think, communicate, and learn.

The following video from the University of Southern California's Institute for Multimedia Literacy (IML). In October of 2009, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting released a report that said that four and five year old children who had access to media tools had increased literacy levels as they entered kindergarten. A group of four-year-old preschool students were provided the opportunity to participate in the IML's workshop, Digital Storytelling and Recombinant Narrative, a workshop that is usually geared for adults.  Of course, the workshop was revised to meet the needs of a much younger group.

Here is the clip:

Digital Storytelling With 4-year-olds from IML @ USC on Vimeo.

Summative Evaluation of the Ready to Learn Initiative 
"The study, which was conducted by researchers at the Education Development Center, Inc. and SRI International, evaluated educational video content and associated interactive games from Super Why!, Between the Lions and Sesame Street, which are produced as part of the Ready To Learn (RTL) initiative. RTL aims to increase literacy skills for children aged 2-8 living in high poverty communities, by utilizing multiplatform content"

"The researchers examined the impact of the curriculum which included public media content in a randomized controlled trial with 398 low-income four and five-year olds from 80 preschool classes in New York City and San Francisco. The children who had public media content in their classes developed significantly more early literacy skills -- the ability to name letters, know the sounds associated with those letters and understand the basic concepts about stories and printed words -- than children who did not have public media content in the classroom."


Below is a collection of articles and links about issues related to storytelling in our digital age, from various perspectives.  The game is changing for everyone, especially for traditional teachers and journalists.

Better User Experience With Storytelling, Part One
Francisco Inchauste, Smashing Magazine, 1/29/10    (also read the comments to the article)


The Art of Storytelling
Christian Saylor, O'Reilly InsideRIA 3/23/09

Transmedia Storytelling and Entertainment - A Syllabus
Henry Jenkins, 8/11/09 
 Henry Jenkins is the Provost's Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. He arrived at USC in Fall 2009 after spending the past decade as the Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and the Peter de Florez Professor of Humanities. 

Henry Jenkin's syllabus includes the reading list for his class at USC of the same name, aong with great links to on-line publications related to the course. If you are pressed for time, take a look at Transmedia Storytelling 101.

Here is a link to a post I wrote in 2008 that provides a few good links related to storytelling:
Digital Storytelling, Multimodal Writing, Multiliteracies 

RELATED

Video from USC's Institute for Multimedia Literacy:


IML: Background and Philosophy from IML @ USC on Vimeo.

The Center for Digital Storytelling  


Multiliteracies

Interactive Narratives

Innovative Interactivity's Top 50 Multimedia Sites of 2009

USC Institute for Multimedia Literacy

Knight Digital Media Center Presentations  Example: Old Journalists in New Media:  Collaborating with Writers


O'Reilly Digital Media Blogs

iPad multi-touch gestures for iWork, page navigator tool, fast data entry & infographs, on-touch form creation, iPad wall.(Updated 1/30/10.)

Update 1/30/10
Know HTML & JavaScript?  Open source PhoneGap lets you create apps for the iPhone and other platforms. (Update: Including the iPad.)
Update 1/30/10
According to Brian Chen's Gadget Lab post, Apple recently made a change to enable the iPhone and iPad function as web phone:
"ICall, a voice-over-Internet Protocol (VOIP) calling company, said the latest revisions in Apple’s iPhone developer agreement and software development kit enable the iPhone to make phone calls over 3G data networks. ICall promptly released an update to its app today, adding the 3G support...Because the iPad includes a microphone and will run iPhone apps, that means the tablet will gain internet telephony, too." Read More http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/01/iphone-voip/#ixzz0e5aErE6q

Interactions in Apple's iWork Applications for iPad


RELATED
Interesting iPad Interactions  -Craig Villamor
New Multi-touch Interactions on the Apple iPad - Craig Villamore & Luke Wroblewski
The iPad's Actually New UI and Gestures -Matt Buchanan, Gizmodo
-Multi-finger multi-touch
-Popovers
-Media Navigator
-"Long" touch and drag
-Layered UI elements
iPad.org Forum


ClarkeHopkinsClarke iPad Wall Concept for a Library

MediaTeam's Interactive Wall and Table

Interactive Touchscreens

Interactive Table

Mediateam Interactive Multitouch Table from mediateam on Vimeo.

Wall Screen

Mediateam Interactive Multitouch Screen from mediateam on Vimeo.
Video is from Mediateam

-via NUITEQ

I don't have much information about Mediateam. I think it might be MediaTeam Oulu, but I'm not sure. MediaTeam Oulu has quite a bit of research that focuses on ubiquitous computing.

Two Interesting Posts: Colin Mulvany - Will the touch tablet save professional journalism? & Michael Arrington -The End of Hand Crafted Content

Technology is changing our world, and in some fields, more so than others.  For professional newspaper journalists, things are pretty bleak, as web-based news content is stamping out much of what has been held dear to the heart in traditional press rooms. Newspaper companies are folding and great journalists have lost their jobs.

Is there hope for the future?

Journalists who have digital media skills are voicing their views about this phenomenon as the profession moves to reinvent itself.  There is much to discuss, since the number of folks with Smartphones and access to web-based news content on-the-go increases each day.

The first post I'm sharing was written by Colin Mulvany, who works as a multimedia producer at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington.  He began his career is a still photographer, but changed gears and transitioned to his present role creating content for his paper's on-line website.  

Colin Mulvany is the author of the Mastering Multimedia blog.  His blog post, Will the touch tablet save professional journalism?, provides an overview of changes in journalism and links to related on-line articles about the topic. What I liked about Mulvany's post is his vision of how the transition from newspaper to the digital world might play out in the near future. 

It all centers around the touch-tablet that is paired with the newspaper.  So how will this make money?   Mulvany has a few ideas.  One of his suggestions involves improving the navigation of newspaper websites, and providing content and layout that the reader can customize for interaction with the tablet.


The second article, The End of Hand Crafted Content,  written by Michael Arrington at Tech Crunch, points out how on-line news content is like "fast food", generated by blogs and aggregators.   Arrington discusses how the same content is written and refashioned and written, and the true creators of the content (real journalists!) are not often noted...or noticed.

Arrington provides good links on his post.  If you have time on your hands, take time to read it, and also browse through the numerous comments posted by readers. Although I rarely am inspired to comment on an on-line post, in this instance, I did so.  My comment is buried in there somewhere!


RELATED
Minority Report Scenes: 
3D ads at the mall, subway scene with USA-Today e-paper (updated with video in "real time")

http://www.youtube.com/user/mrcavalcanti

The holographic ads in the Minority Report mall scene begin at 0:28.  The subway scene with the USA Today 3-paper begins at 1:27.  (Mulvany has a similar video on his post.)


Holographic Ad at a Canadian Mall: "Living Poster"

http://www.youtube.com/user/smtire

Maybe the holograph guy in the mall could deliver the news or a weather report, along with a few Minority Report-like mall ads!

Participatory Design Conference 2010 "Participation :: The Challenge" + some thoughts

I really want to go to Australia next year and attend this conference! Below are links to the conference, along with an excerpt from the conference description:

11th Biennial Participatory Design Conference:  Participation :: The Challenge (pdf)
PDC2010 Conference Website
PDC2008 Conference Website

"Participation is the complex, contested, changing, creative and celebratory core of participatory design. We invite you to explore what participation can and needs to mean in the design contexts where we are working now and those we are likely to encounter soon. While current ‘best practice’ in many areas of interactive technology design now at least pays lip service to people’s participation, how is this participation being negotiated and defined, and by whom? And if Participatory Design methods developed some 20 years ago are claimed to have become standard design practice, how do we go about developing the methods that will define standard design practice 20 years from now?"


REFLECTION
Judging from what I've experienced as a consumer/user,  there are many things that are floating around in the form of electronics, software, and related gadgets that are examples of the absence of participatory design.

My daily pet peeve is the remote control for my entertainment set-up, which includes DVR and a small but growing number of interactive TV channels.  Another pet peeve is the usability of productivity software, including the software I must use for work.

At any rate, below are links to some of my thoughts related to usability topics that might be of interest to people who are thinking about or practicing participatory design or user-centered design.

2007 Letter to the Editor, Pervasive Computing
Useful Usability Studies (pdf)

2007 Blog Post
Usability/Interaction Hall of Shame (In a Hospital)

2008 Blog Posts
Interactive Touch-Screen Technology, Participatory Design, and "Getting It"
An Example of Convergence: Interactive TV: uxTV 2008

2009 Blog Posts
Microsoft: Are You Listening?  Cool Cat Teacher (Vicki Davis) Tries out Microsoft's Multi-touch Surface Table
Haptic/Tactile Interface:  Dynamically Changeable Physical Buttons
The Convergence of TV, the Internet, and Interactivity:  Update
UX of ITV:  The User Experience and Interactive TV (or Let's Stamp Out Bad Remote Controls)
ElderGadget Blog: Useful Tech and Tools

More Urban Screens and Outdoor 3D Media Facades

Maybe this will sprout up on outdoor building walls in a city near you!  
 
 
There's more to life than a Volvo - Frankfurt 2009 "3D projection and production by NuFormer in coorporation with Saatchi & Saatchi"  

RELATED  
3D Projections on Buildings: A distinctive way of communicating  
Communicating Through Architecture:  Media Facades and the Digital Infrastructure  The Rathous 
(Contains an assortment of videos and pictures)  
Art and Commerce Meet on Building's Interactive Media Facades Kelsey Keith, Fast Company, 10/2/209 

International Urban Screens Association  

"Urban Screens are dynamic digital displays and visual interfaces located within urban public spaces. They include LED screens and signs, plasma screens, information terminals and projection surfaces as well as intelligent architectural surfaces and media facades...Urban Screens transform the capacity of public spaces to serve as a platform for user-generated civic and cultural expression, community building, multiculturalism and public engagment in issues related to social, cultural and environmental sustainability....Through networking, content sharing and joint broadcasting, they constitute a rapidly expanding and still largely experimental global multimedia infrastructure for commercial and cultural exchange." "The IUSA aims to inform and support the ‘worldwide Urban Screens movement’: the expanding use of dynamic digital displays in public spaces; their considerate and sustainable integration in the urban landscape; and the ability for screen communities to collaborate in the digital space to share content, experience, ideas, innovations and emerging possibilities."

Book:  Media Facades:  History, Technology and Content, M.Hank Haeusler 

Cross-posted on The World Is My Interface

People-Centric Public Media, Public Media 2.0, & New Media: Considerations for Interactive, Collaborative Multimedia Content

I followed a link from an article written by Andy Oram, of the O'Reilly Radar and found some interesting information related to public media. The graphics and quotes below are from a publication, Public Media 2.0: Dynamic, Engaged Publics (pdf), written by people from the Center for Social Media at the School of Communication, American University.

Public Media 2.0: Dynamic, Engaged Publics    Full Report pdf

Center for Social Media,  School of Communication, American University



"Multi-platform, participatory, and digital, public media 2.0 will be an essential feature
of truly democratic public life from here on in. And it’ll be media both for and by the
public. The grassroots mobilization around the 2008 electoral campaign is just one
signal of how digital tools for making and sharing media open up new opportunities
for civic engagement.

But public media 2.0 won’t happen by accident, or for free. The same bottom-line logic
that runs media today will run tomorrow’s media as well. If we’re going to have media
for vibrant democratic culture, we have to plan for it, try it out, show people that it
matters, and build new constituencies to invest in it.

The first and crucial step is to embrace the participatory—the feature that has also been most disruptive of current media models. We also need standards and metrics to define truly meaningful participation in media for public life. And we need policies, initiatives, and sustainable financial models that can turn today’s assets and experiments into tomorrow’s tried-and-true public media.

Public media stakeholders, especially such trusted institutions as public broadcasting, need to take leadership in creating a true public investment in public media 2.0."

Action Agendas
"Public media institutions and makers need to develop a participatory national network and platform; to cross cultural, social, economic, ethnic, and political divides; to collaborate; and to learn from others’ examples, including their mistakes.

• Policymakers need to create structures and funding to support national coordination of public media networks and funding for production, curation, and archiving; to use universal design principles in communications infrastructure policy and universal service values in constructing and supporting infrastructure; to support lifelong education that helps everyone be media makers; and to build grassroots participation into public policy processes using social media tools.

• Funders can invest in media projects that build democratic publics; in norms setting, standardization of reliability tools, and impact metrics; and in experiments in media making, media organizations, and media tools, especially among disenfranchised communities."
Some key points from the article:
Five fundamental ways that people's media habits are changing - The Five Media Habits:
Choice
Conversation
Curation
Creation
Collaboration
Trends with possibilities for public media 2.0:
Ubiquitous video (choice, creation, collaboration)
Powerful databases (curation, creation)
Social networks as public forums (conversation, collaboration)
Locative media (choice, creation)
Distributed distribution (choice, curation)
Hackable platforms (creation, collaboration, curation)
Accessible metrics (creation, curation)
Cloud content (choice, creation)
Pervasive gaming (choice, collaboration)

RELATED
Eight Public Media 2.0 Projects That Are Doing it Right
Jessica Clark, Mediashift, 10/6/09
("MediaShift tracks how new media -- from weblogs to podcasts to citizen journalism -- are changing society and culture.")
The intersection of media literacy and public media 2.0
Katie Donnelly, Public Media 2.0, 10/16/09
VoiceThread "VoiceThread is a powerful new way to talk about and share your images, documents, and videos"

I'll update this post with some of my thoughts/reflections about Public Media 2.0 and interactive multimedia content development.

Brief Post and Links: Multimedia Semantics, Focus of the December issue of IEEE's Computing Now

I haven't read the latest issue of IEEE's Computing Now, but it looks like it has a few good articles that might be of interest:

Multimedia Metadata and Semantic Management

Guest Editors' Introduction, IEEE Computing Now

Harald Kosch and Christian Timmerer, December 2009

"Effective multimedia management must span the metadata life cycle—from its creation through processing, storage, distribution, and deployment—and work whether the metadata is tightly connected with or independent of the media it describes.

Finally, we need better integration of situational context. This includes not only domain knowledge, but also legal and cultural issues, metadata and semantic quality, compression and encryption techniques."

3D Media and the Semantic Web pdf

Michela Spagnuolo and Bianca Falcidieno, National Research Council of Italy

Managing and Querying Distributed Multimedia Metadata Collections pdf

Sebastien Laborie, Ana-Maria Manzat, and Florence Sedes

Using Social Networking and Collections to Enable Video Semantics Acquisition pdf

Stephen J. Davis, Christian H. Ritz, Ian S. Burnett

RELATED

IEEE MultiMedia  

Some of my favorite tech journals/magazines:

Chris O'Shea's Hand from Above Interactive Screen; Info about Interactive Architecture

A recent post on the Interactive Architecture blog was of artist Chris O'Shea's "Hand from Above" project, a joint co-commission between FACT (Foundation for Art & Creative Technology), Liverpool City Council for BBC Big Screen Liverpool, and the Live Sites Network.  The installation premiered during the Abandon Normal Devices Festival.


Hand from Above from Chris O'Shea on Vimeo. (Written using openFrameworks & openCV. Sounds by Owen Lloyd.)

"Just imagine walking through your town or city centre, watching yourself on the Big Screen, when all of a sudden a giant finger appears and starts to play with you!...Hand From Above encourages us to question our normal routine when we often find ourselves rushing from one destination to another. Inspired by Land of the Giants and Goliath, we are reminded of mythical stories by mischievously unleashing a giant hand from the BBC Big Screen. Passers by will be playfully transformed. What if humans weren’t on top of the food chain? Unsuspecting pedestrians will be tickled, stretched, flicked or removed entirely in real-time by a giant deity"

For more information about Interactive Architecture and related topics read the following post:


Interactive Architecture and Transdisciplinary Convergence...
(The World Is My Interface blog)

Interactive Motion Graphics Showreel from Filmview Services - great content!

Here is a showreel from Filmview Services that simulates how tech-usability in an interactive gesture/touch world should be!



Here is a quote from the Filmview Services blog:


What Are Screen Graphics?

"...So it works out more cost effective for the films to actually have someone put the graphics on the screens for real. It also greatly enhances the performance of the actors. You only have to watch any of the Star Wars Eps 1-3 to see how wooden acting is when you don’t actually know what is in front of you. Actors love to be able push buttons and bang touch screens during their scenes. Having to actually do it in a certain order can stretch their capabilities mind you, and I am pretty gob smacked at how absolutely computer illiterate some of them are. Don’t they use email?


Anyway, due to this diminished ability to hit and bang things in any certain order, it is our job to make it impossible to mess things up. That’s why they are all genius typers. We make it so they can type any old thing and the letters still come out the way they are meant to each time. We also put little locking codes into our programming so they can’t accidentally escape the graphic mid job. It’s amazing how many of them can type the Esc button when they are meant to be spelling LOGIN."

Thanks, Tim!

SOMEWHAT RELATED
Coincidentally,  when I was visiting the NUI-Group forums this morning, I came across a link to Jakob Nielsen's "Usability in the Movies -- Top 10 Bloopers", which are worth taking a look at. I've posted the list, but you'll need to go to Nielson's web page to read the descriptions. You'll smile.

1. The Hero Can Immediately Use Any UI
2. Time Travelers Can Use Current Designs
3. The 3D UI
4. Integration is Easy, Data Interoperates
5. Access Denied/Access Granted
6. Big Fonts
7. Star Trek's Talking Computer
8. Remote Manipulators (Waldo Controls)
9. You've Got Mail is Always Good News
10."This is Unix, It's Easy"

Impress: A cool flexible interface project by Silke Hilsing

Impress, a cool flexible interface project by  Silke Hilsing:


impress - flexible display from Silke Hilsing on Vimeo.

From Sike Hilsing's website:

"Impress is the deliverance of the touch screen from its technical stiffness, coldness and rigidity. It breaks the distance in the relationship of human and technology, because it is not any longer the user which is subjected to technology, but in this case the display itself has to cave in to the human. Impress is a chance of approach of user and technology, above all, from technology.


It is a matter of a flexible display consisting of foam and force sensors which is deformable and feels pleasantly soft. Impress works with the parameters position and time like other touch screens as well, but in addition to that, it reacts, above all, on the intensity of pressure."

The application was created with Aruino and Processing.






Thanks to Richard Van Tol for the link!

CONCAVESCREAM: Soundtrack for a book interactive music and visuals,nice and relaxing on a touch screen!

I found a link to an interesting audio-based interactive website today. The Concave Scream "Soundtrack for a Book" is a promotional website for the band's new album of the same name. I never heard of this band before, but I'm impressed with the touch screen interactivity that the website provides!

It was awarded the FWA (Favorite Website Award) earlier this year.

 

Multi-touch, multimedia, multi-modal: Fujitsu LIFEBOOK T4310 has a multitude of possibilities!

Multi-touch, multi-media, multi-modal... the Fujitsu LIFEBOOK T4310 looks like it provides multiple possibilities for people from all walks of life:

-GestureWorks

The LIFEBOOK T4310 comes with an integrated web cam and fingerprint reader, and a variety of I/O options, including HDMI, USB, Firewire, BlueTooth,  LAN, analog video output, SD card reader, line in/out, a wireless switch for the integrated 3G and UMTS, and an express card reader. There is an optional modular bay that can accommodate an additional drive or battery.


The fun part is that the Fujitsu LIFEBOOK T4310 hands-on comes with Microsoft's Touch Pack applications, which are demonstrated in the video below:

• Microsoft Surface globe
• Surface Collage
• Microsoft Rebound touch game
• Surface Lagoon screensaver, which provides a water-ripple effect and little fish that respond to touch interaction.

As demonstrated in the video, the LIFEBOOK supports gesture interaction, multi-touch interaction, stylus interaction, and traditional keyboard interaction. The capacitive display has a bi-directional hinge, allowing it to be turned 360 degrees, and also positioned so that the display can be set facing up horizontally over the keyboard. (This feature would be welcomed in educational settings, if the notebook was used in education settings, as it could support paired and group collaborative learning activities.)


What I like about the LIFEBOOK is that it has an integrated ambient light sensor, which automatically adjusts the brightness of the display according to the level of light in the environment. This feature is important for people like me who are on the go and must use their computing devices under a range of lighting conditions.


I would love to get my hands on the Fujitsu LIFEBOOK T4310 for a month and test the system in-depth in my day-job as a school psychologist, and in my leisure pursuits as a UX/designer/developer/musician/gamer/etc,  "hobbyist".


Can anyone make this dream come true?


RELATED:
Fujitsu's multitouch LIFEBOOK T4310 tablet makes quick work of Microsoft's Touch Pack 
(Paul Miller, Engadget, 9/6/009)
Microsoft Touch Pack Gallery (Engadget)
Engadget's Reader Comments


I visited Fujitsu's website to gather additional information, and found a couple of press releases in German:


IFA 2009:  Fujitsu setzt auf Fingerspitzengefuhl und prasentiert  Notebook mit Multiple-Touch-Function (pdf)


Here is the press contact:


Fujitsu Technology Solutions
Melanie Wolf, Senior PR Manager
Tel.: + 49 (0) 89 62060 4458, Mobile: + 49 (0) 171 33 42 882,
Melanie.wolf@ts.fujitsu.com

For Your 3D Web Browsing Pleasure: Video demos of Google's O3D, and links to the real thing.

I went to the Google 03D website and played with the Google Trends Visualizer on my TouchSmart. The interaction with my hand as I rotated the globe was very smooth- I'll upload a video clip of the interaction soon.

I found the following videos on the Google O3D website. The videos provide a glimpse of the potential of 03D.

Google's O3D Beach Demo



Infinite Journey Game Demo, rendered in a browser using O3D


Disney/ABC's Visual Search Interface at Google I/O, rendered in a browser using 03D


Google O3D Developer Site

The following two links require the 03D Plug-in:

Google Trends Visualizer

Beach Scene Demo

SOMEWHAT RELATED:

Unity 3D Tropical Paradise

Urban Screens and Media Facades

Link to a video an post about Urban Screens:

Revisiting Urban Screens: 555 Kubik Facade Projection; info about media facades...