Kids and and Tangible Tabletop Interaction: The NIKVision Project

NIKVision is an interactive tangible tabletop designed for young children, but suitable for "kids" of all ages. Javier Marco Rubio shared his team's work on the NIKVision system on the TechSpark website, and I thought I'd share some of the videos on this post. What I like about NIKVision is that the team encouraged the participation of children as design partners, which is a very special approach.

The NIKVision team is part of the GIGA Group, at the Computing Department of the Zaragoza University (Spain). The team collaborates with the ChiCI Group in the University of Central Lancashire, Preston (UK)



NIKVision Tangible Tabletop Demo

NIKVision Tangible Tabletop Demo from Javier Marco on Vimeo.


"NIKVision is a Tangible tabletop in which toys control the games. NIKVision has been created by Javier MMarco, from GIG Group in University of Zaragoza, Spain." http://webdiis.unizar.es/~jmarco
Researchers for this project included Javier Marco, Eva Cerezo, and Sandra Baldassarri.

NIKVision Toys & Games

NIKVision Toys & Games from Javier Marco on Vimeo.

NIKVision, highlighted in the news in Spain (in Spanish)

Interactive Video Stories for the iPad, via Interactive TV Today

"Touching Stories" - iPad Demo + Behind The Scenes from Tool of North America on Vimeo.

"TOUCHING STORIES" APP OFFERS FOUR INTERACTIVE SHORT FILMS, DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR THE IPAD -Tracy Swedlow, 6/29/10

More later!

Multimedia Job and Internships Links (Innovative Interactivity)

If you are interested in looking for a job or an internship involving multimedia, take a look at the 20 opportunities highlighted on the Interactive Interactivity blog.  This list is featured monthly.


Job and internship opportunities, July 2010

The Slide in the Subway, The Rocket Elevator, and the Skateboard- Propelled Shopping Cart Videos - Volkswagen's Fast Lane: True Use Experience (just in case you missed it all)

Via Pixelsumo -Just in case you missed this:


Here's a few others you'll enjoy.  The true meaning of user experience, out and about!

The Elevator


The Shopping Cart- I love the ending with the guy skateboard-propelling his shopping cart out to the parking lot!

WONG - Multi-touch Pong Rerun - Link to Updated Game and Code (via Seth Sandler)

In 2007-2008 there were a handful of multi-touch concept demo videos created, accompanied by upbeat music. The song in this video would be great for the Glee iPad/iPhone app!

Wong was created by Seth Sandler, who recently cleaned up the code.  The latest version of Wong, along with the cleaned-up code,  can be found on the TechSparked website: http://techsparked.com/application/wall-pong

YouTube Video of WONG by Falcon4ever:


Here is a plug for Seth Sandler:

More Applications by Seth

Musical Squares

Audioshape Sequencer

Multitouch Gestures

Bloom

Multi

Virtual Glee App for your iPad, from Smule: Sing with yourself, or other Gleeks around the world, in perfect harmony!

Sing with yourself and Gleeks around the world in perfect harmony: 

Demo of the Glee iPhone + iPad App by Smule - "I'll Stand By You"
"Glee, for iPhone + iPad, by Smule. This impromptu, one-take performance by Smule engineer Nick late one night at HQ demonstrates how the app transforms his voice into a group of singers harmonizing with him."

This is exactly why I NEED an iPad!

Tutorial Part 1
"How To"



Tutorial Part II:
The Glee GlobeShows how you can share your Glee songs and sing with others around the globe!





RELATED 
Cool iPad Digital Piano App

Quick Multi-touch News Links & Pics: GestureTek's 42-inch Multi-touch GestTable; NUITEQ News; 3M's 20 Touch Multi-touch, Visual Planet's Adjustable Multi-touch Surface....

MORE MULTI-TOUCH
GestureTek News

- GestureTek intros 42-inch multitouch GestTable, your HDTV suddenly turns jealous. (Darren Murph, Engadget, 6/9/10)
"This 42-inch beast of a table contains a multitouch LCD with a lovely 1080p resolution, which means that you could theoretically watch the next installation of the Batman series on the same surface that's holding your cup of joe."   (A 70-inch version will be coming soon...)   GestureTek (Thanks to Seth Sandler for the link!)
NUITEQ News
NUITEQ wins prestigious Red Herring 100 Europe award
N-trig to show NUITEQ's Snowflake Suite with stylus support at SID in Seattle on May 23-28
NUITEQ releases version 1.9.1 of its award-winning multi-touch software product Snowflake Suite





3M News  3M Touch Systems introduces a 20-Finger Multi-Touch Display (BusinessWire 5/25/10)   The 3M touch screen pictured below uses projected capacitive technology.

VISUAL PLANET News

Design and Technology Student creates Interactive Coffee table 5/5/10

Visual Planet’s ViP Interactive Foil has been innovatively used by a student from King’s School Sixth Form in Rochester, UK to create an aesthetically pleasing and extremely creative coffee table inviting interaction from the family.

NUITEQ’s Snowflake Suite now compatible with Visual Planet’s Dual Touch Zoom and Rotate Foils
4/2010 - aNUITEQ®, an award winning technology company, announced today that its multi-touch software product Snowflake Suite is compatible with the worlds number #1 touch foil from Visual Planet.

I like the adjustable multi-touch table from Visual Planet.   Details later!

John Underkolffler Demonstrates G-Speak-collaborative, multi-display interaction (TED Talk Video by John Underkloffer, Minority Report science advisor)

John Underkloffer Points to the Future of UI (User Interface)


"Minority Report science adviser and inventor John Underkoffler demos g-speak -- the real-life version of the film's eye-popping, tai chi-meets-cyberspace computer interface. Is this how tomorrow's computers will be controlled?"

In this video, technologies that have been around for 10-15 years are demonstrated, along with newer user interface interaction, navigation, manipulation, and analysis techniques. Includes 3D interaction as well as collaborative, multi-display interaction.


"Media should be accessible, in fine grained form."

FTC's Proposal for Public Data Online: Boon for Interactive Infoviz and Multimedia Journalism?

I glanced at Nat Torkington's "Four Short Links: 31 May 2010" today and saw the link to the following publication:

Federal Trade Commission Staff Discussion Draft:  Potential Policy Recommendations to Support the Reinvention of Journalism (pdf)  I'll pick up on this topic in an update, but until then, here are some thoughts. (Be sure to watch Henry Jenkin's video below about the "new media landscape" for a good overview of this topic.)

There has been a push for the government to publish public data on-line, and have it accessible to anyone who wants to explore it further.  Interactive dataviz/infoviz strategies might help further one of the causes behind journalism - bringing the truth to the masses, and doing so in a way that "informs and enlightens".  Who is going to pay for this?

At any rate, the cry for publishing government data is not new.  Dr. Robert Kosara, an assistant professor of computer science at UNC-Charlotte, outlined his ideas about what this might be like in a post written in early 2009: A National Data Agency.  He created a logo for this effort:




One of Robert Kosara's related posts,  Visualization Sets Information Free, outlines how visualization tools can help us understand the numbers.  His post contains links to great information visualization resources that journalists, as well as anyone else interested in sniffing out and/or sharing truths, will appreciate. 


The infographic below is from Robert Kosara's blog post:

The problem is that there a many competing viewpoints among groups of people on the matter of the future of journalism.   There are those who would like to hold on to the past for the sake of the smell of a newspaper and how it fits into a morning routine, those who would like to hold on to the past for the sake of great journalism (think of the investigative journalism carried out when many newspapers had the money to support this work), those who would like to see everything go digital while keeping the best features of the newspapers (think of reading the NY Times on your iPad or e-book),  and those who would like a laisse-faire free-for-all.   

In my opinion, multi-media journalism, incorporating interactive information visualization, is something that I fully support.  New Media. Transmedia. Covergence.  The best of all worlds. Etc.     This can't happen if we don't have access to ALL of the data that we need!

RELATED
Henry Jenkins and Convergence Culture

"HCDMediaGroup — September 21, 2009 — Henry Jenkins, MIT Professor and author of "Convergence Culture" talks about the new media landscape. Highest Common Denominator Media Group"

Copy and Paste from Torkington's Four Short Links: 31 May 2010:

"Potential Policy Recommendations to Support the Reinvention of Journalism (PDF) -- FTC staff discussion document that floats a number of policy proposals around journalism: additional IP rights to defend against aggregators like Google News; protection of "hot news" facts; statutory limits to "fair use"; antitrust exemptions for cartel paywalls; and more. Jeff Jarvis hates it, but Alexander Howard found something to love in the proposal that the government "maximize the easy accessibility of government information" to help journalists find and investigate stories more easily. (via Jose Antonio Vargas)"

Need for Interactive Infoviz for the Finance Biz, Business Leaders, Government Officials, Educators, and the Rest of Us
This is a mega-post I wrote in February of 2009.  Good data and information visualization techniques, including interactive 3D simulations, might have been helpful to BP in looking at various scenarios during the planning and designing stages of the company's deep-sea drilling "adventure" in the Gulf of Mexico.

2010 International Computer Music Conference in NY. I wish I could go!

I'm usually too busy during the last month or so of the school year to attend conferences.  One I'd really like to attend is the 2010 International Computer Music Conference in N.Y.  Music is an important component of interactive multimedia content, and new technologies have made things a lot easier for musicians who are technologically inclined.  Conferences like ICMC are a great way to see - and hear - what is going on.

Links:
ICMC Paper Schedule 
ICMC 2010 Poster/Demo Schedule
Thomas Erbe's ICMC Workshop:  Pure Data Object Programming
(see bio and plug below)

Intriguing Topics: 
"Gestural Shaping and Transformation in a Universal Space of Structure and Sound"
"SoundCatcher:  explorations in audio-looping and time-freezing using an open-air gestural controller"
"Sense/Stage - low cost, open source wireless sensor infrastructure for live performance and interactive, real-time environments"
"The Four M's:  Music, Mind, Motion, Machines"
"A Wireless, Real-time Social Music Performance System for Mobile Phones"
"Because we are all falling down: Physics, Gestures, and Relative Realities"
"Argos:  An open-source application for building multi-touch musical interfaces"
"Peacock: a non-haptic 3D performance interface"
"Head Tracking for 3D Audio using the Nintendo WII"
"The Avatar Initiative- An Interdisciplinary Approach to Digital Media Research and Education"
"Computer Controlled Video as a Multi-modal Interface in Live Acousmatic Music"
"The Machine Orchestra"
"Eye. Breathe. Music"
"Combining audiovisual mappings for 3D musical interaction"

ICMC Unconference Categories

PdBarCamp
Sensory Interaction in Composition and Performance
Language, Neurology, and Acoustics
Open Scores and Accessible, Consumer Devices
Issues in Computer Music Performance
Computer Music and Society:  Questions of Dissemination

Realistically,  I'd be happy with a bit more time to play my keyboard! 
(The very first class I took when I decided to return to school to take computer classes was computer music technology.)

My plug for Tom Erbe, from the ICMC website 

Instructor Bios:

"Tom Erbe has had an important role in American experimental and electronic music of the last 20 years. In addition to his pioneering and widely used program SoundHack, he has become one of the most sought after and respected sound engineers for contemporary music. In 2004 he rejoined the faculty of UCSD in the Department of Music and serves as Studio Director. Most recently Tom has released SoundHack Spectral Shapers, the first of a planned set of three plugin bundles to bring extreme spectral processing to the VST, AU and RTAS formats."

If you are thinking about experimenting with sound, Tom Erbe's SoundHack freeware is awesome. His spectral shapers are worth every penny.  (I used the +binaural filter to create a 3D effect of racing car sounds for one of the students I work with who has autism and loves racing cars.)

+binaural

This filter places a sound at a specific position around the listener's head. Use it with a reverb to create a virtual environment. When used with it's LFO, +binaural can place various beats or parts of a loop in specific repeatable positions.

SOMEWHAT RELATED
When I get a moment, I'm reading my latest issue of IEEE Multimedia cover-to-cover:
Special Issue:  Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia


(The second class I took after I returned to school to take computer classes was Computer and Internet Multimedia.)

CNN's Interactive Map and Timeline of Iraq and Afghanistan Casualties "Home and Away"

Via Flowing Data and CNN

Nathan Yau, of Flowing Data, posted information and a link to CNN's interactive Casualties: Home and Away website. This website allows you to visually explore the casualty statistics of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, beginning with the first of the fallen in 2001. You can zoom into a region and see pictures and names of people.  The website provides a way for friends and family to share memories about their loved ones.

Home and Away also provides a "list view" option, shown in one of the pictures below.  Visitors to the site can sort by name or year of death.  Sliders on the map view provide a way of looking at the pattern of deaths over time.  It is sad, but this website makes us remember that war is real.  Deaths are not simply statistics.

CNN Afghanistan Crossroads Blog

Flowing Data
Home and Away

Digital Media & Learning Competition Awards

2010 Digital Media and Learning Competition Winners (pdf)


"The Digital Media and Learning Competition, now in its third year, is an annual effort designed to find — and to inspire — the most novel uses of new media in support of learning. In May 2010, the Competition recognized 10 projects that employ games, mobile phone applications, virtual worlds, and social networks to create learning labs for the 21st Century — environments that help young people learn through exploration, interaction and sharing."
-MacArthur Foundation/HASTAC 


2010 Winners, 21st Century Learning Lab
CLICK! The Online Spy School: Engaging Girls in STEM Activities, Peer Networking, and Gaming- Emily Sturman, Carnegie Science Center, Pittsburgh, PA.
ECOBUGS- Stephen Sayers, Futurelab Education, Bristol, UK.
FAB@SCHOOL: A Digital Laboratory for the Classroom- Glen Bull, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA.
Hole-in-the-Wall: Activity Based e-Learning for Improving Elementary Education in India - Hole-in-the Wall Education Limited, New Delhi, India
Metrovoice: About/In/By Los Angeles - Ann Bray, LA Freewaves, Los Angeles, CA
Mobile Action Lab: Programming Apps for Collaborative Community Change- Elisabeth Soep, Youth Radio-Youth Media International, Oalkand, CA
NOX No More: Connecting Travel Logs with Simulation, Gaming, and Environmental Education- Rosanna Garcia, Northeastern University, Boston, MA
Conservation Connection: From the West Side to the West Pacific-Joshua Drew, The Field Museum, Chicago, IL
Scratch & Share: Collaborating with Youth to Develop the Next Generation of Creative Software- Mitchel Resnick, MIT Media LAb, Cambridge, MA
Youth Applab- Leshell Hately, Uplift, Inc. Washington, DC


About the Competition


RELATED
Press Release Via Serious Games Market and the MacArthur Foundation

Global Competition Selects 10 Innovative Digital Media & Learning Projects to Share $1.7 Million (Digital Media & Learning, Press Releases- May 12, 2010)
Washington, DC) — Ten winners of the MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Competition were announced today at a celebration of National Lab Day in Washington, DC, to promote science, technology, engineering and math across the country. Funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and administered by the virtual network of learning institutions HASTAC, the competition winners will share $1.7 million in funding to use games, mobile phone applications, virtual worlds, and social networks to create the learning labs of the 21st century. Winners include a project to show youth-produced videos on 2,200 Los Angeles city buses; the next generation of a graphical programming language that allows young people to create their own interactive stories, games, and animations; and an online game that teaches kids the environmental impact of their personal choices. 

“Digital technologies are helping us to re-imagine learning,” said Connie Yowell, MacArthur’s Director of Education. “In the digital age, the learning environment is turned on its head — it’s no longer just the dynamic of the student, the teacher and the curriculum. Today, kids learn and interact with others — even from around the world — every time they go online, or play a video game, or engage through a social networking site. This Competition is helping us to identify and nurture the creation of learning environments that are relevant for kids today and will prepare them for a 21st century workforce.”

Now in its third year, the Competition is an annual effort to find — and to inspire — the most novel uses of new media in support of learning. This year it was launched in collaboration with President Obama’s Educate to Innovate initiative, challenging designers, inventors, entrepreneurs, and researchers to create learning labs for the 21st century, digital environments that promote building and tinkering in new and innovative ways. 

Other winners of the global Digital Media and Learning Competition include:

•Conservation Connection: Using webcasting, video blogging and social networking sites, this project connects kids from Chicago’s West Side with kids in Fiji to work together to protect Fijian coral reefs; 

•Mobile Action Lab: Combining the expertise of social entrepreneurs and technologists and the knowledge and ideas of Oakland, CA-based teens, this project helps develop mobile phone applications that serve Oakland communities. 

•Click! The Online Spy School: Designed to encourage girls engagement in the sciences, Click!Online is a web-based, augmented reality game for teen girls to solve mysteries in biomedical science, environmental protection, and expressive technology. 

•Download a complete list of the competition winners (PDF, 12 pages) »

This year’s application process included an opportunity for public comment, which allowed applicants to collaborate with others and improve their submissions prior to final review. Of the more than 800 applications from 32 countries, 67 finalists were asked to submit videos of their projects for a final round of judging. Winners were selected from this pool by a panel of expert judges that included scholars, educators, entrepreneurs, journalists, and other digital media specialists.

The Competition is funded by a MacArthur grant to the University of California, Irvine, and to Duke University and is administered by the Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC). The Competition is part of MacArthur’s digital media and learning initiative designed to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life. Answers are critical to education and other social institutions that must meet the needs of this and future generations.

"The winning projects exhibit a wonderful creativity in developing learning platforms and environments that promote participatory and collaborative engagements for kids to learn with and from each other in their everyday engagements,” said Cathy N. Davidson, of Duke University, Co-founder of HASTAC along with David Theo Goldberg, of the University of California Humanities Research Institute. “We are witnessing the profound transformation in how young people will be learning in the future, and these projects are helping to lead the way," noted Goldberg.

Winners of the Competition were drawn from two categories: 21st Century Learning Lab Designers ($30,000 to $200,000) and Game Changers ($5,000 to $50,000). Learning Lab Designer award winners, which were announced today, will share $1.7 million for learning environments and digital media-based experiences that allow young people to grapple with social challenges through activities based on the social nature, contexts, and ideas of science, technology, engineering and math. Game Changers awards, which are to be announced on May 25th at the 2010 Games for Change festival, will share $250,000 for creative levels designed with either LittleBigPlanet™ or Spore™ Galactic Adventures. The games offer young people learning opportunities as well as engaging play. Each category includes several Best in Class awards selected by expert judges, as well as a People’s Choice Award to be selected by the general public in late May. 

Detailed information about the winning projects and the Competition is available at http://www.dmlcompetition.net.

Serious Games Links from Eliane Alhadeff

Eliane Alhadeff blogs about serious games and recently posted a number of links that I'm happy to share!  The first set of links are to presentations from the recent GAMETECH 2010 conference held in Orlando, Florida. I've also included links to Eliane's blogs as well as to an article about games, simulations, and learning that was recently published in the Charlotte Observer.


SERIOUS GAMES: FROM WHY TO HOW (pdf)
Ben Sawyer, Digital Mill
Serious Storytelling:  Top Research Findings in Game-Based Storytelling (pdf)
Rudy McDaniel, Ph.D.,  Dept. of Media, University of Central Florida
Army Game Studio: Serious Games Development (pdf)
Marsha Berry,  GameTech 3/29/2010
GAMETECH 2010:  Part I (pdf)    PART II: Chaotic System (pdf)

Will Wright (Creator of The Sims, SimCity, and Spore)

GAMETECH 2010 Website (Links  to all presentations)

RELATED

The US Army Simulation and Training Center

Army Announces Virtual Worlds Challenge Finalists

-STTC

Eliane Alhadeff's Blogs:
SERIOUS GAMES MARKET 
FUTURE MAKING SERIOUS GAMES BLOG

Quote:  "Future-World Thinking & Modeling - Credo: If you want to change the future, play it first!" 

SERIOUS GAMES INTERACTIVE WEBSITE

By the way, a recent article in the Charlotte Observer discusses the topic of the use of games and 3D simulations in education: Learning with fun and games:  In todays classrooms and businesses, an avatar isn't just a movie; it is a ticket to success. (Sabine Vollmer, 5/2/10) 

FROM THE OBSERVER ARTICLE:

"WHAT IS 3D LEARNING? 

3-D learning happens by immersing yourself in a computer game or virtual world, using an avatar - like a digital sock puppet - that you control. You have an out-of-body experience in a digital classroom, learning by interacting and doing, where mistakes don't cause any damage in the real world. ...What's key to 3-D learning is computer technology that's fast and powerful enough to run the game or virtual world. In that respect, 3-D learning is an offspring of semiconductors' doubling in speed and power every 18 months (known as Moore's law)."

Second Life and more 

"These are some virtual worlds visited for learning:

Second Life, where avatars attend conferences, own property, shop, vacation, work and build. www.secondlife.com

ReactionGrid, a newer competitor of Second Life. www.reactiongrid.com

World of Warcraft, a huge, multiplayer online game where avatars fight monsters and complete quests. www.worldofwarcaft.com

DimensionM, a multiplayer video game for K-12 students that hones math skills. www.dimensionu.com/math

Innov8, a simulation game that teaches business process management. http://www-01.ibm.com/software/solutions/soa/innov8/index.html

Sims, a strategic game that simulates activities of virtual people in a suburban household. www.thesims.ea.com"