"I think that the current emphasis on STEM—science, technology, engineering, and math—needs a "D," for design. Designers need to learn STEM (where S includes both the hard and the soft, social sciences). But similarly, engineers need to learn D: after all, the point of engineering is to develop things for people and society."-Don Norman
"...the creators of good products and services also must have a working knowledge of everything from the technical underpinnings of microprocessors and programming to the policy aspects of information security." -Don Norman
Info from the DepthJS website: "Navigating the web is only one application of the framework we built - that is, we envision all sorts of applications that run in the browser, from games to specific utilities for specific sites. The great part is that now web developers who specialize in Javascript can work with the Kinect without having to learn any special languages or code. We believe this will allow a new set of interactions beyond what we first developed."
Comment: I went to Best Buy today and almost bought a Kinect. Unfortunately, the demo hadn't come in yet, so I decided to wait until I could give it a try. I'm curious to experiment with what it can do.
The Microsoft Applied Sciences Group has been working on several projects that have the potential of changing how we interact with various displays and surfaces in the very near future. Here's some what I came across my RSS feeds and Google Alerts this morning:
According to an article in InAVate, "Microsoft has combined Samsung’s transparent OLED with a sub-two-inch camera to revolutionize the Microsoft Surface platform. The touchless telepresence screen creates a 3D gesture-control interface that tracks movement by seeing through the display. The company’s Applied Sciences Group has also added its recently revealed wedge shaped lens, that InAVate reported on last month, to deliver glasses-free 3D content...the latest breakthrough could revolutionize the Surface concept, taking touch away from the display and projecting the images in 3D.-InAVate 7/5/2010
3D Gesture Interaction
"In this demonstration, we've placed the Microsoft Applied Science's wedge technology behind Samsung's transparent OLED display. This enables a camera to image through the display, see the user's hand above it, and alter the image based upon her gestures." -Microsoft Applied Sciences Group
3D Without the Glasses:A new type of display from Microsoft produces multiple images and tracks the viewers eyes - Kate Greene, MIT Technology Review (6/11/2010)
According to an article in MIT's Technology Review, "the new lens, which is thinner at the bottom than at the top, steers light to a viewer's eyes by switching light-emitting diodes along its bottom edge on and off. Combined with a backlight, this makes it possible to show different images to different viewers, or to create a stereoscopic (3-D) effect by presenting different images to a person's left and right eye. "What's so special about this lens is that it allows us to control where the light goes," says Steven Bathiche, director of Microsoft's Applied Sciences Group." -Kate Greene, Technology Review
Steerable Multi-view Display
"In this demonstration, we use head tracking to determine where multiple users are. Then, with the Microsoft Applied Sciences' wedge technology, we steer completely independent images to each user. In the video, one user is seeing a sun while at the same time another is seeing a rocket. This is maintained even as the users change positions relative to each other." -Microsoft Applied Sciences Group
Transparent Display for Telepresence
"In this demonstration, we've placed the Microsoft Applied Science's wedge technology behind Samsung's transparent OLED display. This enables a camera to image directly through the display. In the video, objects held up to the screen are captured and shown to the user on the other side of the telepresence communication (the other monitor in the video), while far away from the screen, the display shows the user a view dependent image."-Microsoft Applied Sciences Group
Steerable 3D Auto Stereo Display
"In this demonstration, we use head tracking to determine where a user's eyes are. Then, with the Microsoft Applied Sciences' wedge technology, we steer different views of the scene to each eye to produce a 3D image without the need for glasses or for fixing the location of the user." -Microsoft Applied Sciences Group Mid-air Interactive Display
"In this demonstration, we illuminate objects above the display with infrared light. We capture the reflection using the Microsoft Applied Sciences' wedge technology. This enables us to see above the display while keeping the form factor small. Seeing above the display allows us to track the interaction between direct contacts on the display. In the video, the user associates a function (color choice) with one hand and a different function (zoom/rotation) with the other hand. This tool persistence is maintained regardless of the relative positions of the hands." -Microsoft Applied Sciences Group
"The Applied Sciences Group (ASG) is an applied research and development team dedicated to createing the next generation of computer interaction technologies. The interdisciplinary group focuses on the synergy between optics, electronics and software to create novel human computer interfaces. The ASG is part of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft Corp. and mainly supports projects for Microsoft Hardware, XBox, and Microsoft Surface. It also works closely with Microsoft Research."
Catching up on reading the MIT Technology Review, I came across an article written by Nidhi Subbaraman about the use of graphene to make flexible displays:
The most recent version of graphene was created by researchers in Korea at the Sungkyunkwan University, in collaboration with Samsung. According to the article, graphene was discovered over thirty years ago, but only recently have researchers been able to produce it in large mono-layers. This flexibility looks like it will have possibilities for future display applications, as noted in the video clip below the photos. Photo Credit:Byung Hee Hong, SKKU. Photo Credit: Impact Lab "Future Applications of Graphene"
