Off topic: Interesting motivational video clip: "If you never failed, you never lived". (Do you know who is sitting in your classrom?)

Good motivational video clip: "If you never failed, you never lived" (Do you know who is sitting in your classroom?)





(cross-posted on the TechPsych blog)

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!)

Video Short: Thinking Outside the Box - and inside out, around, and in many other ways

Watch how the ideas unfold and spiral about as two gentlemen have a conversation about thinking thoughts:

outside the box from joseph Pelling on Vimeo.

Thanks, Matt Gullet, for sharing this video!

(Cross posted on the TechPsych blog)

Get Up and Move Without Gear! Xbox Natal, a "smart" gaming environment.

I'm waiting for Xbox Natal to cross my path. Microsoft, can you hear me?



(I meant to write about this a while ago.)

Here are facts 5-6 out of 12, from "Project Natal in Detail" post on the XBox website:

• "Fact #5: In addition to “Project Natal” tracking your full body movement in 3-D, it also recognises your face and facial expressions. It can even detect the change of emotion in your voice. Three facts in one – yummy."

• "Fact #6: “Project Natal” remembers your face and voice so that you can connect to Xbox LIVE without the need to reach for a controller. This is the future!"

• "Fact #7: “Project Natal” is the world’s first system to combine an RGB camera, depth sensor, multi-array microphone and custom processor running proprietary software. Memorise this sentence then say it out loud faster and faster."

If you visit the Project Natal website, you'll find links to related articles, a gallery of videos, and a place to sign up for news updates.

Interactive Touch Tables are Multiplying! Ideum's new 100" multi-touch museum display; Ubisoft's Ruse on a Surface....

Photo from the Museum Exhibit and Design News/Ideum Blog

The above table is 100", created for Nashville's Adventure Science Center's Sudekum Planetarium, is based on Ideum's mt2 table: "Built for museum environments, the high-resolution mt2 Table supports intuitive gestures, allowing visitors to interact and explore custom exhibits. With multiuser support, mt2 Table serves as digital gathering place, allowing visitors to interact with museum content and each other."

Two computers power this table. Natural User Interface's Snowflake handles the optical support and tracking, and the second computer will be running the EM spectrum application, which is developed in Adobe Flash. It is a work in progress. For more information, visit the Ideum blog.

Here is a video trailer of Ubisoft's R.U.S.E. played on a multi-touch table. Much of the trailer appears to be a simulation. I liked the part where the battleships are traveling over the water. According to a blog post, the table depicted in the trailer is the Intuiface, by Intuilab.

Photos of Ubisoft's R.U.S.E. game, running on a multi-touch table:




Photo from the Ubisoft Blog

Intuiface Information PDF
Intuilabs Website

If you visit the Intuilabs website, be sure you interact with the photos of the team! I couldn't get the pictures to change when I touched the screen of my HP TouchSmart PC, so I think they are activated by a mouse-over. It would be nice if they could touch-enable their website.)

Interaction Design 2009: Video of Dan Saffer's Presentation

Dan Saffer - Attention Awareness for Interaction Designers 2009 from Interaction Design Association on Vimeo.

Dan Saffer is an interaction designer who recently spoke at the 2009 IXDA conference. His company is Kicker Studio.

FYI: Gestural Entertainment Center


RELATED:
What is Interaction Design?

Shift Happens Update: Did You Know? 3.0 (Infographic Video) & Updated 4.0!

 Update:  Here is Did You Know 4.0!


The first version Did You Know? (Shift Happens) started out as a PowerPoint presentation by Karl Fisch, an instructional technology specialist at Arapahoe High School as part of his staff development program. The goal was to convey information about the speed of change in our world through the use of a variety of statistical facts - on a global scale, and ultimately spark a conversation about the meaning of technology and the future among the educators in the room.

As you probably know, the conversation went well beyond the walls of Arapahoe High School!

In 2007, Did You Know? was updated by some of the designers at Xplane as a volunteer effort, and as of today, 3/25/09, had been viewed by 3,026,101 times on YouTube.

Did You Know? 3.0


Did You Know 2.0 Xplane version:


Did You Know 1.0 "Shift Happens" narrated with photographs:



Shift Happens Wiki
The FischBowl Blog

Note:
I came across the Did You Know? 3.0 video clip on Antoine RJ Wright's Mobile Ministry Magazine.

I first ran into Antoine at a coffee shop about a year ago. We both happened to be checking our email's on the same device, the beloved Nokia n800 Internet tablet. n800's are a rarity in the Charlotte area.

We soon learned that we shared a fascination for touch screen interaction and UI, but Antoine focuses primarily on mobile devices, and is a deep thinker on this topic. He showed me some of work he was doing with interface design on the n800 and I was impressed. Much of what he does could be transformed to the large screen with only a few tweaks, in my opinion.

Antoine runs Nokia's Mobile Web Server on his cell phone, which enables the phone to be accessible on the Internet and provides a personal "mobsite".

FYI: Antoine will be speaking at BibleTech '09 in Seatle, Washington soon on the topic of "Mobile Technology and Connecting Communities". If you have never given a thought about the intersection of technology and religion, you might be surprised at what is going on.

More Multi-touch Multimedia: Video demonstration of applications created with Snowflake and Flash

This video showcases the work of Natural User Interface-AB, using NUI Suite 1.0 Snowflake and Flash.

Here is the plug from the company's website:
"Natural User Interface (NUI) is a Swedish innovative emerging technology company specializing in commercially available advanced multi-touch software, hardware and service solutions. NUI's solutions can convert an ordinary surface into an interactive, appealing and intelligent display that creates a stunning user experience."

For more information and links:

For Techies and the Tech Curious: Multi-touch/Gesture from the NUI-Group

Search this blog!

I wish I was at the Consumer Electronics Show! (Links to CES info and updates, also MacWorld)

There are plenty of people reporting and blogging about CES 2009, and I won't have time to digest it all for a while. I've embeded the CNET overview video below, which includes a demonstration of some interesting interactive technologies and applications.

If you want the latest scoop, your first stop should be CNET's CES 2009 website. It is almost as good as being there, and you won't have to deal with the crowds.



Here is the overview video from the site:

Lots of cool stuff, like 3DVU's Way2Go 3D mobile mapping and GPS system:



3DVU's Way2Go Website

(By the way, if you are interested, here is a link to CNET's MacWorld site.)

Phenom's All-in One Touch-Screen Watch Phone: A perfect observational research tool !?

Note: Other pictures from the Phenom site gave a message, "Sorry, Our Photos are Copyrighted", so this is the only photo I was able to obtain. You can see more photos on Phenom's online photo-gallery.

I might have found the ultimate HCI - ubicomp research tool! The Phenom Watch-Phone. It might also come in handy when I'm conducting observations "across settings" in my job as a school psychologist. (Maybe Phenom will give me one for free to test out for a while...I'd be happy to develop some apps for it if it works out for me.)




I was delighted with some of the user-friendly marketing features on the Phenom website. I didn't have to dig and get lost and dig some more to find what I needed. The above videoclip is featured on the home page of the site, which gives gives a good info-tease about the advantages of the watch. The FAQ section is fairly extensive and easy to navigate.

When you explore to the "Gadget Freaks" page, you are provided with an audio presentation, with musical accompaniment, as you view pictures and prices. (You can turn the web page audio if you don't want to listen to the blurb, or turn it on and listen to it again, if you missed something.)

When you click on the picture of the "SpecialOPS Black" version of the watchphone, you are taken to another page where you can inspect different features more closely as you move your mouse around the photo. (Since I have an HP TouchSmart PC, I just moved my finger around the photo- a great effect!)

Here is the description of the SpecialOps phone, taken from the Phenom website:

"The ultimate watch phone for those who like to live on the edge. The SpecialOps is a fully functional GSM cell phone that has a touch screen and an external key pad. The SpecialOps has an MP3&MP4, built-in microphone and speakers, digital and video camera, MicroSD slot and built-in Bluetooth. You can even take notes with your convenient and compact stylus or record your thoughts on the run. See full list of features for more details."

More info from the Phenom website:

Features
-External keypad
-LCD: 1.3 inch TFT260k Pixels
-Touch Screen
-Language: English
-Ring tone: 64 Polyphonic, Supported Formats: Mp3, MIDI, Wave
-Music Format: MP4, Full Screen
-Camera: 130 Pixels
-T-Flash Supported
-Built-in Bluetooth
-Picture Format: JPG, GIF

Basic Functions
-Notebook: 250 Groups
-SMS and MMS Messaging
-User-defined on-off switch
-Game: Picture Mosaic
-Other Function: MP3, MP4, Built-in Speakerphone, Group Messaging MMS, Call Barring

Basic Parameters:
-Network: GSM, GPRS, WAP
-Frequencies: 900/1800/1900MHZ
-Call Time: 2 hours (estimated - per battery)
-Standby Time: 120 hours (estimated - per battery)

Accessories Included
-256MG Micro SD Memory Card
-Data Wire
-Battery
-USB Charger
-Stylus

More about Phenom

Teliris InterAct TouchTable and TouchWall: Immersive Collaboration & Telepresence; DVE's Holographic Tele-Immersion Room

A few years ago I took a class about virtual reality and how it can be used in education and training. One of the topics we covered was telepresence. One of the companies I looked at was Teliris.

According to a whitepaper on the Teliris website, "Business Value of Telepresence", by S. Ann Earon, "Telepresence is what videoconferencing was meant to be: reliable, highly interactive, easy to operate, resulting in a natural meeting with transparent technology and an emphasis on human factors."

Teleris now offers something they call Immersive Collaboration, which involves the use of surface computing that supports document and multimedia content sharing across locations, as if all of the group members are in the same room


Watch the demonstration of the Teliris Collaboration Touch Table in a telepresence meeting. In the video clip below, the narrator shares content from a local Teliris Collaboration Touch Table to a remote meeting participant who is at another table.

"Touch to Telepresence"

Business Holograms!
DVE (Digital Video Enterprises) developed a Tele-Immersion room that uses Cristie Digital Systems Mirage HD 3D projectors to create holographic images of remotely located meeting participants:

DVE Telepresence: An Introduction (A plug from DVE, but informative.)

DVE Portable Virtual Presentation -A Volumetric 3D image from a projector hidden from the audience's view:

This system can display 3D images on the stage, and supports 2-way interactive HD feeds.

The above examples demonstrate how newer technologies, including table-top surfaces, can be used for collaborative business meetings. I can envision this technology used for medical education, medical consultations, and collaboration between artists and musicians.

When the price comes down, perhaps we will have these systems in our family rooms!

Multi-Touch News from WinHEC and PDC

I received the following videos and links from Anthony Uhrick, who happens to be at WinHEC this week and was at PDC 2008 last week. Touch screen, multi-touch, and gesture technology is starting to catch on. (Anthony is the VP of sales for NextWindow, the company that created the touch screen for the HP TouchSmart and other multi-touch enabled displays.)

Below is a video clip of a multi-touch photo presentation system running Windows 7: Gesture + Touch - has gesture and physics engines.

Apparently the application can run on Vista, Win 7, and Win 7 Touch.

Here is an HP TouchSmart PC, running a Touch Map application on Windows 7:


The following clip is of a newscaster using a multi-touch transparent screen.The display is from U-Touch Ltd. a partner of NextWindow. In my opinion, the application enhances the viewers understanding of the various news topics, and is visually appealing as well.


The graphics engine used in this application was developed by Vizrt, the same folks who were behind CNN's video hologram. Here are a few pictures from the Vizrt website:

The workflow behind the CNN hologram (click to enlarge)

The holograph "transporter" room.

For more videos using Windows 7 apps, see creamhackered's YouTube channel. (Videos appear to be from NeoWin Net.)

Windows 7 Design Concepts and Usability Tests

CNN's Holographic Technology: Wolf Blitzer and Jessica Yellin, Anderson Cooper and Will.I.Am, and the music video.

CNN is doing a good job of exposing the masses to emerging technology!

Here is a video clip of CNN's holographic technology used to transmit a 3-D video image of Jessica Yellin, speaking with Wolf Blitzer on Election Day, November 2008. A partial transcript is included below. Before you get too excited about this technology, know that the correspondents see the image on a plasma TV, not in "real" 3-D, according to Gizmodo.



Jessica Yellin:
"There are 35 high-definition cameras ringing me, in a ring around me, I'm in the center, and they shoot my body at different angles, and I'm told that transmits what looks like an entire body image back there to New York. These cameras, I'm told, talk to the cameras in New York. So they move, and they know when to move when the cameras in New York move, and it looks a little different from a real person there, but it is pretty remarkable."

Wolf Blitzer:
"It's still Jessica Yellin, and you look just like Jessica Yellin, and we know you are Jessica Yellin....You're a terrific hologram, thanks very much Jessica Yellin is in Chicago, she's not here in New York with us... but you know what, it looks like she was right here with us, it is pretty amazing technology."


Here is the clip of Anderson Cooper interviewing Will.I.Am's hologram, beamed in from from Grand Park in Chicago.



Anderson Cooper:
"Let's see if we can beam him in now. There we go. Will, thanks very much for being
with us. How is this night for you?"

Will.I.Am:
"Ah, this is great. We're at an eve of a brand new day in America, and it feels great being here in Chicago. All this technology, I'm being beamed to you, like in Star Wars and stuff..."

Anderson Cooper:
"Yeah, it looks like, especially like, exactly like in Star Trek, when they'd beam people down, that's what it looks like here....We are doing this interview with you this way because it is a lot quieter than having you in the crowd, its very hard to hear in this crowd, and we appreciate you being with you..."

Will.I.Am goes on to discuss the song he created from an inspirational speech by Obama.

Related
How the CNN Holographic Interview System Works
-Gizmodo

Election Night TV: Networks Aim to Dazzle With Gagetry
-Edward C. Baid and Jon Swartz, TechNewsworld

Behind the hologram:
Vizrt
"Vizrt creates leading-edge content production tools for the digital media industry - From award-winning 3D graphics & maps to integrated video workflow solutions."
SportVU


FYI: Here is the video of the song, We Can Change- (My first view of this video was today, after the election.)





picture via engadget

Steven Sinofsky Discusses Multi-touch and the HP TouchSmart, Windows 7, and more at PDC2008

Steven Sinofsky at the PDC2008 Open Space


In this video, Steven discusses Windows 7 and confirms that Windows 7 works with the HP TouchSmart: "The hardware is multitouch." Sinofsky also discusses how there might be a need for multi-touch drivers for the HP TouchSmart.

Take the 25 minutes or so to watch the video. It is worth it, even the more technical aspects, including how events will be managed to minimize boot time.

Dude!
Sinofsky says you gotta say "dude!". Watch the video to get it!

iPhone: Multitouch control of a laptop screen!

The Media Computing Group at RWTH-AACHEN University has developed an application to allow users to control a laptop via a multi-touch iPhone. Although the demo shows how to rotate and resize images, the "multiple views" section is interesting. Like an Etch-a-Sketch, you shake the iPhone to reset the images.

I've been toying with ideas about ways to create user-friendly interactions between screens of all sizes. This approach intrigues me.



You can find more information about the iPhone and Cocoa on the Multi-touch Framework website. The contact for this project is Stefan Hafeneger, a student assistant

Link to post: Assisting young people with autism spectrum disorders through the use of digital media

If you have an interest in digital media and interventions for young people with autism disorders, take a look at my recent TechPsych post:.

Cognitive Bursts; Sense of Self: Assisting young people with autism spectrum disorders through the use of digital media.

DigiBoard Multi-Touch Mixed Reality Game; Ideas for future design of a flexible, adjustable multi-touch surface..

This video is a demo of a multi-touch table, called the DigiBoard, running a game application called "Tower Defense". This multi-modal game takes input from physical tokens, touch, and provides auditory feedback.

According to the credits on the video-clip, the creators of this application were Andreas Hesel, Birna Run Olafsdottir, Dann Sandgreen, and Osk Hilmarsdottir. When I can track down more information about this group, I'll post it!

For more information about interactive display technologies, see Gizmo Watch's Top 15 Interactive Display Technologies. The list is full of photos and video clips of a variety of systems. It was created last year, so it might need some updating.

I am still looking for some examples of good multi-touch table games for use in education. I've created a few prototypes that are not fully fleshed out over the past year, but I haven't had the time or money to build the type of adjustable table that I want.

I'd like my table surface to adjust horizontally, vertically, and angles in-between, like a drafting table. I don't want my table to rely on a projector, since I don't want unnecessary occlusion. A rear-projection system would be heavy and bulky. My design is light and sleek, and it is mobile.

The advantage of an adjustable design is that it allows for flexibility in use, within a single environment, and across a variety of settings. It could work well in schools, libraries, museums, convention centers, exhibit halls, hospitals, visitor centers, airports, public transportation stations, board rooms, data centers, malls, supermarkets, community centers, coffee houses...just about anywhere.

I've written about this topic a few times. For more information, see "Emerging Interactive Technologies, Emerging Interactions, and Emerging Integrated Form Factors"

If you know of anyone who is creating an adjustable, multi-functional touch surface, please let me know.

I am playing around with ideas for a suite of multi-modal, adaptive game for use with young people who have suffered traumatic brain injuries, and others who have special needs. A stationary surface would not provide the flexibility my applications will require.

Engaged Learning Revisited: Four videoclips for reflection....

Last October, I shared a couple of videos to highlight a discussion about engaged learning in a post on my TechPsych blog. Today, I received a thoughtful comment from a teacher who was moved by the videos. I thought that I'd recycle that post and add two other videos that provide related messages in ways that can not be conveyed effectively by words alone:

From the October TechPsych post:
Those who follow my blogs know that I usually focus on the positive- engaging technologies, exciting research, interesting websites, and successes of others worth sharing. Today I came across a video that got me thinking about the importance of engaged learning, a topic I've written about in the past.

Much effort is extended in our high schools to prepare students for the "real" learning that will take place in college. With the increased emphasis on testing, it seems like the moment a child enters kindergarten, one of the main goals is to prepare for learning the skills needed in the following grade. Every student must be "ready".

Ready for....this?


In today's digital world, traditional word-based instruction doesn't always result in experiences that engage the hearts and minds of young people.

The video below was created by students involved in the Digital Ethnography group at Kansas State University. Michael Wesch is the professor behind this group. At the beginning of the video, the camera slowly peers around an empty university lecture hall, with the the following quote superimposed over the scene:

"Today's child is bewildered when he enters the 19th century environment that still characterizes the educational establishment where information is scarce but ordered and structured by fragmented, classified patterns, subjects, and schedules." -Marshall McLuhan, 1967

Although the quote is now forty years old, the message communicated in this video is clear. Despite technology, things haven't really changed, as traditional methods of teaching tend to disengage rather than engage a good number of students.



After viewing the above video, watch this video, "When I grow up I want to be a teacher", a parody of a Monster.com commercial.



For a broader perspective, take some time to reflect on the following video, originally created by Karl Fisch, and posted to his blog, the Fischbowl:
"A staff development blog for Arapahoe High School teachers exploring constructivism and 21st century learning skills. The opinions expressed here are the personal views of Karl Fisch - and various other teachers at Arapahoe - and do not (necessarily) reflect the views of Littleton Public Schools."

DID YOU KNOW? SHIFT HAPPENS


"DEBUNKING THE MYTHS OF THE THIRD WORLD" is Hans Rosling's presentation at TED 2006 is a great example of the use of presenting information supported by engaging information techniques. More videos are on the Gapminder website. This video is about 20 minutes long, but worth every second.



"With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, Prof. Hans Rosling uses software from Gapminder debunks a few myths about the "developing" world. This global health visionary has discovered a powerful new way to communicate complex data about the world; his remarkable interactive graphs help deliver profound insights about global trends and will change forever the way you think about "us" and "them." Rosling is professor of international health at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, and founder of Gapminder, a nonprofit that brings vital global data to life."

Keepon, BeatBot's robot: Potential to promote social behavior in children with autism spectrum and developmental disorders.

The BeatBots project develops rhythmically intelligent robots for research and entertainment. In the video below, the responsive robot, Keepon, dances to the Spoon song, "Don't You Evah".

Keepon was developed by Hideki Kozima and programmed by Marek Michalowski, from Carnegie Melon.


(The video is available to the public under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 license.)


According to an article by David Templeton in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

"While the videos have proven Keepon's human appeal, the double-bubble yellow fellow's key role is to interact with children. Keepon has shown promise in encouraging social behavior in children with developmental disorders, including autism."

"Keepon's simple appearance makes children comfortable, and its lifelike movement makes it attractive to them," Mr. Michalowski said. "This combination creates an environment in which social interaction is encouraged.""

"While the robot can dance to almost any song, it also can identify visual and other sensory rhythms, helping to prove how rhythm and synchronization in body language are paramount in human interaction. As such, Keepon has schooled roboticists in how to improve human interaction with robots."

An example of Keepon's attentive and emotive actions:



Another example of Keepon's entertainment value - Spoon's "I turn my camera on":



More videos can be found on the BeatBots website.

Cross Post: Microsoft Research SenseCam

From the Microsoft Research SenseCam Website:

"SenseCam is a wearable digital camera that is designed to take photographs passively, without user intervention, while it is being worn. Unlike a regular digital camera or a cameraphone, SenseCam does not have a viewfinder or a display that can be used to frame photos. Instead, it is fitted with a wide-angle (fish-eye) lens that maximizes its field-of-view. This ensures that nearly everything in the wearer’s view is captured by the camera, which is important because a regular wearable camera would likely produce many uninteresting images."

Technology Review Article

The SenseCam application has the potential to be a resource for people who have developmental delays, traumatic brain injury, severe attention deficits, and autism spectrum disorders. It would be a great tool for special educators, occupational and speech/language therapists, and rehabilitation specialists.

Images from Microsoft Research: