Quintura Interactive Search -Kid's Version

Quintura is an interactive, graphical web-based search that has a version for children that looks interesting. The screen shot below is the result of a search for "homework help":


If you have used Quintura, please post a comment about your impressions.

About Displays: Double Sided Touch Screens -LucidTouch

I recently discovered the Display Daily website, a news services about the electronic display industry from Insight Media.

If you are interested in learning more about displays and related hardware that supports interactive multimedia applications, take a look at their recent article about double-sided touch screens.

LucidTouch is a double-sided touch screen prototype that allows people to touch items from behind the screen. The prototype was developed by Microsoft, Mitsubishi, and the University of Toronto. It will be interesting to see how this technology unfolds.

Savant's "Rosie" Interactive Table

Savant, an A/V home entertainment and control systems company, has announced "Rosie", a coffee table similar to Microsoft's new "Surface".

Introduction to Rosie
(after the intro, click on "coffee table")

According to information from the Savant website, the Rosie table has interactive multimedia features that "include integration and interaction with iTunes multimedia content, digital cameras, IP network cameras, business card readers, and many more digital devices on the horizon."

If anyone has information about the availability and pricing of the Rosie table, please leave a comment. I'd like to see if any of my touch-screen projects-in-process look on this display. I'm impressed by the features and sensitivity of the NextWindow Human Touch displays - I wonder if the Rosie will match the same level of quality.

At the moment, I'm working on some applications for use on touch-enabled displays/surfaces for education/literacy, cooperative learning activities, and adapted instruction and assessments for students who have special needs.

How NOT to create an interactive touch-screen map!

I came across this interactive map that was situated in a kiosk along a skyway at a large, highly respected hospital.

If you are interested in designing usable and useful interactive wayfinding applications, avoid much of what you see in this videoclip!



This isn't an example of good user-centered design.

About: Interaction Design (off the desktop)

Interaction design is a relatively new field that combines concepts related to human-computer interaction (HCI), mobile, pervasive, and ubiquitous computing (ubicomp), interface design, service design, user-experience design, interactive media design, and more.

According to Dan Saffer, an interaction designer at Adaptive Path, and author of Interaction Design: Creating Smart Applications and Clever Devices, interaction design is "about people: how people connect with other people through the products and services they use." If you are interested in learning more about designing for interaction, Saffer's book is a great starting point.

Saffer has recently established a wikki about interactive gestures, a site for the "dissemination of gestural interface information such as found on the iPhone and Wii." This is an important resource for those of us who are interested in developing useful interactive applications for emerging technologies.

(Related information can also be found on this blog.)

iPod Touch Possibilities....I want one!

I'd like an iPod Touch...here is the guided tour:



The iPod Touch is WiFi enabled, which opens up a range of creative possibilities for creative multimedia communication. I'd like to create some web-based applications optimized for the iPod Touch for use in education, health, mental health, and prevention - mobile learning and self-help.

UPDATE: 6/08

The new 3G iPhone: Expanding the Possibilities of Interactive Multimedia Communication

Technology Supported Human-World Interaction Blog

I've started another blog: Technology Supported Human-World Interaction (TSHWI)

"TSHWI is about the development of newer technologies that support human-world interaction. This concept incorporates the best of of HCI, CSCW, universal usability, interaction design, game design, educational technology, and Ubicomp/ Pervasive Computing. The definition of "World", can include virtual worlds, simulations, VR, or augmented reality - just about anything humans interact with in their daily lives."

About: Roomba - Human Family Interaction (NSF)

The National Science Foundation has a great article about a researcher from Carnegie-Mellon, Jodi Forlizzi who studies how families interact with their "adopted" Roombas.

Although Roombas were intended to function as lowly vacuums, when hacked, they just might have some interactive multimedia potential! Having a Roomba in the family room- and the classroom - might be a way to interest young people in exploring engineering and technology.



Related
NSF article

Techeblog article with video clips and link to some downloadable code, if you are so inclined:

Five Top Roomba Hacks

1. Roomba Frogger Redux
2. Super Roomba with airsoft gun and laser sight
3. Caroling Roombas
4. Wiimote + Roomba
5. Cellphone-controlled Roomba

About Touch Enabled Displays: YouTube Clip- One Guy's Dream of a Touch Screen iMac

My dream? I want an affordable, thin touch-screen WiFi/Bluetooth/RFID - enabled display, embedded in an adjustable drafting table.

This set-up would provide users with multiple options, depending on the nature of the task or leisure pursuit. If you are a parent or teacher, you easily imagine the possibilities for your kids.

In the meantime, here is one guy's dream about a touch screen iMac:



I need to create a video of my drafting-table version!

About Interaction and Wireless Handheld Devices: Mediascapes and Create-A-Scape, and mscapers

If you are interested in learning more about Mediascapes (mscapes) and Create-A-Scape, the educational version of mscapes, take a look my recent post and related video clip on the TechPsych blog.

Resources:

Futurelab's Create-A-Scape website

Hewlett-Packard's mscapers website

"Mediascapes are mobile, location-based experiences that incorporate digital media with the sights, sounds, and textures of the world around you. A mediascape blends digital images, video, audio and interactions with the physical landscape. Games, guided walks, tours, and destinations are among the mediascapes created to date. Download a mediascape onto a portable device, and see how your landscape comes alive as you move through the environment." -Hewlett-Packard

About Interaction and Displays: HP's Interactive Canvas

More video clips of interactive touch displays:

HP's Interactive Canvas, highlighting pictures and video.


Virtual instruments on HP's Virtual Canvas.

The application behind the Virtual Canvas is Microsoft's Windows Presentation Foundation.

According to Microsoft, "The Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation provides the foundation for building applications and high fidelity experiences in Windows Vista, blending to gether application UI, documents, and media content, while exploiting the full power of your computer. The functionality extends to the support for Tablet and other forms of input, a more modern imaging and printing infrastructure, data driven UI and visualization, as well as the integration points for weaving the application experience into the Windows shell."

Related Links:

"Look or Feel" blog

About Interaction: Bill Buxton and Multi-Touch Systems

Based on data from SiteMeter, there are a number of my readers who are searching for information about touch screen interaction design and multi-touch systems. A great resource for anyone interested in these topics is Bill Buxton's website, "Multi-Touch Systems that I have Known and Loved".

Bill provides a good overview of the various flavors of multi-touch interaction and interfaces, along with a an annotated chronology of multi-touch and related technologies, starting before 1982. The chronology includes some interesting pictures.

Bill Buxton works for Microsoft Research. The following information is from his bio:

"Bill Buxton is a designer and a researcher concerned with human aspects of technology. His work reflects a particular interest in the use of technology to support creative activities such as design, film making and music. Buxton's research specialties include technologies, techniques and theories of input to computers, technology mediated human-human collaboration, and ubiquitous computing."

About Displays: Content Interface- Touch Interaction on a Panasonic Display

Here is a video-clip of a demo from Content Interface using a large touch-enabled Panasonic display.

About Displays

From time-to-time I will share information about displays under the heading "About Displays"

Why? When I set out to learn more about display hardware and related technologies that support interactive multimedia applications, I quickly discovered that things are changing - fast. Some of the technology is complex.

I will post a list of research articles and related information soon. I know that my list is missing some pieces, as it is difficult to keep up with important changes. For this reason, I'm asking my readers to help me out by posting a comment about display-related information to share with others when you come across something interesting and useful.

Here is an example of something worth sharing:

Dolby Acquires BrightSide

"The DR37-P is a spectacular breakthrough in display technology. It uses an array of individually modulated LED backlights to provide 10 times the brightness and 100 times the contrast of existing television and computer monitors. The Extreme Dynamic Range display delivers more vibrant images, enabling you to see information onscreen in vivid detail."

"In an HDR-enabled display, the backlight consists of an array of ultrahigh-brightness white or tricolor light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Each LED can be controlled individually—faster than video refresh rates. The lower-resolution LED image is then projected through a standard LCD panel, which displays a high-resolution version of the image, resulting in a vibrant display."

A display with HDR technology might be something to consider for use with people with visual impairments, which are more commen among the elderly.

Links to whitepapers, screen shots, and interactive demos are welcome!

HDRInteractive Demo

Mobile Projection from a Cell Phone or PDA!

Microvision and other companies have developed projector that enable cell phones and PDA's to display pictures and videos. With the PicoP, the images work on flat as well as curved surfaces. It looks like it would be a great visual communication and collaboration tool.

The PicoP

If you have had the opportunity to use a mobile projector, please let me know!

Engaget article: Motorola signs on with Microvision's PicoP Laser Projection" (July 25, 2007)

Visual Learning Lab Supports Effective Teaching and Learning

It seems that the UK is often on the cutting edge of using multimedia technology in education.

Here is a quote from the Visual Learning Lab website, at the University of Nottingham about ways the Humanities department is using visual learning technologies:

‘Showing Seeing Centre’ & ‘Visual Analysis Lab’

"Archaeology and Classics are both highly visual disciplines. In order to further develop the use of visual in teaching and learning, the VLL supports the creation of two new facilities, the Showing Seeing Centre and the Visual Analysis Lab."

"The Showing Seeing Centre will provide a context for students to work with visual resources using 3D-enabled computers for access to virtual reconstructions of archaeological sites and ancient civilizations, e.g. in gaming environments. Students will also have access to a range of equipment for digitzing and analysing visual material and for producing presentations and portfolio material. The equipment provided by the VLL consists of a wall-mounted LCD-screen, 4 high-spec laptops, a
high-spec A4-scanner, colour laser printer and a Playstation."

"The Visual Analysis Lab will provide facilities for teaching and learning in relation to the identification of archaeological remains (such as plant materials, animal bones and ceramics). The equipment provided by the VLL consists of two high- quality microscopes linked to digital cameras, a laptop and a data projector."

A 2007 report (pdf) from the University of Nottingham's Visual Learning Lab reviews of how visual learning technology will be used by departments such as pharmacy, veterinary medicine, medical sciences, modern language and cultures, biosciences, humanities, fildm and telvision studies, learning sciences, and computer sciences.

Link to article from the University of Nottingham: Visual Learning for the 21st Century

Related information:

FutureLab, of the UK, hosted a debate of the educational merits of interactive whiteboards, one of the technologies used to support visual and interactive multimedia teaching and learning. With the rush to adopt this technology for primary and secondary students, the participants pointed out that in order for teaching and learning to be effective, appropriate teacher training must take place.

If you have been following the Interactive Multimedia Technology or the Tech Psych blogs, you know that I'd like to see something like Microsoft's Surface in classrooms. Touch screen displays, such as the NextWindow Human Touch, appear to be more effective if they aren't dependent on a projector.

HP TouchSmart PC - an interactive touch screen for the home- and classroom?

Photos from the HP TouchSmart Website

I think this PC has possibilities for use in libraries, school media centers, and in classrooms.




This is a short video clip about the HP TouchSmart PC, a medium-sized touch-screen display that runs on Window's Vista. From what I understand, it uses technology from NextWindow.

If you use TouchSmart PC or something similar, or if you develop applications for the TouchSmart or other interactive touch applications, let me know what you think!

For related videos, visit the TouchSmart YouTube channel.
http://www.youtube.com/user/TouchSmart

Interactive web-based science and math: Link to my TechPsych post about ExploreLearning Gizmos

ExploreLearning is a website that offers a variety of engaging math and science activities, called "Gizmos", for students in grades 6-12.


ExploreLearning's Gizmos would be great on large touch-screen surfaces or displays, such as a NextWindow Human Touch, a SmartBoard, or Microsoft's Surface.

Since the activites are designed as learning modules and are web-based, the Gizmos might even work on iPhones!

Check out my TechPsych post for more information and links.

Photo courtesy of ExploreLearning.

Virtual Reality Field Trips

Take a look at my post on the TechPsych blog about virtual reality field trips. Imagine what a virtual field trip would be like on a large touch-screen display!

More touch screen "surface" display musings...

I had my first chance to use an interactive touch-screen SmartBoard, by Smart Technologies in 2002-03. Since I work mostly with kids and teens, I wondered why large-display touch screen technology wasn't more widespread, since there are so many free, interactive websites that provide pretty engaging activities for users.

One of the things I learned was that large-display touch-screen technology is in the preschool stage. There are problems with screen responsiveness, screen resolution, durability, and input.

In recent years, the idea of a touch screen has evolved to table-tops and drafting boards, embedded within wireless systems that allow for interoperability with mobile devices and remote applications.

Great technology exists, but no-one has pulled all the components together in a way that can easily scale for the people who would benefit from this sort of technology the most - people who spend most of day time teaching, learning, or both. I had a great experience using a NextWindow Human Touch large-screen display for some of my projects last semester. It was difficult for me to track one down, but once I got my hands on it, I liked it, even though it did not have multi-touch capabilities.

One laptop for each child? That was a good idea for the late 1990's and early 2000's. One high-quality, affordable, large touch-screen display or table for each classroom would be more effective.

One touch-screen display/table for every 4-6 students would be better. Is there anyone out there who is up for the challenge?

Next Post: Updated links to interactive multimedia websites appropriate for large touch screen surfaces.