Video of OLPC's Social Features

Take a look a One Laptop Per Child's Interactive User Interface:


Here is a video about OLPC's social features:




What do you think?


Somewhat off-topic:
Who's your user- Usability Rap Video, via 90percent of Everything via Information Architecture Television

Have you heard of the Internet of Things? OpenSpime? (Link to related post)

Take a look at my post on the TSHWI blog to watch videoclips and read about emerging technologies related to the "Internet of Things" and Spime concepts.

Let me know what you think.

-Lynn

Digital 2008: 2nd IEEE International Conference on Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning

The 2nd IEEE International Conference on Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning will be in Banff, Canada, from November 17-19, 2008.

The call for papers is in process.

Here is some information from the conference website:

"Despite the surging interest in this emerging research, there are plenty challenging research issues to be investigated. For example, can one really learn meaningfully and deeply from games? Will there be new theories that explain phenomena of learning with fun? What constitute game pedagogies? How this genre of technology enhanced learning can be adopted to formal and informal learning settings? What are the possible dark sides of game and toyed education and how to prevent them? "

The topics of interest include but are not limited to:

Foundation and theory for design
Evaluation
Case studies and exemplars
Artificial intelligence
Virtual characters
Vitual storytelling and game narrative
Multiplayer and social game design
Simulation and animation
Entertainment Robots for Education
Augmented/Mixed Reality
Interfaces
Training
Sport
Non-Visual Senses (smelling, touching, hearing)
Mobile games and its linking to online games
Location-based games and ubiquitous technology
Identity in gaming to learn: roles and role-playing
Optimal experience and flow
Engagement and emotion
Collaboration, competition and community
Social and Cultural aspects

Contact Information:

Contact Information

Kinshuk, General Chair (kinshuk@ieee.org)

Michael Eisenberg, Program Chair (duck@research.cs.colorado.edu)

Jill Calliou, Local Administrator (jillc@athabascau.ca)

Hug Shirt and Hug from a Distance: Wearables for people with autism spectrum disorders? (Cross post from Tech Psych)

"Hug from a Distance" is a vest that can be electronically controlled to give someone a hug over the Internet. The vest was created by Floyd Meuller, who has a rich background in interactive technologies, multimedia, and interdisciplinary research.

Children with autism spectrum disorders who calm with pressure might benefit from this type of vest.



Another wearable technology is the Hug Shirt.

"Wearers hug themselves, then using Bluetooth technology and their cell phone, they can send it to someone else wearing a Hug Shirt that simulates the feeling of the hug," says Francesca Rosella, creative director of London-based CuteCircuit, which developed the interactive top. "It copies the strength, length, temperature and heart rate of the hug."

It would be interesting to research the effectiveness of these wearable technologies with children and teens who have autism spectrum disorders.

Look, touch, listen, and play: Seth Sandler's Interactive Audio Touch Table Video; NUI Group and Google's Summer of Code

Seth Sandler's most recent video of the Audio Touch interactive table provides a good demonstration of how multi-touch on a table can work with music.



Seth is a member of the NUI group (Natural User Interface). He is finishing a Bachelors degree in Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts, with an emphasis on Music, at the University of California, San Diego. His research and development work centers around multi-touch, multi-user musical interfaces.

Here is an update about the NUI group:

"Natural User Interface or ~ NUI Group is an interactive media group researching and creating open source machine sensing techniques to benefit artistic and educational applications."

"We offer a collaborative environment for developers that are interested in learning and sharing new HCI (Human Computer Interaction) methods and concepts. This may include topics such as: voice/handwriting/gesture recognition, touch computing, computer vision, and information visualization."

The NUI group has been selected for mentoring organization for Google's Summer of Code, for those of you who are interested in working on open-source code for multi-touch systems. The student application process begins Monday, March 24th, 2008, and ends Monday, March 31st, 2008.

NUI group's project ideas page outlines the requirements for the application, which includes a 7500 word project proposal. The project page has a long list of ideas to spark some thinking for potential Summer of Code applicants.

For those of you who aren't into coding, I encourage you to take a look at the NUI Groups project ideas page just to get an idea of th interesting ideas that are being explored. The page has a list of links to other good resources.

Share the word with anyone who might be interested in the NUI Group's projects for the Summer of Code. We need to get more people interested in STEM careers, and the project ideas outlined by the NUI group look enticing.

Interactive User Interfaces: Nat Torkington's list of links to new and cool technologies.

Quick post:

Nat Torkington recently wrote a post on O'Reilly Radar with links and descriptions about new interactive interfaces, such as a multi-touch Rubik's Cube, a weather map with haptic feedback, NextWindow's multi-touch screens, Cyber Goggles, NUI, and more.