Internet of Things Europe 2009 Conference - Internet Rabbits, Mirrors, Stamps, and More!

The Internet of Things Europe 2009 conference, focusing on emerging technologies for the future, will be held on May 7th and 8th in Brussels at the Sofitel Brussels Europe hotel.

Rafi Haladjian, a co-founder of Violet, will be presenting at the conference during the following session on Thursday, May 7th.

Session 2: Innovation and emerging technologies and business models
"This session will explore what emerging innovations, technologies and market trends are being seen now, and which are likely to emerge in the future. What are the research requirements and obstacles in terms of affordability, usability or accessibility that need to be addressed? How will economic, technological and application trends drive the evolution of architectures for the ‘Internet of Things’? What successful business models are already being seen today, and how can these be adapted with future technological developments?"

In a previous post, "The Internet of Things can be Cute: MIR:ROR by Violet", I discussed how RFID is being used in a variety of playful ways to trigger a link to information.The following video from the Violet website explains how MIR:ROR uses little RFID stamps to interact with the Internet and activate things through the MIR:ROR. Each stamp has an e-mail address.



The rabbit in the picture below is called Nabaztag, from Violet, the first Internet-connected Rabbit. He hears, he reads, and he speaks. He can wake you up, give the weather forecast, update you on your friends face-book and twitter status. He can also send music, e-mail messages, and read stories.

The little rabbits have been around for quite a while. Below is an opera composed by Antoine Schmitt and Jean-Jacques Birge, following an idea by Guylaine Monnier:


90 of the rabbits were brought to the performance by their owners, and ten were supplied by Violet.

You can purchase books from the Violet website for 3 to 7 year old children. These books feature Ztamps, that are recognized by the MIR:ROR and the Nabaztag rabbit, and will read the book to the child.

On a more serious note, here are a few other sessions that I'd be interested in attending at the Internet of Things conference:

Session 5: Privacy, Security & Data Protection
"Although privacy and data protection policy has become increasingly sophisticated since the emergence of the Internet, controversies are likely to accelerate with the new applications likely to be encountered in the Internet of Things. Security issues, particularly surrounding unauthorised access to and unintended disclosure of data are becoming more prevalent. What qualitatively new challenges are presented by the Internet of Things? How can the rights of citizens or businesses in one country be safeguarded on global networks? Whatrights pertain to Things on the Internet of Things?"

Session 6: Service Architecture and Communication
"The range of connectivity options available is bewildering - but the challenges of scalability, interoperability and ensuring return on investment for network operators remain. How will communication needs change as a result of the Internet of Things? What new service architectures will be required to cater for the connectivity demands of emerging devices? How will spectrum rights holders participate in the Internet of Things"

(A similar post is on the Technology Supported Human-World Interaction blog.)

Like Neil Steinberg once said, "Dude, Where's My Video Phone?"

When I was a little girl, I was into science fiction, and one of the things I always wanted was my very own video phone. Long after I grew up, along came broadband Internet. I was disappointed. Skype was not exactly what I hoped for, and the newest "innovations", apparently designed to counter the decline in land-line phones, do not match my sci-fi dreams.

The following article provides a history about the video phone, and some insight about why this concept was never adopted by the masses:

"Dude, Where's My Video Phone" Neil Steinberg, 10/15/07, Forbes

Below are a few examples of the current state of affairs regarding the world of video phones:

i2eye, from D-Link, is a videophone that looks like it would be easy to use for a grandparent who doesn't have a computer.

The thing is, most grandparents of young babies are probably in their 50's, or maybe in their early 60's. According to study by Scarborough Research, conducted in 2006-07, about 74% of adults 55 years and older own a computer. All a grandparent needs to do is download something like Skype, plug in a $40.00 webcam, and things are good to go.



The ASUS Eee Videophone uses Skype. (For the uninitiated, Skype is available for free and is adequate for my video phone needs.) The following demonstration video provides information about the ways it can be used and how users interact with the interface. Please excuse the rather boring music looping in the background of the demo.



The ACN Videophone was recently featured on Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice. Below is a videoclip of the phone in action, along with it's advanced features that allow you to project audio and video to a larger screen.



I found the promo video for the ACN video phone, featuring Donald Trump, a bit amusing. Apparently the ACN video phone is distributed through multi-level marketing.



If you are a Verizon subscriber, you probably have heard of the "Hub". Verizon came out with the VerizonHub a couple of months ago, and I was hoping to get my hands on one before writing a review. When I learned that it had a touch-screen interface, but did not provide direct access to the web, I was not in a hurry. My dream version of the "hub" would have this feature.

For more information, you can "interact" with a simulation of the phone online: "Get a Feel for the Verizon Hub"

Detailed information about the Verizon Hub can be found on the product's home page: Welcome to the Home Phone Reinvented

Here is something I found that was a bit puzzling:

The above pictures are of the Amstrad videophone, which I think debuted in 2004. The touchscreen offers a variety of options. This phone looks like it was designed by a committee that decided to incorporate ALL the ideas that were brainstormed by the team. There is the traditional phone button interface, a set of qwerty buttons that mimic what you would find on a text-messaging teen's cell phone, and a slide-out qwerty keyboard for the elders and others who have pudgier fingers. Of course, you can always use the touch screen interface!

Giving Healthcare a Digital "Touch" via Microsoft

According to the PR release from Microsoft, Texas Health Resources and Microsoft partner Infusion Development have developed a prototype to assist with doctor-patient communication and collaboration:

Medhost has created an emergency department dashboard that can assist medical professionals decision-making process more efficiently:





Vectorform developed an application to assist children in rehabilitation at the Cook Children's Health System in Fort Worth, Texas. The application allows the rehabilitation specialist design their own evaluations for patients:



The only drawback is that the Surface has a very high price tag. I think I'll stick with HP TouchSmart PC projects with my students!

Good news about the San Jose Interactive Displays Conference (that I couldn't attend)

Sadly, I was unable to attend the Interactive Displays conference that was held last week in San Jose, California. Jeff Han, the guy in the video clip in my sidebar, was one of the keynote presenters. I really wish I could have seen - and touched - the action!

Update (4/27/09) from Thomas Hansen, a member of NUI Group, who attended IDC:

"..It was certainly an interesting event. I got to talk (albeit briefly) to both Andy Wilson and Jeff Han. Both of whom produce very inspiring and world class UI/HCI research on a consistent basis. Further, it was a great honor to meet some of the other members of the nuigroup community in person, some of whom where inspiring not only because of their amazing intellect and artistic talents, but especially due to their friendliness, benevolence, and maturity."

Here are a few excerpts from people who were fortunate to attend and then write about the experience:

Putting our arms around the future of touch Ina Fried , CNET 4/23/09

"..if you used one of the interactive displays here to show a heat map of this industry, it would glow red hot. That's because touch displays, for years relegated to kiosks and industrial uses, are quickly becoming mainstream. Hewlett-Packard and Dell already have touch-capable machines, while Microsoft is set to make gesture input standard with Windows 7...For his own part, Han said he was inspired by seeing a PBS documentary in the early 1980s that showed Microsoft researcher Bill Buxton, then at the University of Toronto, using multitouch to compose music on a computer. The computer itself was a green screen with an ancient processor and little memory, but the key underlying concept was already there..

"Sometimes it takes that long for these things to marinate and gestate," Han said....And while things are now taking off, Han urged the crowd not to forsake quality in the rush to take advantage of a hot market. "That will ruin it and mess it up for all of us, and that would be a real shame," Han said."

Interactive Displays Conference Highlights Kevin Arthur, Touch Usability 4/22/09

"...He (Jeff Han) showed a great clip from an early 80s TV show called Bits and Bytes that featured a young Bill Buxton demonstrating some of his tablet work at the University of Toronto...Jeff Han's point in showing this clip was not just to share what inspired him as a kid to pursue computer science as a career. He also wanted to make the point that none of this stuff is really new. He urged the audience not to jump on whatever tech is cool this week, but to be aware of the history and to do the research. Be thoughtful and careful about what you're making. He said one of his fears with the multitouch craze is that the waters will be poisoned by bad and poorly conceived implementations. He said "don't add noise" to the ecosystem by using terms sloppily -- like "multitouch"...

The importance of being more thoughtful and mindful of prior work are not exactly new to most of us with design, HCI, or CS backgrounds, but the audience here is largely made up of marketing or other business types, I believe, who sometimes tend to get a bit carried away, you might say. I mean no disrespect to my friends in marketing..."

Interactive Displays Conference San Jose Harry van der Veen, 4/25/09
" Big thumbs up for Pira tech for managing to get so many multi-touch industry professionals (Wacom, Mindstorm, NextWindow, 3M, Jeff Han (Perceptive Pixel), LG, Tyco Electronics, Stantum and more) and hobbyists together."

How soon will we see interactive information visualization for multi-touch & gesture systems?

The field of information visualization is growing. Until recently, most visualizations were created for use on a single PC or larger screen, allowing for interaction by only one user at a time. I have a feeling that this will be changing in the very near future.

Why? Interactive duo and multi-touch interfaces are becoming more common, and now come in all sizes of screens, from the iPhone, the Surface, and CNN's multi-touch "Magic Wall". People of all ages play interactive games on the Wii, often on large flat-panel displays. In my opinion, the time is right for those developing applications for the InfoViz world to think about harnessing the power of multi-touch.

Below is a picture of the front page of the Visual Complexity website. If you go to the site, you can select a visualization, and then explore it more in detail, as each picture links to a web-page that provides background information about the visualization project, the artist or team behind the project, and links to the project's website.

I took a look at a variety of the examples posted on the Information Complexity website, and think many would be enhanced by a transformation to a multi-touch, gesture, bi-manual, or duo/multi user system. I'm interested in learning what others think about this. If you are working on a collaborative information visualization project, feel free to add a comment and post a link.

Here is a a nice quote from the website:

"Functional visualizations are more than innovative statistical analyses and computational algorithms. They must make sense to the user and require a visual language system that uses colour, shape, line, hierarchy and composition to communicate clearly and appropriately, much like the alphabetic and character-based languages used worldwide between humans." Matt Woolman Digital Information Graphics

Update: I did a search for "multi-touch" on the Visual Complexity website and found a couple of interactive applications:

Reactable (I've posted about this system a few times!)
(Reactable website)

Prototouch

(Wirmachenbunt Website)

SMART Table in the Classroom: Tom Barret's Journey

Tom Barret is a teacher who is using a SMART Table in his classroom. His recent post, "SMART Table in my classroom- Days 2-5: Teething Problems" provides some insight about potential problems teachers might face when introducing this sort of technology to students.

(Tom blogs about educational technology, including topics such as "Using the Nintendo Wii to Support My Numeracy Lesson")

Here are Tom's first-glance comments about the SMART Table:

"A couple of things that I have learned already:

There is a long way to go in terms of the toolkit and software development"

"The table is very robust."

"There is a place in the primary classroom for this type of technology, it feels natural to have this style of technology in my classroom. "

"My instincts tell me their is a future in this style of work for kids."

"Multi-touch and the behind the scenes technology that is needed to operate it, can be very temperamental."

"Children take to the medium very easily and naturally."

"They can be networked"

"3rd party software can run on them but you would lose the 40 touch capability"

"For 9 and 10 year olds (upper junior), the optimum number for using the Table is 4. Any more and it gets a little congested, limiting the screen real estate that you can use. This is crucial, you might be able to get 6 Year 5s around it but they will not get significant enough access to the surface and so the learning activity. "