NUI-Group Members: What are they doing now?

Multitouch Media Application Pro v3.0 from Falcon4ever on Vimeo.

MMA Pro is a multitouch photo and video organizer build in Adobe AIR (Flex3) and has new features such as Google Maps, support for uploading pictures on the fly using blue-tooth. For more information, visit Laurence Muller's website, Multigesture.Net. There you can download the application. Make sure you read the install instructions that are included in the readme.text, and also make sure that you have the latest Adobe AIR 1.5.x. Laurence also recommends installing BlueSoleil to handing the pairing of devices and file transfers. (If you've never programmed for Bluetooth, take his advice!)

Laurence Muller (M.Sc.) is a Scientific Programmer at the University of Amsterdam who develops scientific software for multi-touch devices. He is a member of the NUI-Group.

The following video highlights some of the applications from the University of Amsterdam from about a year ago:

Multitouch Applications from Falcon4ever on Vimeo.

Feel free to leave a comment and a link or two if you are a NUI-Group member and like to share your recent projects!

Where are they now? Revisiting Interactive User Interface Projects

I've been blogging about interactive multimedia and interesting human-computer interfaces/ interaction for a while. I thought I'd revisit some of the projects and prototypes that interested me and find out what happened to all of those visionary graduate students after they earned their degrees. (Feel free to leave a comment and a link if you have any information to update about yourself or someone you know.)

This will be a topic I'll touch on from time-to-time, and since I've covered so many projects, it might take quite a while!

In the meantime, I've posted a video of the TANGerINE Inspirational Cube, a mixed reality interactive multimedia project between the University of Florence, University of Bologna, along with the contributions of other researchers. The video was produced in 2007, I think.


Here is a 2008 picture of some of the people who continued to work with the TANGerINE project at CHI 2008:

Here is the video of "TANGerINE Cities: Collaborative Tangible Sonorization" from Nicola Torpei's Vimeo page:

TANGerINE cities - collaborative tangible sonorization from Nicola Torpei on Vimeo.

And here is a link to a Flickr slideshow from TANGerINE Cities at the Frontiers of Interaction 09 conference, held recently in Rome, Italy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicolatorpei/sets/72157619553939994/show/ Below is a video of the conference highlights, set to spaghetti western music:


Somewhat Related:
Note: Stephano Baraldi, one of Nicola Torpei's colleagues who worked on the TANGerINE project, worked for a while at a company called Natural Interaction, now part of iO. To read more about iO, take a look at Alessandro Valli's whitepaper, "Natural Interaction, iO"(pdf). Stephano Baraldi's prototype of the Sensitive Table is mentioned in this paper.

iO's Interactive Climbing Wall


(If you just happen to be interested in spaghetti western music, you can listen to it at Last FM: http://www.last.fm/tag/spaghetti+western Ennio Morricone is one of the top artists of this genre.)

Update on Interactive Mobile Phones: Sony Ericsson's Android Rachael; HTC Hero

Both Sony Ericsson and HTC have built upon Google's Android build to create new "user experiences" for mobile phones.



Sony Ericsson Rachael UI Video:


Related:
"Sony Ericsson "Rachael" Android XPERIA handset unveiled?"
(Paul Miller, engadget, 7/4/09)
Sony Ericsson's Android Rachael UI Makes Me Want to Ditch My iPhone
(Jesus Diaz, Gizmodo, 7/8/09)


"Make it Mine, Stay Close, Discover the Unexpected!" Personalization with HTC Hero Touch-enabled Smart Phone"



HTC recently launched the HTC Hero. I haven't had a chance to touch one, but it looks interesting enough to make a trip to my local mobile phone service provider and see how it works.

"HTC Hero launch event video featuring HTC Sense™ - an intuitive, seamless experience built upon three fundamental principles - make it mine, stay close, and discover the unexpected." -HTC

The two video clips below explain the rationale behind the HTC Hero and why the company thinks it is an important innovation:

PART I



PART II


A few quotes from the video:

"It begins with listening and observing people as they use their phone..."

"...there has been a fundamental shift in people's phone expectations..."

"People want to stay close with the important people in their lives, and have online information...Voice is key, but no longer enough...The SmartPhone is the New Phone, people no longer expect their Internet to be at their desks anymore. They expect it everywhere they are. The Internet is becoming the fundamental of the mobile phone. Access to web browsing, streaming media, and connected applications has taken off, and this is where Smartphone really excels. People really appreciate the experience..."

HTC Hero UI Video


Related:
HTC Debuts Hero, With Fresh Face for Android
(John Herman, Gizmodo, 6/24/09)
Google Android Info
"Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. The Android SDK provides the tools and APIs necessary to begin developing applications that run on Android-powered devices."

Cross-posted on the Technology Supported Human-World Interaction blog.

Haptics and Interactive Simulations

Following a link from Jonathan P San Diego, of London, I learned about Haptist, a user community for haptics researchers. The first thing I came across was "Simodont".

What is Simodont?

"Simodont is a high quality, high fidelity simulator allowing future dentists to be train in operative dental procedures in a realistic dedicated virtual environment while receiving haptic, visual, and audio sensory information".



"The haptics is based on the patented Moog admittance control paradigm. The use of a force sensor in the drill hand piece allows realistic rendering of drill and contact forces."

pdf brochure Simodont

pdf info about admittance control and impedance control

Food for thought:
Jonathan posted this quote of Marvin Minsky on his website:

"It often does more harm than good to force definitions on things we don't understand. Besides, only in logic and mathematics do definitions ever capture concepts perfectly. The things we deal with in practical life are usually too complicated to be represented by neat, compact expressions. Especially when it comes to understanding minds, we still know so little that we can't be sure our ideas about psychology are even aimed in the right directions. In any case, one must not mistake defining things for knowing what they are."

-- Marvin Minsky --
from The Society of Mind, 1985

Keeping up with technology: Journal for Computing Teachers latest articles.

The Journal for Computing Teachers (JTC) is an online publication of the Special Interest Group for Computing Teachers, which is part of the International Society for Technology in Education. Although most of the articles focus on K-12 education, I think they would be helpful to community college and university instructors as well, particularly those who might be graduate students charged with teaching introductory computing classes for the first time.

For your convenience, I've posted the links to the most recent JTC articles in PDF format below:

JTC Spring 2009

Peer Reviewed

Factors Influencing Technology Integration in the Classroom
Lynette Molstad Gorder, Dakota State University

Declining participation in computing education: An Australia Perspective on the “Gender and IT” Problem
Julianne Lynch, Deakin University

Designing a Computer-supported Project-based Learning Environment for High School Students: A Case Study
Quek Choon Lang, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technologies University

Trends, Tribes and Territories in Computer Science Education Research
Justus Randolph, Walden University
George Julnes, University of Baltimore
Erkki Sutinen, University of Joensuu

The Connection of Digital Media with Curricular Goals - Innovative Use of Digital Media Portfolios and Cultural Content in Standards-based German Project
Peter Schultz, Kennesaw State University

The Current State of Computer Science in U.S. High Schools: A Report from Two National Surveys
Judith Gal-Ezer, The Open University of Israel
Chris Stephenson, Computer Science Teachers Association

An Empirical Investigation of Visual Computer Programming Language Effects on HBCU Students’ Problem-Solving Capabilities
Mike Unuakhalu, Kentucky State University

From the Field (editor reviewed)

Analysis Techniques for an Online Class
Erlan Burk, Park University

Women and Computing
Barbara Ericson, Georgia Institute of Technology

Knowing the Flow: How Flowcharting Can Help Visualize Software Application Development
Joe Frantiska, Fitchburg State College

To End Reading Failure in America’s Schools
Bob Lemire, Lexia Learning Systems, Inc.

Picture This: Students find their Voice through Digital Storytelling
Lauren Cummins, Youngstown State University
Regina Rees, Youngstown State University
Kelly Bancroft, Youngstown State University

Announcements

Information Age Education Newsletter

Publish Post

Dave Moursund

JCT Editorial Review Board

Lonely Planet Travel App by Amnesia-Razorfish for the Surface

I came across this video on the Microsoft Surface blog about a demo created for Lonely Planet by Amnesia-Razorfish, from REMIX 2009 Australia this past June:


Lonely Planet proof-of-concept at REMIX Australia 2009

Following a link from the Surface blog, I found yet another video:



Design in the Round. Creating Compelling User Experiences for Surface

The video provides an overview of the history of human computer interaction and look towards the future of NUI (natural user interface). The Surface is viewed as only as a step towards NUI, which follows a person as they go about the day, interacting with technology via a variety of devices and settings.

"Designing for multi-touch, gesture-based and tangible experience like Microsoft Surface presents a new set of challenges. How do you design for a user interface that doesn't have a top? How to allow for multiple simultaneous users without them getting in each other's way?..."