I went to the Google 03D website and played with the Google Trends Visualizer on my TouchSmart. The interaction with my hand as I rotated the globe was very smooth- I'll upload a video clip of the interaction soon.
I found the following videos on the Google O3D website. The videos provide a glimpse of the potential of 03D.
Google's O3D Beach Demo
Infinite Journey Game Demo, rendered in a browser using O3D
Disney/ABC's Visual Search Interface at Google I/O, rendered in a browser using 03D
According to a recent article by Garrick Schmitt, preloaders might become history in the very near future. Schmitt discusses HTML 5 and related topics, and included a link to the Pretty Loaded website, an archive of interesting web-site preloaders from our recent past - 2002 to 2009, to be exact. You can download a screensaver for PC or Mac from the site.
For more information, read Schmitt's article, and take also a look at the related links I've posted below.
Mozilla's Canvas Tutorial "canvas is a new HTML element which can be used to draw graphics using scripting (usually JavaScript). It can for instance be used to draw graphs, make photo compositions or do simple (and not so simple) animations. The image on the right shows some examples of implementations which we will see later in this tutorial..."
Seth Sandler, known for his MT Mini, an inexpensive DIY interactive multi-touch pad, is looking for input and ideas that will help him improve or enhance Slider, a game he created about two years ago. Take a look at the demo:
"This game uses reactivision software, along with Flash, to detect symbol fiducial block movements. The game is played by moving these symbols on a table. Players can enter and exit the playing field at any time. The game adapts to the number of players. The lower the score the better; the first player with a score of 12 ends the game. Future plans include: Projecting directly on the surface. Implementing multitouch so users can play with their fingers and objects instead of only object symbols."
I was looking for a drag-and-drop activity for students to use on interactive whiteboards (and also on my HP TouchSmart PC), and thought Mr. Potato head would be a good choice. My daughter linked me to something even better:Mr. Picasso Head, an on-line activity created by Ruder Finn Interactive, a few years ago.
"We are asking you to draw a small square image using software on our website. You don't need to be an artist or be able to draw - you can make patterns, write words, doodle - what-ever you want. Your image will be one of one million images that will make up the entire picture - The One Million Masterpiece.
You can choose to make your picture fit in with the surrounding pieces, or make it stand out, by using a preview feature that shows your image with the context of your neighbours. You can change your image at any time if you don't feel happy with it, and you can exchange messages with your fellow artists using our community pages."
If you join the One Million Masterpiece, you can a link to display a mini gallery of your favorite pictures that can be replayed on your Facebook profile.
If you have a NextWindow touch screen display, HP TouchSmart PC, or Dell Studio One PC, you might be interested to know that NUITech has upgraded their multi-touch software, Snowflake Suite. There is an evaluation download available on the NUITech website created for the NextWindow platform. (The TouchSmart and Studio One have NextWindow touchscreens.)
Here is a short clip of Snowflake 1.6 in action:
Snowflake Suite 1.6 provides users with an opportunity to change the standard content that is delivered with the software, which includes images, videos, 3D models, and backgrounds, so it can be customized according to need.
RELATED
Natural User Interface AB has adopted new branding and a new name, Natural User Interface Technologies AB, or NUITech.
Evaluation version of Snowflake Suite for NextWindow systems (including TouchSmart, Studio One)
Snowflake Suite running on multiple NextWindow 2150 overlays for 22-inch screens:
(The previous version of Snowflake, depicted in the above video, was a finalist for the 2009 Stevie Award, "Best New Product or Service of the Year- Media & Entertainment)
Singapore's Public Utility Board display, Singapore International Water Week, featuring NUITech systems and software.
Someone sent me an email about the jumpintotomorrow blog and I thought I'd share the link here.
I haven't had much time to really explore the site, but it looks like it has quite a bit of information about new and interesting technologies.
"jumpintotomorrow is a site that lists, features and promotes technology from all the corners of the world, provided by the product creators themselves – and it’s updated every single day...We’re technology aficionados, technology professionals, enthusiasts, academics and people who believe in and recognize the power of truly innovative ideas. The kinds of ideas that make us stop and say “you gotta see this.” Those are the ideas that have a way of reaching out and inspiring other breakthrough thinking. By listing, collecting and celebrating this kind of work, we hope it will reach out to others the way it reached out to us."
I first learned about Christopher Baker when I was taking an information visualization class. I was impressed by his work, My Map: A Self Portrait, which was created from his archive of 60,000 e-mails:
Baker's Murmur Study is a live visualization/archive of Twitter:
"One might describe these messages as a kind of digital small talk. But unlike water-cooler conversations, these fleeting thoughts are accumulated, archived and digitally-indexed by corporations. While the future of these archives remains to be seen, the sheer volume of publicly accessible personal — often emotional — expression should give us pause." -Baker
"HPVS (Human Phantom Vibration Syndrome) is a kinetic sculpture that considers the subtle, often-subconscious ways that mobile communication technologies shape our senses. The title references the recently discovered Human Phantom Vibration Syndrome -- a syndrome wherein mobile phone users become hyper-attentive to their mobile devices, often experiencing phantom ringing sensations even in the absence of incoming calls or messages. This work carefully orchestrates the vibrations of a collection of mobile phones to produce a familiar yet quietly-disturbing cacophony."
Hello World! or: How I Learned to Stop Listening and Love the Noise"An immersive video installation featuring over 5000 video diaries found on the internet."
"Hello World! is a large-scale audio visual installation comprised of thousands of unique video diaries gathered from the internet. The project is a meditation on the contemporary plight of democratic, participative media and the fundamental human desire to be heard." -Christopher Baker
"Christopher Baker is an artist whose work engages the rich collection of social, technological and ideological networks present in the urban landscape. He creates artifacts and situations that reveal and generate relationships within and between these networks. Baker recently completed his Master of Fine Arts in Experimental and Media Arts at the University of Minnesota. He is now the senior artist-in-residence at the Kitchen Budapest, an experimental media arts lab in Hungary. In his previous life as a scientist, Christopher worked to develop brain-computer interfaces at the University of Minnesota and UCLA." (taken from Christopher Baker's website)
Christopher Baker's Artist's Statement:
"My work is fundamentally concerned with the complex relationship between society and its technologies. Trained first as a scientist and only recently as an artist, my practice represents an uneasy balance of eager technological optimism, analytical processes, deep-rooted skepticism and intuitive engagement. Much of this practice is inspired by the interconnectivities – visible and invisible – present in the modern urban landscape. I am energized by the diversity of human expression that continuously activates our vast communication networks. I am awed by the scale and varied histories of the built environment and urban infrastructure. As technologists make daily promises to improve our lives by uniting these physical and digital worlds, I attempt to make work that examines the practical implications of our increasingly networked lifestyles. Primary to this task is an exploration of the ways we imagine and represent ourselves before (potentially massive) audiences and the ways we navigate and abide in public space. Thus, architecture and place figure heavily into my often site-specific practice. With these interests at heart, large-scale video projections allow me to create works that fuse existing physical spaces with more ephemeral digital elements, resulting in revelatory and sometimes disorienting forms."
Christopher Baker is currently a resident artist at Kitchen Budapest.
What is Kitchen Budapest?
"The spicy innovation lab Kitchen Budapest, opened in June 2007, is a new media lab for young researchers who are interested in the convergence of mobile communication, online communities and urban space and are passionate about creating experimental projects in cross-disciplinary teams"
"Research fields What happens to the net once it meets the urban space? How does private space relate to the saturating wireless networks? Where does user created content gain authority? How does our use of cities alter as we get more and more real time feedback of its dynamics? What makes a home smart? Street-smart?"
"We would like to rethink and remix the possibilities of new media in our everyday lives and to argument connections between new technologies and our society."
I am happy to live in a world where experimental artists can find places and spaces to grow and thrive!
This flight-tracker application for the Surface, looks fun to use. As I watched the video, I realized that it wasn't the application itself that I liked. It was the music that accompanied the video. The choice of music was from the 80's synth-pop band, Art of Noise Since I'm a music lover, the music got me thinking.
Wouldn't it be great if productivity/work-related applications like Flight Tracker could be developed to provide a means for incorporating a sound-track?
Several thoughts and ideas flashed into my mind:
Surface and related natural user interface/interaction (NUI) applications have the potential to transform routine, ho-hum work tasks into activities that are a bit more pleasant. Since people often listen to music while they work, it stands to reason that NUI productivity applications should incorporate a music component, at least as an option.
To support a user-centered music platform for NUI applications, the application could incorporate a "smart" music library within the system, with the capability of integrating music libraries and playlists from user's mobile devices, as well as the web, effortlessly.(Of course, there are privacy/security and firewall issues to address, but that is another story.)
Users could have a choice of listening to their own music playlists (including a shuffle option, selecting from a variety of presets, or go for something like the iTunes genius effect, listening to music generated from an algorithm that takes into account music preferences and user interaction with the productivity application over time.
Since many Surface/NUI applications are designed to support collaborative work and interaction between two or more people, the music situation could get a bit complicated, since people have differing tastes. If co-workers disagreed about the music selection, the program would automatically default to generic elevator music, or silence.
NUI applications might even pave the way for a new genre of music. This concept isn't too far-fetched. Think of all the music we've come to love over the years that was composed for movies and even video games!
If you know of anyone that is working on this concept, or would like to collaborate with me sometime in the future on this concept, please let me know. I'm slowly working on an interactive timeline prototype, and I have some ideas about adding a music/sound track component.
RELATED Art of Noise - Close To The Edit (Version 1):
(Credit: CNET News) Ina Fried, in a recent CNET Beyond Binary post, recently reviewed her experience playing Ricochet, a 3D game developed by Microsoft for Natal, the company's new gesture-recognition, controller-less Xbox gaming system. Above is a screenshot from Fried's article, Exclusive: Getting up close and personal with Natal: Here is the video:
Ina Fried had a chance to spend some time in Redmond, Washington to explore the games in development at Microsoft, and hang out with the people responsible for Project Natal.
In her Beyond Binary article, Fried notes that the Ricochet game provides quite a workout, and this has had a positive effect on the Natal team: "Since I started working on this project, I've lost almost like 10 pounds," said Kudo Tsunoda, general manager of Microsoft Game Studios and the creative director for Project Natal. "We're going to have the most in-shape development team you've ever seen."
Foursquare is a locative-mobile system/game/social media game/activity that is starting to grow in popularity in a number of urban settings, such as NYC. It hasn't arrived in Charlotte, so I can only share what I've gleaned about it from the Foursquare website and a few reviews:
"We're all about helping you find new ways to explore the city. We'll help you meet up with your friends and let you earn points and unlock badges for discovering new places, doing new things and meeting new people." "It's foursquare! Think: 50% friend-finder, 30% social cityguide, 20% nightlife game. We wanted to build something that not only helps you keep up with your friends, but exposes you to new things in and challenges you to explore cities in different ways. There's a lot of experimenting here, so bear with us as we try to figure it all out (and thanks!)" "We have an iPhone app, a mobile-web site (Blackberry! Treo!) and an SMS shortcode (50500) that you can text check-ins to. For more info, look here." (For more information, visit the Foursquare NYC website.)
"Foursquare is poised to be a prime player in the location-based social networking space."
Forsquare: Why it May Be the Next Twitter(Jennifer Van Grove, Mashable, 7/25/2009) "The Game: To those of you not playing, it may sound like a joke, but don’t knock it till you try it. You earn points for every check-in — unless of course you check-in at the same locale all the time. You’re rewarded with more points for being adventuresome (exploring different parts of the city), for hitting up multiple spots in one night, and eventually for the tips other people try and the to-dos you complete."
Screen-shot from Jennifer Van Grove's Foursquare App:
"Co-founder Dennis Crowley puts it this way: "I think Foursquare found some kind of sweet spot between the intersection of social utility (Hey, I know where my friends are), sharing/oversharing (I log everywhere I go/everything I do) and gaming/rewards (every check-in gives you a little piece of candy)."
Foursquare is designed with these game dynamics in mind, and it's the absurd appeal of its reward that makes the service so "sticky.""
Kiosks have been around for a while, but with the increase interest in anything "touch", it looks like business is going well. As you can see from the pictures below, there has been a push to innovate the design and function of the utilitarian kiosks we've come to love (or hate) over the years:
As you can see, kiosks are multiplying and finding homes in all sorts of places. One example is TouchMate's SchoolDefender kiosk, designed for K-12 settings:
"TouchMate’s SchoolDefender is an interactive touch-screen kiosk system designed for use by K-12 schools to implement Visitor Management policies. After the visitor registers, the kiosk provides a stick-on badge that shows his name and picture, what areas of the school he may visit and when the badge expires."
You can even read the news on a touch-screen kiosk. Forget about newspapers or your Kindle!
Here are some kiosks featured at IBM e-business centers, created by Imaginary Forces in collaboration with Design Office:
Note: Design Office is now known as Jason King Associates, as George Yu, Jason King's partner, passed away, sadly, at a young age. George Yu was highly regarded as a pioneer in the field of digital architecture.
"On his own, and in partnership with Jason King, Yu completed more than 65 projects, many of them for companies involved in new media and innovative design technologies. This felicitous pairing of clients and architect meant that each could learn from and teach the other. For example, in a trio of “e-business centers” for IBM, located in Chicago, New York City, and Atlanta, Yu and King—whose firm was called Design Office—designed a conference table that used projected images and interactive technologies developed by IBM. In a more recent project, the Honda Advanced Design Studio in Pasadena, California, Yu borrowed an innovative fabrication technology from the automotive industry and used it to create a sensuously curved interior wall."
The above picture shows Viacom's MTV screen located in NYC's Times Square, linked to the web. User-generated text messages and photos can be submitted by mobile phone or the web, and displayed for 5 minutes an hour. Email notifications are sent to the senders when messages and/or photos have been approved and are on the giant screen.
"Wiffiti publishes real time messages to screens in thousands of locations from jumbotrons to jukeboxes, bars to bowling alleys and cafes to colleges.You can interact with Wiffiti from your mobile phone or the web."
"Wiffiti 4 by LocaModa has been used at thousands of large-scale events (concerts, gallery openings, corporate conferences, nonprofit fundraisers, several major inauguration events, South by Southwest, and political conventions -including both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions). It is also used extensively in digital signage networks ranging from huge jumbotrons in Times Square to thousands of screens in bars, cafes, schools, entertainment centers and even churches! We've used our deep understanding of user experience in digital out-of-home, web, and mobile to distill your feedback and requests for new features into this latest release."
JUMBLI
"The game is displayed several times per hour on Clear Channel’s Spectacolor screen in New York’s Times Square, located at 48th Street and Broadway. When Jumbli is livein Times Square, all other connectedscreens (including those on iPhones and inFacebook) indicate that the game is live in Times Square, and all plays made during that period are displayed in real-time on the Spectacolor Jumbotron, giving players one of the world’s most prominent screens for their plays."
"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.
PookyTouch- Enabling Multi-Touch in Mozilla Firefox- A good demonstration of what the Pooky Firefox plugins can do. (Thanks, Maarten for the info- the people in the video are speaking in Dutch, not German, as I'd previously guessed.)
Here is the information from duskmage's YouTube channel: "PookyTouch enables the use of Multi-Touch events in HTML (or XUL) pages in Mozilla Firefox. PookyTooth enables the use of bluetooth in webpages. For more information, downloads and some hands-on Multi-Touch experience, please view our website athttp://pooky.sourceforge.net/"
According to Lichtman, "telepresence is the science and art of creating visual collaboration environments, networks, and strategies that duplicate in-person meeting experiences as completely as possible in both internal and external business communications. Effectively leveraging telepresence as an organizational and collaborative strategy can improve productivity and effectiveness by enhancing business communication, collaboration, and reducing physical travel." (I'm a bit short on time today, so for more information regarding telepresence, take a look at the various links I've posted on this page.)
Here are a few items from Lichtman's post:
Musion Announces First Live Transatlantic Interactive 3D HologramPublic Broadcast
