Tom Barrett, a teacher, demonstrates Durham University's SynergyNet Multi-touch Networked Tables

"It is about how children can work together and communicate and how the multi-touch technology can facilitate this."




In this video, Tom Barrett demonstrates multi-touch networked tables, which were designed to be part of an immersive classroom environment. The multi-touch tables are the result of a collaboration between the Technology Enhanced Learning research group at Durham University and colleagues from the Education and Psychology departments.

Tom is a teacher and edublogger. Like me, he has a passion for multi-touch technology. He has been fortunate to have the chance to work with a SMARTTable in his classroom, and also compare the SMARTTable experience with the tables at Durham University, which were not from SMART Technologies.

Tom was one of the first teachers to have the opportunity to try out the SMART Table in his classroom. He was a bit disappointed with the outcome. Even so, he believes that multi-touch technology will be important in education in the future.

From Tom's point of view, there is a need to have more in-depth content for the SMART Table, even at the earlier grades. The following quotes are taken from Tom's "SMART Table in my Classroom- My Conclusions" blog post:

"In my opinion there are three things that contribute to this: poor content; poor creation software and a straight jacketed approach to multi-touch functionality...There seems to be too much residual SMART Notebook thinking and not enough innovative software design. Maybe the product has preceded the necessary thinking behind it all."

"The one shining ray of light that emerges from amidst this all is the Media application. I have posted videos of some of my children working with this program in the past. It remains the only application that offers teachers and children an open environment to learn, and couples it with a unique interface with media. When you use this application you actually feel like you are using something innovative, multi-touch, gestural driven. As a teacher there is the capacity to use rich content of your choice (video) and then layer on top questions that engage the children in a much deeper way"

RELATED

Flickr Group: Multi-touch Interactive Desk: Applications and Gesture Ideas

(Note: I have plenty of ideas for content and software design for multi-touch tables in education, and also cognitive and educational assessment. I'm only missing a table or two!)

Brainport Vision Device enables people who are blind see in 3D via tongue.

The best part of this video is when the man is able to play a games (tic-tac-toe & rock, paper, scissors) with is daughter as he uses the vision device:


(The father depicted in the video is Erik Weihenmayer, who is a professional mountaineer and motivational speaker. He's the only blind person to have climbed the "Seven Summits", the highest points on each continent.)

Photo courtesy of engadget

The system uses a head-mounted video camera which takes in visual information and translates it into electric patterns on a tab placed on the tongue in such a was that 3D representation is interpreted by the brain.



It should be noted that the BrainPort vision device is investigative and not yet available for sale.

RELATED

BrainPort Vision

Lollipop Helps Reveal Shapes To the Blind
Ibby Caputo, Washington Post, 7/21/09

Publications

(Also posted on the TechPsych blog)

What happens when engineers and musicians get together? They get Calvin Harris "Ready for the Weekend" with the Humanthesizer and Bare Ink

So what happens when engineers and musicians get a chance to mix it up?

The Humanthesizer project is the result of a collaboration between musician Calvin Harris, and masters students from the Royal College of Art Industrial Design Engineering program. What makes this project innovative is that a special conductive ink, called Bare Ink, was used to support the creation of the music.

From the Bare Conductive website:

"Bare is a conductive ink that is applied directly onto the skin allowing the creation of custom electronic circuitry. This innovative material allows users to interact with electronics through gesture, movement, and touch. Bare can be applied with a brush, stamp or spray and is non-toxic and temporary. Application areas include dance, music, computer interfaces, communication and medical devices. Bare is an intuitive and non-invasive technology which will allow users to bridge the gap between electronics and the body."

(Please overlook the bikini-clad women in the videos below, because the innovative technology supporting the Humanthesizer is worthy of the watch. Parents be forewarned!)

The Making of the Humanthezizer


Close to the finished version:



Information from YouTube regarding the Humanthesizer project:

"Calvin performs a version of his new single Ready For The Weekend on a unique human synthesiser. The instrument employs 15 bikini clad models painted with Bare Conductive, a new skin safe ink which conducts electricity. When the performers touch the connection completes a circuit, triggering a sound....The instrument consists of 34 pads on the floor which have been painted with the conductive ink and connected to a computer via some clever custom electronics. The performers stand on the pads, and touch hands to complete a circuit and trigger a sound. Different combinations of pads trigger the different sounds needed to play the track....Bare Conductive was developed by RCA students Bibi Nelson, Becky Pilditch, Isabel Lizardi and Matt Johnson. The custom electronics and software for the project were created by Matt Johnson, employing two Arduinos and the graphical audio programming tool Max MSP. The performers, floor pads, Arduinos and Max MSP combine to create a giant MIDI controller which is used to create music which is sequenced and quantized with Ableton Live." (Special thanks to: RCA / Bare Conductive - Bibi Nelson, Becky Pilditch, Isabel Lizardi, Matt Johnson - http://www.bareconductive.com)

(The Ready for the Weekend music video is available on YouTube. Parents: the music video has dancing girls throughout, in one-piece bathing suits.)

Thanks to Celine Latulipe for the link!

For Your 3D Web Browsing Pleasure: Video demos of Google's O3D, and links to the real thing.

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


Google O3D Developer Site

The following two links require the 03D Plug-in:

Google Trends Visualizer

Beach Scene Demo

SOMEWHAT RELATED:

Unity 3D Tropical Paradise

The Opposite of Interactive Media: The Pretty Loaded Archive of Preloaders (Are we really movin' up to HTML 5?)

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.

Things are changing.

Are You Ready for a Flash-Free Future: How HTML 5 and Open Video will Deliver a Faster, Plug-in Free Internet
Garrick Schmitt, Ad Age, 8/12/09

RELATED AND SOMEWHAT RELATED

HTML5 Canvas Experiment

HTML 5 Doctor

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..."

O3D Demos (Google Code Site)

Open Video Project

Open Video Player Initiative

Advancing Open Video

Seth Sandler's "Slider" Dynamic Multi-player Game using Reactivision + Flash

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."

Music: Waterdrops by Yohan Shin