CONCAVESCREAM: Soundtrack for a book interactive music and visuals,nice and relaxing on a touch screen!

I found a link to an interesting audio-based interactive website today. The Concave Scream "Soundtrack for a Book" is a promotional website for the band's new album of the same name. I never heard of this band before, but I'm impressed with the touch screen interactivity that the website provides!

It was awarded the FWA (Favorite Website Award) earlier this year.

 

Stantum's Mobile Phone Multi-touch Interface: Demonstration of Precise Interactions on a Resistive Touch Screen

For more information, read Paul Miller's article (Engadget), Stantum's mind-blowing multitouch interface on video!



Paul Miller says:

"The PMatrix multitouch firmware allows for unlimited inputs, detection of any contacting object (a finger, a stylus or even a paintbrush) and pressure sensitivity. We played with the demo unit for a bit and were frankly blown away, it's far and away the best touch experience we've ever seen or felt, and the multitouch functionality is just gravy on top. Stantum is targeting resistive touchscreens because they're still considerably cheaper to build than capacitive ones, and from our perspective there seems to be zero tradeoff -- for sensitivity and accuracy this destroys everything else we've seen on the market, capacitive or not."

How it works:  Tech Specs from Stantum:

PMatrix: The unparalleled Multi-Touch IP core and detection firmware (pdf)


"PMatrix™ is the most powerful software engine for Multi-Touch technology. It runs as a chip firmware or software on controllers orany embedded processing devices. PMatrix scans and delivers an exact representation of what’s happening on the touch-panel. The Multi-Touch driver dynamically updates the cursor list, enabling any application to control the Graphical User Interface objects."

Stantum's rational behind the company's choice of using resistive rather than capacitive touch technology:

Why resistive? :
In comparison to capacitive sensing, resistive technology brings :

• Versatility : it detects fingers, gloves, stylus and any contact object
• A lower solution cost
• Lower power consumption
• Faster scanning rate
• Lower overall latency
• Precision is linear (same in the center and at the borders)
• Performance is not affected by the size of the touch-panel or the number of touches
• Transparency and soft touch enabling user experience equivalent to the best capacitive touch-panels

I'll update this post when I have more information!


RELATED

For in-depth, detailed information about resisitive multi-touch technology,  read the following posts via Touch User Interface:

How the Stantum's Resistive Multi-Touch Screen Works 
Pressure Sensitive Multi-touch Surfaces

Interactive Light and Dance Installations using Flexible OLED's: You Fade to Light

Dance and Interactive Light Installation: You Fade to Light/ edit 1 (rAndom International, Kristin Knappstein, Royal Philips Electronic' Luminblade team)

You Fade To Light / edit 1 from rAndom International on Vimeo.

"Lumiblade OLED's are large area diffuse light sources made from extremely thin glass and feature a perfect mirror finish. OLED's are very close to the quality of natural light."

Installation and Art Direction by rAndom International
Choreography: Laïla Diallo in collaboration with Khamlane Halsackda
Performance: Laïla Diallo and Khamlane Halsackda
Film Production and Director of Photography: Mark Purnell at Hogarth Worldwide
Related versions can be found on the rAndom International Vimeo site.
Photos of the making of You Fade to Light


Chris O'Shea created the software for You Fade to Light using C++, openFrameworks, and openCV.  There was a hidden camera embedded in the installation that generated video for the software to process and also generate video files as output. The hardware drivers were created by rAndom International and through the software, controlled the brightness of each OLED.

Chris is the author of the Pixelsumo blog, and also is behind This Happened, a "series of events focusing on the stories behind interaction design",  with the purpose of encouraging interaction designers to become more open in their methods and ideas. 

For more information about interactive OLED, read the NY Time's article:

Panels of Light Fascinate Designers
Eric A. Taub, New York Times, 9/6/09


Thanks to Celine Latulipe for the link to the NY Times article!

Multi-touch, multimedia, multi-modal: Fujitsu LIFEBOOK T4310 has a multitude of possibilities!

Multi-touch, multi-media, multi-modal... the Fujitsu LIFEBOOK T4310 looks like it provides multiple possibilities for people from all walks of life:

-GestureWorks

The LIFEBOOK T4310 comes with an integrated web cam and fingerprint reader, and a variety of I/O options, including HDMI, USB, Firewire, BlueTooth,  LAN, analog video output, SD card reader, line in/out, a wireless switch for the integrated 3G and UMTS, and an express card reader. There is an optional modular bay that can accommodate an additional drive or battery.


The fun part is that the Fujitsu LIFEBOOK T4310 hands-on comes with Microsoft's Touch Pack applications, which are demonstrated in the video below:

• Microsoft Surface globe
• Surface Collage
• Microsoft Rebound touch game
• Surface Lagoon screensaver, which provides a water-ripple effect and little fish that respond to touch interaction.

As demonstrated in the video, the LIFEBOOK supports gesture interaction, multi-touch interaction, stylus interaction, and traditional keyboard interaction. The capacitive display has a bi-directional hinge, allowing it to be turned 360 degrees, and also positioned so that the display can be set facing up horizontally over the keyboard. (This feature would be welcomed in educational settings, if the notebook was used in education settings, as it could support paired and group collaborative learning activities.)


What I like about the LIFEBOOK is that it has an integrated ambient light sensor, which automatically adjusts the brightness of the display according to the level of light in the environment. This feature is important for people like me who are on the go and must use their computing devices under a range of lighting conditions.


I would love to get my hands on the Fujitsu LIFEBOOK T4310 for a month and test the system in-depth in my day-job as a school psychologist, and in my leisure pursuits as a UX/designer/developer/musician/gamer/etc,  "hobbyist".


Can anyone make this dream come true?


RELATED:
Fujitsu's multitouch LIFEBOOK T4310 tablet makes quick work of Microsoft's Touch Pack 
(Paul Miller, Engadget, 9/6/009)
Microsoft Touch Pack Gallery (Engadget)
Engadget's Reader Comments


I visited Fujitsu's website to gather additional information, and found a couple of press releases in German:


IFA 2009:  Fujitsu setzt auf Fingerspitzengefuhl und prasentiert  Notebook mit Multiple-Touch-Function (pdf)


Here is the press contact:


Fujitsu Technology Solutions
Melanie Wolf, Senior PR Manager
Tel.: + 49 (0) 89 62060 4458, Mobile: + 49 (0) 171 33 42 882,
Melanie.wolf@ts.fujitsu.com

Oblong's g-speak Spatial Operating Environment: Gesture interaction, massive datasets, film production, and more.

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

What is g-speak?


From the Oblong website:  "Spatial semantics at the platform level"

"Every graphical and input object in a g-speak environment has real-world spatial identity and position. Anything on-screen can be manipulated directly. For a g-speak user, "pointing" is literal."


"The g-speak implementation of spatial semantics provides application programmers with a single, ready-made solution to the interlocking problems of supporting multiple screens and multiple users. It also makes control of real-world objects (vehicles, robotic devices) trivial and allows tangible interfaces and customized physical tools to be used for input."


"The g-speak platform is display agnostic. Wall-sized projection screens co-exist with desktop monitors, table-top screens and hand-held devices. Every display can be used simultaneously and data moves selectively to the displays that are most appropriate. Three-dimensional displays can be used, too, without modification to application code."

Origins of Oblong

g-speak was born at the MIT Media Lab, and Oblong was started in 2006. The work behind g-speak's gestural I/O began over 15 years ago. For more information, read g-speak in slices.

Oblong developed Tamper over the g-speak system as a prototype for film production. Below is the demo.  At 0:08, sketches of the gestures used in g-speak are displayed in the video.



I hate wearing gloves, but I'd gladly put them on to play with the system for a few days!

Interactive Memorabilia at the Hard Rock Cafe: Microsoft's Multi-touch Rock Wall, Companion Surface Installations, and Awesome Touch-Responsive Interactive Memorabilia Website.

UPDATE: Video of Hard Rock Cafe's Memorabilia Multi-touch Wall



I came across the updated Hard Rock Cafe website and found that it provides an awesome interactive experience!  Visitors can explore the extensive Memorabilia collection in detail. This site is almost ready for inclusion in my UX/Interactive Hall of Fame!

According an article posted on the Hospitality Technology website, ""Tech, Love, and Rock 'n' Roll,  the website was built using Silverlight, and is part of an initiative to expand the reach of the Hard Rock Cafe's extensive memorabilia collection.

"It all started last year with what we call 'Memo 2.0,'" [for memorabilia 2.0] and the rollout of Microsoft's new Silverlight (www.silverlight.net) technology, explains Joe Tenczar, senior director of technology and CIO for Hard Rock International. Silverlight is a web application framework, similar in scope to Adobe flash, that lets companies build custom apps. Hard Rock partnered with its brand agency Duncan/Channon (www.duncanchannon.com) and software developer Vertigo (www.vertigo.com) to create a custom Silverlight application for www.hardrock.com."


Below is a video of the website when it was still under development, unveiled during a MIX08 keynote:


The website is a companion project that is part of a bigger vision that includes an 18-foot interactive multi-touch wall that mirrors the Memorabilia website.  The article goes on to mention that the "Rock Wall can be used by one person to blow up a piece of memorabilia as large as the screen, or optimized for six different user experiences at one time, though the technology has been tested for responsiveness to hundreds of simultaneous touches. "Imagine seeing Bob Dylan's Harley at more than life size; big impact," says Tenczar....Rock Wall uses a single piece of Stewart projection glass, custom-made at the factory for Hard Rock, along with three Christie projectors, numerous lasers, and multiple IR cameras to create a unified projection and touch experience. "The graphics are driven by a Nvidia Quadro Plex and there are two other dedicated servers for localized content and physics. I have seen a lot of cool technology, but this still makes my jaw drop whenever I see it in person." And the technology is smart. "If I walk up to the screen, it will blow up where I am."
 
According to information from the Hard Rock Cafe's press release, the interactive wall was created by Obscura Digital, a company located in San Francisco, along with Technomedia Systems was also involved in this project.  Here's a quote from the press release:

"We were excited to work with Hard Rock on this revolutionary project," said Obscura Digital CEO Patrick Connolly. "This is the longest, largest and most technologically sophisticated multi-touch wall we’ve built. It utilizes our newest Fireframe technology, and the result is the highest resolution, seamless multi-touch display we have ever seen. We are delivering a 6000 x 1000 pixel display, so that multiple users at a time can enjoy the vast Hard Rock Memorabilia collection in stunningly high resolution. With this display, customers can literally zoom so deep into the images, that things like a scratch on Buddy Holly's glasses can be seen 3 feet wide. The graphic quality of this system is something the public has never seen, and the impact on the customers is something they will not soon forget." 
Hard Rock Cafe Multi-Touch
In addition to the website and Rock Wall, booths at the Hard Rock Cafe provide customers with access to music videos from a video distribution server, or VDS, created by Coleman Technologies.  Each booth's touch screen display terminal has its own computer, and this allows guest control over the music videos that are played at the cafe.  Content from the memorabilia system can be explored by customers right from the booth, from what I understand.

Microsoft's Surface tables were installed in the cafe, running a custom application created by Vertigo. that allows customers to interact with a spinning globe to locate and explore other Hard Rock Cafe's around the world.





Memorabilia Website UX:

Unfortunately, I am not in Las Vegas, so I haven't had a chance to interact with the Hard Rock Cafe's Rock Wall or any of the Microsoft Surface installations, which are the centerpiece of this project.

Not to worry. The companion Hard Rock Cafe Memorabilia website, experienced from the comfort of my home on an HP TouchSmart PC, provides a great user experience, even thought it is not fully optimized for touch navigation.

One of the things that I like about the site is that it uses Microsoft's Deep Zoom feature. When you zoom in, you can explore each photo without sacrificing resolution, and explore everything in minute detail.

If you want to try your hand at touch navigation, you will be pleasantly surprised, even though you will have to rely on your mouse at times. To zoom in, tap the initial presentation screen, and use your fingertips to pan around. What you touch and release won't go flying about the screen, which is a good thing.

If you lightly tap an item of interest, you will get a translucent information box on the right side of the screen. The information box might include video clip of an interview with a musician, a story, and a means to share the experience through embedding a widget on your website or blog, posting a link, or emailing a link.

After poking around the site using Firefox, I switched to Internet Explorer, turned the zoom setting to 125%, and had no difficulty using my right index finger to navigate through the information box. (It was more difficult to do this using Firefox.)

The directions for traditional navigation are simple:

"Turn on, zoom in, zoom out. Use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out. You can also zoom in by clicking and zoom out by shift-clicking. To pan, click and drag."

Featured artists on the Memorabilia site include The Who, The Beatles, James Brown, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Guns N'Roses, Buddy Holly, Madonna, Motley Crue, Elvis Presley, Queen, and The Rolling Stones. You can sort the main presentation page by artist or year, and explore the collection by artist, type of item, genre of music, decade, and location.

This website provides an interactive, user-friendly means of exploring the history of rock music. (It would be cool if the site offered some form of interactive sound track.)

I'm impressed.

I embedded the widgets below from the Memorabilia site. I wasn't sure exactly what might turn up. The interactive widgets, created with Silverlight, went beyond my expectations.  You can explore the content right from this post, if you have Silverlight installed:





I shot some HD video of my touch interaction of the website and will post the videos as soon as I can. For now, take a look at some of the screen shots:

Main portal:



















Eric Clapton's Guitar and Backstory:

Screen shot of memorabilia sorted by type - instruments:

Zooming in:



















Screenshot of Gibby Hayne's art:




















Detail of one of Madonna's decorative costumes: