Courier: Microsoft's "booklet" prototype: A cross between a netebook and a...what? Via Gizmodo

To see a visual walk-through of how the courier UI works:

Courier: First Details of Microsoft's Secret Tablet


The scoop from Gizmodo:

"Courier is a real device, and we've heard that it's in the "late prototype" stage of development. It's not a tablet, it's a booklet. The dual 7-inch (or so) screens are multitouch, and designed for writing, flicking and drawing with a stylus, in addition to fingers. They're connected by a hinge that holds a single iPhone-esque home button. Statuses, like wireless signal and battery life, are displayed along the rim of one of the screens. On the back cover is a camera, and it might charge through an inductive pad, like the Palm Touchstone charging dock for Pre."

Also from Gizmodo:


Leak:  Inside the Microsoft Store with Wall-Sized Screens and the Answers Bar

Impress: A cool flexible interface project by Silke Hilsing

Impress, a cool flexible interface project by  Silke Hilsing:


impress - flexible display from Silke Hilsing on Vimeo.

From Sike Hilsing's website:

"Impress is the deliverance of the touch screen from its technical stiffness, coldness and rigidity. It breaks the distance in the relationship of human and technology, because it is not any longer the user which is subjected to technology, but in this case the display itself has to cave in to the human. Impress is a chance of approach of user and technology, above all, from technology.


It is a matter of a flexible display consisting of foam and force sensors which is deformable and feels pleasantly soft. Impress works with the parameters position and time like other touch screens as well, but in addition to that, it reacts, above all, on the intensity of pressure."

The application was created with Aruino and Processing.






Thanks to Richard Van Tol for the link!

Nokia Research Center's Mixed Reality Concept Video

Nokia Mixed Reality- Nokia World


More info:
The World Is My Interface blog

Interactive Digital Art/Music at the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts

This video gives some background about the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, and also provides a glimpse of some interesting interfaces and interaction.


forward/slash: The Gray Area Foundation for the Arts Story from GAFFTA on Vimeo.


"Gray Area Foundation for the Arts (GAFFTA) is a San Francisco-based nonprofit dedicated to building social consciousness through digital culture. Guided by the principles of openness, collaboration, and resource sharing, our programs promote creativity at the intersection of art, design, sound, and technology. By making digital culture accessible, substantive and inspiring, we aim to help realize the greatest power of technology: to bring us closer, faster. For more information and how you can be a part of our vision, please visit gaffta.org"

Thanks to Seth Sandler for the link!

(This is a cross-post.)

The World Is My Interface

THE WORLD IS MY INTERFACE  is the new  title of my Technology-Supported Human-World Interaction blog.  The name was just too long!

The first post written under the new title has a variety of links about ubiquitous computing, off-the-desktop interaction design, use of technology in public spaces, and so forth.  There are a few links to scholarly research and related projects, too.

Engaged, Interactive, Collaborative: Microsoft Surface, Finguistics, and Churchend School in the UK - Watch the video!

Finguistics created educational applications for Microsoft Surface. Watch how engaged the students are in this video as they work in groups, and look at the excitement on the faces of the teachers!



The teachers and students have lots of positive things to say about it. Play = Learn

I would like to have the chance to convert my single-touch prototypes to multi-touch for use on the Surface or something similar, but for now, I'm happy with the newly-installed SmartBoards at my favorite school and the two existing Promethean boards, which are used to deliver interactive, rather than passive learning activities for students with multiple special needs, including autism.

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Under the Hood with Finguistics
Educators get Microsoft Surface!
(MSDN Academic Alliance subscribers now have access to the Surface SDK Workstation Edition)