Thomas Hansen's Multi-Touch Wisdom: "Windows Touch vs PyMT - Why programming on Windows is too complicated!"

If you are interested in designing or programming multi-touch programs and like elegant, concise code, you'll appreciate Thomas Hansen's recent blog post:


Windows Touch vs PyMT:  Why multi-touch programming on Windows is too complicated!


Here is an excerpt from Thomas Hansen's blog post:


"If you read the rest of the blog post, I’ll show you what I mean about context, and why e.g.  Windows Touch makes life difficult if you want to program multi-touch.  I’ll show you how to rewrite a windows touch example project (5 C# source files and > 400 lines of code) in Python using PyMT (1 source file with 12 lines of code).  Yes 12 lines, you read correctly (and then there is the whole thing about it just running on Linux or OSX as well…but we’ll leave that for another blog post)."


At the end of his post, Thomas makes a comment that I think is worth considering:


"The interaction paradigm is so revolutionary, I think we need to adopt our development tools more to it and explore the interaction space.  Instead I think people are jumping the gun on trying to standardize the interface while using the development paradigms we used for the GUI."


Well said!


Thomas Hanson is a member of the NUI Group.  He is a graduate student at the University of Iowa, pursuing his PhD in Computer Science, specifically Human Computer Interaction.  

Chris O'Shea's Hand from Above Interactive Screen; Info about Interactive Architecture

A recent post on the Interactive Architecture blog was of artist Chris O'Shea's "Hand from Above" project, a joint co-commission between FACT (Foundation for Art & Creative Technology), Liverpool City Council for BBC Big Screen Liverpool, and the Live Sites Network.  The installation premiered during the Abandon Normal Devices Festival.


Hand from Above from Chris O'Shea on Vimeo. (Written using openFrameworks & openCV. Sounds by Owen Lloyd.)

"Just imagine walking through your town or city centre, watching yourself on the Big Screen, when all of a sudden a giant finger appears and starts to play with you!...Hand From Above encourages us to question our normal routine when we often find ourselves rushing from one destination to another. Inspired by Land of the Giants and Goliath, we are reminded of mythical stories by mischievously unleashing a giant hand from the BBC Big Screen. Passers by will be playfully transformed. What if humans weren’t on top of the food chain? Unsuspecting pedestrians will be tickled, stretched, flicked or removed entirely in real-time by a giant deity"

For more information about Interactive Architecture and related topics read the following post:


Interactive Architecture and Transdisciplinary Convergence...
(The World Is My Interface blog)

Techies: How to do Multitouch with Windows Presentation Foundation 4 using Visual Studio 2010

Here is the "how-to" video. I don't have WPF4 or VS2010, so I haven't tried this at home...yet.



I came across this video on Vinod Varma's Software Engineer's blog post, "Multi-touch programming getting simpler."


I'm sure I'm not alone in my present dilemma. I have a burning desire to experiment with multi-touch and Adobe's products, since I used to use Macromedia Studio quite a bit several years ago. Instead of learning ActionScript 3.0, I decided to learn C# and XNA Game Studio, and then went on to play with Windows Presentation Foundation, Expression Blend, and Silverlight.


And what about multi-touch web applications?!

Interactive micro-projectors for everyday life, from Light Blue Optics

LIGHT BLUE OPTICS: INTERACTIVE MICROPROJECTORS IN YOUR DAY-TO-DAY LIFE   -(The World Is My Interface blog)

IDPedia: Interaction Design Patterns for Games Library!

From the HelpYouPlay IDPedia (Interaction Design Patterns for Games Library) website:


"Design patterns are ways to describe best practices, explain good designs, and capture experience so that other people can reuse these solutions. The idea of a pattern was introduced by the architect Christopher Alexander for use in urban planning and building architecture, but since then a pattern community has emerged that specifies patterns for all sorts of problems. Interaction design patterns aim to capture optimal solutions to common usability or accessibility problems in a specific context. Typically best practices concerning interaction design are described as guidelines or heuristics. We consider interaction design patterns to be more descriptive than guidelines as it tells a designer exactly when, how and why the solution can be applied." 

Thanks, Barrie Ellis (One-Switch Games) for the link!


SOMEWHAT RELATED
Game Usability and Accessibility
Donate to the AbleGamers Fundraiser!
The funds will support the work of the AbleGamers Foundation, and donations are tax-deductible.

"The AbleGamers Foundation's mission is to empower the disabled population to enjoy the digital revolution that is taking place in gaming... We believe in harnessing the power of many people's voices to solve the problems of the not so few. The AbleGamers Foundation strives to bring together individuals from every lifestyle with a common goal of improving the lives of the disabled. Everyone has the right to enjoy the world, and together, we can make that possible. Together, we can make it possible for everyone to enjoy the rich content of digital entertainment with his or her friends and family regardless of disability."

Eelke Folmer's Human-Computer Interaction Research

Usability Patterns in Games (pdf)
Accessibility in Games and Virtual Worlds
Interaction Design Patterns

Eelke Folmer's presentation at the 2009 Games 4 Health Conference, Boston
Game Accessibility WorkshopG4H: game accessibility research @ University of Nevada, Reno

View more presentations from eelke folmer.

Jonathan Kessler's Hand Eye Technologies: Coordinating your cell phone with Interactive TV

Hand Eye Technologies is developing ways to use your smart-phone over remote control driven interaction.  Jonathan Kessler, the CEO of the company, was interviewed by Tracy Swedlow, of ITTV, about his background and his ideas for the future of interactive television.

Podcast Link:  Hand Eye Technologies Interview
Here is a video from the Hand Eye Technologies website:



If you happen to have an HIT-enabled mobile device, near an HIT enabled display, two-way communication is established, via a LAN, WiFi, or wireless 3G carrier. The mobile device's camera is used to manipulate things on the interface, and the set-box takes care of some of the rest.

Interactions include selecting text and objects, "drag and drop", insert/delete, inputting text or annotations, and drwing on the screen. Hand Eye offers a drawing application called Video Graffiti, and traces the movements you make when you move your mobile device.


"Hand Eye Technologies' mission is to create and communicate the premier software platform that enables mobile devices to interact with the digital world around them... any time, anywhere." - Hand Eye Technologies

"It is more about human-computer interface than remote control". -Jonathan Kessler


This looks like it is moving towards the next level of 2-way TV interactivity, much better than what the traditional remote control can do.

RELATED


Hand Eye Technologies Management Team
CNET – Hand Eye wants your smartphone to watch TV with you
Venture Beat – DEMO: Hand Eye Technologies lets your mobile phone watch TV with you 
TheWrap.com – Coming Soon: Real-Time Interactivity Between TVs and Smartphones
Ubergizmo -With Hand Eye Technologies, the TV show continues in your handset

Interactive TV Today
About InteractiveTV Today:
"Founded in 1998 by Tracy Swedlow and co-owned by Richard Washbourne, InteractiveTV Today [itvt] is the most widely read and trusted news source on the rapidly emerging medium of multiplatform, broadband interactive television (ITV). We provide concise, original coverage of industry developments, technologies, content projects, and the people building the business. Our readership is mostly made up of hundreds of thousands of executives from around the world."