They didn't have this on the Veendam when I was on the cruise! This video doesn't show anything new or exciting if you are familiar with tabletop/multi-touch/gesture based computing. I'm sure it will be eye opening to the average cruise ship passenger.
Press Release: Seattle, Wash., December 7, 2009 — "As part of its ongoing Signature of Excellence enhancements, Holland America Line will install five Microsoft® Surface® units in Mix, its newest lounge venue with three specialty bars — Martinis, Champagne, and Spirits & Ales. Already in full operation on ms Veendam, Mix and Surface units will be completed on ms Rotterdam by mid-December, followed by three additional ships."
"An exciting new entertainment space, Mix is a destination lounge where guests can meet and mingle throughout the day and night. Mix is an open and inviting space anchored by a pianist providing entertainment for the three distinctly themed specialty bars."
I've been meaning to devote a few more posts about the new screen technologies as multi-purpose netbooks become available. In my opinion, this technology will change the way we access all sorts of interactive media, including news and entertainment.
In this post, I feature Mary Lou Jepsen, an engineer who is the inventor of Pixel Qi technology. During the first quarter of 2010, there is a possibility that a few Pixel Qi screens will become available to the DIY community. The first units will be multi-touch. Pixel Qi will be at the January CES in Las Vegas.
Mary Lou has worked on the screen technology found in One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project, and her work has resulted in affordable net-books and laptops. According to information from the Pixel Qi website, "Mary Lou founded Pixel Qi Corporation in 2008 and is its CEO. Previously, Mary Lou has founded 4 companies, served as a professor at RMIT (Australia) & MIT, and in executive management at Intel Corporation. Mary Lou holds a Ph.D. in Optical Sciences, a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a B.A. in Art (req.) all from Brown University as well as a Master of Science (in Holography) from the MIT Media Lab.".
Mary Lou Jepsen, an engineer, tests out "e-paper" content in the sunlight and in the shade on three screens. In the following video, the E-ink Amazon Kindle, an Acer Pixel Qi 3Qi LCD netbook, and a Toshiba transflexive R600 laptop are compared. At 4:20, Jepsen discusses touch and remarks that there are new touch technologies that might work. (The content on the resistive touch screen that was on hand during the video was difficult to see.)
Mary Lou Jepson demonstrates the Pixel Qi screen in her home lab/laundry room on the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child). Jepson is focused on making screens that everyone can use.
Mary Lou Jepsen Answers User Questions
Comparison Chart (from the Pixel Qi website)
Pixel Qi is working on a design of a sub-10 watt HDTV that can run on a minimal power supply, including a battery that can be charged with a crank or solar pane.
Technology is changing our world, and in some fields, more so than others. For professional newspaper journalists, things are pretty bleak, as web-based news content is stamping out much of what has been held dear to the heart in traditional press rooms. Newspaper companies are folding and great journalists have lost their jobs.
Is there hope for the future?
Journalists who have digital media skills are voicing their views about this phenomenon as the profession moves to reinvent itself. There is much to discuss, since the number of folks with Smartphones and access to web-based news content on-the-go increases each day.
The first post I'm sharing was written by Colin Mulvany, who works as a multimedia producer at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington. He began his career is a still photographer, but changed gears and transitioned to his present role creating content for his paper's on-line website.
Colin Mulvany is the author of the Mastering Multimedia blog. His blog post, Will the touch tablet save professional journalism?, provides an overview of changes in journalism and links to related on-line articles about the topic. What I liked about Mulvany's post is his vision of how the transition from newspaper to the digital world might play out in the near future.
It all centers around the touch-tablet that is paired with the newspaper. So how will this make money? Mulvany has a few ideas. One of his suggestions involves improving the navigation of newspaper websites, and providing content and layout that the reader can customize for interaction with the tablet.
The second article, The End of Hand Crafted Content, written by Michael Arrington at Tech Crunch, points out how on-line news content is like "fast food", generated by blogs and aggregators. Arrington discusses how the same content is written and refashioned and written, and the true creators of the content (real journalists!) are not often noted...or noticed.
Arrington provides good links on his post. If you have time on your hands, take time to read it, and also browse through the numerous comments posted by readers. Although I rarely am inspired to comment on an on-line post, in this instance, I did so. My comment is buried in there somewhere!
RELATED Minority Report Scenes: 3D ads at the mall, subway scene with USA-Today e-paper (updated with video in "real time")
The holographic ads in the Minority Report mall scene begin at 0:28. The subway scene with the USA Today 3-paper begins at 1:27. (Mulvany has a similar video on his post.)
Holographic Ad at a Canadian Mall: "Living Poster"
Professor Patrick Baudisch and his student researchers at the Haaso Plattner Institute in Germany have focused on Human-Interaction for a quite a while. One look at the research project page of Dr. Baudisch says it all. Over the past few years, the human-computer interaction (HCI) teams at Hasso Plattner have explored multi-touch and tangible computing, with very interesting results.
Take a look at the following video from Design Boom's YouTube Channel, and follow the related links for more information!
Lumino Team: Professer Patrick Baudisch, Torsten Becker, Frederik Rudeck Human Computer Interaction, Hasso Plattner Institute "The Human Computer Interaction group headed by Prof. Dr. Patrick Baudisch is concerned with the design, implementation, and evaluation of interaction techniques, devices, and systems. More specifically, we create new ways to interact with small devices, such as mobile phones and very large display devices, such as tables and walls."
I just downloaded and tried eViacam, an open-source head mouse software, and found it to work accurately and smoothly. I used the software on my HP TouchSmart PC, which has an embedded video camera. eViacam also works with USB webcams. You can download eViacam from Sourceforge. It is released under the GNU/GPL license.
Although this software is very useful for people with disabilities such as cerebral palsy and ALS, it looks like it could be useful for anyone. For example, the software can track your finger as you move it in the air, and it comes with an on-screen keyboard that you can turn on or off.
By the way, one of the videos I watched on YouTube was of someone playing a game with this system. I'd like to know what games it could support!
How to Control Your Mouse with Your Head (Face) Or Your Finger
eViacam's future most likely will depend on donations, as this software was developed to enhance the lives of people with disabilities. You can donate to eViacam using PayPal.
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Cesar Mauri Loba, eViacam Researcher CREA Sistemes Informatics "eViacam is being developed using wxWidgets and opencv1 and runs on Linux and MS Win."
