I just noticed an interactive section of Lm3labs' website that demonstrates a range of interesting pictures that provide a nice overview of the company's work within the retail sector. Lm3labs has offices in France and Japan.
The company, run by Nicolas Loeillot, is also involved in non-retail projects, such as museum exhibits, focusing on "touch-less" interactivity. I've included a few pictures and videos below.
Microsoft's Photosynth on Lm3lab's touch-less Ubiq'window:
"Data has been declared sexy, and the rise of the data scientist is here." -Nathan Yau, Flowing Data I started following Nathan Yau's Flowing Data blog nearly 2 years ago, when I was in Robert Kosara's information visualization/visual communication class at UNC-C. What a great blog!
NOTICE I'm gathering information about good examples of user-friendly multi-user interactive information visualization applications, preferably on multi-touch or gesture-based systems. Leave a comment and a link if you can point me in the right direction!
"Digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising is a dynamic, fragmented, and rapidly evolving space. It's one of the fastest growing media channels, with year-over-year growth pegged in the double digits through at least 2011....as with many emerging media channels, DOOH is a bit of a gray area in terms of what type of agency should own strategy, planning, and buying. A traditional agency because TV spots can berepurposed? The OOH shop because it's just a digital version of a billboard? The interactive shopbecause it's digital, often interactive, and highly measurable? Or will a new class of DOOH specialtyshops emerge to deliver services explicitly for the channel? This lack of clarity creates uncertainty and hesitation in advertisers." -Jeremy Lockhorn, ClickZ 7/13/09 Digital Out-of-Home Landscape Brief (pdf)
This is an industry that is beginning to take off, just as internet-based advertising and web-design/user experience did during the 1990's. The number of players, and potential players, is growing.
Packard-Bell's EasyNote Butterfly Touch Edition The laptop has a screen size of 11.6 inches, and a 1366 x 768 screen resolution, running Windows 7 Home Premioum. Includes WiFi, microphone, VGA webcam, and has options for 3G, Bluetooth, a card reader, and HDMI i/o. Via Electonista, 12/23/09: Lenovo netbooks surface with Pine Trail, multi-touch Via Electronista, 12/23/09: 500,000 Nooks by March, New Orders due February
I was at Barnes & Noble yesterday and came across a touch-screen kiosk where customers could find out more about the Nook and put in their orders. There was a notice that said that the Nook would not be available until February. It must have generated some interest, since I noticed people surfing the information on the kiosk during the time I was there.
Via Electronista, 12/10/09: Dell Streak tablet due at CES? Dell Android tablet may debutSOMEWHAT RELATED I was reading a review from Engadget about Lenovo's Pine Trail tablet, and found one of the comments amusing. Manufacturers need to listen to the people, but often, they don't. Apparently the prototype had a glossy screen, which is something that might enhance the picture, but for some, has drawbacks.
Here is a comment by someone who calls himself "Old fogie late bloomer": "God... listen, manufacturers... I don't want to see my hands reflected in my screen, I don't want to see my fat gut reflected in my screen, I don't want to see my (admittedly handsome) face reflected in the screen, I don't want to see the people behind me reflected in my screen; all I want to see is what the screen is displaying! GO BACK TO MATTE!"
This article is a good read - it discusses business models in the tech industry, something that has puzzled me for a while.
Via Michael Gartenberg, Engadget 12/15/09 Entelligence: A Google hone could be the death of Android "Without a doubt, the big buzz since the weekend has been over the "Google Phone," an HTC-built device called the Nexus One handed out to Google employees last week in what Google describes as a "mobile lab." Confirmed to be running Android 2.1, the Nexus One has once again raised the idea of Google selling unlocked devices directly to consumers. (Google has been selling unlocked HTC Android phones for some time, but only to developers.)" -
Comment
I thought about getting a "Droid", since my family is locked into Verizon. That's why I never got an iPhone - but the Droid's sharp edges didn't feel very comfortable in my hand. After reading Creative Applications.Net's "15 Best and Must Have iPhone Apps of 2009", I want Santa to bring a few sleigh-fulls of iPhones to Verizon.
At the bookstore yesterday, I was pleased to see that there were all kinds of books about developing iPhone apps and games in the computer section!
I think I know why. Barnes & Noble and the iPhone friended each other!
According to Jennifer R. Bergen's ZDNET article about the Barnes & Noble iPhone app, "the coolest part of the app is that it allows you to use your camera to take a photo of a CD, book, or DVD cover, and then immediately receive product details, editorial reviews, and customer ratings, as well as find and reserve a copy."
Bergen goes on to further discuss the eReader app, which "offers iPhone/iPod touch users, as well as BlackBerry smartphone, and PC and Mac users, the ability to have instant access to more than 750,000 eBook titles. If you want to pay an extra $9.99, you can get hundreds of new eBook releases and eBook bestsellers. The app also allows you to modify the type, size, and font and annotate and bookmark text."
-Stephane Chatty, Benjamin Tissoires; Video by G. Tabart
Information from the YouTube video: "This video, shot by ENAC's Interactive Computing Laboratory, demonstrates how one can use out-of-the-box Linux applications with multitouch displays, using the lab's kernel drivers and modified X.org evdev driver. See http://lii-enac.fr/en/projects/shareit/xorg.html for technical details. This work was done during project ShareIT, carried out with Thales Avionics, IntuiLab and Stantum, and sponsored by Aerospace Valley. The ShareIT project explores the use of multitouch interaction for future commercial aircraft cockpits."
The multi-touch software shown in the video was created by IntuiLab. The Slate PC multi-touch hardware was built by Stantum. Later in the video, the software is shown running on a MERL DiamondTouch
