Kathy Sierra's Awesome Words of Wisdom: Video from Business of Software (in a 2.0-3.0 world)

Is your product, service, or company awesome in the eyes of your beholders? Do you help foster "self-awesomeness" among your users, customers, readers, or audience?

The wisdom of a social media consultant won't sustain core innovation. In this video, Kathy Sierra talks about how to reverse engineer sustainable passion. What superpowers do you give your users? Watch the video to learn about a model that helps people get better. 

The video is about an hour, but worth your time:

RELATED
Kathy Sierra is involved with theCreating Passionate Users website, where the bloggers "are all facinated by brains, minds and what science can tell us about the practice of making users passionate about their lives and tools. She is one of the co-creators of the Head First books from O'Reilly. I first learned about Kathy Sierra when I was taking a Java programming class on-line, and needed more resources. She created the JavaRanch website,"a friendly place for Java greenhorns"

By the way, the Head First books are great resources for people who are tech-curious and have an urge to learn to code. I love Head First books and have several on my reference shelves.

Thanks to Lukas Mathis for the link.

"...People are not into your tool, they are into what the tool enables." - Kathy Sierra
"Make them smarter." - Kathy Sierra

Business of Software website
Head First Bloggers' Reading List

Gesture and object recognition on your kitchen counter: The Oasis Project demo from Intel Labs

Intel's Oasis system uses object recognition that triggers various applications that generate such things as shopping lists and recipes. The system can handle more than one item of food. It includes videos of how to prepare meals, a great feature for people just starting , or those who are learning to prepare healthier meals.

In my opinion, this sort of application would be useful to people with disabilities that affect memory.



(Previously posted on THE WORLD IS MY INTERACTIVE INTERFACE blog.)

Inside the 3D Industry with 3D Guy Al Caudullo

In my quest to keep up with the rapid evolution of 3D stereoscopic TV and related technologies, I had the opportunity to contact a couple of knowledgeable people, and even took a trip to my local Best Buy for a hands-on demo.The first source for information about all things 3D was Al Caudullo. Al, known as the 3D Guy, was happy to respond with words of wisdom to my questions about this topic....

For more of this post:   
Inside the 3D industry with 3D Guy Al Caudullo

RELATED

3D TV: Are we there yet? (Innovative Interactivity post)

3D Guy's Website
New system or new living room? Sony vs. Nintendo on 3D tech
Ben Kuchera, Ars Technica 7/1/2010

Reactable Live! at Sonar Barcelona 2010 - (You can see one at Discovery Place in Charlotte, NC.)

I like music technology. I like interactive, tangible table systems.  I like the Reactable!


To understand this system, see it in action!

Below is a video of Reactable Live!, Performed at Sonar Barcelona 2010 on June 18th. The music and performance is by Carles Lopez, and the video was by Marc Morera.

"Reactable in Concert by Carles López sounds like electronic house, minimal, electro, techno, idm, dnb…"

Here is a video of children playing with the Reactable, at Sonar Kids, Barcelona, 2009:



I recently learned that there is a Reactable in my hometown!
The Reactable Experience was installed at Discovery Place in Charlotte.  Discovery Place is the children's science museum for the metropolitan Charlotte, N.C. region. Below is a picture from the Discovery Place museum:


The Reactable is part of a new exhibition, "Think it up"  Here's the description from the Discovery Place website:

"The Reactable is a cutting edge electronic musical instrument merged with a visual experience. Special objects are placed on a translucent surface which trigger sound clips and audio modulation. The sound produced by the objects is represented visually on the surface, providing feedback and guidance for the creation of new music."


This version of the Reactable is for museums, science centers, schools, universities, and other public spaces.  It is an outgrowth of the original Reactable that was designed for musicians. This version is intuitive and invites people to share and create music collaboratively.


RELATED
Reactable Experience brochure (pdf)

Kids and and Tangible Tabletop Interaction: The NIKVision Project

NIKVision is an interactive tangible tabletop designed for young children, but suitable for "kids" of all ages. Javier Marco Rubio shared his team's work on the NIKVision system on the TechSpark website, and I thought I'd share some of the videos on this post. What I like about NIKVision is that the team encouraged the participation of children as design partners, which is a very special approach.

The NIKVision team is part of the GIGA Group, at the Computing Department of the Zaragoza University (Spain). The team collaborates with the ChiCI Group in the University of Central Lancashire, Preston (UK)



NIKVision Tangible Tabletop Demo

NIKVision Tangible Tabletop Demo from Javier Marco on Vimeo.


"NIKVision is a Tangible tabletop in which toys control the games. NIKVision has been created by Javier MMarco, from GIG Group in University of Zaragoza, Spain." http://webdiis.unizar.es/~jmarco
Researchers for this project included Javier Marco, Eva Cerezo, and Sandra Baldassarri.

NIKVision Toys & Games

NIKVision Toys & Games from Javier Marco on Vimeo.

NIKVision, highlighted in the news in Spain (in Spanish)

Cisco's Cius, An Ultra-Portable, Android-based Mobile Collaboration Business Tablet: Supports Real-time, HD Videoconferencing, and the "Cloud"

Here is a link to the post on The World Is My Interactive Interface blog - the post includes video clips and links to additional information from Cisco:

Cisco's Cius and Ultra-portable, Android-based Mobile Collaboration Business Tablet:  Supports Real-time HD Videoconferencing and the "Cloud"

The following pictures were taking from Jason Hiner's blog at Tech Republic:

Apparently the Cius has a docking station.


A nice, Facebook-like interface is OK with me.

I wonder if it comes with a make-up kit.  Everyone should look presentable viewed in "HD TV".