I have been a fan of Johnny Chung Lee since 2007 or 2008, before he finished his Ph.D in Human-Computer Interaction. Johnny went on to work at Microsoft (Kinect) and then Google, where he works as a Rapid Evaluator.
Johnny is known for his experiments with the Wii Remote, which he introduced to the world during a TED Talk in 2008. He continues to maintain his Procrastineering blog, and from time-to-time, uses his blog to share his take on the world of technology. The following quote is a good example of his viewpoint, taken from his post, "Technology as a Story":
"...what saddens me is when I encounter technologists with the brilliance to create new and wonderful things, but lack a sense of what is beautiful to people. Technology is most often known for being ugly and unpleasant to use, because technologists most often build technology for other technologists. ...But to touch millions of people, you have to tell a story - a story that they can believe in, a story that can inspire them. Technology is a tool by which new stories can be crafted." -
If Johnny Chung Lee thinks that this is "probably the most interesting code library" that he's had a chance to work with, it probably has some value.
Even if if you don't have a clue about the Ceres Non-Linear Lest Squares Solver, you might appreciate Johnny's examples of how would it would useful. In today's rapidly-accelerating technology-supported world, you just might need it in your future!
RELATED Johnny Chung Lee's Website Excerpt from a post I wrote about Johnny Chung Lee four years ago: I wish I could be Johnny Chung Lee for a Day! 3/2/08 I've mentioned in previous posts that I am a fan of Johnny Chung Lee, a Ph.D. student in the Human-Computer Interaction department at Carnegie-Mellon University. Johnny expects to complete his Ph.D this year. Johnny recently presented his innovative work at TED 2008.
What impresses me about Johnny is the way that he has documented his intellectual journey in a very accessible way, by using YouTube and his well-organized, appealing website. Johnny has taken interesting ideas that most would dismiss as silly or impractical, and transformed them into useful, usable applications that hold great promise for future work.
In my opinion, many of Johnny's "hacks" will spark ideas related to the design and development of universally designed technologies and applications that will meet the technology needs of a wider range of people. This is important, especially now that an increasing number of "connected" interactive displays and kiosks (known by the marketing industry as interactive digital signage) in public spaces.
One of my favorite things at CHI 2012 was the Interactivity sessions. I especially liked the Urban Musical Game, played with musical sports balls. I didn't want to stop playing!
This just might transform P.E. and recess.
Below is a version of the game from 2011 created for the Future en Seine festival by the Real-Time Musical Interaction team at the IRCAM, in collaboration with NoDesign, Phonotonic, and composer Andrea Cera:
The balls in the game contain wireless sensors, which trigger sounds and interactive music. It is supported by MO (Modular Musical Object) technology, and Max/MSP. Below is a video of the balls in action (in French).
Comment: This would be a great activity for the large therapy room at Wolfe, a program for students with significant disabilities (including autism), where I spend most of my work days as a school psychologist. I'd love to have it demonstrated in-person for students at the CATA (Central Academy of Technology & Arts), the high school I also serve, to inspire students about the creative aspects of technology.
I would also like to create my experiments with this sort of technology, based on a number of interesting ideas that have popped up in my mind over the past decade or so. I'm especially curious to know how this could work in environments that also have multiple large interactive visual displays....
How can I make it so? (Update: It is a small world. I looked up one of the people involved in the Urban Musical Game on Facebook and found that we share three mutual FB "friends".)
TED-Ed aims share the wisdom and knowledge of great teachers by providing educators with the opportunity to have their lessons transformed into videos enhanced by creative animators. The videos and lessons are available for learners all around the world, online. I'll share more about the TED-Ed concept in a future post.
Information from the TED-Ed website: "TED-Ed's videos aim to capture and amplify the voices of the world's greatest educators. To achieve this, we pair extraordinary educators with talented animators to produce a new library of exceptional educational videos. This website, similar to TED.com, is ever-evolving and we depend on you, the TED community, to nominate inspiring teachers that have touched your life or clever animators who have the skills to bring a gifted teacher's lesson to life." -TED-Ed
Below is the TED-Ed Website Tour introductory video:
RELATED TED-Ed|Lessons Worth Sharing(website) Flipped Learning Network "Flipped learning happens when the teacher’s lecture is delivered outside of the traditional class time, via a video students view on their own as homework. Class time is used for active problem solving by students and one-to-one or small group tutoring with the teacher. Students can watch the short lectures as many times as they wish to grasp the content and then come to class ready to jump into the lesson, answer questions, work on collaborative projects, and explore the content further. Teachers are embracing Flipped Learning in elementary and secondary schools for all disciplines" -Flipped Learning.
I've been following a number of people that have been working in the area of natural user interfaces and interaction for many years. An example of this work is NUITEQ, a company lead by Harry van deer Veen. Below is NUITEQ's most recent show reel of Snowflake Suite, an off-the-shelf multitouch SDK.
Here is the description of the software from the naturaluserinterface YouTube channel:
"NUITEQ's award-winning multitouch software product Snowflake Suite comes off the shelf with 30+ apps, a free SDK to develop your own multitouch software apps and its content is easy to customize. The solution is offers high performance, stability, quality and comes with dedicated support. Apps includes presentation, productivity and creativity tools as well as games. The software can be used in different scenarios such as corporate presentations, exhibitions, entertainment, education, public spaces, consumer electronics, retail and digital signage."
FYI: Tutorials about the user of Snowflake Suite can be found on the naturaluserinterface YouTube channel.
Harry van der Veen has been sharing his NUI journey journey since 2007 on his Multitouch blog.
