I haven't had a chance to play with the Kurio, a 7 inch Android tablet designed for children and their families, so I haven't formulated an opinion about the device, or the applications that it runs. I thought I'd share the promotional video and related information/links:
Kurio Tablet from CIDE on Vimeo. Parents can view a number of "how-to" videos to get the tablet up and running. Developers can apply to be part of the Kurio store. From what I can see, the Kurio is in need of some creative, child-friendly apps. Below is a hands-on demo:
My grandson is nearly 22 months old and loves it when I visit with my "pad pad". Here is a sneak preview:
Although I have no intention of becoming the 21st Century Piaget of interactive technology for children, I plan to share some of my observations in a systematic way sometime in the future.
Joshua Mauldin, founder of Invisible Interface & Awesome Gifs, and app creator/manager for The Business Journals, gave a talk about best practices in touchable mobile design at a recent Charlotte User Experience meet-up. I especially liked his use of clips from Arrested Development to remind us of the wide range of emotional responses people get when they use technology, good or bad. (Take a moment and look over the slides for the meat of Joshua's talk.)
(Photo by Brad E.)
Slide-share of Joshua Mauldin's Mobile Design Best Practices talk:
The event was hosted by MyJive, located at the NC Music Factory. I was fortunate to grab a comfy spot to sit - there were about 85 in attendance.At the end of the meetup, I won a ticket to Web Afternoon!
It seems that the weekend is ripe for sharing interesting things on Facebook, judging from what I've seen from my FB friends. These are just a few that came my way:
This picture below is from the World is Beautiful FB page. Where? The Igloo Village of Hotel Kakslauttanen, in Finland. The igloos are made of glass, and according to the description, provide views of the Aurora Borealis:
In case you missed this--- at about 1:45 the dolphins appear. Beautiful!
Patent application for "peripheral treatment for head-mounted displays", for the above device. Michael Husted's post: Shared by Barbara Bray, via Smart Apps for Kids, via Success in Learning: My comment: "It doesn't hurt to take a few self-defense classes. I took kickboxing for the exercise and I do not feel defenseless. As adults, we encounter criminals who are beyond the bully stage, who don'e care if they hurt (or kill) when they want to engage in illegal activities. It makes sense to do the things that make us strong, healthy, fit, and safe. This means having the strength to help others during a crisis, such as the shootings at the movie theater and other seemingly "random" acts of local terrorism." I shared the following picture on Facebook: I set up the XBox 360 and the Kinect in the Activities of Daily Living room (it is also the music room), and when I went to take a picture of my rafting adventure, the system took a picture of me!
I happened to be listening to the radio and heard an interesting interview featuring on Dennis Baxter, the sound designer/engineer for the 2012 Olympics. The interview, along with examples of sounds, are provided on the NPR website:
Becky Sullivan, 7/28/12, NPR Listen to this story (All Things Considered featuring r, 5 min, 54 Sec)
Not all of the sounds you'll hear during the Olympics are "real". There are a few sports that are impossible to capture accurately, and for this reason, Dennis Baxter explains, special techniques are used.
If you'd like to dig deeper into the world of sound, take a look at "The Sonification Handbook", edited by Thomas Hermann, Andy Hunt, and John G. Neuhoff. The editors have backgrounds in computer science, physics, interactive sonification, multi-touch, music, psychology, auditory percpetion, and neuroscience, collectively.
Below is a description from the book's website: "This book is a comprehensive introductory presentation of the key research areas in the interdisciplinary fields of sonification and auditory display. Chapters are written by leading experts, providing a wide-range coverage of the central issues, and can be read from start to finish, or dipped into as required (like a smorgasbord menu)"
"Sonification conveys information by using non-speech sounds. To listen to data as sound and noise can be a surprising new experience with diverse applications ranging from novel interfaces for visually impaired people to data analysis problems in many scientific fields."
"This book gives a solid introduction to the field of auditory display, the techniques for sonification, suitable technologies for developing sonification algorithms, and the most promising application areas. The book is accompanied by the online repository of sound examples.The book is a comprehensive introduction to this interdisciplinary field."
I have a secret. I enjoy watching Extreme Sports HD videos. This one is from has breathtaking scenery. On a large screen, it might lure you into believing that you are the longboarder, gliding around the hills and curves!
"Put a longboarder at the top of that same hill with a longboard designed to handle it and he will get to heaven first, every time, no death required. A longboard is a stress relief, a mode of transportaton, and a sorce of surf, snowboard inspiration. Anyone can learn, it is safe, there are no age barriers and no one is going to charge you for a lift to the top."
Riders in the video were Petter Reinem, Axel Serrat, Brett Ciabattini, Will Stephan, Aleix Gallimo, Daniel Harris, Brian Bishop, Michael Virgin Jr. , Molly Lewis, and Scott Imbrie. Filmers were Nick Patrick, Brad Imbrie, Jay Cagney, Aleix Gallimo, Axel Serrat Dunia Vidal, and Sam Weaver. The video was edited by Nick Patrick.
