Mary-Jo Foley at ZDNet reports that the Microsoft Research team behind Manual Deskterity is presenting the white paper on their work on Simultaneous Pen + Touch at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. As you may recall but likely have forgotten, the team released a video preview of their work back in [...]
The widely-popular board game Settlers of Catan has gone high-tech with an officially licensed version of the game set to debut at Gen Con Indy 2010 on Microsoft Surface. Combining real dice, in-person players and virtual everything else, this is one of the most robust uses of the technology yet.
Microsoft Applied Sciences Group has posted a few videos of a project called “The Wedge: Seeing Smart Displays Through A New Lens.” Very interesting user interface work along the same lines as Kinect for XBox where user motion and gestures are captured via optical input. One of the results is a surface computing system that [...]
Last we heard from Evoluce, they introduced a 47″ HD multi-touch display for surface computing. Now, they’ve made touch unnecessary with an off-screen gesture detection system that responds to your hand movements as if you were touching the screen, much like Microsoft’s Project Natal.
Pocket-lint has the exclusive scoop that Sony will be entering the surface computing arena this June with atracTable, an optical recognition-based system first seen at Vision 2009, developed in conjunction with Swiss company Atractsys.
Brown University is working on a project that is a perfect fit for a Microsoft Surface: digitizing the Garibaldi moving panorama. A moving panorama is basically a massive canvas painting that is scrolled in front of an audience to tell a story. The Garibaldi is more than a football field in length. Far too big [...]
If you’ve been itching to develop apps for Microsoft Surface but haven’t had the thousands in loose change necessary to buy a Surface, you’ll be happy to learn there’s a new toolkit that lets you build apps from a Windows Touch PC instead.
Auto company Lincoln needed a sweet display piece for the North American Auto Show 2010. They chose a 4-meter long multi-touch display dubbed the “Lincoln Technology Table” supplied by MultiTouch Ltd., and global brand communications agency, Imagination. The results are stunning.
If you’re an industrious type, you might want to get your workshop ready: there’s a new multi-touch surface computer project at Instructables. Requires some big panels of acrylic, IR equipment, and a decent webcam (they suggest the PS3 Eye), as well as a recent computer (PC or Mac, but they suggest Windows 7 for the [...]
Lifehacker got an addition to their Workspace Show and Tell photo pool with major multi-touch mojo. Behold, the Cyclon, a computer packing a 42″ multi-touch display! Perfect for, uh, I’m not sure, but who cares? 42″ multi-touch display! Doesn’t seem like there’d be a practical use for this, but the Lifehacker reader, kame9031, providing the [...]
Put on your poker face: A team of students from University of Duisburg Essen in Germany, purported birthplace of poker, have put together a surface computing system that links a multitouch tabletop display with touchscreen handhelds, offering a real poker experience in a digital environment.
A group in the Netherlands called Intactlab has put together a snazzy-looking multi-touch table called Touchy Remix that takes surface computing in a couple of different directions. As you can see, unlike other systems, Touchy Remix is designed so you can pull up a chair and sit at it as if it were a regular [...]
The Microsoft Surface Blog has a video demo of a novel interactive system that involves a little round monster eating bubbles off a Microsoft Surface… and also puking them back up when it’s full. I admit it’s not the most practical use of surface computing, but it is a great demonstration of tangible interactivity. Instead [...]
Interesting report from New Scientist: Researcher from Microsoft and UC Berkeley are developing a touch computing system that can digitize physical objects placed on its surface and, more impressively, do the reverse, project digital objects on to physical ones. It is similar to Microsoft Surface but with visual recognition of and interaction with physical objects. [...]
In the south hall of the CES, Kodak hosted a massive booth to showcase their cameras and accessories. Wouldn’t normally be a big draw for me, but then I saw the ginormous surface computing system set up like a waterfall and river through the middle of their showcase. I want to go to there. And [...]
Microsoft Surface blog has posted that second part of their interview with the SurfaceScapes team, along with a new video demo of the project in action. The video is a bit, shall we say, dry, but anyone interested in the thought process behind the system should find it educational. I found this line from the [...]
Remember SurfaceScapes, the group from Carnegie Mellon turning Microsoft Surface into the ultimate tabletop gaming system? I sent them some blog love in October? Ring a bell? If not, the gist is these guys are creating an interactive Dungeons & Dragons gaming experience on Microsoft Surface, combining the tactile experience of rolling dice and moving [...]
Ideum, a company that designs and builds interactive computer exhibits, has lifted the curtain on a massive new multi-touch system that will share the “Wonders of the Universe” at the Adventure Science Center in Nashville, Tennessee. With a 100″ surface and an 86″ viewable area is it one of the largest contiguous multitouch tables yet [...]
Big news bubbling out of PDC (Professional Developers Conference) surrounding Microsoft Surface. First, the Microsoft Surface SDK Workstation Edition is being offered freely to everyone via the Surface.com website, though the hardware needed to see if your stuff works will still set you back a few stones (or you could save a few bucks and [...]
We received an email the other day from a group called DFKI touting their new surface computing system called Touch & Write. My initial reaction was “eh, probably just a copy of Microsoft Surface.” Didn’t really excite me, but I kept an open mind and checked out their demo. I will state right here, right [...]
While not a mobile device, our fascination with all things touch at GBM has us wanting to learn more about this rare, early generation iMac with an installed touchscreen. The seller’s brief description tells us that these limited edition iMacs were originally used in kiosks requiring touch input. A measly $70 OBO will [...]
Microsoft’s Surface team just posted a video demoing a new multi-touch app from Vectorform that allows you to virtually carve a pumpkin. Vectorform is the same team working with MSNBC and their Surface implementation. I can’t wait to see what apps get developed once folks get their hands on the Surface SDK. Video at the [...]
From a technology persepctive, this election might be known as the birth of multi-touch. CNN has been using a multi-touch wall, while MSNBC.com has utilized a multi-touch Microsoft Surface table with an overhead to display what is being moved around. Two different approaches to accomplish the same thing: engage the audience with dynmically changing content [...]
Obviously Microsoft isn’t the only one working on Surface Computing. The actracTable looks very similiar to Microsoft’s Surface Table and I believe uses a similar approach with optical technology. AtracSys, the company behind this calls it an interactive presenting surface. ActracSys offers a custom built solution for how you’d like to work the atracTable into [...]
Long Zheng uncovered a Microsoft survey asking for input into a consumer-based Surface type of computer called ““Oahu†that sits on a table-top, is embedded into furniture, even in a counter top. Here is some intro text on Oahu, but head over and checkout some of the survey questions for much more detail: The following [...]
Oh, my how time flies. Lora Heiny is reminding us that it isn’t too late to be thinking about the 2009 CES Tablet PC Meetup. Each of the last several years we’ve seen new interest in each new wave of mobile devices including UMPCs and MIDs. Lora is interested in making sure that as the [...]
Check out this video demonstration of SynergyNet, a multi-touch framework that runs on top of a gaming and physics engine. The research project has the following goals: Aim 1: To create a radically new technology-rich learning environment that integrates with traditional classroom layouts and collective activities. Aim 2: To design and implement a new form [...]
It looks like Microsoft Surface is going to be joining the campaign trail this fall. MSNBC is showing off a customized Surface Table running software from Vectorform. Check out the video of NBC’s Chuck Todd showing it off. Technorati Tags: Microsoft Surface
TouchKit is just that, a kit for working with multi-touch. It is both open source software and hardware that has to be hooked up to a separate computer and projector. Developed by NOR_/D, it is priced at $1580 and it might be a way for tinkerers to come up with some interesting ways to push [...]
Microsoft’s Sphere project has been shown on video before. This new video posted on Ars Technica demonstrating the Sphere shows a more detailed look at the software with a brief description about how the software is integrated into the Sphere. The graphic below illustrates the necessary hardware to create the Sphere experience. Photo Browser: basic [...]
Microsoft Surface is continuing to make headway into the commercial retail experience, this time checking in at Sheraton Hotels and Resorts in Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle. For detailed locations, follow the Read More link below. Here is run-down of the applications guests will be able to explore and experience, along with [...]
SeattlePI’s Todd Bishop has some awesome video footage of Microsoft’s Sphere being demoed at the Microsoft Faculty Summit. From SeattlePI’s story to appear on Tuesday: After months of rumors, Microsoft researchers are taking the wraps off a prototype that uses an internal projection and vision system to bring a spherical computer display to life. [...]
With news that Microsoft is trying prove that the world is indeed round, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they are trying to up the ante in their argument by showcasing the Spherical Surface during Microsoft’s Research Faculty Summit. I’m very interested to learn about the applications being demoed and the use cases. [...]
Looks like Microsoft isn’t the only one working on a Touch Wall. Panasonic is showing off its Digital Wall as well. It is quite big, and according to CrunchGear it might even be cheaper than what Microsoft is planning. Check out more at Digital World Tokyo, including a very short video. Tags: Panasonic+Digital+Wall
Well, not exactly, but Microsoft Surface might play a role in changing what we consider mobile technology. Rather than carrying our own independent, mobile devices, Surface could remove the need to carry an iPod, cell phone, laptop, PDA, and many different batteries and chargers. Similar to the notion of the Google Desktop– not simply a [...]
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12 iPhone Photography Accessories – Lenses, Stands, Filters and More To Enhance Your Photos
Apple made a lot of shutterbugs happy with the camera upgrades in the iPhone 4S — more pixels and a bigger sensor means an even better “best camera” to carry everywhere. Want to take the iPhone even further than that? With some additional accessories and apps you can turn this device into a mobile photo and video studio worthy of your enhanced skills.
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Samsung Series 7 Slate Review: First Impressions
These days whenever someone mentions the word “Tablet” visions of the iPad or something similar dance in their heads. Not that long ago a tablet was something quite different: a Windows-based slate computer. Since the rise of the new idea of the tablet there have been a few Tablet PCs trying for relevance in an [...]
