king talk

3D projections you can touch. Sounds like sci-fi to me, but has been presented at the Siggraph 09 in New Orleans. Scientists from the University of Tokyo developed this so called »Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display«. Basically this adds tactile feedback to a floating image trough ultrasonic waves. Looks very high tech, but in fact they have utilized two wiimotes to track the hand movement.

via crave & Shinoda Lab

The JFK Presidential Library and Museum launched a microsite project yesterday. It reminded my a little bit at the »interactive space shuttle« out of our portfolio (partners: Jens Franke & Markus Frank). We Choose the Moon is recreating the voyage of Apollo 11 in real time, with animated videos, audios from the capcom, and all in real time. There are popups that contain graphics and other information about the voyage of Apollo 11. The We Choose the Moon site will also allow people to follow the mission of Apollo 11 on twitter. We Choose to Go to the Moon can be shared on social networks such as Facebook and MySpace.

The voyage will be reenacted on We Choose the Moon through the landing on July 20^th, exactly forty years from the very minute from when it happened in 1969. Afterward, people will be able to examine the mission of Apollo 11 as they wish. We Choose the Moon is a remarkable way to follow a historic event such as Apollo 11 and perhaps provides a foretaste of things to come. Forty years ago, people followed Apollo 11 with media technology that seems positively stone age to the 21^st Century; analog TV, newspapers, and magazines.

It is entirely likely that the next voyage to the Moon will be followed by most people in the same manner as We Choose the Moon is presenting Apollo 11. The images of that future voyage will be controlled by the viewer. There will be popup information and ways to interact with the mission, commenting on it and discussing it in real time. The talking heads of the news channels will just be one part of the coverage, to be turned on, turned off, or switched around at will.

Virtual reality and telepresence technology will provide an immediacy to the future mission that was not even conceived of forty years ago. Four astronauts (as currently planned) are scheduled to return to the Moon, perhaps in ten years. This technology will allow a person on Earth to be the fifth astronaut in all but name, experiencing the flight with the crew.

via ROESELE.NET

Having a big ass multitouch table at home might be cool. But while you are developing the awesome apps you gonna run on it, it´s quite annoying to test them on that big thing. Basically there are 3 alternative ways to more or less »simulate« the multitouch behaviour:

1. iPhone/iPod Touch > OSCemote > flosc > Flash

My favourite one is using the multitouch ability of my iPod Touch. Running OSCemote (iTunes) on your iPod you can send the multitouch input via WiFi to your MacBook Pro. There you just need to forward the data via FLOSC (Flash Open Sound Control) to use it in Flash. This setup provides the best multitouch feeling for the least effort.

Alternate tools, but more or less complex to handle: TouchOSC, MRMR or SWAP.

2. cardboard prototype > CCV > Flash

Before using my iPod as tracking device I used »NHALT«, a Cheap Multitouch Pad we built in about 30min. using a white paper, some slices of a packing case and a 3-year-old Webcam (Logitech Quickcam) for about 30 EUR. Since the NUI Group upgraded their Tracking Software from »tbeta« to »CCV« it is the only step you need between the pad and Flash. This solution is real fun if you like a little DIY and is the one closest to a real table.

3. SimTouch > SocketServer > Flash

You don’t have an iPod Touch, DIY is not your thing or you don’t want to relay on good lighting for testing your awesome app then SimTouch might be the solution for you. This multitouch simulator  is an elegant semi-transparent window you can lay over your flash application. Via SocketServer the signal gets relayed to Flash and off you go!

If you know a possible fourth solution. Feel free to comment it…

Sorry, there was to much SPAM to leave the comments open.

That’s right! Not mouse gestures – face gestures! For browsing! Opera has some nice stuff to show – and OF COURSE it is for real!

After the interaction guys, the generative art guys took over the stage at TOCA ME 09. First up: Jer Thorpe from Vancouver, Canada.

He is part of the glocal project, which is an »immense, collaborative and multifaceted digital art project that examines the making, sharing and exhibiting of images in the 21st century«. In other words, they are figuring new creative ways of using and dealing with huge amounts of data. So he defined one big rule: »Collaboration requires many mobile people in a changing environment.«

The image breeder for example is an application for, well, breeding images – literally. You select two images to start with and the software finds images with characteristics of both of them. It is not only a nice toy, but also a serious tool for finding inspiration in images!

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