Over the past couple of months, I've come across many interesting links related to multi-touch and gesture interaction, but I haven't had time to devote a thoughtful post to each one. "Part I", is a nice collection of experimental, commercial, and non-commercial efforts by a variety of creative technologists, with a smattering of industry news that might be of interest to IMT readers.
Ideum's MT55 HD Multitouch Table 4/19/11
New MT55 HD Multitouch Table Now Shipping, Jim Spadaccini, Ideum Blog 4/11/11
Smithsonian American Art Museum to Open Education Center Sara Beladi, NBC Washington News, 4/4/11 (Rumor has it that the Smithsonian American Art might include touch and multi-touch displays in it's plans for a new education center. The center was funded by an anonymous $8 million dollar gift.)
"The MTbiggie uses the "Front Diffused Illumination" multitouch technique, with ambient infrared light and a DIY infrared webcam. The MTbiggie is similar to the MTmini, but includes a projected image and infrared webcam (rather than a normal webcam)...The MTbiggie isn’t the most stable and robust setup, but it is the easiest to build. To see other methods of building more stable multitouch displays, view the full multitouch display list." -Seth Sandler
Mac OX 10.7 Lion: new multi-touch gestures, Dock integration for Expose, Launchpad, Mission Control Appleinsider, 4/14/11
Vectorform App featured in Royal Caribbean's Video Promotion: James Brolin, Dean Cain get hands-on with Vectorform app Alison Weber, Vectorform Blog, 3/3/11
3M Touch Systems's YouTube Channel
Social Mirror 3D Gestural Display, Now Using Kinnect: SnibbeInteractive
Ideum's MT55 HD Multitouch Table 4/19/11
New MT55 HD Multitouch Table Now Shipping, Jim Spadaccini, Ideum Blog 4/11/11
Smithsonian American Art Museum to Open Education Center Sara Beladi, NBC Washington News, 4/4/11 (Rumor has it that the Smithsonian American Art might include touch and multi-touch displays in it's plans for a new education center. The center was funded by an anonymous $8 million dollar gift.)
Bill Buxton, Microsoft Research, 4/7/11 - Includes lots of pictures, links to videos, and more information of what might be the first touch-screen. Also see Bill Buxton's companion website, Multi-Touch Systems that I have Known and Loved, updated on 3/21/11. Bill Buxton knows all (almost!)
How to make a Multitouch Biggie (Seth Sandler)
"The MTbiggie uses the "Front Diffused Illumination" multitouch technique, with ambient infrared light and a DIY infrared webcam. The MTbiggie is similar to the MTmini, but includes a projected image and infrared webcam (rather than a normal webcam)...The MTbiggie isn’t the most stable and robust setup, but it is the easiest to build. To see other methods of building more stable multitouch displays, view the full multitouch display list." -Seth Sandler
(Also check out NodeBeat, a multi-touch music/audio sequencer/generator app by Seth Sandler and Justin Windle)
Sparkon: Videos and links related to multi-touch and gesture-based applications
"The multitouch microscope brings new dimensions into teaching and research. Researchers at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) and Multitouch Ltd have created a hand and finger gesture controlled microscope. The method is a combination between two technologies: web-based virtual microscopy and a giant size multitouch display."
"The result is an entirely new way of performing microscopy: by touching a table- or wall-sized screen the user can navigate and zoom within a microscope sample in the same way as in a conventional microscope. Using the touch control it is possible to move from the natural size of the sample to a 1000-fold magnification, at which cells and even subcellular details can be seen." -Multitouchfi Also see the Multitouch website.
Big Size Multitouch Display Turned into a Microscope, Microscopy-News, 3/28/11
Intuilab, 4/13/11
"IntuiLab, a global leader in surface computing software applications, today announced support for the revolutionary Microsoft Kinect device across its full line of IntuiFace products and solutions including IntuiFace Presentation and IntuiFace Commerce...Microsoft Kinect brings distant gesture control to interactive solutions. These gesture controls allow users to interact with displayed digital assets from a distance at their own pace and path – for example, browsing through a large quantity of products in a store catalog or manipulating 3D models (such as a mobile phone) – all without having to actually touch the screen..." -IntuiLab (Take a look at the IntuiLab team- an interactive page!)
EON Reality Launches EON Interact - Interact with 3D Data by Using Your Bare Hands Animation xPress, 3/31/11
Sparkon: Videos and links related to multi-touch and gesture-based applications
Official Kinect SDK to be Open Source, Josh Blake, Deconstructing the NUI, 4/18/11
9 This bit of news excited me, but don't get your hopes up. If anyone knows what will happen with the Kinect SDK, please leave a comment.)
"Update 4/18 7:34pm: Mary Jo Foley picks up this story, but the Microsoft spokesperson she talked to denied that the Kinect SDK will be open source. As she notes, Microsoft has pulled 180’s before regarding Kinect. After spokespeople initially were hostile to the idea of Kinect hacking, Xbox executives later embraced the idea that people are using Kinect for non-gaming purposes on the PC. Let’s hope Microsoft stays open to this idea." -Josh Blake
New Channel 9 Video: Josh Blake on NaturalShow Multi-touch in WPF, Pete Brown, 10rem.net, 4/22/11
Kenrick Kin, Tom Miller, Bjoern Bollensdorff, Tony DeRose, Bjoern Hartmann, Manees Agrawala (Pixar Online Library)
Flight Race Game on 3DFeel lm3Labs, 4/18/11
JazzMutant Lemure Version 2 : "The only multi-touch and modular controller for sequencers, synthesizers, virtual instruments, vjing and lights, now even better."
Harry van der Veen's Multitouch Blog (NUITEQ)
Stantum "Unlimited Multi-Touch" Latest News
At Immersive Labs, Ads Watch Who Looks at Them Amy Lee, Huffington Post, 4/26/11
Immersive Labs
Hard Rock Cafe International Using NextWindow Touch Screens: "Rock Wall Solo displays enhance music lovers' experience in Seattle, Dallas, Detroit and Berlin" 4/12/11 (Full press release pdf)
Music on Touch Screens (NextWindow)
JazzMutant Lemure Version 2 : "The only multi-touch and modular controller for sequencers, synthesizers, virtual instruments, vjing and lights, now even better."
Harry van der Veen's Multitouch Blog (NUITEQ)
Stantum "Unlimited Multi-Touch" Latest News
At Immersive Labs, Ads Watch Who Looks at Them Amy Lee, Huffington Post, 4/26/11
Immersive Labs
Hard Rock Cafe International Using NextWindow Touch Screens: "Rock Wall Solo displays enhance music lovers' experience in Seattle, Dallas, Detroit and Berlin" 4/12/11 (Full press release pdf)
Music on Touch Screens (NextWindow)
Razorfish: Thoughts on MIX 11 ,James Ashley, Razorfish Blog, 4/20/11 Also see: Razorfish Lab's Prototypes
"The multitouch microscope brings new dimensions into teaching and research. Researchers at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) and Multitouch Ltd have created a hand and finger gesture controlled microscope. The method is a combination between two technologies: web-based virtual microscopy and a giant size multitouch display."
"The result is an entirely new way of performing microscopy: by touching a table- or wall-sized screen the user can navigate and zoom within a microscope sample in the same way as in a conventional microscope. Using the touch control it is possible to move from the natural size of the sample to a 1000-fold magnification, at which cells and even subcellular details can be seen." -Multitouchfi Also see the Multitouch website.
Big Size Multitouch Display Turned into a Microscope, Microscopy-News, 3/28/11
Vectorform App featured in Royal Caribbean's Video Promotion: James Brolin, Dean Cain get hands-on with Vectorform app Alison Weber, Vectorform Blog, 3/3/11
3M Touch Systems's YouTube Channel
Social Mirror 3D Gestural Display, Now Using Kinnect: SnibbeInteractive
