Makego: Turn your iPhone into a vehicle, by creative digital artist Chris O'Shea

Chris O'Shea is an artist and designer who uses technology in creative and innovative ways. He's known for his "Hand from Above" outdoor installations.  His latest creation is Makego, is an app for the iPhone that bridges the digital with the real world.  Children can create a small vehicle out of Legos that can serve as a place to set an iPhone, running the app, and move the vehicle about a larger space.  In the examples below, the children have created scenes using crayons, paper, and colored art foam.

"Makego turns your iPhone / iPod Touch into a toy vehicle. It encourages fun, open ended collaborative play between parent and child. Combining creativity and imagination with the virtual world on screen. Select your vehicle within Makego, then interact with the drivers and their world through animations and sound. This release has 3 vehicles to play with: a race car, ice-cream truck, and river boat. More vehicle are coming later". -Chris O'Shea


The application is now available for $1.99 on the App Store. 

Makego from Chris O'Shea on Vimeo.





RELATED
Chris O'Shea's Website

Emerging Interactive Multimedia, New Models of HCI for Museum Exhibits (Course offered by Ideum's Jim Spadaccini, plus info about the MT55 multi-touch table)

Jim Spadaccini, the director and founder of Ideum, will be teaching a course on exhibit development through the University of Victoria, "Emerging Exhibits: Exploring New Models of Human Computer Interaction (HCI).  The excerpt from the course description provides a glimpse of how emerging technologies are beginning to change the museum experience:


"Computer-based interactive exhibits are undergoing a major transformation. The lone, single-user kiosk is now being replaced by multitouch tables and walls, motion-capture spaces, networked installations, and RFID-based exhibits. Advances in augmented reality, voice recognition, eye tracking, and other technologies promise even more radical change for exhibits in the near future."


I've been following Jim's journey with Ideum, a multimedia design firm that collaborates with museums and related non-profits, for many years, and I am impressed with the work of this company.  In addition to his work at Ideum,  Jim serves as the Principal Investigator of a National-Science Foundation sponsored open-source exhibit software project, Open Exhibits, which provides a free software development kit that supports the creation of multi-touch and multi-user software applications for museums and educational settings.


I'm happy to put in a plug for Ideum's latest product, the MT55 Platform Multi-Touch Table. It incorporates a range of features that I'm sure will meet the needs of museum visitors.  In my opinion, this table would be a fantastic resource for all types of libraries, including those in K-12 settings.

The MT55 Platform Multi-touch Table, from Ideum

The MT55 Platform Multitouch Table from Ideum on Vimeo.  (Note: This video features music by Moby, the track "Sevastopol" on his current album, Destroyed. The music was used with the artists' permission. Learn more at: moby.com") - Ideum

"The thinnest, largest, most powerful multitouch table available.The MT55 Platform multitouch table houses a powerful computer and a 55-inch interactive LCD display that responds to 32 touch-points, inside a rugged aluminum body."

"The bright 55″ 1920×1080 HD display has a 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio. A wide 178-degree viewing angle accommodates multiple users around the table. The optical multitouch system supports 32 simultaneous touch points for collaborative interaction. The system is multitouch-enabled from start-up, and runs Windows 7 64-bit professional edition."


"The integrated computer is packed with power. It contains an Intel® Hyper-Threaded DualCore i5® which runs at 2.66 GHz, 8GB of RAM, and a 128 GB solid-state drive (upgradeable to an i7®)."


"The table comes complete with WIFI, Bluetooth, and Ethernet connectivity. It also has multiple HDMI outputs that allow you to easily mirror the table's display, extend the desktop, or connect to and display from another computer or HDMI device."

"Convenient, but secure ports: CAT5, HDMI, and USB 2.0 are available on both the side on bottom the table."

"The MT55 Platform includes blue LED under-lights to illuminate the area beneath the interactive surface (custom LED colors are available). Every MT table includes a sophisticated internal cooling cell to maintain operating conditions that exceed the optimum environmental specifications for the internal components."

"The interactive surface of the MT55 Platform protected by a sheet of hardened, crystal clear, low-iron 5mm tempered glass surface...As an option, we offer Sevasa HapticGlas®, produced exclusively for Ideum. Micro-etched HapticGlas® provides tactile feedback, reduces fingerprints, increases scratch resistance, and directs user focus." -Ideum
 
RELATED
High-res photos of the MT55 Platform

GestureWorks Software
Open Exhibits
Ideum
Open Exhibits Tuio Kinect

The Digging Into Data Challenge and List of Online Data Repositories for Humanities and Social Sciences

I came across the Digging Into Data Challenge website today and thought it might be of interest to IMT readers.  Below is a description of the project, a few related links, and an abbreviated list of links to a wide range of data repositories on the web.  

 ABOUT 

"Welcome to the second round of the Digging into Data Challenge. During the first round, in 2009, nearly 90 international research teams competed in the challenge. Ultimately, eight remarkable projects were awarded grants."

"In 2011, the Digging into Data Challenge has returned for a second round, this time much larger, with sponsorship from eight international research funders, representing Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States."

"What is the "challenge" we speak of?  The idea behind the Digging into Data Challenge is to address how "big data" changes the research landscape for the humanities and social sciences. Now that we have massive databases of materials used by scholars in the humanities and social sciences -- ranging from digitized books, newspapers, and music to transactional data like web searches, sensor data or cell phone records -- what new, computationally-based research methods might we apply? As the world becomes increasingly digital, new techniques will be needed to search, analyze, and understand these everyday materials. Digging into Data challenges the research community to help create the new research infrastructure for 21st century scholarship." 

"Applicants will form international teams from at least two of the participating countries.  Winning teams will receive grants from two or more of the funding agencies and, two years later, will be invited to show off their work at a special conference sponsored by the eight funders."

"Let's get digging."

RELATED
Digging into Data Challenge Second Year Request for Proposals
Press Release    Round Two: Digging Into Data Challenge: Social and computational scientist asked to design methods and tools for analyzing large data sets (National Science Foundation)

Times Higher Education, April 28, 2011, "Research intelligence - Let's dig a little deeper"
The New York Times, November 16, 2010, "Digital Keys for Unlocking the Humanities’ Riches"
The Globe and Mail, June 18, 2010, "Supercomputers seek to ‘model humanity’"

Be sure to visit the Digging Into Data Challenge data repository page.  Each repository is annotated in detail and includes links and in some cases, APIs. The page is updated regularly, and at the time of this post, was updated on May 26, 2011. For your convenience, here's the abbreviated version of the Digging Into Data Challenge list of repositories: 

The Archaeology Data Services (ADS)
http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/


ARTStor.org
http://www.artstor.org


Biodiversity Heritage Library
http://biodiversitylibrary.org


The Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art Canadian Art Database Project
http://ccca.ca


Chronicling America, Library of Congress, National Digital Newspaper Program
http://loc.gov/chroniclingamerica


Data-PASS
http://www.icpsr.umish.edu/DATAPASS/


Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE)
http://www.dlese.org


Early Canadiana Online
http://canadiana.ca


English Broadside Ballad Archive
http://ebba.english.ucsb.edu


Great War Primary Documents Archive
http://www.gwpda.org


Harvard Time Series Center (TSC)
http://timemachine.iic.harvard.edu/search/


HathiTrusthttp://www.hathitrust.org


The History Data Service (HDS)
http://hds.essex.ac.uk


Infochimps.org
http://www.infochimps.com/


Internet Archive
http://www.archive.org


Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
http://icpsr.umich.edu


JISC MediaHub
http://jiscmediahub.ac.uk


JSTOR
http://jstor.org

Marriott LibraryUniversity of Utah
http://ww.lib.utah.edu/portal/site/marriottlibrary/

NASA ADS: Smithsonian/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/index.html

National Archives, London
http://nationalarchives.gov.uk

The National Library of Wales
http://www.llgc.org.uk


National Science Digital Library (NSDL)
http://www.nsdl.org

National Technical Information Service (NTIS)
http://www.ntis.gov/

Nebraska Digital Newspaper Project
http://cdrh.unl.edu/nebnewspapers/

New York Public Library
http://NYPL.org

The New York Times Article Search API
http://developer.nytimes.com/


Opening History
http://imlsdcc.grainger.uiuc.edu/history/

PhilPapers (philosophy)
http://philpapers.org

Project MUSE
http://muse.jhu.edu/

PSLC DataShop (Pittsburg Science of Learning Center)
http://pslcdatashop.web.cmu.edu/

Scholarly Database at the Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center, Indiana University
http://sdb.slis.indiana.edu

ScholarSpace at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa
http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/community-list

Statistical Accounts of Scotland
http://edina.ac.uk/stat-acc-scot/

University of Florida Digital Library Center
http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc

University of North Texas
http://digital.library.unt.edu/browse/?browseby=collection

Just a thought....
I'd be interested in learning if any of the researchers involved in the Digging Into Data Challenge plan to work on an interactive, multidimensional, multimedia timeline to support collaborative data sharing and analysis.  

Virtual Choir 2.0 "Sleep": 2052 People, 58 Countries, Global Collaboration

This is an interesting way of collaborating on the Web!


For more information:   The Virtual Choir








Eric Whitacre's TED Talk:  A virtual choir 2,000 voices strong

Program- CHI 2011 Child Computer Interaction: 2nd Workshop on UI Technologies and Educational Pedagogy

CHILD COMPUTER INTERACTION: 2ND WORKSHOP ON UI TECHNOLOGIES AND THEIR IMPACT ON EDUCATIONAL PEDAGOGY

May 7, 2011

In conjunction with CHI 2011, Vancouver, Canada

PROGRAM (Draft)

9:00am – 09:05am       Introduction


9:05am - 10:05am        Paper Session I (8min presentation, 4min Discussion)


Evaluating Pervasive Classrooms


• Son Do-Lenh et al.:   Classroom-experience evaluation: An ecological approach to evaluating pervasive technologies in classroom
• Kathryn Rounding et al.:   Evaluating Interfaces with Children
• Dan Morris et al.:   Using Machine Learning to Scaffold Artistic Creativity in Education
• Tamara Polajnar et al.:   Enabling Picture-based Querying and Learning with the JuSe Interface
• Hamed Alavi et al.:   Lantern 2.0: A Pervasive Scripting Tool


10:05am - 11:00am  Coffee Break and Preparation time for short talks


11:00am - 12:10pmPaper Session II (8min presentation, 4min Discussion)


Collaboration in Math: Fears, Myths, and Insights


• Nicola Yull et al.: Pass the iPad: Comparing collaboration on paper and screen
• Veronika Irvine et al.: Math Education: A Creative Approach


• Group talk: Math and Embodied Agents
a.  Kristina Richter et al.: Bridging Diagnosis and Learning for Mathematics Education in Classroom Setting
b.  Lisa Anthony et al.: Handwriting Interaction for Math Tutors: Lessons for HCI in Education
c.  Andrew Jensen et al.: Using Embodied Pedagogical Agents and Direct Instruction to Augment Learning for Young Children with Special Needs


• Group talk: Dispelling Myths About the Next Generation Classroom
a.   Alex Thayer et al.: The Myth of the Paperless School: Replacing Printed Texts with E-readers
b.  Sharon Oviatt: Designing Digital Tools for Thinking, Adaptive Learning and Cognitive Evolution
c.  Alexandra Dunn et al.: Designing Classroom Technology to Meet the Needs of All


• Group talk: Games, Wearables and Fun Learning.
a.  Christiane Moser et al.:    Child-Centered Game Development
b.  Lizbeth Escobedo et al.:  Blue’s Clues: An Augmented Reality Positioning System
c.  Si Jung Kim et al.:   Wearable Story: A Story Telling Jacket for Young Children to Improve Their Independent Physical and Learning Activities


12:10pm - 1:30pm Lunch


1:30pm - 2:30pm Paper Session (10 min presentation, 5min Discussion)


Tangibles and Tabletops
•   Izdihar Jamil et al.: Communication Patterns in Collaborative Peer Learning around Interactive Table
•   Aura Pon et al.: Graspable Music and Vuzik: Music Learning and Creativity using an Interactive Surface
•   Ahmed Kharrufa et al.: Learning at interactive surfaces and designing for reflection
•   Cristina Sylla et al.: TOK – a Tangible Interface for Storytelling


• Group talk: Tables and Tangibles
• a.Robert Sheehan: Constructionism, Programming and Touch Interfaces
• b.  Orit Shaer et al.: Making the Invisible Tangible: Learning Biological Engineering in Kindergarten
• c.  Sebastien Kubicki: Evaluation of an interactive table with tangible objects: Application with children in a classroom
• d.  Cristina Emilia Costa et al.: I-Theatre: developing narratives skills in kindergarten children
• e.  Wooi Boon Goh et al.: Potential Challenges in Collaborative Game Design for Inclusive Settings


2:30pm - 3:00pm  Coffee Break


3:00pm - 4:00pm  Breakout Discussion (What are future challenges? Next years workshop?)


4:00pm - 4:45pm  Closing Keynote  TBA


4:45pm - 5:00pm  Closing Remarks


7:00pm   Optional Workshop Dinner


RELATED
Workshop Website
ACM-CHI 2011 Conference Website

Collaborative Travel Planning App for Microsoft Surface, by Object Consulting

Information from the Microsoft Surface YouTube Channel:
"Object Explore is a collaborative travel planner for use by travel consultants and consumers on Microsoft Surface. Explore deep levels of interactive content through intuitive navigation, ensuring the customer doesn't get lost in the process. All content is tailored to the current client and can be taken away through mobile or email. Object Explore is built upon Object Consulting's Object Zoom framework, which brings intuitive Zoom exploration to sectors including retail, finance and museums." - Object Consulting


SOMEWHAT RELATED
I worked on a collaborative travel planning application a few years ago for an HCI class project- before the Surface was unveiled by Microsoft.  It would have been fun to implement it in a Surface environment, since applications on the Surface can easily interface with mobile devices.

Below is a screenshot of a working prototype of "navSmart", a mash-up using photo-overlays linking to travel related information, including YouTube videos of related travel videos and information. You spin the globe around to explore possible destinations and vacation activities.   This concept worked best on a large touch-screen display.