New Media Initiatives Blog

While preparing a presentation on multi-user digital tables, I was directed to the Great War tables at the National World War One Museum, Kansas City, MO. Produced by Second Story, these tables are just one part of the museum’s use of interactive technology to tell the story of WWI. The two tables, each 26-feet long, feature “individual interactives where visitors can: learn about military technologies through 3D reconstructions; compare the arsenals, artillery and airplanes used by the combatant armies; watch archival video footage and browse photographic collections; and create their own propaganda posters and war memorials that they can email to themselves and others. At any time, museum staff can launch the tables into a group based interactive experience where up to 24 visitors engage in a series of interactive challenges that parallel the military, political and civilian aspects of the war.” For more on the tables, see the Second Story page. And don’t miss the Quicktime demo.

I’ve seen a couple of new mutlitouch related things come down the pipes recently, so here’s an unordered list of morning multitouch links:

• Andrew dropped us a note about a table that design house Moto put together. One of the tables is currently at the Art Center College of Design, for their students to play with. Check the video out:
  Andrew notes that Moto was one of the development partners with the Julie Snow/Post Tool proposal from the finalist pool on the Telematic Table competition. The Telematic Table was what eventually became the Dialog Table.
• There is now an instructable for how to build your very own multitouch display. Eleven easy steps. People afraid of soldering need not apply.
• David Wallin, author of touchlib, has a new video posted of a mutlitouch screen he made for the Archer group. Looks pretty responsive:
  

WebWalker is getting touchy feely all over in this edition with some computer interface goodness.

• This one might be a bit old, but it seems Panasonic demonstrated some sort of multi-touch table a last year, as well as a gigantic interactive video wall. I don’t really know how to describe the table. The video looks very nice in 720P glory, but the narration that goes with it is worth a chuckle and the interface is just a bit weird. Translucent fish?
• Another big multitouch screen, this time from DAHAN T&S (via nuigroup via engadget). This time we get dolphins instead of fish, but my questions still remain, why so many creatures of the sea on multitouch screens? There’s no video, so I can’t tell if their dolphin talks like ours.
• Speaking of sea creatures, did someone say calamari? The iPhone is certainly putting some pressure onto the demand for multitouch, we should remember multitouch is not actually that new. Case in point, Powerbook trackpads have been multitouch for years, giving users that lovely two-fingered scrolling. Apple even owns a multitouch patent. The iPhone is taking the idea and coupling it with a screen, which is really the important part. I’m rather curious to know how it works and what kind of tech they’re using to make it happen. None of us in NMI plan on getting an iPhone for various reasons, so who’s going to be the first person to take apart their iPhone?
• And while it is not multitouch, this is a neat project: The digital newsstand. It is basically a newspaper box with a computer screen replacing the window showing todays issue. It is not entirely practical, but I certainly appreciate consistency of the visual language and presentation. If you were going to show newspapers, you might as well do it in the right box. (via Paul)

Chris O’Shea of Pixelsumo sent me a note letting me know he has been collecting info on mutli-touch screens as well and has a wealth of links to check out. The most impressive of which is the Perceptive Pixel screen. Check out the video to see it in action. We’ve previously covered O’Shea’s Sonicforms project.

I also recalled hearing about some big multitouch screens at CES this year, but google is not helping me. I did find a mention of a large screen from Sharp that was shown at IFA 2006. Watch this clip at about 1:37 for a short view. I can’t find any more details on it, so if someone knows more, I’d love to hear it.

Accenture also has produced some large-scale mutli-touch screen recently. Here’s the press release. The scale is certainly impressive (10×7):

And some tech details:

Accenture’s patent-pending touch sensing system has the ability to distinguish between touches from multiple simultaneous users. Additionally high-resolution cameras are leveraged to provide touch capabilities for simultaneous usage. The screen consists of a series of nine rear-projection DLP screens fastened together to display cohesive images at a clarity of 2100 x 1200 pixels/resolution. The network is managed and updated from a remote location to allow for content to be adjusted regularly.

Here’s a video of what I think is the same tech being used in a military application, though it doesn’t show off the multi-touch capabilities, and some information on Accenture’s site.

“Multitouch” seems to be all the rage lately, mostly because Apple hyped it with the iPhone, though the idea has been around for a while. Make lets us know about a way to create a do it yourself multitouch system that seems to work pretty well. See the video to see for yourself:

The system uses a camera, mirrors, and a computer, just like our Dialog Table.

The difference is that the software for this, VVVV, is freely available for non-commercial use. I’d love to see their patch to know how they did it. I bet that a similar setup is achievable with Jitter or Processing, too, the latter of which is free as well.

Linked in the comments for that post is also a blog from a grad student in Holland, who goes by the handle Gravano, doing some work with multitouch as well. He has many pictures and progress updates on his work posted, in addition to helping run a wiki and a forum. The opening post on sums up the contents of the blog fairly well:

In January this year I co-founded, a community called NUIgroup (Natural User Interface) Open Source Multi Touch Community, with a couple of other guys. Since there wasn't alot of information online related to FTIR and DIY multitouch, we decided to centralize all the information of all our individual projects, so other people can learn and contribute to it as well.

Currently I'm working on a multitouch related project with 3 other guys from school. I'm soon going to develop a second multitouch display prototype. I will be posting my developments on this blog, as well as some usability thingies from time to time.

Looks like something worth keeping an eye on.

I recently visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and the nearby Hall of Atomic Bomb Victims, on a whole it was an emotionally powerful experience but I’ll limit my writing to the technology used throughout to enhance the experience.

The Peace Memorial Museum and the Hall of Atomic Bomb Victims serve two different missions and thus have very different exhibits and feelings which understandably carry through in their approaches to technology. The Peace Memorial Museum uses technology now considered traditional in many museums (audio guides, push button AV, animatronics, creative lighting etc.) to tell stories of people and the city. In contrast The Hall of Atomic Bomb Victims is a venue to research and document the experiences of individual bombing victims. There are dozens of interactive research stations which visitors to search databases audio, video, text, journals, official documents, news reports in many different languages. The stations serve a scholarly research oriented function which is a refreshing change of pace from the high tech edutainment found in many contemporary museums. In fact these study stations have about zero entertainment value on their own but are incredibly useful to the serious researcher and the casual visitor.

When you enter the hall (free admittance) they hand you a brochure and ask you which language you prefer. Extra brochures are available on stands throughout the hall.

You may notice the small barcode on the brochure. Similar to the QR codes seen on ads and in magazines throughout Japan. Unfortunately I didn’t have a phone equipped to read QR codes so I couldn’t find out if there was a phone/internet tie in.

The brochure is inserted into one of the many study stations like this.

The brochure opens the content up in your chosen language.

There are stand up study stations in the lobbies and open areas:

The main lobby has a video wall showing abbreviated records that are also available on the study stations.

Sit down stations are set up for longer more in depth video viewing and reading.

These sit down stations have pages of Japanese text on the table which is translated on the screens above. Visitors can be turn the physical pages which advances the on screen translation or they can use a simple set of buttons on the table. Related audio and video or other documents can be accessed with the buttons.

(I apologize for the poor quality of these photos but I couldn’t find anything better online)

Unfortunately I was left wanting a way to save the research I had done. Possibly onto a webpage accessible through the barcode or other access code on my brochure. Or at the very least a way to search all this content away from the museum in an online format. That said it’s certainly a site worth visiting if your anywhere nearby.

Links:
Hall of Atomic Bomb Victims
Peace Memorial Park

Terrain Table

I found infromation about the TerrainTable on the site of defense mega-contactor Northrop Grumman. TerrainTable creates scale 3 dimensional maps on a table top. Mechanical pins in the table distort a silicone skin to create the terrain, color and detail are acheived through an overhead projector, apparently that stretchy skin responds to touch. There is actually very little detail on the Northrop Gummans site but there is a link to this PDF. — source

Touch Table

This is a multitouch screen with multiple configurations, some of which are shown in this video. Currently there are two models available, the multiscreen TT84 and the single screen TT45. The Touch Table’s primary use appears to be tactical planning for government disaster and civil and military response teams. TouchTable was created by by Applied Minds (more on them). In this video the announcer quotes a $65k pricetag for the table, although I’m sure the majority of that goes toward some very expensive software. There is exetended user footage from a conference here. It looks like TouchTable is a gesture interface engine and at least the TT84 screen is a top down projection screen.

Symbolic Table

Billed as an “interface free media player” although that is not accurate it does’t have a traditional computer interface. In fact it does not even have a screen. To interact the user places an object (a plastic horse seen in the picture) on the table. The table then reads and RFID chip in the object and plays a media file, either a sound file or a projected video. Images of the prototype look very rough, but an interactive media player with no visible computer interface could be very intuitive and fun. — source

It looks like these interactive table posts could become a weekly blog feature. Here are two more interactive table projects.

SonicForms
Opensource interface to create music with tangible objects. To operate the interface users manipulate blocks of wood, the program then generates sounds and visuals based on those positions. The interface utilizes a custom Processing library which receives Open Sound Control messages from PureData. It looks like there is still a good bit of information to fill in on the site but the O’Shea’s willingness to share the technology behind this project is and exciting sign.

PercepTable
Developed by the Pervasive Technology Labs for the Indianapolis Museum of Art. This table can run a couple software applications including a Restaurant Finder and RiverSide data explorer. The display technology is a projector suspended overhead (seen during installation), users move objects around the table which are recognized by video tracking software. On this page the second screen for data display is clearly visible, this is the first dual screen table I’ve found besides the Dialog Table.

I thought I exhausted my accumulated links with last weeks post, but I found a few more interactive tables to blog about.

reacTable*
Quoted from their website “The reacTable*, is a state-of-the-art multi-user electro-acoustic music instrument with a tabletop tangible user interface. Several simultaneous performers share complete control over the instrument by moving physical artefacts on the table surface…”

It uses physical tokens to interact with the table which of course has the benefit of precision but the draw back of maintenance, loss, etc.

The Pond
Created by Potion Design, the Pond uses small lights to interact with the round screen. This is one of the few tables I’ve blogged about that I’ve actually seen in person, I can say the light wands offer precise control for many users (up to 6) at a high frame rate. I don’t think the project has been deployed in it’s final form anywhere yet, but its a lot of fun.

Tilty Table & Twisty Table
Developed by Onomy Labs the Tilty Table has been used at the San Jose Tech Museum. The interface consists of a table top that users tip to operate. The Twisty Table also incorporates twisting into the tabletop interface and has been used at the Maryland Science Center

This is a short list of links to interactive table projects that I’ve accumulated over the past few months.

Intellegent Vibrations has developed what they call an Internet Table. According to their site the surface of the table as a “tap screen” which they go on to describe being for ordering food, drinks or surfing the internet all while being impervious to liquid. Apparently (and I’m referenceing this) the touch screen technology has to do with detecting sound waves at the edges of the glass screen. That explains why you have to “tap” the screen not just touch it. This has other applications including a “tap screen” store window which also appears to be in developement. Honestly the website leaves a lot to be desired so I can’t get very specific. Some images of the table on Craowiki.

UbiTable was developed by Mitsubishi Electronics Research Labs. The table allows users to walk up connect their laptop, camera and “fluidly share, manipulate, exchange, and mark up their contents with each other on a large tabletop surface”.

Jean-Baptiste Haué, Pierre Dillenbourg published their research on three interactive tables at various levels of completion for the CRAFT - School of Computer and Communication Sciences in Switzerland. Their Noise Sensitive Table responds to sound levels aroung the table and records a visual representation of a conversation. (similar idea to the Conversation Table)

The Novo Infotainment Table takes the interactive table back to it’s arcade roots with some spacey styling to compliment the two joystick and multibutton interaction. Although it is called an “Infotainment Table” it is obviously geared toward games.

For all these links I’m drawing from Nicolas Nova’s blog Pasta & Vinegar. Nova himself taught a class which had a project about interactive tables. The outcomes are documented online. Nova also linked to a workshop about collaborative artefacts and that page has an even more extensive list of interactive tables and roomware. It looks like there was quite a lot going on in this field in the last few years that I didn’t know about.

Some new touch screen research has gotten good deal of coverage in Tech/Art blogs recently and I’d feel remiss not mentioning them here in light of our continuing interactive table research.

Jeff Han has posted his Multi-Touch Interaction Research. I’m a bit unclear if this technology is similar to the Entertaible that Brent posted about earlier. This surface senses touch by sensing a disruption in the path of light from an LED placed inside of a hollow film. Pressure on the film blocks the light.

As quoted from the website.

…These go far beyond the “poking” actions you get with a typical touchscreen, or the gross gesturing found in video-based interactive interfaces. It is a rich area for research, and we are extremely excited by its potential for advances in efficiency, usability, and intuitiveness. It’s also just so much fun!

It looks like they took the video on the NYU site down because it was too popular. Until the official mirror gets set up you can see the project here.

CES is going on currently, and as such there’s lots of great new tech being introduced out there. One that caught my eye is a research concept by Philips called the Entertaible. It’s basically a large LCD touch screen, but supports many concurrent inputs at the same time.

They’re looking to use it for things like board games (and something like Risk would definitely be fun to play on it), but I can see it having interesting educational applications as well. Certainly if implimented correctly it could be a great alternative interface for something like the Dialog Table. From the press release:

While the concept of a multi-user digital table is not new, previous solutions have utilized complex arrangements of overhead cameras and dimmed lighting that detract from the user experience. The Philips Entertaible, however, is based on a series of infrared LEDs and photodiodes discretely mounted around the perimeter of an LCD screen. It requires no special lighting conditions or other equipment and is entirely 'hand' operated by touch alone. Entertaible can simultaneously detect dozens of objects, including fingers.

Sounds promising.