Computing
GestureWorks Goes Broadcast
We recently completed a GestureWorks application for a CNN-esque multitouch newsroom application. We’re pretty psyched, as this is our first multitouch project for broadcast media.
We’re sworn to secrecy about the show, but we can say that the app will be featured on a 52″ NextWindow 2700 overlay. An inexpensive 2-point alternative to CNN’s $100,000+ touch wall, the NextWindow system, including LCD & software, cost around $5000. The custom software allows you to sort and display image and video collections, scrub video, and draw on top of images and video clips.
The show debuts in January 2011, so check back in a few months for the actual footage. In the mean time, you can watch us demo a version of the app on an HP Touchsmart 9100 in the video below:
First Multitouch Flash Website!
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We’ve embedded multitouch Flash applications into the GestureWorks site, making it (as far as we know) the first site to incorporate Flash multiouch! Many of the tutorial pages now feature their own multitouch examples that allow you to manipulate example objects on the page with zoom, rotate, flick and more.
If you don’t have multitouch enabled, the GestureWorks simulator still allows you to manipulate the objects using multitouch. Just shift-click to set additional touch points. The turtle above, an example SWF from our Away 3D tutorial, can be rotated in three-dimensional space by setting two static touch points using shift-click and then moving the mouse while pressing down. Try it for yourself.
Multitouch Hardware List Updated!
We’ve recently built out individual pages for the hardware featured on the Multitouch Hardware section of the GestureWorks site. The hardware is divided into categories for easy sorting, making it easy to compare different models of multitouch all-in-ones, notebooks and tablets, displays or tables.
For each device listed, we’ve hunted down reviews, video, specifications and even press releases to provide a comprehensive overview of device strengths and weaknesses without all the legwork. We’ve also enabled comments so we can get feedback from actual users on how the hardware performs. What are you waiting for? Check out the new GestureWorks’ Supported Hardware page for yourself!
Multitouch Tutorials Abound
. . . on the GestureWorks site. Today, we’ve posted a tutorial on how to make a multitouch twitter application in Flash. Not your cup of tea? Maybe you’d like to make a multitouch Google Maps/flickr mashup or just learn the basics on how to create multitouch applications in Flash & Flex.
Our tutorials have been some of the most visited pages on the GestureWorks support site and and we’re looking to expand the list even further. We’d love to hear suggestions on what kinds of tutorials you’d like to see on the site. Tweet us @gestureworks or comment on this post.
Just How Many Points Can the New 3M 22" Multitouch Screen Handle?
There are many devices that claim to be multitouch, but only a few that can actually handle more than two points. Which is why we were anxiously awaiting our 20-point capacitive multitouch screen from 3M.
3M claims a >6 millisecond response time for all 20 fingers. Minus a millisecond stopwatch, we can vouch that the screen is highly responsive. Not to mention, we were able to get the screen to track 50 (yes, that’s five-oh) touch points within a GestureWorks-built app. And all of the apps that we originally built for our 50″ MT-50 Multitouch Table looked great on the high-resolution screen. It’s good to have true multitouch.
GestureWorks Wins a New Mexico Tech Award
Tonight a group from Ideum headed up to Santa Fe for the New Mexico Technology Council’s Tech Ex Awards. The awards celebrate technological achievement and innovation by New Mexico companies and individuals.
We were the only organization that were finalists for two Solution Innovation awards; one for our multitouch Flash framework GestureWorks, and another for our EM Spectrum 100″ multitouch table exhibit. We were in illustrious company, as Intel, HP, APS, and others were also nominated. Last year, we won a NM Tech Award for our first-generation multitouch table.
Only four awards were given and GestureWorks was one of them! Congratulations to all of the winners and nominees.
Clear Plexiglass Panelled Multitouch Table Debuts at Museums and the Web
Last week—at the Museums and the Web conference in Denver—our multitouch table bared all. A clear plexiglass side panel allowed conference attendees to see all of the components inside. Ever since we built our first table back in 2008, we have continued to make big improvements.
Just recently we’ve moved to i7 architecture in our custom computer unit, giving us 60+ simultaneous touch points. In addition, we’ve added super-bright IR LEDs—which are 20 times as bright as the LEDs available when our table first came out. These powerful LEDs “flood” our illumination system with IR making the table perform great under a variety of lighting conditions. (Beyond hardware, our software package has also improved: now our GestureWorks framework for Flash and Flex, and our editable CollectionViewer and Google Mapping exhibit software are included.)
You can see the full specifications for our MT-50 Multitouch Table on our Website. We have pictures from the conference below. If you’d like to see more photos and a short video, check out the Ideum photostream on Flickr.
The custom computer got a clear plexiglass panel too.
100" Multitouch Table, GestureWorks Finalists for NM TechEx Awards
The New Mexico Technology Excellence awards recognize “exceptional individual and organizational excellence in technology throughout the State.” We’re honored that two of our projects, the 100″ multitouch table exhibit and GestureWorks (our multitouch framework for Flash & Flex), are finalists for the awards.
Sponsored by the New Mexico Technology Council, the NM TechEX awards help to fund technology education for K-12 students in New Mexico. This year’s awards focus on two categories: Solution Innovation, for novel technologies that have potential for future impact, and Solution Impact, focusing on solutions that have already had a demonstrable impact on an individual or community level.
We’re glad to be a part of continuing efforts to build the technology community in New Mexico, and look forward to seeing everyone at the ceremony May 6.
New GestureWorks Tutorials & Educational Pricing
It’s been a busy week for the GestureWorks team. Our programmers have been developing a Flex-compatible version of GestureWorks, which we expect to release later this month. (We already provide the easiest way to author multitouch with Adobe Flash.) Be the first to know about our Flex release; follow GestureWorks on Twitter and Facebook.
We’ve posted some great new tutorials on creating applications with the flick & zoom gestures, as well as a more complex tutorial on implementing rotate, zoom & drag on multiple objects. Hopefully these tutorials will aid new developers as well as developers new to GestureWorks in easily creating multitouch applications in Flash.
We are now offering educational pricing for developers and teachers in both institutional and informal learning environments. Museum folk, that means educational pricing is available for you too! The standard version of GestureWorks, which allows distribution on up to 5 machines, is $99, while a site license is $399. Use the coupon code “edu50” at checkout before April 15th to save an additional $50 dollars on your new copy of GestureWorks!
The Social Dimension: Interactive Exhibits for the Floor and Web at UVIC
At the end of March, I will be teaching a blended (online and in person) course for the Cultural Resource Management program at the University of Victoria (UVIC) in British Columbia. The course is entitled The Social Dimension: Interactive Exhibits for the Floor and Web. A blogged about this a few months ago, now I’m busily preparing for this course.
Here’s a brief course description….
Computer-Based Interactive exhibits are now commonplace in museums, and many of these same institutions have developed online exhibits as well. While the technical requirements and design parameters of computer-based floor exhibits and online exhibits are quite different, the most common ingredient for success is the social dimension. Exhibits that encourage visitor interaction with each other, along with museum objects and content, are likely to have a stronger and more lasting impact with the visiting public.
The rise of the social Web characterized by sites like; MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, and others have brought into focus the power of social interaction. Some museums have already entered this realm, finding new audiences and creating new visitor experiences online. While this development has obvious, and direct applications for online exhibits, it can also inform the creation of computer-based interactives for the museum floor.
For decades, museum professionals have understood that interesting and provocative exhibitions and exhibits can encourage dialogue and deepen the visitor experience. However, most of the computer-based exhibits that have been developed are information-heavy “kiosks” with limited interactivity, providing only solitary experiences for visitors. By taking the most effective practices in exhibit design and coupling those with the lessons that social media provide, we can move away from lonely point-and-click exhibits to create truly interactive exhibits.
In addition, emerging technological advances such as multitouch, multiuser hardware and software provide museums with a unique opportunity to create a new generation of interactive computer-based exhibits. Gestural interfaces and direct visitor engagement allows for exhibits that are more intuitive and compelling, encouraging social interaction.
You can learn more and sign up for the blended course on the University of Victoria’s Cultural Resource Management Website: The Social Dimension: Interactive Exhibits for the Floor and Web.
