Ultimate list of Cool Touch and Gesture Based Video Walls

So who has the best interactive walls? Here’s some of our picks below. As we move into a world which is transitioning to devices using the NUI (Natural User Interface) there’s a lot to keep an eye on. If you know any more please post them in the comments.

1.University of Groningen:
Pros: Looks awesome, very responsive. Multi-user capable.
Cons: You can’t go out and buy one off the shelf. Touch based only?

2. Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect AND Windows Phone 7, working together!
Pros: Kinect SDK on the way for PC (fingers crossed) so a very affordable way to develop. Multi user. Facial recognition. Supports second screen in this video.
Cons: None. Seriously! SDK pending, this will be the easiest entry point to start building your first video wall.

3. Toyota Vision Multi Touch Wall:
Pros: Massive 82 inch screens at high res. Very responsive.
Cons: Expensive setup.

4. HD 18 Screen 20 ft Paint Wall with iPad integration.
Pros: Very cool. Huge. HD. Responsive. Works with a second screen (iPad)
Cons: Looks a bit like a one off application for now. Can’t go out and buy one.

5.Yahoo’s Gesture based Video Wall. http://vimeo.com/19177169
Pros: Looks good, hi-resolution and seems responsive.
Cons: Tiled screens. Looks like only one user at a time?

6. Microsoft LightSpace
Pros: It’s a true 3D interface for an entire toom. It projects working interfaces onto your arm/ hand.
Cons: Early days. Long way to go here (but still very cool).

7. Hard Rock Cafe Vegas:
Pros: Multi user. Smooth and responsive. Great content.
Cons: Looks expensive?

8. Ring Wall http://vimeo.com/6648869
Pros: It’s a massive 425 square metres in size. Enough room for everyone to play.
Cons: With 15 HD projectors we’re betting the ongoing running costs might stack up? 

9. The Schematic TouchWall with RFID
Pros: It recognises RFID cards allowing you access to personal info. Social integration.
Cons: Nothing obvious. This wall is pretty cool.

10. The BendDesk.
Pros: It’s horizontal AND vertical.
Cons: Not quite wall sized! It’s a prototype so a little rough round the edges.

 

11. Canon’s big wall – Expo 2010
Pros: It’s looks big and multi user.
Cons: We can’t quite tell if this is a ‘smoke and mirrors’ job. This video is more about the camera than the wall itself.

12. HP’s video wall of touch (link):
Pros: Nice tight looking tiled screens. Cons Already looking a bit dated compered to the others. Touch only. Touch looks a little laggy.
 

13. The Giant iPhone – Table Connect
Pros: Pretty simple concept. Just plug in your iphone and mount it on a wall!
Cons: Do they make a wall sized one yet?

We’re pretty sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of these soon. Please send us any good ones we might have missed! 🙂

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Amnesia Razorfish Announces Gesture Sharing for Smartphones and Tablets using Microsoft Surface (Press Release)

Amnesia Razorfish today announced the launch of Amnesia Connect – a software breakthrough, which allows instant and seamless sharing and transfer of any content such as photos, music or embedded apps between multiple handheld devices using a Microsoft Surface table using a single gesture.

Launched today, Amnesia Razorfish Connect can be viewed at: http://vimeo.com/18859503 and there is more information on the software at: www.amnesiarazorfish.com.au/

Amnesia Razorfish Connect has been developed entirely in-house at Amnesia Razorfish by the creative and emerging technology teams.

Following months of research and development, Amnesia Razorfish has replaced the typical ‘send and receive’ interface with a more natural ‘gesture-based’ interface. A smartphone owner can now move their content freely between two devices by simply dragging content off their phone onto a Microsoft Surface Table and back onto another device instantly.

Amnesia Razorfish Founder and Executive Creative Director Iain McDonald said: “The previous barriers which stood in the way of getting content on or off your phone have been completely removed with this software.

“In the past device integration like this has been mainly confined to Hollywood movies or smoke and mirror demos, so we set ourselves the challenge of making it real.

“It took a while to crack, but the result speaks for itself – all the buttons are gone and sharing content is now completely instinctive. In a world where smartphones are becoming omnipresent, this kind of software opens another world of ideas for brands.”

Amnesia Connect allows gesture transfer of mobile content instantly

The smartphone user can transfer new free or commercial content from the table by dragging it directly to their phone with a single swipe – then before full transfer takes place, a preview instantly visible as a live motion tracked ‘lens preview’ through the phone display – similar to an X-ray through to the table.

For example, in less than a few seconds a photo can be taken on one device and dragged effortlessly onto the Surface table and then directly onto another device running on Amnesia Connect software.

“The new software promises a range of new possibilities for the retail and hospitality industries in particular. In the near future we envisage a Smartphone user being to complete commercial transactions for both physical and digital content,” McDonald said.

Amnesia Connect in action

The Amnesia Connect software works with all Apple IOS devices and is being further developed to work seamlessly with Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry Smartphones.

Amnesia Razorfish Connect utilises a range of technologies including Wi-Fi, proximity detection, unique ID and phone accelerometer, depending on the type of phone and location.

For in-store transactions, NFC (Near-Field-Communications) has been proposed as one of several possibilities for payment transactions, although a pre-authenticated user account with credit card details could also be used.

Amnesia Connect has also been developed to work with the new Microsoft Surface 2.0 table, that was announced at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show.

Amnesia Razorfish Managing Director Michael Buckley said that Amnesia Connect is available immediately for the agency’s clients to utilise in projects and added existing clients that had seen the application were ‘very excited’.

Follow @amnesiafish on Twitter.
PS: Ask questions in the comments below – we will do our best to answer them!

CES 2011 and here are my favourite things

As usual everybody seems to be waiting to announce their new products at CES and this year hasn’t been any different.

And again we are overwhelmed with information from everyone and blinded by all the new shiny products. I will have to get a 2nd job to be able to afford all the new gadgets I want now.

So below is a list of my favourites from the CES this year that I found on different blogs around the internets (maybe one day I will be able to go there in person)

So here I will be showing you tablets, 3D stuff, Microsoft hardware and some other cool stuff I came across

The multitouch desk of the future

We all know that Steve Jobs doesn’t like vertical multitouch, but I think it doesn’t hurt having that as well.

And the guys from Media Computing Group seem to share this opinion as they just showed off a cool concept workspace that is curved. For them this is the multitouch desk of the future.

It holds 2 projectors and 3 cameras and supports 10 touch points at a time.

If you thought a Microsoft Surface table was big and spacious then have a close look at this one. I think I will need to build a new office to fit it in.

Check out the video below as they are showing off a couple of applications (including a version of space invaders)

@maniac13

Sony vs Microsoft or Atrac vs Surface

Swiss company Atracsys sold its tech knowhow to Sony and the company is today informing the world that its atracTable is ready for mass production and commercialization this June.

The system is a dual camera-based system that tracks and analyzes body movements in three dimensions, in real-time. Initially designed for use with a computer in a sterile operating theater, the interface not only notices subtle changes in the position of your body, arm, hand, or finger position, but it’s also determine rough age, sex, or facial expression of the user.

of course nobody knows a price yet, but they promise a high-contrast, Full HD screen, which is already better than the surface table from MS.

It will be able to communicate with your mobile devices or respond to motion input, which is picked up by a pair of Sony camcorders.

Here is another video of it in action:

The future of touch includes a stylus

Even though Apple’s Steve Jobs was very clear about not liking a stylus, it looks like Microsoft Research went back to it to combine it with touch input and give the user new tools that weren’t possible before.

Of course this comes from the research department and might never see the day of life, but it looks awesome and I can see this “addition of the past” bringing some useful things to the end user.

check out the video

@maniac13

Apples new touch gestures for the tablet

Ok Ok I don’t know anything about the tablet, but I read this article on crunchgear and FingerWorks, a company Apple bought a few years back, has an interesting patent about how to extend multitouch gestures.

Check out the video where some of them are explained – funnily enough with the help of a Microsoft Surface table.

It’s going to be even more confusing if all that gets implemented.

Light touch is like surface on any surface

The CES is on in Vegas and everyone is just flooding you with new and exciting gadgets.

And one of the things that caught my eye is the Light Touch by Light Blue Optics.

It is a laser projector that turns any flat surface into an auto-focused and image-adjusted 10-inch touchscreen with WVGA resolution thanks to its laser- based pico projection engine dubbed HLP (holographic laser projection) and infrared touch-sensing system.

When I first saw the press release and all its nice staged photos I thought it can’t be that great and responsive, but engadget had a hands-on and it looks pretty cool.

They show off a few apps and the picture one is a lot like  surface if you ask me.

Unfortunately there is no price anywhere.

Build your own Mini surface

i was doing some research today about Multitouch on Windows 7 and I came across this article here on how to Emulate a multi-touch device for Windows 7.

All you need is a webcam, a cardboard box, some tracing paper and a photo frame.

I thought, surely we have all that in the office somewhere. After a short stroll around the office I was able to gather all of the above and within 1 hour we had it all up and running.

and it works

So I wanted to thank Szymon Kobalczyk for his blogpost and for making my Friday a little bit more exciting.

Now I am even more excited about all the stuff we will be able to do with Windows 7.

Razorfish Emerging Experiences blog and labs

If you’re into the next generation of devices, technology, multi-touch – check out the new Razorfish blog ‘Emerging Experiences’ – http://emergingexperiences.com – there’s some really fascinating content to explore. As we move from the GUI (Graphic User Interface) to the NUI (Natural User Interface) this is great first look into what’s coming.

a touch screen with texture

Senseg.com is a haptic interface company based in Helsinki which is developing a new “type” of touch screen that let’s you feel different surfaces.

Instead of using vibrating motors, the devices are completely motionless. Instead, the Senseg system stimulates your fingers or hand with an electrical field to simulate the feeling of friction or texture.

Check out the video:

found here.

Because it uses no motors you can’t hear it and it doesn’t run down the battery. A small module – about as big as two sugar cubes – controls the sensation by connecting to a thin film that can be placed on any device. The film can even go around curves.

I say it’s pretty cool and I want one 🙂

Video of our Surface Company Directory app.

Here’s a quick demonstration video of our Company Directory Surface application that we’ve demoed at various conferences around the place.

You can see some video of other Surface applications that have been developed by the various Razorfish offices.

The answer to Microsofts surface table?

I am pretty sure MS is not faced with this new invention, but I think it is an interesting idea and I am sure people will come up with loads of things to do with it.

It is a flexible display consisting of foam and force sensors which is deformable. It’s called Impress and works with the parameters position and time like other touch screens as well, but in addition to that, it reacts, above all, on the intensity of pressure.

check out the video below:

impress – flexible display from Sillenet on Vimeo.

and more info here

more piezoelectric goodness – lightdrops umbrella

Have you ever been caught in the rain with your umbrella wishing you would be more visible or had a bit of light around you?

Fear no more because now there is Lightdrops – not just an umbrella.

As water pours over the surface, potential energy from raindrops slamming onto the conductive membrane called PDVF transforms into electrical energy powering embedded LEDs sending your umbrella ablaze with light. The heavier the rain, the brighter the light to help you see your way.

Looks like more and more people are thinking about the opportunities that piezoelectric material can give us.

Blog Action Day 2008: Amnesia, Google, Yahoo & World Vision Team Up Against Global Poverty

Blog Action Day 2008, Oct.15, is a chance for the digital community to unite against global poverty by creating loud messages of hope, outrage and solutions to this difficult global problem.

To inspire bloggers across the nation to participate, World Vision Australia is running a contest (here) to see who can write, draw, record and share the most compelling message about global poverty.

With the help of Amnesia, Yahoo!7 and Google, the grand prize winners of the WVA contest will be flown to Sydney for an exclusive digital training day with each of the above. It even includes an hour of time getting hands on with one of the only Microsoft Surface tables in Australia here at Amnesia.

So don’t be a passive observer. 
1. GET INVOLVED  with Blog Action Day and REGISTER (HERE)
2. Submit your link in the comments of the page above (HERE)

http://learnaboutpoverty.org/2008/10/09/blog-action-day-competition/

SMH Online coverage of Surface

Spot the cameos from Amnesia employees in this report from SMH online about Microsoft Surface.

The report shows a few of the table’s demo apps, including our own business card reader application. All our new business cards have a Surface-readable tag on them that our application has been coded to respond to and display our flickr feeds, tweets and latest blog posts.

We had a great time presenting the table with Microsoft at Web Directions South and we look forward to showing it off more in the future!

August de los Reyes talks Surface at Web Directions South

August de los Reyes, Creative Director of the Windows Platform Core Innovation team presented his keynote at the Web Directions South ’08 conference at Sydney’s Darling Harbour Convention Centre.

Titled ‘Remembering the Future’, August presented on his vision of the future of user interfaces and how products like Microsoft Surface are helping to develop a new set of experiences that rely on emotion and exploration.

August spent some time with our developers this week to see where we’re taking Surface and shared his thoughts on the technology’s future.

Our devs have only been playing with Surface for a few weeks and have already produced some amazing demos so we’re very excited to see what kind of things we’ll produce in the coming months.

Watch this space!

Unboxing Australia’s first Microsoft Surface table

Yesterday, we (Amnesia) took delivery of Australia’s first two Microsoft Surface tables. We believe they were the first units to ship outside the US. Not often you get your hands on something no one else has seen, so we thought we’d share the grand opening of the boxes…

These crates are heavy. Around 125kg each. “That’s a Big Ass Box” quipped one of the designers.

Raiders of the Lost Ark eat your heart out…

No time to waste we borrowed a crowbar and a hammer from the courier to get inside.

The tables we packed very securely and nothing was even slightly scuffed from transit.

Something to hang on the wall to inspire everyone… a big finger 🙂

The entire package is very polished.

The entire table is packed in what is essentially a GIANT ziplock bag.

When unpacked, the table has the calibration mat and some other printed materials covering the screen.

Up and running in just a few minutes. We actually had our first app (with our own content) up and running within 20 minutes which is great news.

Meantime, staff can’t stop walking up to the table and playing with the demos that were included – A big ass table yes… but so much fun.

Microsoft Surface Hands On Demo Video Review

We just returned from the Avenue A Razorfish 2008 client summit. Here’s a couple of quick videos (taken with mobile phone) demonstrating Microsoft Surface.

First Clip: Bidding on the guitar signed by Sir George Martin (of Beatles fame). The way this worked – you placed your attendance card onto the table – up comes your details then you are able to bid on the guitar by dragging your card onto it.

Second clip: Demo of me using my attendance card and entering the draw for an Xbox 360.