It is a never ending battle between the good and the bad guys. The bad guys (malicious software coders) are constantly thinking of innovative ways to install malwares onto user’s computer without being detected by antivirus and the good guys (antivirus company) are just constantly catching up. Early this month Symantec has released Norton 2011. [...]
When the words “free antivirus protection” come together, my normal thoughts are of the freebie antiviruses out on the market. These are Panda Cloud Free, AVG Free, Avira Free, Rising Antivirus Free, and of course, Avast Free. There have been several tests done on them and they haven’t always been star performers, but as of [...]
I think that Galaxy Tab would be great in educational and healthcare settings!
Do More on the Go with the GALAXY Tab™ According to the Samsung website, the 7-inch Galaxy tablet will be available through AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon. It has a a front facing camera and a rear facing camera, which can be edited within the system. It supports Adobe Flash Player 10.1, a variety of HD video content formats, and apps from the Android Market. It accepts a variety of input interactions, including SWYPE.
Here is some information from the website:
"With 3G connectivity, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth® 3.0, the Samsung GALAXY Tab takes mobile communication to a whole new level. By combining Samsung innovation with the Android OS 2.2, the Tab is truly an always on communication and entertainment tool. Its large battery (4,000 mAh) provides more than 7 hours of movie viewing time and because it's powered by a Cortex A8 1.0GHz application processor, it's designed to deliver high performance."
ClassDroid is an application designed for Android-based smartphones. It lets you take a picture of the student's work, or of the student, or anything else, and instantly upload it to the student's on-line portfolio.
ClassDroid is available for free from the Android Market. According to Johnny McClear, the app "supports images being stored on the wordpress site which can be accessed through a web browser on any web-enabled device. Parents and pupils can then view their work and grades online."
UPDATE ClassDroid might be a great app for the new Android-based Galaxy Tablet:
PrimaryPad is a clone of EtherPad, a web-based collaborative word processor application that is now part of Google. It is similar to PiratePad, which is powered by EtherPad. The EtherPad code is open source and can be found at http://code.google.com/p/etherpad/ Additional information can be found at http://etherpad.org/
Here are a few topics and links of interest: THE FUTURE OF SCREENS, CIRCA 2014 If you haven't seen this short video clip, take a look. It was created by TAT MobileUI, and includes examples of how screen interaction can take place across a variety of surfaces and settings.
"This is the result of TAT's Open Innovation experiment. It is an experience video showing the future of screen technology with stretchable screens, transparent screens and e-ink displays, to name a few." TAT MobileUI TAT stands for The Astonishing Tribe. According to information from the TAT website, "TAT is a Swedish software technology and design company offering products and services that differentiate and enhance the user experience of portable devices. TAT is headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, and has local offices in Korea and USA." Ola Larsén, the Vice President of Marketing at TAT, recently spoke at the ARM Multimedia conference in Taiwan, focusing on UX trends and tablets: "Enabling a cross device connected user experience". To dig deeper, see the original post in Gizmodo and take a look at the comments: The Future of Screens Circa 2014 (Kyle VanHemert, Gizmodo, 9/1/2010)
INTERACTIVE VIDEO RESOURCES/EXAMPLES I have a need to create "touchable" interactive video, and I plan to share what crosses my path on this blog from time to time. Over the past several months, there has been some growth in the world of interactive video. The information below is just a beginning:
Interactive Video Research Thanks to a link from Johannes Schöning, I learned about the Dragon project, headed by Dr. Jan Borchers of the Computer Science Department at RWTH Aachen University in Germany. I haven't yet explored the research or used the application, which can be downloaded from the Dragon project website.
Description (from the Dragon website): " DRAGON is a direct-manipulation interaction technique for frame-accurate navigation in video scenes. This technique benefits tasks such as professional and amateur video editing, review of sports footage, and forensic analysis of video scenes." "By directly dragging objects in the scene along their movement trajectory, DRAGON enables users to quickly and precisely navigate to a specific point in the video timeline where an object of interest is in a desired location. Examples include the specific frame where a sprinter crosses the finish line, or where a car passes a traffic light." "DRAGON is a research project by Thorsten Karrer, Malte Weiss, Moritz Wittenhagen, Jan Borchers and others at the Media Computing Group. It is funded in part through the German B-IT Foundation and the UMIC DFG Excellence Initiative." Related Publication (more can be found on the Dragon website) Christian Brockly. Evaluation of direct manipulation techniques for in-scene video navigation. Master's thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, February 2009.
The following companies are involved in some form of interactive video work, mostly focused on marketing and advertising: INNOVID in-video innovation: "Existing Video ads can be intrusive and out of context. At Innovid, we believe that online video should be as interactive as the Internet is today, with many interchangeable elements that give the viewer dynamic content rather than a static succession of frames. We`re bringing this vision to life by innovating the way viewers interact with and engage with online video ads . iRoll®, our interactive pre-roll ad product, has powered the most interactive pre-roll campaigns with well-known brands and agencies." Innovid Platform iRoll® - Interactive Pre-roll Innovid Studio Innovid is hiring!
QUICK.TV Quick.tvis a company co-founded by Nick Bell and Tod Yeadon. The information about the company was in the process of being updated when I visited the website.
I knew if I went to the iTVT website, I'd find more information about Quick.TV and interactive video, thanks to iTVT co-founder Tracy Swedlow:
QuickTV in Interactive Video Partnership with Ooyala (Tracy Swedlow, iTVT, 7/11/10) "According to Quick.tv, Ooyala customers will see a "seamless integration" of Quick.tv overlays into the Ooyala video player. The company says that a library of off-the-shelf widgets can be used to deploy interactive features quickly, while an advanced editor allows users to create their own custom widgets. "The widget approach is efficient and flexible," Bell continued. "It offers a wide range of monetization, engagement and editorial overlays for immediate use, whilst offering an editing facility with limitless creative potential for those who want to deliver a more specific user experience. The analytics generated by viewer interactions take video accountability and market intelligence to a new level."
OVERLAY.TV Overlay.TV: "Helping online retailers create, manage, and deliver interactive video experiences to drive traffic, increase conversion, and engage shoppers". While browsing through the Overlay.TV website, I came across a series of posts worth reading: "Six Interactive Video Ideas to Get You Started" Related article: Ottowa company makes clickable fashionable (CBC News, 9/8/10) Comment: I wish the emphasis was on touch, NOT click!
Demonstration of Drag Video Function (Bluebell Inventions)
I'm continuing my search for examples of the use of interactive video in education- particularly video produced for larger touch-screen displays or IWBs.
DAVID POGUE'S RECENT POST & COMMENTS FROM HIS READERS RELEASED TOO SOON(David Pogue, NYT, 9/16/2010) Since most of my readers are interested in emerging technologies, I thought I'd share a link to one of David Pogue's recent posts. David Pogue knows what he's talking about. He's a guy who keeps up with new technologies better than most.
In the article, Pogue discusses his review of a new product, Vulkano, which was designed to record TV shows and also provide a means to watch shows via the internet. Although his post focuses on the problems that can ensue when a product is marched to market before it is ready, the best part is the conversation generated by his post about this problem. Pogue's comments struck a chord among people across a range of industries.
The comments should be must-reads for university students preparing for careers in the world of business and technology!
If you are new to this blog, you should know that I'm passionate about interactive tables and surfaces of all sizes! Although this technology has been around for a while, it is a new concept to most people. The researchers and practitioners involved in the upcoming 2010 Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces Conference have been an important influence in the way people think about interacting with technology, and have made significant contributions to this emerging field over the past several years. It hasn't been an easy road, given that most of us have minds brainwashed through years of forced keyboard-and-mouse interaction and traditional WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointers) interfaces.
I first learned about the first Interactive Tabletops conference, held in 2006, in early 2007. At the time, I was working on projects for my HCI and Ubiquitous Computing classes, trying to learn everything I could about natural user interaction, large touch-screen displays, tabletop computing, and multi-touch. I was inspired by the interesting work going on in this field. This was before the first iPhone was introduced, before Microsoft's multi-touch Surface was unveiled, and three years before Apple broke out with the iPad.
Many of the people involved with the 2010 Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces Conference are (or have been) affiliated with the NUI group. NUI stands for Natural User Interface, or Natural User Interaction - the NUI group is "a global research community focused on the open discovery of natural user interfaces." I joined the NUI-group in 2007 when I was looking for more information about the nuts and bolts of multi-touch programming and systems, and have been encourage to see how things have evolved since then.
Members of another group, sparkon, are also participating in the Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces conference. Sparkon is an on-line community that includes people involved with interactive technologies, including tabletop and surface computing. "On sparkon, you'll find projects demonstrating the latest interactive techniques, applications, software frameworks, case studies, and blog articles relating to creative and emergent technology." (I'm also a member of Sparkon.)
Here's the information from the conference website:
ACM Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces, Saarbrücken, Germany: 7-10 November, 2010 "ITS 2010 is a premier venue for presenting research in the design and use of new and emerging tabletop and interactive surface technologies. As a young community, we embrace the growth of the discipline in a wide variety of areas, including innovations in ITS hardware, software, interaction design, and studies expanding our understanding of design considerations of ITS technologies and of their applications in modern society. ITS 2010 will bring together top researchers and practitioners who are interested in both the technical and human aspects of interactive tabletop and surface technologies. It is our hope that we will be able to achieve increased synergy of approaches between the disciplines engaged in the research in the area of interactive tabletops and surfaces, Design, HCI, UbiComp, Psychology, MobileHCI and other related fields. More directly, we intend to encourage immediate interdisciplinary collaboration on future research topics. Young scholars and Ph.D. students are especially encouraged to submit papers and participate in the doctoral colloquium."
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: W. Bradford Paley "Bio:W. Bradford Paley uses computers to create visual displays with the goal of making readable, clear, and engaging expressions of complex data. He did his first computer graphics in 1973, founded Digital Image Design Incorporated in 1982, and started doing financial & statistical data visualization in 1986. He has exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art; he created TextArc.org; he is in the ARTPORT collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art; has received multiple grants and awards for both art and design, and his designs are at work every day in the hands of brokers on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. He is an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University, and is director of Information Esthetics: a fledgling interdisciplinary group exploring the creation and interpretation of data representations that are both readable and esthetically satisfying."
SAMPLE TOPICS
Applications
Gesture-based interfaces
Multi-modal interfaces
Tangible interfaces
Novel interaction techniques
Data handling/exchange on large interactive surfaces
Data presentation on large interactive surfaces
User-interface technology
Computer supported collaborative systems
Middleware and network support
Augmented reality
Social protocols
Information visualizations
Interactive surface hardware, including sensing and input technologies with novel capabilities
UNASHAMED PLUGS From the conference website -Links to the conference sponsors:
We appreciate the generous support of the following sponsors, without whom this conference would not be possible. Click on the logos to learn more about our generous supporters, and let us know if you are interested in becoming a sponsor.
The video below gives a demo of Sony's RayModeler, "A 360-Degree Display that doesn't require glasses". The video shows how the auto-stereoscopic 3D content is filmed. It also shows how items within the display respond to gesture interaction. The first prototype was introduced in 2009 and then brought out at the SIGGRAPH conference this summer.
According to an article written by Richard Lawler, Core77 created "Breakout" for the RayModeler, a game similar to Pong. I'll have to think more about this technology before I form an opinion!
One of my best investment is the WD TV HD Media Player generation 1 (model:WDAVN00). Although it is an old model, I find it very useful as it can support playing many downloaded video files from the Internet. Most of the movies or TV series that can be downloaded on the Internet are in AVI [...]