When we have visitors to our studio, we always like to show off the inside our MT-50 multitouch table. We’re very proud of the care and workmanship that goes into each custom-built table and we pride ourselves on using the best quality components we can find. We’ve decided to extend our inside tour to the web. Below, is our one-minute video tour of the MT-50.
The MT-50 multitouch table continues to evolve and improve. In a recent test, we broke 60 points of simultaneous input, making it a true multiuser platform (six sets of hands!). Our powerful computer, screen resolution and size, and number of touch points all top Microsoft Surface. (Compare our specs to theirs and see for yourself.) Plus, you can develop multitouch software using Adobe Flash with our GestureWorks framework without Silverlight.
And don’t forget to check out our other videos and subscribe to multitouch exhibits on YouTube.
Update May 14, 2010: Adobe has recently corrected this problem and is now properly attributing our icons.
Last month, we blogged about the GestureWorks Open Source Gesture Library and released a series of illustrations showing all of our supported multitouch gestures. We released these illustrations using a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. We are happy to make these illustrations available to the community. We simply ask that when they are used, we are attributed.
Today, at the FITC 2010 conference in Amsterdam, several of our illustrations popped up, apparently unattributed, in a presentation by Adobe about multitouch. To be fair, we only saw the presentation online, so perhaps we were attributed “verbally” during the conference?
We are quite flattered that Adobe has adopted our multitouch gesture illustrations. Perhaps in a couple of years, as their support for gestures improves, they’ll be able to use the complete set .
While we were looking at the presentation online, another slide caught our interest.
Maybe this slide illustrates Adobe’s commitment to multitouch?
To see the entire Adobe presentation, visit the Flash blog. And don’t forget to check out our True Multitouch in Flash video to see how GestureWorks compares to Adobe’s built-in support for multitouch.
2010 is shaping up to be a banner year for multitouch enabled screens, all-in-one PCs, laptops, and tablets. It seems like every week there is a new device.
With the release of our GestureWorks multitouch framework for Adobe Flash, we’ve had to try and keep track of this expanding list of devices, all of which are compatible with our GestureWorks software (with Windows 7). While many of these devices are dual-touch (only supporting two points of touch), we are seeing more true multitouch devices such as 3M’s 22″ screen.
You can check out our list of available multitouch hardware on the GestureWorks website. We’ve included basic information like the type of device, number of points supported, and links to the manufacturer’s websites. We will be continuing to update this list as we learn about new multitouch hardware.
The ExhibitFiles Website is a community site for exhibit designers and developers. Almost three years ago now, Ideum worked with the Association of Science -Technology Centers and Independent Exhibitions to help design and develop the site. Created with funding from the National Science Foundation, the purpose of the site is share design practices and provide access to resources that can improve exhibit design. Last week, we launched a new feature called “Bits,” which best described on the ExhibitFiles site itself:
A Bit is an individual media element that you share with your peers. It might be a photo you take of an inspiring exhibit element or design approach, or it could be a prototype you’d like people to comment on — anything you can illustrate with a photo, video, or audio file. You can also just post a question if you’re looking for help from others.
Along with support for uploaded files, you can embed flickr photos or YouTube videos. We will be adding support for PDF documents and audio files in coming weeks. The custom-developed Bits feature and the site itself was developed using Ruby on Rails.
For the second year in a row, Paul Lacey and I will be hosting a workshop entitled Make it Multitouch at the Museums and the Web conference. Normally, I try to avoid sequels and over the last few years I have delivered one-time workshops on RSS, mashups, and even online video editing. Multitouch is different. As emergent technology, it has the potential to fundamentally change the way visitors interactive with exhibits and eventually the Web itself.
This year Paul and I will have a few new things to share. Most notably, we will show a new experimental LCD multitouch table table (a potential successor to the MT-5o multitouch table) and provide a peek under the hood of this new high-resolution device. I hope to see some of you at the Museums and the Web conference this year in Denver. The workshop will be held on April 14th. Here’s the description…
Multitouch and multiuser exhibits are changing the ways in which visitors interact with computer-based exhibits in museums. Multitouch exhibits allow designers to move away from traditional graphical user-interfaces and incorporate more natural and intuitive controls. Additionally, multiuser exhibits encourage social interaction in ways that traditional computer exhibits can’t.
Multitouch technology is no longer just a novelty, it is moving into the mainstream. The iPhone and other touch-enabled phones, the popularity of multitouch-capable all-in-one PCs, and the release of Windows 7 demonstrate the reach of multitouch technology. This major technological change presents exhibit developers with new and exciting design challenges. Before long, the work of Web developers will be impacted by the advent of multitouch, as well.
In this full-day workshop, we’ll explore a variety of multitouch technologies including off-the-shelf multitouch-enabled PCs, along with a look under the hood our second-generation custom-built 50″ touch table. We’ll also explain the software development process. Participants will see a variety of examples and prototypes, including many that use Web-based technologies. We’ll see how multi-touch technology is used to browse multimedia elements, RSS Feeds, mapping services, and other Web-based applications and mash-ups.
Finally, we’ll explore the design challenges multitouch and multiuser exhibits present. We’ll examine some traditional computer-based exhibits and conceptualize how they might be designed differently with multitouch and collaborative capabilities in mind. Through engaging rapid-design exercises, we’ll explore and discuss the conceptual, informational, and user-interface aspects of multitouch and multiuser design.
Today, I posted a case study about this exhibit on the ExhibitFiles website, under Space Imaging: Multitouch Multiuser Exhibit. In addition, we’ve decide to post a couple of pictures showing the inside of our 100″ multitouch table on the Ideum Flickr page. Hopefully, these new posts will help explain more about how the exhibit was developed.
As you can see from these pictures, we used infrared LEDs and a dual computer and projector system to create our optical sensing system. Find more about the inner workings of the table on our Flickr site by clicking the photos above. What isn’t shown is the exhibit software, which was developed in Adobe Flash and uses our GestureWorks multitouch framework for Flash. You can learn more about that on the GestureWorks site.
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.
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