After months of development and ten nervous days in the Apple App Store approval process, we’ve just released the NASA Space Weather Media Viewer iPhone application. The Space Weather app allows you to view real-time and near-real-time imagery from a variety of NASA satellites, as well as videos and more!

Ideum, in partnership with Goddard Space Flight Center, was awarded a grant to extend the tremendously popular web-based Space Weather Media Viewer to the mobile platform.  The application ships with informational videos, visualizations, NASA mission information, and enables near real-time observation and social network propagation of space weather phenomenon.

This was our first foray onto the rocky road of iPhone development, but with the help of libraries like Three20, we were able to complete a very full-featured and superbly performing application relatively quickly. We will say that the iPhone development process is not as simple as what we were promised when the iPhone first launched. Our next goal is the Android version of the application, and we’re examining other rapid development platforms, some of which, due to licensing issues, were not available for our use with the iPhone.

So, check out the app store page to download the Space Weather Media Viewer, mobile version. It’s free. You can also use the QR code to the right to access the page from your phone! Just click it to view the full size.

We’ve been mighty busy around here with the Open Exhibits initial software release and site relaunch just around the corner (coming November 15), but we have found time for other important and related work.

We’ve just posted a call for participation in our third annual Computer-Based Exhibits in Museum Survey on the Open Exhibits Website.  We’ve managed to have over 250 respondents to the last two surveys, representing hundreds of museums all over the world. You can see the previous survey results on the Open Exhibits website. We plan to release the survey results in early December. Those who complete the survey will be able to see the results first.

Also, earlier in the week, we released an alpha build of Open API, a program that allows developers to create a public API of a collection or any other MySQL database. This is not to be confused with the larger release of Open Exhibits core in November, which is a multitouch-enabled Flash and Flex-based software (Open API is built using Ruby), but we do plan on releasing other types of software modules that can help museums develop computer-based exhibits. At the moment, only a handful of museums have open APIs for their collections.

You can read the full post on Open API on the Open Exhibits blog.

>>Reposted from Open Exhibits blog.

Last month, we announced that we received funding from the National Science Foundation for Open Exhibits. Today we’re happy to announce that, on November 15th and just 60 days after being funded, Open Exhibits 1.0 will be available free to educational organizations.

The Open Exhibits core software along with six modules and one template will make up the initial release. Open Exhibits core is based on our commercial GestureWorks software package.

Open Exhibits core is a multitouch framework for Adobe Flash and Flex. The open source modules and templates will be interoperable with GestureWorks 2.0 (to be released December 9) and free to all developers. Modules are functional components that can be used as building blocks for templates and exhibits. Templates are stand-alone applications that can be populated with content and customized via external XML files.

Here’s a run down on the software that will be available November 15th on the Open Exhibits Website.

Open Exhibits core: Available free to any museum, educational organization, nonprofit, or student. It is essentially a free educational version of GestureWorks (it does require registration). It has built-in gesture support (eventually for over 200 gestures), a built-in multitouch simulator, and an open source gesture library.

Onscreen Keyboard (module)  - A multitouch-enabled, scaleable, rotatable, and “skinable” onscreen keyboard.

Image Viewer (module) – A “local” image viewer that can handle PNG, JPEG, SWFs and other Flash-friendly file formats. Multitouch gestures can be used to scale and rotate the images.It supports basic metadata (title, description, author, and publish) via an external XML file. It can be skinned and some parameters can be changed via XML.

Video Viewer (module) – A “local” video viewer that plays .FLV video files. Multitouch gestures can be used to scale and rotate the videos. It too supports basic metadata (title, description, author, and publish) via an external XML file. It also supports captions and it can be skinned and some parameters can be changed via XML.

Flickr Viewer (module) – A Flickr image and video viewer. This module can draw media from a Flickr account or group. Multitouch gestures can be used to scale and rotate the images and videos. It requires a Flickr API key. It supports basic metadata (title, description, author, and tags). It can be skinned and some parameters can be changed via XML.

YouTube Viewer (module) – A viewer that can play YouTube videos. It has basic video controls. Multitouch gestures can be used to scale and rotate the videos. It requires a YouTube API Key. It can be skinned and some parameters can be changed via XML.

Google Maps (module) – A module that allows a Google Map to be controlled via multitouch gestures. It requires a Google Maps API key. Some parameters can be changed via XML.

CollectionViewer (template) – A collection viewer that incorporates all of the viewer modules. It can connect to local or networked images and videos. It has support for multitouch gestures (and multiple users). The look and functional aspects of the application can be controlled via XML. The template can be populated with content and become a stand-alone exhibit or it the source code can be modified.

These initial modules and templates will be extended and modified as Open Exhibits continues. Additionally, the new site will allow other developers the ability to build off these components or submit their own components to share with the community. The fun begins on November 15th!

We’re very happy to announce that a major update to the GestureWorks framework for Flash and Flex will be available on December 9th on the GestureWorks website.   As a thank you to everyone who has purchased GesturesWorks 1.0 (and 1.5 , 1.6), we have decided to make the 2.0 upgrade complimentary!  We really appreciate the support.

This release will be coming less than a month after our initial release of Open Exhibits software (which is the educational counterpart to GestureWorks) which will happen November 15th.  GestureWorks 2.0 will be fully compatible with Open Exhibits modules, templates, and exhibits. The onscreen keyboard, Google Maps module, Flickr module, YouTube module, and CollectionViewer Template will be freely available and open to all GestureWorks users.

Along with support for modules and templates, we’ve made major advances in gesture support. While we are still working out the final details, GestureWorks 2.0 will support hundreds of gestures, making it the most advanced multitouch framework in the world. We will be making more announcements as we get closer to the release date.

Just last week Adobe released Air for the Android Platform, allowing Flash applications to run on Android devices (version 2.2 is required).  We’ve been checking out the pre-release, but now that it is official, we thought we’d share some demos of the GestureWorks frameworks for Flash running on Android.

Here’s a video showing two of our tutorial applications running on an HTC EVO. We start by showing them running on a desktop system with a PQ Labs overlay, then the same applications running on the phone.

To author using Flash for Android, we installed the Android SDK (windows) and the AIR for Android extension for Flash CS5. There’s a video showing how set up your environment on gotoAndLearn.com.

Once the Android “.apk” files we’re authored, we simply had to email them or connect a phone via USB to install them.  Unlike authoring for the iPhone, there is no iTunes software to deal with, you don’t need to apply for an iPhone Development Certificate, or spend $99 to join their developer community. You simply author and deploy. What a concept.

Here’s a zip file with the two Android apps, if you’d like to try them out:
GestureWorks – Android Examples (Zip file with two .apk files)

I’ve just read Shelley Bernstein’s response to the NY Times “From Picassos to Sarcophagi, Guided by Phone Apps” article over on the Brooklyn Museum blog and she brings up some great points about the use of emergent technology and experimentation.

Edward Rothstein at the Times didn’t seem to be too impressed by any of the apps he tried, and from a contextual or information standpoint, he may have a point. If you are looking for an extended, interactive version of the wall plaques that detail the artist’s life, history, and context, these apps may fall short. But in our work designing interactive exhibits, we’ve found that it is the social component that can make or break an exhibit, and the Brooklyn Museum is pushing how mobile technologies connect people through the art they’re viewing as well as inform them about that art.

If used well, these new technologies can change the museum from a place where people connect with exhibits in solitude (audio tour headphones on, reading quietly to themselves, or quietly tapping a single computer screen) to a place where people are able to actively connect, recommend and participate with other visitors and the exhibit. Enabling a “like” or similar feature, as the Brooklyn Museum has done, allows visitors to connect long after they leave the museum floor. And such connections aren’t just wishful thinking; as Ms. Bernstein points out, the app statistics show that people are actually using the Like feature to find and recommend objects to other visitors.

Such connections may add to the “scarcely literate cybergraffiti” for Mr. Rothstein, but to us, they’re what make facebook, twitter, and a new crop of interactive museum technologies exciting: the ability to share with and learn from people you know personally and the opportunity to forge new personal connections over shared exhibit interests.

Of course there’s always room to grow, especially when working with new and largely untried technologies. Even if the concept is perfect, technological, networking, and financial limitations often frustrate the creation of that ur-application or exhibit. The perfect museum app might well act as Wikipedia, Share This!, FourSquare and a brilliant curator all in one. But we’d like to give a thumbs up to the Brooklyn Museum for having the guts to experiment with these technologies in a thoughtful and interesting way.

We’ve just posted an Interactive Design and Project Coordinator position on Craigslist.

From the Job posting… “We seek a full-time, on-site designer and project coordinator work with our creative team including our Director and the Project Manager for our software initiative, Open Exhibits. Beyond technical skills, we are looking for someone with strong conceptual and information design skills, and organizational ability.”

You can read the full description and apply via Craigslist.  And, yes we are still looking for Multitouch ActionScript Programmer.  (No phone calls, please.)

Later this month, I will presenting a day-long workshop at the Museum Computer Network (MCN) annual conference in Austin, Texas. Make It Multitouch will explore technology and design issues concerning multitouch development in museums.  Most of the day is dedicated to museum exhibits and hands-on design exercises. However, I will spend some time talking about Android 2.2 and Flash and showing some working examples.  Android 2.2, Adobe Flash, and GestureWorks present a real alternative to Apple’s iOS for multitouch development for personal devices.

Of course, I will also demonstrate Open Exhibits now that we are funded and underway.

Here’s the short description for the workshop:
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. This major technological change presents exhibit developers with new and exciting design challenges. In this full-day workshop, we’ll explore a variety of multitouch technologies including off-the-shelf multitouch-enabled PCs.

In addition, we will explain the software development process and show examples developed in Adobe Flash and Flex with Open Exhibits and GestureWorks for a variety of hardware platforms including smart phones and tablets. 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.

Through engaging rapid design exercises we’ll explore and discuss the conceptual, informational, and user-interface aspects of multi-touch and multi-user design.