>>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)

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.

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:

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.

. . . 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.

The GestureWorks team from Ideum is currently at Flashbelt 2010 in Minneapolis, MN. We want to learn how you are using (or plan to use) multitouch in your projects, and to discuss our road map for true multitouch in Flash, Flex and beyond.

Come by to say hi and talk to the lead developer of GestureWorks, Chris Gerber. We’re offering GestureWorks license discounts for Flashbelt participants. We’re also showcasing our MT-50 multiouch table and new 3M multitouch screen running GestureWorks-built applications.

So far our time here at FlashBelt 2010 has been great. We’ll continue to tweet selected presentations throughout the week. Follow us @gestureworks or search #flashbelt for updates.

A lot has been said about Apple’s closed-door policy in regards to Flash development for the iPad and iPhone. I’m not talking about Apple supporting Flash on the devices but rather the decision to close off the Apple Store to apps created in Adobe’s CS5. Several reasons Apple’s decision have been cited: Apple would have to deal a flood of apps in their store, third-party authoring will lead to substandard apps and will “hinder the progress of the platform,” or Flash apps won’t perform as well particularly if Apple tries to add multitasking.  I seriously doubt that any of these are correct.

I think that Apple simply didn’t want Flash developers to gain any kind of a foothold in designing for mobile and tablet devices. If Flash developers started to develop apps, they would begin to grapple with the UI issues that are inherent in creating programs for these new mobile and tablet devices. They would begin to incorporate multitouch events, develop and incorporate UI elements like dials and switches and become, as a group, much more savvy in regards to mobile development. They would have also created a slew of Flash-based apps ready for other mobile and tablet devices.

If Apple had allowed these Flash developers a head start designing for iPad and iPhone, they would have more easily been able to transition to the dozens of tablet-based devices and smart phones that have already been announced for later this year. Flash will run on Android 2.2, WebOS, Google Chrome, and WinOS, so the number of potential devices is vast. All of these will compete directly with the iPhone and iPad. The Android OS has already surpassed Apple’s iPhone OS in sales for the first quarter of the year.

By closing the Apple Store to Flash developers, Apple bought themselves some time; onlylater this year Flash will begin to compete directly with Apple. Our own GestureWorks multitouch framework for Flash will work with all these devices, so true multitouch is ready for mobile. It should be an interesting year.

We’ve just released a new version of our GestureWorks multitouch authoring framework. The new version 1.5 provides support for Adobe Flex as well as Flash CS5, which Adobe plans to release later this year. The CS5 support means GestureWorks now works natively with Flash Player 10.1(beta), in addition to the included FLOSC and Windows 7 bridges.

Our company originally developed GestureWorks to help speed the development of our own multitouch projects and installations. We provide GestureWorks as a powerful tool for efficient multitouch development in Flash (and now Flex!) because we assume that most people would rather spend time developing awesome multitouch applications than spend days figuring out algorithms for specific gestures.

And GestureWorks provides a bevy of functions that Flash’s native API does not:

• multitouch support for Adobe Flex
• an open source gesture library with many built-in gestures
• concurrent gesturing (e.g. multiple simultaneous gestures may be performed on the same object)
• continuous transitional gesturing (e.g. can smoothly switch from one gesture to another mid-gesture)
• a method for tracking the change in position of the points
• a mechanism to determine point clustering, orientation, point/cluster history, and whether a cluster of points should be treated as a hand rather than discrete points
• selection algorithms for gesture determination
• application settings that allow developers to specify how the SDK receives touch event data, without having to change the project’s existing code base
• elegant degradation from multitouch to dual-touch to non-multitouch-enabled systems

If you’d like to see what can be done with GestureWorks, take a look at the Google Map and Flickr Mashup we recently developed with California Science Center.

If you buy GestureWorks, you’ll receive both the Flash and the Flex version. Past customers can download the new version for free. In addition to Flex and CS5 support, we now have more affordable pricing for individual commercial and educational licenses. You can download a free trial or purchase a copy on our online store.

You can visit the GestureWorks site to learn more about this new release.