Entries tagged with multi-touch - Channel 10

First Look: SecondLight

Larry — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:04:00 GMT

It's hard to top Microsoft Surface, but the brains at Microsoft Research (with help from MS Hardware) certainly did with SecondLight. SecondLight is a variation on the Microsoft Surface computer, the twist is that it can actually project a second image through the first image, which can land on a sheet of paper, a plastic sheet, or anything else semi-transparent that you want to use as a make shift secondary (or third, fourth, fifth) display. Those displays can also have their own multitouch capabilities in the air.

So what does this mean? It means a doctor can use a sheet of paper to dynamically 'cut through' a 3D MRI, or you could even scoop up windows on a surface computer and then interact with them on this lightweight display without altering the original Surface image. We just showed SecondLight at the MSR keynote but last night I got a few minutes with Steve Hodges, Alex Butler, and Shahram Izadi from the SecondLight team and they walked us through how it works. I apologize for how horrible I sound, I lost my voice the day before. Also, we couldn't turn the lights on so it's a little dark. :)

New From Office Labs: Touchless

sarahintampa — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:27:00 GMT

A new project from Office Labs has just been unveiled: Touchless, a multitouch software app and SDK that lets you create and experience multi-touch applications of your own...with no need for expensive hardware or software. The way it does that is with the use of a standard computer webcam and colored markers that are defined by the user. These “markers” can be anything you want – just so long as you can hold them in your hands. Or, heck, the markers can even be your fingers themselves.

Sound familiar? Probably because it’s very much like Cam-Trax, which I mentioned earlier this year. The difference is that unlike Cam-Trax, with Touchless there is an open source application and SDK available, which anyone can see, use, and contribute to.

The app features four demos of the technology: 1) Snake – where you control a snake with a marker, 2) Defender – an up to 4-player pong game, 3) Map – where you can rotate, zoom and move a map with 2 markers, and 4) Draw - where you can draw with a marker.

Check out Touchless in action in the video below:

Sphere multi-touch computing

Laura — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Just when you thought the Surface was the coolest thing since sliced bread... enter the Sphere! This product is still in proto-type mode but even at this stage, you can't help but be impressed. At the Microsoft Research Faculty Summit I grabbed some one on one time with Hrvoje Benko, the lead on this project and found out all the details. It's just so cool, enjoy.

Veja uma demonstração do Surface no Rio Casino

Galileu — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:39:00 GMT

A equipe do time Surface estava em Las Vegas para a inauguração do Surface no i-Bar do Rio Casino. Eles aproveitaram e gravaram umas demonstrações das funcionalidades dessa mesa Surface. Confira o vídeo do Surface do Rio Casino no blog do meu amigo Nic Fillingham.

Vídeo: Surface disponível no Rio Casino em Las Vegas

Galileu — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:39:00 GMT

Anunciamos hoje o segundo deployment (disponibilidade comercial) do Surface. O primeiro cliente a receber foi a AT&T que já tem o Surface para seus clientes conhecerem os telefones celulares da rede.

O segundo cliente é o Harrah's Entertainment que é o dono do Rio Casino em Las Vegas. O i-Bar desse cassino contará com algumas mesas Surface a partir de hoje. As mesas Surface desse cassino permitem, entre outras coisas, jogos multiplayers, navegação em mapas do Virtual Earth, cardápio e pedido de bebidas, integração com as câmeras do i-Bar, e, algo bem interessante, uma paquera virtual entre mesas - uma mesa pode mandar recados para outras mesas. Os 6 jogos disponíveis no Surface foram desenvolvidos com XNA. Confira tudo no vídeo e os detalhes oficiais no Microsoft Press Pass.

Multi-Touch in Windows 7

Larry — Wed, 28 May 2008 05:13:00 GMT

The cat's out of the bag now, Windows 7 is going to have Multi-touch support. A transcript from All Things Digital is here, there are two highlight videos here and here. Check out The Windows Vista Blog, also check out Engadget, Mary Jo for an I told you so, the latest from TechCrunch, and the bad boys of technology; Gizmodo.

Mary Jo says she doesn't want touch on her Windows notebook. I'd like to hear what you think. I'm really looking forward to it. I can't tell you how many times I've used World Wide Telescope, DeepZoom, or Live Maps on a portable and wished I could interact with the content in a more natural way.

Dell's multi-touch tablet

Larry — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:10:00 GMT

Multi-touch, which started at Bell Labs nearly 25 years ago, is the hot technology this year and without a doubt one of the technologies I get asked about most by family and friends. So obviously there are a lot of companies working on multi-touch products. A couple weeks ago, Charles Torre took us inside Microsoft Research to see some of the work being done with multi-touch laptops.

But I was still pleasantly surprised when Dell announced their new Latitude XT multi-touch tablet at Oracle's OpenWorld (video via JKKMobile), and with products coming "in a couple of months", it looks like they're going to be first to market with this technology, congratulations Dell. The question now is what apps will ship for multi-touch? Things are getting very interesting and we'll keep you informed as details come out.

Perceptive Pixel reinvents the human-computer interface

Jesse — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 18:51:00 GMT

Remember this name: Perceptive Pixel, because you'll be telling anyone who will listen about their kit for the next month. Last year at the TED conference, an NYU computer scientist named Jeff Han brought the house down with his multi-touch interface. He manipulated applications with the flawless, effortless touchy-feely ability that only a few years earlier was the sole realm of Chief John Anderton.

While our friends in Cupertino have been getting a lot of attention for their multi-touch implementation, the work Han and his team are doing is so much bigger (literally). Watch their demo video from Fast Company and then go read more in Can't Touch This (yes we know it's a confusing title).