http://nuigroup.com/index.php/site/index/ en jimihertz@yahoo.fr Copyright 2009 2009-06-23T22:31:00-05:00 http://nuigroup.com/log/i_display/ http://nuigroup.com/log/i_display/#When:22:31:00Z Lahiru a 22 years old Software Engineering student from the Informatic Institute of Sri Lanka brings us the iDisplay showcasing some intriguing in air gesturing (Pinch the future between your thumb and your forefinger. ) . An inexpensive solution to retrofit existing flat displays into interactive surfaces. No expensive sensors, no Infrared based techniques, no Soldering, no Compliant surface, no Closed windows, no patents infrindgments, no broken money box . Only a regular off-the-shelf webcam and a regular LCD monitor . Join the Discussion  |   Member's Profile  |   Project Page Community, Projects 2009-06-23T22:31:00-05:00 http://nuigroup.com/log/nuigroup_book_1/ http://nuigroup.com/log/nuigroup_book_1/#When:18:58:00Z We are proud to announce the release of the first edition of the NUI Group Community Book - “Multi-Touch Technologies”. This book comprises state of the art articles from our Community Wiki, as well as several chapters written by leading experts in the field specifically for this publication. Detailing basic hardware technologies as well as the process of developing software suited for multi-touch systems, this book provides a technical introduction to the world of multi-touch. This book aims to provide an introduction to the multi-touch world for all backgrounds of people, and also include sufficient information to serve as a general "handbook" for those acquainted with the field, including code examples, suppliers, and building methodology. Multi-Touch Technologies is a unique publication in its domain in that it is released at no charge under the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution Share-Alike license - all content found in this book is free to be re-distributed and modified under a similar license, with attribution. This manual will be distributed in two forms: electronically and printed. Electronically, Multi-Touch Technologies will be available in PDF format here: Community, News 2009-05-31T18:58:00-05:00 http://nuigroup.com/log/gsoc_2009/ http://nuigroup.com/log/gsoc_2009/#When:12:15:00Z Google Summer of Code got started earlier this week with 7 intriguing projects, the image above was created by Sashikanth Damaraju the founding student behind Creating Models for Learning and Recognizing Multitouch Gestures. "This project is aimed at creating a language / framework independent Gesture Recognition toolkit that takes OSC messages formatted with TUIO specification as input and outputs recognized gestures via OSC protocol. The problem with gestures such as the pinch-to-zoom, rotate are hard-coded and require more coding to add new gestures into the system. Apart from this, there are toolkits that go one step ahead to learn and recognize single point stroke gestures based on their shape, like the nui wave to bring up a menu. Although this is very useful for application developers to use, it is still limited by not using multiple points of input that a multitouch surface allows." Really exciting project goals for Sashikanth and his mentors Alexander Popovich and Stjepan Rajko . You can check out all the other projects below... make sure you view their "downloads" page to view students proposals. CCV - Hand Tracking Gesture Models for Multitouch HCI Framework for Java MPX X.Org TUIO Driver Multi-touch Google SketchUp NUI Paint - Python OF Musical Interfaces Community, Software 2009-05-26T12:15:00-05:00 http://nuigroup.com/log/nui_group_idc_2009/ http://nuigroup.com/log/nui_group_idc_2009/#When:13:16:01Z Some of the highlights from IDC 2009 Conference: Microsoft Andy Wilson & Steven Bathiche represented the nice and kind side of Microsoft, the Surface vision. They presented us a future made of intuitive and social devices which blends together the real and the virtual words. The numerous astonishing and awesome projects they allowed us a glimpse at, reveal that the Surface is only the visible part of this future. Perceptive Pixel Jeff Han began his exposé introducing the audience to the numerous projects he has developed during his computer vision specialist career. As the Perceptive Pixel founder, he promoted his company’s goals: turn key hardware, high performance multitouch native software with rich graphics and hi DOF interaction, and a very user centric R&D strategy that will reveal the true potential of multi-touch. Finally, as the main multi-touch Evangelist, he adopts a demanding posture: as a conclusion to his conference, Jeff Han addressed the professional audience, exposing his concerns about the misuse and abuse of multitouch terminology, he warned his fellow colleagues that the future of multitouch is still uncertain and invited them to follow the path of excellence. Also we got to talk to Han some after the event he noted that our community should aim to get more structured around proper use and respect of intellectual property. Which will require more organized alignment with academia and industry to better our understanding. Stantum Stantum owns a very effective multitouch solution: truly multi-point, accurate, fast, no jitter. Apart from the classical media app, Stantum also showcased the hand-writing recognition software, MyScript. Developed by Vision Object, this is a very impressive and reliable solution, (no matter how bad your handwriting is, the software does the job!). Multitouch Oy Multitouch 46 inches solution? Yes, it s true and it works perfectly. The Finnish team overcame their troubles with customs and succeeded in showcasing their LCD solution (for one single day). What’s the big deal ? Well, high quality display ( Full HD ) , perfect tracking , and self-calibration . Tyco Electronics A key player and leader of the touch industry. Tyco focused their conference on explaining why “there is no perfect touch technology“. They illustrated the idea extensively regarding the market and the usability. They also exposed clearly the economic stakes of the Touch (as the human interface of choice) : 4.4 billions $ in 2008 to 8.8 billions in 2013! PQlab For months, this intriguing cheap multitouch solution has been debated, whether it was a fake or The ultimate solution. So, after testing it, I can tell you …: it s a true multitouch screen (more than 2 fingers). It works, and they are using huge Full HD displays. Their demos include 3D manipulation, Google Earth navigation, World of Warcraft and a few games …But, as “no perfect touch solution exist”, it also suffers occlusion problems but overall still usable. RPO RPO showcased their brand new optical touchscreen technology. The system is composed of tiny infra-red leds, a polymer screen, 2 wavelights guides.The light is diffused into the polymer screen. The screen has 2 rounded edges (out of 4) allowing the light to be evenly distributed .The wavelight guides are attached around the screen. When Touch occurs, light refraction is sensed by the sensors attached to the wavelight guides. Not truly multitouch yet, effective dual . NUI Group Community On the NUI Group booth the multi-camera tracking solution was presented, (PS3 in a 3x1 array) on which we are currently developing. Along with Jimi Hertz's ToucHoo an elegantly design water enabled touch table. Also the Community Book from the NUI Group Authors was on display and of course shirts were given out to a select few. We were lucky to host great contributors to the NUI Group community from Falcon4ever and his most downloaded and showcased software (the Smoke demo and the Media APP) , Seth Sandler and his Mini MT (the cheapest mt screen in the world) & more important the CCV (tbeta) tracker ,Thomas Hansen the launcher of the Python framework (PYMT), Christian Moore, the founder of the community, AlexP and his PS3 driver and the LLP innovator; Jon (TouchFactor) who made possible the Infrared led stripes, and a dozen more that i should have mentioned! Thanks to Jimi Hertz helping write this report/Thomas H. for photographs and everyone who could make it to the event. Seth, Laurence and Justin heading to the car. Join the Discussion Community, News 2009-05-25T13:16:01-05:00 http://nuigroup.com/log/louis_xiii_80_wall/ http://nuigroup.com/log/louis_xiii_80_wall/#When:20:03:00Z Progen Labs and A Nerdy Xchange setup an huge aristocratic display : the Louis XIII 80” Wall . In this build, they used the latest build of tbeta (now known as Community Core Vision), which features sending TUIO directly to Flash via TCP, a new calibration technique, more control on blob detection sizes and a cool movement threshold to prevent those “jittery” moments. They also added their own ofAddon for the FireflyMV into tbeta that supports 30FPS at 640×480. This setup was overall quite robust to the ambient lighting in the exhibition hall. Although I’d have to admit that building a stage for the wall was a totally bad idea but it wasn’t our call so......enjoy the video and till next time! (Might be sooner than you think...) Join the Discussion  |   Member's Profile News 2009-04-30T20:03:00-05:00 http://nuigroup.com/log/google_summer_of_code_results_2009/ http://nuigroup.com/log/google_summer_of_code_results_2009/#When:10:55:00Z After a though selection period, NUI Group mentors have selected the 7 winning proposals which is ~3% of the total picked in USA. It was a very competitive and hard process as nearly 30 proposals have been received, and most of them had an outstanding quality. Here are the proposals that were selected: Multi-touch Extension Module for Google SketchUp Student: Anirudh Sharma Mentor: Pawel Solyga Co-Mentor: Taha Bintahir NUI Paint: Exploring and developing new multi-touch interactions by creating new widgets for a concrete graphics application Student: Sharath Patali Mentor: Thomas Hansen Co-Mentor: Mathieu Virbel MPX X.Org TUIO Driver Student: Ryan Huffman Mentor: Martin Kaltenbrunner Recognition, Tracking and Association of Hands, Fingers, and Blobs: A Community Core Upgrade Student: Thiago Araujo Mentor: Laurence Muller Creating Models for Learning and Recognizing Gestures (DTW) Student: Sashikanth Damaraju Mentor: Alexander Popovich Component-Based HCI UI Framework and High-Level HCI Library for Java Student: Ori Rawlings Mentor: Christian Moore An openframeworks toolkit for developing multi-touch musical interfaces Student: Dimitri Diakopoulos Mentor: Seth Sandler Congratulations to all the Google Summer of Code students who were accepted this year. We hope another pleasant, successful and productive SoC for our students and community, and wish good luck to our students in their code writing until August 10, the suggested “pencils down” day. Also truly thanks for all who participated and we hope that you will continue to develop your projects with equal support from any NUI Group Community member. Please check our wiki and this forum often to get information about latest developments: Google Summer of Code Homepage   |   Join the Discussion Community, News 2009-04-21T10:55:00-05:00 http://nuigroup.com/log/tuiozones_an_open_mt_library_for_processingorg/ http://nuigroup.com/log/tuiozones_an_open_mt_library_for_processingorg/#When:22:44:00Z The tuioZones library for Processing receives and processes TUIO messages to manipulate screen zones set in the processing sketch. It is intended to make simple touch interactions easier to code--like drag, scale, press, and toggle. Here is a summary of how it works today. In the Processing sketch a tuioZone is set with a position and size. The zone can then be set as “draggable”, “scalable”, “swipeable”, or left static. Displayed objects (e.g. images or shapes) can then be positioned and sized using the zone attributes. If a zone is dragged (one finger motion) the object will then be dragged along with it. If a zone is scaled (two finger pinch) the object will then shrink and grow accordingly. Also, a zone’s toggle state can be returned through a function call, and another function call can return wether the zone is being pressed or not. Other raw data, such as cursor positions and trails, can be returned as well. This library only handles cursor (finger) events and not objects. It requires a tracker, like tbeta or touchlib, and the oscP5 library must be imported into the sketch. Other interactions, like rotation, are in the works; but any suggestions, critiques, or bug-findings are fully welcome. I hope others find it useful. Project's Page   |   Join the Discussion Community, Software 2009-04-15T22:44:00-05:00 http://nuigroup.com/log/the_touchlib_show_superfluid_vs_particle/ http://nuigroup.com/log/the_touchlib_show_superfluid_vs_particle/#When:22:28:00Z The mad scientists Memo Akten and Jimi Hertz are at it again... this time wielding the immeasurable power of Super Particle Fluid and MT Water Screen which when combined form one of the most renown abilities within the Multitouch Universe; The tool is powered by Processing and gives to any multi-touch hero access to limitless fluid & particles energies. (Fun soundfx + masked wrestler + MT = lol) Project's Page   |   Join the Disucssion Community, Video 2009-04-12T22:28:00-05:00 http://nuigroup.com/log/maximum_pc/ http://nuigroup.com/log/maximum_pc/#When:11:20:00Z Thanks to our community member ATCastle (PC Magazine Editor - Alex Castle) who put together a great tutorial on how to build your own multi-touch table. Luckily the the tutorial got picked up across several large tech sites such as Gizmodo, Daily Radar and Digg and now is making its way around the web. Here are some of the relevant highlights: What we found that surprised us the most wasn’t anything about the future of multi-touch; it was about something that people are doing right now. There is, it turns out, a whole community of very smart folks out there on the internet perfecting the art of building DIY multi-touch surfaces. The process isn’t exactly simple, but the results we saw were stunning: multi-touch surfaces with responsiveness rivaling Microsoft’s $12,000 offering, built in a garage on a shoestring budget. “Future UI article be damned,” we thought, “we’ve gotta build one of these for ourselves.” First, some acknowledgments are in order. Virtually all the techniques used to create this table were discovered at the Natural User Interface Group website, which serves as a sort of repository for information in the multi-touch hobbyist community. If you find the technology shown in this article interesting, you owe it to yourself to check out their forums, where you can participate in the development of multi-touch hardware and software. Read the Article   |   Join the Discussion Community, News 2009-04-07T11:20:00-05:00 http://nuigroup.com/log/8cam/ http://nuigroup.com/log/8cam/#When:06:11:00Z 8 Cameras on 2 USB ports running @ 960x720 @ 75 FPS at ~4-9% CPU... We will do 16 after the store restocks on PS3 cameras As you guys already know I've been working really hard on an optimized PS3Eye camera driver. We have been also working on multi-camera solution as demonstrated in this video. We believe that we will be able to scale to upwards to 16-32 cameras without any modifications to the driver. The CPU usage in the 8 camera demo is ~4-9%! The images from 8 cameras are stitched into a single frame and displayed at 75FPS... and the best part is the cost: 8x$40=$320+$20 for hubs. Stay tuned to NUI Group for more updates on this. ~Alex Join the Discussion Community, Development, Software 2009-03-24T06:11:00-05:00