DTLens: Multi-user Spatial Data Exploration on Tabletops

UIST 2005

Supporting groups of individuals exploring large maps and design diagrams on interactive tabletops is still an open research problem. Today's geospatial, mechanical engineering and CAD design applications are mostly single-user, keyboard and mouse-based desktop applications. In this paper, we present the design of and experience with DTLens, a new zoom-in-context, multi-user, two-handed, multi-lens interaction technique that enables group exploration of spatial data with multiple individual lenses on the same direct-touch interactive tabletop. DTLens provides a set of consistent interactions on lens operations, thus minimizes tool switching by users during spatial data exploration.



When money attacks... lenses and maps

Toolglass & Magic Lenses: The See-Through Interface

In current interfaces, users select objects, apply operations and change viewing parameters in distinct in distinct steps that require switching attention among several screen areas. Our See-Though Interface system addres this problem by locating tools on a transparent sheet that can be moved over applications with one hand using a trackball, while the other hand controls a mouse cursor.The user clicks through a tool onto application objects, simultaneously selecting an operation and an operand. Tools may include graphical filters, caled Magic Lens filters, that display a customized view of application objects



When money attacks... lenses

Pen&Touch Photoshop

This project shows a new way to work with Adobe Photoshop on a pen and direct touch tabletop.



When money attacks... Photoshopping

Gesture Registration, Relaxation, and Reuse for Multi-Point

Tabletop:
Freehand gestural interaction with direct-touch computation surfaces has been the focus of significant research activity recently. While many interesting gestural interaction technique have been proposed, their design has been mostly ad-hoc and has not been presented within a constructive design framework. In this paper, we develop and articulate a set of design principles for constructing -- in a systematic and extensible manner -- multi-hand gestures on touch surfaces that can sense multiple points and shapes, and can also accommodate conventional point-based input. To illustrate the generality of these design principles, a set of bimanual continuous gestures that embody these principles are developed and explored within a prototype tabletop publishing application. We carried out a user evaluation to assess the usability of these gestures and use the results and observations to suggest future design guidelines.



When money attacks... education!

Vectorform.com on the Surface

We have to admit that the site is a tad old and ready for a refresh, but it is fun to interact with an old friend in a new way…



From:
http://www.vectorform.com/surface/?p=188



When money attacks... websites!

Connecting with Deepak - I'm a PC

Mr. Chopra on the humanity of technology, in a longer-form video created exclusively for the Web as part of the "I'm a PC" initiative.





When money attacks... Windows advertising

I'm a PC - Not Alone

Who is the real PC?




When money attacks... Windows advertising

Microsoft Surface - Flirt

Flirt app running on Microsoft Surface at iBar in the Rio Las Vegas.



When money attacks... flirting

Microsoft Surface at Vectorform

In this interview, Eric Havir of the Microsoft Surface team sits down with designers and developers and talks about how creating apps for Surface brings them together.

Part 1


Part 2



When money attacks... developer interviews.

I'm a PC - Not Alone

Who is the real PC? Answer: all of us.




When money attacks... Windows advertising

Microsoft Surface and Windows 7 - Digital Photographs app

Meaghan McAllister of identity mine demonstrates a new application built for Microsoft Surface that lets you display digital photographs on a multi-touch surface.




And then she transitions the photos to Windows 7 multi-touch.


When money attacks... cameras

Google Android Phone expanded demo

Deeper hands-on demo at the T-Mobile G1 / HTC / Google Android phone launch event. Featuring "street view" demo, and in-depth Android Market (apps store) details.




Here is a basic run through of the G1's user interface.




Google Android Demo at Mobile World Congress 2008




When money attacks... Google and phones.

Microsoft Surface - Go!!! game

GO is a go on Surface.


Authenticity is the driver for the cool ancient Chinese board game of Surface GO. When the Microsoft HPC group approached Vectorform with this concept, we jumped right in and crafted the NUI to drive home the Surface experience through intuitive gesturing game play actions, design and functionality.



Using WPF coding allowed us a shorter development time and gave our creative team the ability to make larger contributions. We used Microsoft Expression Blend to build UI elements such as clam shell and slate stones and a fully 3D rendered wood grain board.



To round out the authenticity of the experience, we added in ambient and game play sounds. Surface GO features multiple game play options including a 9×9 board, a 19×19 board, handicap options, and most exciting is that you can chose between human vs. human, AI vs. human or AI vs. AI. That’s right, you can chose from a list of GO engines and pit super computers against each other. This game has more move combinations than chess and will be featured at Microsoft PDC 2008.



From:
http://www.vectorform.com/surface/?p=283



When money attacks... go!!!

Pharrell Williams - Exclusive Video - I'm a PC

Pharrell Williams shares his views on music, life, energy, and technology in this exclusive Web-only video, as part of the Microsoft Windows "I'm a PC" Life Without Walls initiative.




When money attacks... Windows advertising

Microsoft Surface - At Web 2.0 - New York 2008

As many of you are aware of, Vectorform totally rocked-out the Web 2.0 conference here in NYC (literally rocked out…). As Kevin noted, we had the most happening spot in the center. People just couldn’t get enough of the Surface DJ, and by the end of the two days, Markus, Kevin, Christina and myself were doing a demo every 10 minutes for the growing crowds. We even had it down to somewhat of a science—while one of us manned the machine, the others answered questions in the audience.



We learned a few things over the last two days, but the most important thing was the emphasis on the Surface as a social experience.

Here are a few more images from the show—just look at those smiling faces!




From:
http://www.vectorform.com/surface/?p=244



When money attacks... shows.

Microsoft Surface - Finance Trivia

We recently completed our first implementation of the Vectorform Surface Trivia Engine, Full Throttle. Players answer questions about automotive finance in a head to head race with friends to rack up points and race across the country. We knew it would be a challenge to make a fun game out of finance trivia, but after a couple of pizzas, a few liters of soda, and the helpful testing of some local students, we found our first game is hard to put down.



From:
http://www.vectorform.com/surface/?p=209


When money attacks... finance info?

Microsoft Surface - Surface DJ and Drums

James Ryan of Mercedes-Benz Dual Wields SurfaceDJ and Vector Drums

James Ryan, an executive from Mercedes-Benz Financial, stopped by for his third demo of our entertainment apps and ups the ante by simultaneously playing SurfaceDJ and VectorDrums at the same time. Check out the video below to see the rhythmic action…



From:
http://www.vectorform.com/surface/?p=183



When money attacks... Multi-taskers =^)

Sean Siler - Interview and Outtakes - I'm a PC

Sean Siler - Interview and Outtakes - I'm a PC

Microsoft engineer Sean Siler, who plays the role of The Real PC in the "I'm a PC" Life Without Walls campaign advertisements, shares his thoughts.



When money attacks... Windows advertising

Microsoft Surface and Vect-O Lantern

One of the Surface partners, Vectorform, came up with this great pumpkin carving application in their spare time over a few days using Expression Blend and the Surface SDK. Check it out.



When money attacks... pumpkin carving

Meet the Microsoft Surface Team

The team behind the Microsoft Surface



When money attacks... Microsoft employees

Microsoft Surface - BMW Application

You might be asking yourself, what is a muster, anyway? A “muster” is a term that was coined by our office in Berlin, and refers to any real-world object that provides a way to interact with a Microsoft Surface. Initially, we created musters using 1.5×1.5 wooden blocks, with an image on one side and black foam on the other. The muster would then be “tagged” with a sticker allowing the Microsoft Surface to associate the object with information, and display the related information.

Official musters made their grand debut when they were introduced on the BMW project. Each muster- approximately 20 in number – was created using images from BMW catalogs using authentic paint chips and actual materials from the car. The musters represented interior and exterior color and texture options, wheels, trim, and accessories as an interactive tool for viewing and selecting particular car choices. Our musters were designed with the customer in mind, to provide an interactive selection process through the use of real-world objects.

From:
http://www.vectorform.com/surface/?p=32



When money attacks... BMW

Microsoft Surface - A few apps developed for MSNBC

We had a blast creating the applications MSNBC is using on the Surface, and it’s been pretty exciting to see them in play. Each one is unique with a different theme and function—we’ve provided a little more info below on the ones you saw today. Check back for more details as MSNBC uses the other applications to delve deeper into the upcoming election.

The Electoral Map
The Electoral Map provides an interactive tabulation of the electoral vote, by State. While on-air, Chuck Todd can indicate a state as likely or leaning toward a candidate, or as a toss-up. By quickly changing the State’s status with just a touch, Mr. Todd can demonstrate how different scenarios affect the total electoral vote. In addition to voting predictions, the map interacts with musters and displays factoids about each state. Like all the applications, the map can accept hand-drawn annotations.

The Battleground States
As the whole country learned in the 2000 Presidential Election, one swing state, also known as a battleground state, can have a deciding effect on the next American president. Vectorform created the Battleground State Application to help MSNBC and Chuck Todd demonstrate the importance of a battleground state’s vote.

Check out our pictures from our day on the set, and we will be posting more information in the coming days and weeks, so stay tuned for more!

Florin with the electoral map



Chuck Todd preparing the bobbleheads:



Group Shot!





From:
http://www.vectorform.com/surface/?p=227



When money attacks... TV stations!

Microsoft Surface - Heads the battlefront for NBC…

Check out Chuck Todd as he shows off more features of the application we built for MSNBC featuring several new poll panels as scatterview items, and navigating to the Pennsylvania state map. Be sure to stay tuned to NBC and Chuck Todd on the TODAY Show throughout the election season for more reports on the Microsoft Surface. 7:00 - 7:30 am (the country’s most-watched morning television program.)



From:
http://www.vectorform.com/surface/?p=251



When money attacks... polls!

Microsoft Surface - Trivia Application

Most early adopters of Microsoft Surface technology are likely to have the resources to develop custom applications, but as multi-touch technology becomes more accessible, a large class of Microsoft Surface owners will not have the resources to develop custom applications. As consumers become more familiar with multi-touch applications it will become increasingly important that every Microsoft Surface deployment provides a unique user experience, or consumers will grow bored with the technology and adopt a “seen one–seen them all” mentality.



To help every Microsoft Surface owner provide a unique experience, we are developing applications that can be rebranded and customized by end users. One application we are working on is the Surface Trivia Engine. The Surface Trivia Engine allows non-technical users to build interactive trivia games. These customized applications and owner-friendly controls will ensure that every time a user sits down at a surface, they will get a totally new experience.

From:
http://www.vectorform.com/surface/?p=43


When money attacks... trivia!

Microsoft Surface at PDC2008 - SecondLight

Second Light Surface Demo from Microsoft Research at PDC 2008



Microsoft researchers demonstrate SecondLight, a new variation of the company's Surface technology, at the Professional Developers Conference in L.A.



When money attacks... Tracing Paper

Tons of Microsoft Surface applications at PDC2008!!!

Microsoft has tons of surface units across PDC, at partner booths, lounges and even their own little surface spot on the main floor.

Microsoft has also been handing out the Version 1 Surface SDK to those who participate in the hands-on labs.

At PDC we were set a challenge to visit all of them with a special card and pick up photo images from each surface unit. The prize was a surface t-shirt. We thought that whilst we were visiting each of them why not record the different applications on the surface units as they varied per unit. Rafael helped out with the recordings.


Microsoft Surface Demos - PDC 2008

From:
http://www.neowin.net/news/live/08/10/29/microsoft-surfaces-at-pdc


When money attacks... computers!

Google Reader in Plain English

How to use Google Reader to read all your favorite news sites and blogs in one place and share news with friends.



When money attacks RSS readers.

Microsoft Surface - SurfaceDJ 1.0

For all you techno-loving wannabe DJ’s out there, SurfaceDJ 1.0 is the killer app to get your groove on. I had the idea of creating a Mixer-type application for the Microsoft Surface shortly after creating VectorDrums. I brought this idea up to Joe who loved the concept. After some long hours during the day, we opened up a bottle of our favorite drink (gotta love a glass of… coke) and sat down and began prototyping. Within an hour, we had a simple app that played some sounds when objects were placed in a specific area of the Microsoft Surface. As fun as that sounds, we needed something more.



As an amateur music producer, I was struggling to figure out a way to incorporate music into this app. A mixer is great and all, but it isn’t really creative. It’s just a playlist with cross fades… meh. So we had an app that plays sounds and a new innovate device with a completely new interface to computing. Where could we go with this? Then it hit me.

I went home and started writing musical loops that would sound well when layered on top of one another. The idea was to create an application that allowed multiple users to work together to create a song that sounded good without any musical experience. Heh, yeah it’s not that easy. I brought in the loops the next day and added them to the app and invited people to mess around and see what they thought. The response was overwhelming. I had almost everyone in the office hovered around my Microsoft Surface waiting for their chance to collaborate and develop their own song. The app was very simple, which allowed anyone to use it, but provided a unique experience that cannot be found anywhere else on any device.

As with the VectorDrums, we invited James Ryan, an executive from Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, to check out and play with our new creation. He immediately began to sequence his own song, starting with a simple kick drum and eventually layering more complex melodies on top of it. His performance was taped for your viewing pleasure.

Since the initial prototype, SurfaceDJ has been re-skinned and shown to Microsoft who praised the application and will demo it at their upcoming Surface Release Party. Who knew that having the ability to touch their music would be so fun?



From:
http://www.vectorform.com/surface/?p=44


When money attacks... DJs!!!

I'm a PC - Stereotype

http://imapc.lifewithoutwalls.com/
Who is the real PC? Answer: all of us.



When money attacks... Windows advertising

Google Website Optimizer Tour

What if there were a way to find out which images, headlines, and website copy are most effective at getting your website visitors to convert? There is, with Google Website Optimizer. Learn more in this video.



When money attacks web optimization.

Microsoft Surface - Drum roll, please!

After many late nights, and several long jam sessions, Vectorform-Labs is ready to share our first entertainment application for the Surface, The Vector Drum Kit. This Surface experience not only allows you to rock out to a 6-piece drum kit, but showcases the durability and responsiveness of the hardware. The ingenuity of the Vector Drum Kit is attributed to our latest addition to the Surface team at Vectorform-Labs, Kevin Foreman (aka DJ Kev).

Earlier prototype:


Check out our video of Mercedes-Benz Executive James Ryan rolling up his sleeves to rock out with DJ KEV on the Vector Drums, and the evolution of the kit’s interface.

Final version of the app:




From:
http://www.vectorform.com/surface/?p=26


When money attacks... drums!

Multi-touch display giving Dell Latitude XT users fits?

Dell's Latitude XT is a pretty special piece of equipment, namely because it boasts multi-touch capabilities while being a Tablet PC. Unfortunately, it seems that quite a few users are growing increasingly frustrated with the touch-lovin' screen, with GottaBeMobile going so far as to call Dell out to remedy the myriad issues with its N-Trig digitizer. Among the problems are "digitizer not found" errors upon restart, a digitizer that won't work properly without a few reboots and a nice selection of applet loading errors to top things off. It seems the readers of the aforesaid site aren't faring too well either, with the forums filling up with folks eager and willing to yell "amen!" and "me too!" Are you also experiencing wonky N-Trig problems? Are you fed up with Dell's public silence on the matter? Or have you figured out a solution that you've been keeping all to yourself for the past seven months? Chime in down below.

When money attacks... Dell?

Microsoft Surface - Surface Scavenger Hunt (PDC2008)

The Microsoft Surface team has set up a cool little game here at the PDC developer’s conference.

It’s a scavenger hunt. The Surface crew has set up a number of its table-top computers with touch-sensitive screens around the convention center. Participants are given plastic business cards with a unique pattern on the bottom (it sort of looks like a ShotCode or an Aztec Code). You place the card on the Surface table, and up pops a ring of photo thumbnails. The object is to match the thumbnails around your card with the images on the table. When you spot a match, you drag or toss the photo over your card to add it.

Check out the video:



The corresponding photos are distributed among all of the stations, so you move from station to station, playing your card and collecting the photos until you have a full set. A filled card can be redeemed for a Surface t-shirt.

Video 2:



There’s also an air hockey game that I tested, but either it wasn’t working properly or there was some odd bug in the software. Because I rule at air hockey and I found the Surface game pretty much unplayable.

If you want one of these fancy table-top Surface units, you can purchase one, along with an SDK, for $13,500.

Purchase one at:

http://www.surface.com


Article from:
http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/PDC_2008%3A_The_Surface_Scavenger_Hunt



When money attacks... scavenger hunts!

Google Chrome - Importing settings

To import your settings after you've installed Google Chrome, click the wrench menu and select "Import bookmarks and settings." Select the browser and uncheck any items you don't want to add, then click "Import."





When money attacks Internet browsers.

Vectorform Surface Team

The members of Vectorform Labs newly minted Surface team are starting to get their hands dirty and make some really sweet stuff. Our assembled A-list includes Joe, Dan and Brad, the genius minds driving new technology and interactive development, and Florin, Clemens, Aaron and John, masters in user experience, interface design and motion graphics. Today, the guys are exploring the capabilities of the Microsoft Surface SDK, as well as the applications that came preloaded on our unit, including:

• Data Visualizer
• Controls Box
• Finger Fountain
• Grand Piano
• Paddleball
• Photopaint
• Scatter Puzzle
• Shopping Cart
• Virtual Concierge

And many more…

From:
http://www.vectorform.com/surface/?p=23




When money attacks... touch

I'm a PC - Pride

Who is the real PC? Answer: all of us.




When money attacks... Windows advertising

Microsoft Surface - On MSNBC

We made our world debut on television today, and Microsoft Surface took center stage. We developed a suite of Surface applications for MSNBC and Chuck Todd, NBC News Political Director, which aired for the first time at 9 o’clock this morning. If you caught today’s broadcasts you have already seen the Electoral Map and the Battleground States in action. If not, stay tuned as they will be using the Microsoft Surface up until the election. Check out the video below!



From:
http://www.vectorform.com/surface/?p=225



When money attacks... politics!!!

Google Chrome - Instant bookmarks

To save your favorite pages, just click the star next to the search bar, then select 'bookmarks bar' to access the link from any page.






When money attacks Internet browsers.

Surface Pumpkin App

Halloween is right around the corner, and here at Vectorform we are setting the mood with our newest Surface Experience: Vect-O’ Lantern. Created using Microsoft Expression Blend, this application is proof that developers can make unique and engaging Surface Experience’s with simple controls that come bundled right in the Surface SDK. Vect-O’Lantern is made by using an Ink Canvas layered with effects to make a highly addictive Pumpkin Carving Experience.

So this year, instead of going through the trouble of buying a pumpkin, carving tools, and covering kitchen tables in newspapers, we can all draw on our pumpkins on a Surface. Save as many custom Vect-O’Lanterns as you like, then watch it come to life, flickering with a soft candle glow and cycling through other pumpkin creations. Okay, okay maybe this year we don’t all have a Surface…next year then!! (~_^)

From:
http://www.vectorform.com/surface/?p=332

When money attacks... pumpkins?

The Real PC - Sean Siler (I'm a PC)

Meet Sean Siler, a real Microsoft Engineer, in this longer-form video created exclusively for the Web as part of the "I'm a PC" initiative.




When money attacks... Windows advertising

Google Chrome - Crash Control

Every tab you're using is run independently in the browser, so if one app crashes it won't take anything else down.




When money attacks Internet browsers.

New Family - Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates Ad (Long Version)

In the second commercial in the series, Jerry Seinfeld convinces Bill Gates to try and connect with everyday people the old fashioned way.



When money attacks... Windows advertising

Shoe Circus - Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates

Jerry Seinfeld happens upon Bill Gates in a mall and trades shoe knowledge for insights into the future of technology.



When money attacks... Windows advertising

Google Chrome - Dynamic Tabs

You can drag tabs out of the browser to create new windows, gather multiple tabs into one window or arrange your tabs however you wish -- quickly and easily.



When money attacks Internet browsers.

Google Chrome - Simpler Downloads

No intrusive download manager; you see your download's status at the bottom of your current window.



When money attacks Internet browsers.

Introducing Google Picasa 3.0 (beta)

A quick introduction to Picasa 3, free photo management software from Google.



When money attacks photo software.

Google Chrome - Safe browsing

Chrome warns you if you're about to visit a suspected phishing, malware or otherwise unsafe website.






When money attacks Internet browsers.

Google Chrome - One box for everything

Web search. Web history. Address bar. Suggestions as you type. One unified box serves all your browsing needs.



When money attacks Internet browsers.

The story behind Google Chrome

Watch a video from the development team on the thinking and features behind Google Chrome.



When money attacks Internet browsers.

News on Toast of Chrome killing IE

Track your calories with Calory Guard as the iPhone tracks everything you do. Read News on a piece of toast about Chrome Killing IE, but Firefox grows. Airpowered car my be a reality soon to drive us to Football 2.0 games.



When money attacks apps.

Microsoft Surface - Official Sheraton Launch Video

Here's the marketing video for the Surface Sheraton launch:



From Surface:

Microsoft and Sheraton Hotels and Resorts have partnered to bring Microsoft Surface to the hotel lobby. Sheraton went live today with our music, photos and concierge applications customized with Sheraton specific content.

This adds Boston, Chicago and Seattle to the list of cities where you can get up close with Microsoft Surface. Surface is already found in California, D.C. Georgia, Nevada, New York and Texas. For all Surface locations, visit Surface.com.


Microsoft Surface at the Sheraton features:

CityTips® – At the guests’ fingertips are the Surface 360-degree satellite maps and tools to search for local restaurants and bars, entertainment, recreation, shopping, transportation and services, such as banks and pharmacies. Guests can discover all a city has to offer by simply moving their hands across Surface.

Sounds of Sheraton – Microsoft Surface also serves as a lobby-based digital jukebox, enabling guests to create personal music playlists by choosing selections from Sheraton’s exclusive offering of Sony BMG artists, including John Legend, Kenny Chesney and Lauryn Hill.

Sheraton Snapshots – Guests can explore Sheraton hotels and resorts throughout the world by simply browsing the Surface photo library of Sheraton resorts and hotel properties to help them plan for future business or leisure travel.

Sheraton locations with Microsoft Surface:

Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers
811 7th Avenue 53rd Street
New York, NY

Sheraton Boston Hotel
39 Dalton St.
Boston, MA

Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers
301 East North Water Street
Chicago, IL

Sheraton Gateway San Francisco Airport Hotel
600 Airport Boulevard
Burlingame, CA

Sheraton Seattle Hotel
1400 6th Avenue
Seattle, WA


From:
http://blogs.msdn.com/surface/archive/2008/08/13/Microsoft-Surface-launches-at-Sheraton-Hotels.aspx


When money attacks... touch

Google Chrome - Browser Available

When money attacks Internet browsers.

Microsoft Surface - Launches in Sheraton hotels

Here's an inside look at the Surface launch in Sheraton hotels




When money attacks... touch and hotels

Microsoft Surface - LiveLabs Shadow Box

From Surface:

Back in June, we had a little gathering here in Redmond with some bloggers to chat about what's going on at Microsoft Surface. One of the awesome demos we showcased was something LiveLabs cooked up called Shadow Box. (See the SlashGear video here at 2:47.) It essentially takes raw images from the imaging system on Surface and uses it to create a paint program of sorts. It's a lot of fun. Nic over at Channel 10 caught up with the guys behind Shadow Box for an excellent behind-the-scenes interview. Video below.






From:
http://blogs.msdn.com/surface/archive/2008/08/26/livelabs-shadow-box.aspx



When money attacks touch

Microsoft Surface - Used by anchors on NBC News

From Surface:

If you were on the East coast this morning or just up real early on the West coast you might have seen Microsoft Surface in action on TV. But this isn’t just another news story about Surface, this morning a unit was deployed on the MSNBC set for regular use by Chuck Todd, NBC News political director, to assist him in analyzing the upcoming 2008 election and political news beyond.

Today we saw two applications in action, the Electoral Map and Battleground States, but over the coming days/weeks Todd will likely use other unique applications and features to further highlight the candidates, the issues, polls and relevant political news.

I thought I’d drill down into each app briefly and give you a sense for what Todd has available at his fingertips…

Electoral Map – Todd will use Surface to quickly and easily view historic voting results, polling insights and demographic data for each state. And by placing an object on the display, Todd will be able to instantly change the map to showcase results from previous predictions or to identify up-to-the minute changes.

Battleground States –This application will allow Todd to visually demonstrate the impact of various potential voting outcomes in key states and the effect they have on the number of electoral votes needed to win the election. This will be a great tool for Todd to lay out various electoral scenarios.

It’s been a fun and wild ride to bring this experience to life. MSNBC was looking for a new and engaging way to tell the political drama that is unfolding before us and they came to Microsoft Surface for help. In turn, we worked with one of our partners, Vectorform, to create a suite of applications based on MSNBC’s unique needs. And while the content and apps are different, the approach to using Surface is as well. Surface goes beyond just multi-touch and resizing content, Todd can bring “tagged” objects to Surface (like in the Electoral Map) that deliver unique digital interactions (new predictions). Surface also allows for multiple people to interact with the content simultaneously.

We’re changing the way you political junkies (that’s all of us, come on you know you’re hooked after those conventions) are gonna get their news fix. Tell us, how do you think Surface is going to change political coverage as its presented and shared in the news?



From:
http://blogs.msdn.com/surface/archive/2008/09/08/Live-from-MSNBC_2C00_-it_2700_s-Microsoft-Surface.aspx

When money attacks touch technology and politics?

Microsoft tries to improve image with Seinfeld commercials

Microsoft works to improve its public image. These two ads were very successful in the sense that half a billion people saw them and sounded off on them.

New Family




Shoe Circus


Video: Shoe Circus

That was what the two-week Microsoft teaser campaign accomplished, according to companies that track discussions about brands.

At first, “the ads were ambiguous and confounding to some,” said Ted Marzilli, senior vice president and general manager of the brand group at the New York office of YouGovPolimetrix, a research company, but as they continued they helped improve perceptions about Microsoft.

On Sept. 4, when the teaser ads started, the “buzz” about Microsoft was 25 percent positive and 13 percent negative, Mr. Marzilli said, and by Tuesday it was 28 percent positive and 8 percent negative. Microsoft “has been beat up pretty badly by the Apple advertisements in the last six months,” he said. “These are strong numbers, good numbers, for Microsoft.”

Another research company, Zeta Interactive, using what it calls its Relevant Noise tool to mine places online like blogs and message boards for brand conversations, found what was described as overwhelmingly positive buzz surrounding Microsoft from Sept. 3 through Monday.

Of the posts analyzed by Relevant Noise during that stage of the teaser campaign, 63 percent were characterized as positive and 37 percent as negative.



From:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/business/media/18adco.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ei=5040&partner=MOREOVERFEATURES


Microsoft plans to pull back on Seinfeld but to continue this momentum with coupling Bill Gates with other celebrities and to bring in the users. I almost see this as three simultaneous campaigns: one with Bill and celebs, one with situations that show products, and one that plays off Apple commercials and starts channeling the free publicity that Apple gave to the "PC" back to Microsoft.


When money attacks... computer advertising

10 Features of Google Chrome

Learn 10 quick tips about using Google Chrome.



When money attacks Internet browsers.

Google Chrome announcement

Google announces its open source browser, Google Chrome



When money attacks Internet browsers.

Imobile Phone V264 Quadband Samsung Touchwiz Yokami

Images of the new phone.

When money attacks phones.

MS Surface @ Sheraton

Puzzle game and other apps. The images under the pieces of glass actually invert when you flip them over.






When money attacks... touch!

Surface Sheraton Lobby Jukebox

Surface Sheraton Lobby Jukebox.



When money attacks... touch

Hands On: Microsoft Surface

This is a hands on with the Microsoft Surface at the Sheraton in San Francisco




When money attacks touch!

Microsoft Surface at the Sheraton Hotels

The third major deployment of Surface took place at the Sheraton Hotels where Surface was used as a virtual concierge.

Courtesy: Microsoft Surface



When money attacks... touch!

Microsoft Surface Demo

I used this in the Sheraton Hotel In Boston





When money attacks touch!

Telepresence Robots from RoboDynamics

RoboDynamics is a company that researches and develops advanced robots designed to automate "life", just as the machines of the industrial revolution automated "work". We went over to their Santa Monica headquarters to check out one of their telepresence robots, with Leah helping host the episode from outside the room, thanks to one of Robodynamic's clever little bots.

Little Big Planet At GDC 2007 - GamePlay

Awesome graphics, music, and mechanics!

But it looks like you wait around for someone to catch up a lot. =^)

Enjoy!

First Touchscreen iMac

Apple's sleek iMac-line has gained a reputation for its excellent performance. The touchscreen version -- by Troll Touch -- uses pressure-sensitive resistive technology to enable activation with any type of stylus, including fingertips and pencil points. As a bonus, the overlays are made from chemically strengthened glass to ensure durability

Windows 7 seven First Official Video

Microsoft has been investing in many forms of natural input to enable users to interact with the PC and their devices using touch. Last year at the All Things Digital conference Bill Gates introduced Microsoft's surface computer. This year Julie Larson-Green (VP, Windows Experience Program Management), who was responsible for the innovative Office 2007 design, demonstrated the multi-touch innovations first previewed in Surface that will ultimately play a part of the next version of Windows.

Steve Jobs Macworld 2008 Keynote in 60 Seconds

Microsoft CEO Ballmer laughs at Apple iPhone

Bill Gates has talked about Yahoo and Windows 7

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates Press Conference in Japan.

New Windows: Microsoft Windows 7

After Windows Vista ,Microsoft Windows Seven Will Be Next.
Yes thats tru,Microsoft is already developing this new operating system.From what we heard this will include some new image quality and some other high-tech futures!As normal there are going to be 2 version (Home and Professional)
Informating and images found on the internet!

Windows 7 seven First Official Video

Microsoft has been investing in many forms of natural input to enable users to interact with the PC and their devices using touch. Last year at the All Things Digital conference Bill Gates introduced Microsoft's surface computer. This year Julie Larson-Green (VP, Windows Experience Program Management), who was responsible for the innovative Office 2007 design, demonstrated the multi-touch innovations first previewed in Surface that will ultimately play a part of the next version of Windows.

Interactive Hologram - Google Earth

The technology comes from UbiqWindow and lets a computer screen be projected in mid-air. They have devised a touchless way to interact with the "hologram", and Google Earth is a great way to show off its capabilities. it's not a 3D projection, just 2D. But, it sure looks cool. via Google Earth Design


Looks like he's touching glass:




When Money Attacks... Holograms.

The Real WALL-E: U-Bot

The new Disney movie WALL-E features robots of the future actively helping humans. But the future is now. This ScienCentral News video reports on a real robot that could help us take care of elderly relatives from miles away.


When Money attacks... robots!

Microsoft Research is rocking (again)

This video shows some great projects run by Microsoft. You can see WorldWide Telescope, Windows Search vNext and some other amazing projects.



When money attacks... technology.

Samsung Instinct

Introducing the Samsung Instinct with touch screen, live TV, video, fast speed internet and turn by turn GPS. To learn more visit www.SamsungInstinct.com. It's from Samsung. It's for you.

Holographic Text Messages

HOLOTEXT Messages are hip and cool!




Great video editing. =^)

When Money Attacks... video editing and holograms.

Enjoy!

Introducing TouchWall

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates demonstrates Touch Wall, a new hardware technology from Microsoft that creates a touch-based "white board" interface that lets users interact more naturally with data and applications on their computer.



When money attacks... walls.

Microsoft's future vision on manufacturing

Seamless transfer of data, touch interfaces and mobile computers - that's a future of manufacturing according to Microsoft.



When money attacks... manufacturing.

Microsoft's future vision on shopping (retail)

The third of four videos. This one reflects Microsoft's vision on future of retailing. Unified communications, touch-enabled environment, bunch of indicator panels.

Features Target.



When money attacks... shopping.

Microsoft's future vision on banking

The latest video in series "Microsoft's Future Vision". Again we could see touch surfaces, seamless authorizing and data transfer and AthensPC!
I wish I had an account at that bank.



When money attacks... banking!

Microsoft's vision on future of healthcare

Microsoft's vision on future of healthcare



When money attacks... healthcare.

Eric Traut's presentation of Windows 7

Windows 7 - Unknown Name

Windows 6 - Windows Vista

Windows 5 - Windows XP

Windows 4 - Windows NT4

Windows 3 - Windows 3.0


Eric Traut's presentation of virtual machine. He'll run windows 7 core on it.



When money attacks... Windows.

Multitouch in Windows 7

Demo of new multitouch capabilities of Windows 7. Here you could see photo app, maps app and some more applications that were ported from Surface.



When money attacks... Microsoft Windows.

Microsoft Surface at the Rio in Las Vegas

When money attacks... touch technology in bars.

Harrah's Entertainment and Microsoft are unveiling a new interactive entertainment experience with the deployment of six Microsoft Surface units at the i-bar in Las Vegas' Rio on June 11. Surface.com.

Microsoft Surface Parody 2: The RIO

When money attacks... parodies... of touch computing.

This is a REAL piece from Microsoft! It's got a new audio track and a couple of shots were swapped and tweaked - It was BEGGING for parody!!! If you haven't seen the 1st one by Sarcastic Gamer, check it out - it is brilliant.

Microsoft Surface Demo @ CES 2008

It is funny that some people think that Apple can beat Microsoft.

The New iPhone 3G

The New iPhone 3G which has twice as faster speed and cheaper price @ $199 and is expected to release July 11th.

Microsoft Surface Technology - Tabletop By Microsoft

HTC Touch Diamond briefing with HTC Chief Innovation Officer

Interesting video with Chief Innovation Officer from HTC discussing device touch concepts in particular their new amazing HTC Diamond mobile phone.

If you haven’t seen the new HTC Diamond mobile phone running Windows Mobile 6.1 and HTC’s TouchFlo 3D interface. It is pretty good and being touted as an iPhone killer.

Firefly: The first game for Microsoft Surface

During a trip to Microsoft's Surface campus, we uncovered the very first game ever for this new computing platform. After lots of whining and carrying on, we made them show it to us.

Enjoy!

Microsoft Surface experience coming to AT&T

Innovation has a new front door. Welcome to a new shopping experience at AT&T, made possible by Microsoft Surface. It's a new way your world connects with the digital world. Beginning April 17th in NYC, Atlanta, San Antonio and San Francisco. Come on in. http://www.surface.com and http://www.att.com/surface/

Boston Dynamics Big Dog (new video March 2008)

"Boston Dynamics just released a new video of the Big Dog on ice and snow, and also demoing its walking gait."

"It looks EXACTLY like a Metal Gear(except with 4 legs), realistic legs and all.
The worst is when its slipping on ice. It's so creepy! I'm sure you're used to kicking a robot and watching it fall over, legs flailing. This thing's movements are TOO realistic. Did you see how it reacted on the ice? It was like bambi. Robots should not look like bambi. This is the stuff that starts The Terminator/I Robot/Matrix scenarios."

Enjoy!

Marker Tracking - Motorized Object Interaction

This is motorized object interaction with Surface computing.

LORD of VERMILION - Touch Arcade Game

When Money Attacks... Arcade games!



Here is Lord of Vermilion in action:



Lord of Vermilion is a touch arcade game from Square/Enix.

The Japanese commercial (where they advertise who the illustrators are; LOL):

TMX Elmo - Fully Automated Elmo Toy (and Cookie Monster)

This Elmo laughs so hard that he falls down, and then he gets back up.




When Money Attacks... Sesame Street.





Here it is with a French Elmo and with the Cookie Monster:




And here a Shizzu dog faces off against the Elmo:

The History of Multi-touch

When money attacks... multi-touch technology!!!



The history of Multi-touch:

http://www.billbuxton.com/multitouchOverview.html


An Incomplete Roughly Annotated Chronology of Multi-Touch and Related Work

In the beginning ....: Typing & N-Key Rollover (IBM and others).
While it may seem a long way from multi-touch screens, the story of multi-touch starts with keyboards.
Yes they are mechanical devices, "hard" rather than "soft" machines. But they do involve multi-touch of a sort.
First, most obviously, we see sequences, such as the SHIFT, Control, Fn or ALT keys in combination with others. These are cases where we want multi-touch.
Second, there are the cases of unintentional, but inevitable, multiple simultaneous key presses which we want to make proper sense of, the so-called question of n-key rollover (where you push the next key before releasing the previous one).

Photo Credit

1982: Flexible Machine Interface (Nimish Mehta , University of Toronto).
· The first multi-touch system that I am aware of.
· Consisted of a frosted-glass panel whose local optical properties were such that when viewed behind with a camera a black spot whose size depended on finger pressure appeared on an otherwise white background. This with simple image processing allowed multi touch input picture drawing, etc. At the time we discussed the notion of a projector for defining the context both for the camera and the human viewer.
· Mehta, Nimish (1982), A Flexible Machine Interface, M.A.Sc. Thesis, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Toronto supervised by Professor K.C. Smith.


1983: Soft Machines (Bell Labs, Murray Hill)
· This is the first paper that I am aware of in the user interface literature that attempts to provide a comprehensive discussion the properties of touch-screen based user interfaces, what they call “soft machines”.
· While not about multi-touch specifically, this paper outlined many of the attributes that make this class of system attractive for certain contexts and applications.
· Nakatani, L. H. & Rohrlich, John A. (1983). Soft Machines: A Philosophy of User-Computer Interface Design. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’83), 12-15.


1983: Video Place / Video Desk (Myron Krueger)
· A vision based system that tracked the hands and enabled multiple fingers, hands, and people to interact using a rich set of gestures.
· Implemented in a number of configurations, including table and wall.
· Didn’t sense touch, per se, so largely relied on dwell time to trigger events intended by the pose.
· Essentially “wrote the book” in terms of unencumbered (i.e., no gloves, mice, styli, etc.) rich gestural interaction. Work that was more than a decade ahead of its time and hugely influential, yet not as acknowledged as it should be.
· Krueger, Myron, W. (1983). Artificial Reality. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
· Krueger, Myron, W. (1991). Artificial Reality II. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
· Krueger, Myron, W., Gionfriddo, Thomas., & Hinrichsen, Katrin (1985). VIDEOPLACE - An Artificial Reality, Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’85), 35 - 40.
Myron’s work had a staggeringly rich repertoire of gestures, muti-finger, multi-hand and multi-person interaction.

1984: Multi-Touch Screen (Bell Labs, Murray Hill NJ)
· A multi-touch touch screen, not tablet, integrated with a CRT on an interactive graphics terminal. Could manipulate graphical objects with fingers with excellent response time.
· Shown to me by Lloyd Nakatani (see above), who invited me to visit Bell Labs after seeing the presentation of our work at SIGCHI in 1985
· I believe that the one that I saw in 1985 may be the one patented by Leonard Kasday (US Patent 4484179) in 1984, which was multitouch; however my recollection is that the one that I saw was capacitive, not optical.
· This work is at least contemporary with our work in Toronto, and likely precedes it.
· Since their technology was transparent and faster than ours, my view was that they were ahead of us, so we stopped working on hardware (expecting that we would get access to theirs), and focus on the software and the interaction side, which was our strength.
· Around 1990 I took a group from Xerox to see it since we were considering using it for a photocopy interface.

1985: Multi-Touch Tablet (Input Research Group, University of Toronto): http://www.billbuxton.com/papers.html#anchor1439918
· Developed a touch tablet capable of sensing an arbitrary number of simultaneous touch inputs, reporting both location and degree of touch for each.
· To put things in historical perspective, this work was done in 1984, the same year the first Macintosh computer was introduced.
· Used capacitance, rather than optical sensing so was thinner and much simpler than camera-based systems.
· A Multi-Touch Three Dimensional Touch-Sensitive Tablet (1985). Videos at: http://www.billbuxton.com/buxtonIRGVideos.html
Issues and techniques in touch-sensitive tablet input.(1985). Videos at: http://www.billbuxton.com/buxtonIRGVideos.html


1986: Bi-Manual Input (University of Toronto)
In 1985 we did a study, published the following year, which examined the benefits of two different compound bi-manual tasks that involved continuous control with each hand
The first was a positioning/scaling task. That is, one had to move a shape to a particular location on the screen with one hand, while adjusting its size to match a particular target with the other.
The second was a selection/navigation task. That is, one had to navigate to a particular location in a document that was currently off-screen, with one hand, then select it with the other.
Since bi-manual continuous control was still not easy to do (the ADB had not yet been released - see below), we emulated the Macintosh with another computer, a PERQ.
The results demonstrated that such continuous bi-manual control was both easy for users, and resulted in significant improvements in performance and learning.
See Buxton, W. & Myers, B. (1986). A study in two-handed input. Proceedings of CHI '86, 321-326.[video]
Despite this capability being technologically and economically viable since 1986 (with the advent of the ADB - see below - and later USB), there are still no mainstream systems that take advantage of this basic capability. Too bad.
This is an example of techniques developed for multi-device and multi-hand that can easily transfer to multi-touch devices.




1986: Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) and the Trackball Scroller Init (Apple Computer / University of Toronto)
The Macintosh II and Macintosh SE were released with the Apple Desktop Bus. This can be thought of as an early version of the USB.
It supported plug-and-play, and also enabled multiple input devices (keyboards, trackballs, joysticks, mice, etc.) to be plugged into the same computer simultaneously.
The only downside was that if you plugged in two pointing devices, by default, the software did not distinguish them. They both did the same thing, and if a mouse and a trackball were operate at the same time (which they could be) a kind of tug-of-war resulted for the tracking symbol on the screen.
My group at the University of Toronto wanted to take advantage of this multi-device capability and contacted friends at Apple's Advanced Technology Group for help.
Due to the efforts of Gina Venolia and Michael Chen , they produced a simple "init" that could be dropped into the systems folder called the trackballscroller init.
It enabled the mouse, for example, to be designated the pointing device, and a trackball, for example, to control scrolling independently in X and Y. See, for example, Buxton, W. (1990). The Natural Language of Interaction: A Perspective on Non-Verbal Dialogues.In Laurel, B. (Ed.). The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. 405-416.
They also provided another init that enabled us to grab the signals from the second device and use it to control a range of other functions. See fr example, Kabbash, P., Buxton, W.& Sellen, A. (1994). Two-Handed Input in a Compound Task. Proceedings of CHI '94, 417-423.
In short, with this technology, we were able to deliver the benefits demonstrated by Buxton & Myers (see above) on standard hardware, without changes to the operating system, and largely, with out changes even to the applications.
This is the closest that we came, without actually getting there, of supporting multi-point input - such as all of the two-point stretching, etc. that is getting so much attention now, 20 years later. It was technologically and economically viable then.
To our disappointment, Apple never took advantage of this - one of their most interesting - innovations.

1991: Bidirectional Displays (Bill Buxton & Colleagues , Xerox PARC)
· First discussions about the feasibility of making an LCD display that was also an input device, i.e., where pixels were input as well as output devices. Led to two initiatives. (Think of the paper-cup and string “walkie-talkies” that we all made as kids: the cups were bidirectional and functioned simultaneously as both a speaker and a microphone.)
· Took the high res 2D a-Si scanner technology used in our scanners and adding layers to make them displays. The bi-directional motivation got lost in the process, but the result was the dpix display (http://www.dpix.com/about.html);
· The Liveboard project. The rear projection Liveboard was initially conceived as a quick prototype of a large flat panel version that used a tiled array of bi-directional dpix displays.

1991: Digital Desk (Pierre Wellner, Rank Xerox EuroPARC, Cambridge)
· An early front projection tablet top system that used optical and acoustic techniques to sense both hands/fingers as well as certain objects, in particular, paper-based controls and data.
· Clearly demonstrated multi-touch concepts such as two finger scaling and translation of graphical objects, using either a pinching gesture or a finger from each hand, for example.
· A classic paper in the literature on augmented reality.
· Wellner, P. (1991). The DigitalDesk Calculator: Tactile manipulation on a desktop display. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '91), 27-33.

1992: Flip Keyboard (Bill Buxton, Xerox PARC): http://www.billbuxton.com/
· A multi-touch pad integrated into the bottom of a keyboard. You flip the keyboard to gain access to the multi-touch pad for rich gestural control of applications.
· Combined keyboard / touch tablet input device (1994). Video at: http://www.billbuxton.com/flip_keyboard_s.mov (video 2002 in conjunction with Tactex Controls)
Sound Synthesizer Audio MixerGraphics on multi-touch surface defining controls for various virtual devices.
1992: Simon (IBM & Bell South)
· IBM and Bell South release what was arguably the world's first smart phone, the Simon.
· What is of historical interest is that the Simon, like the iPhone, relied on a touch-screen driven “soft machine” user interface.
· While only a single-touch device, the Simon foreshadows a number of aspects of what we are seeing in some of the touch-driven mobile devices that we see today.
· Sidebar: my working Simon is one of the most prized pieces in my collection of input devices.
1992: Wacom (Japan)
In 1992 Wacom introduced their UD series of digitizing tablets. These were special in that they had mutli-device / multi-point sensing capability. They could sense the position of the stylus and tip pressure, as well as simultaneously sense the position of a mouse-like puck. This enabled bimanual input.
Working with Wacom, my lab at the University of Toronto developed a number of ways to exploit this technology to far beyond just the stylus and puck. See the work on Graspable/Tangible interfaces, below.
Their next two generations of tablets, the Intuos 1 (1998) and Intuos 2 (2001) series extended the multi-point capability. It enabled the sensing of the location of the stylus in x and y, plus tilt in x and tilt in y (making the stylus a location-sensitive joystick, in effect), tip pressure, and value from a side-mounted dial on their airbrush stylus. As well, one could simultaneously sense the position and rotation of the puck, as well as the rotation of a wheel on its side. In total, one was able to have control of 10 degrees of freedom using two hands.
While this may seem extravagant and hard to control, that all depended on how it was used. For example, all of these signals, coupled with bimanual input, are needed to implement any digital airbrush worthy of the name. With these technologies we were able to do just that with my group at AliasWavefront, again, with the cooperation of Wacom.
See also: Leganchuk, A., Zhai, S.& Buxton, W. (1998).Manual and Cognitive Benefits of Two-Handed Input: An Experimental Study.Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction, 5(4), 326-359.


1992: Starfire (Bruce Tognazinni , SUN Microsystems)
· Bruce Tognazinni produced an future envisionment film, Starfire, that included a number of multi-hand, multi-finger interactions, including pinching, etc.

1994-2002: Bimanual Research (AliasWavefront Toronto)
· Developed a number of innovative techniques for multi-point / multi-handed input for rich manipulation of graphics and other visually represented objects. Only some are mentioned specifically on this page.
· There are a number of videos can be seen which illustrate these techniques, along with others: http://www.billbuxton.com/buxtonAliasVideos.html
· Also see papers on two-handed input to see examples of multi-point manipulation of objects at: http://www.billbuxton.com/papers.html#anchor1442822

1995: Graspable/Tangible Interfaces (Input Research Group, University of Toronto)
· Demonstrated concept and later implementation of sensing the identity, location and even rotation of multiple physical devices on a digital desk-top display and using them to control graphical objects.
· By means of the resulting article and associated thesis introduced the notion of what has come to be known as “graspable” or “tangible” computing.
· Fitzmaurice, G.W., Ishii, H. & Buxton, W. (1995). Bricks: Laying the foundations for graspable user interfaces. Proceedings of the ACMSIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'95), 442–449.
1995: DSI Datotech (Vancouver BC)
· In 1995 this company made a touch tablet, the HandGear, capable of multipoint sensing. They also developed a software package, Gesture Recognition Technology (GRT), for recognizing hand gestures captured with the tablet.
· The company went out of business around 2002

1995/97: Active Desk (Input Research Group / Ontario Telepresence Project, University of Toronto)
Around 1992 we made a drafting table size desk that had a rear-projection data display, where the rear projection screen/table top was a translucent stylus controlled digital graphics tablet (Scriptel). The stylus was operated with the dominant hand. Prior to 1995 we mounted a camera bove the table top. It tracked the position of the non-dominant hand on the tablet surface, as well as the pose (open angle) between the thumb and index finger. The non-dominant hand could grasp and manipulate objects based on what it was over and opening and closing the grip on the virtual object. This vision work was done by a student, Yuyan Liu.
Buxton, W. (1997). Living in Augmented Reality: Ubiquitous Media and Reactive Environments. In K. Finn, A. Sellen & S. Wilber (Eds.). Video Mediated Communication. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 363-384. An earlier version of this chapter also appears in Proceedings of Imagina '95, 215-229.
Simultaneous bimanual and multi-finger interaction on large interactive display surface

1997: T3 (AliasWavefront, Toronto)
T3 was a bimanual tablet-based system that utilized a number of techniques that work equally well on multi-touch devices, and have been used thus.
These include, but are not restricted to grabbing the drawing surface itself from two points and scaling its size (i.e., zooming in/out) by moving the hands apart or towards each other (respectively). Likewise the same could be done with individual graphical objects that lay on the background. (Note, this was simply a multi-point implementation of a concept seen in Ivan Sutherland’s Sketchpad system.)
Likewise, one could grab the background or an object and rotate it using two points, thereby controlling both the pivot point and degree of the rotation simultaneously. Ditto for translating (moving) the object or page.
Of interest is that one could combine these primitives, such as translate and scale, simultaneously (ideas foreshadowed by Fitzmaurice’s graspable interface work – above).
Kurtenbach, G., Fitzmaurice, G., Baudel, T. & Buxton, W. (1997). The design and evaluation of a GUI paradigm based on tabets, two-hands, and transparency. Proceedings of the 1997 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI '97, 35-42. [video].

1997: The Haptic Lens (Mike Sinclair, Georgia Tech / Microsoft Research)
· The Haptic Lens, a multi-touch sensor that had the feel of clay, in that it deformed the harder you pushed, and resumed it basic form when released. A novel and very interesting approach to this class of device.
· Sinclair, Mike (1997). The Haptic Lens. ACM SIGGRAPH 97 Visual Proceedings: The art and interdisciplinary programs of SIGGRAPH '97, Page: 179

1998: Tactex Controls (Victoria BC) http://www.tactex.com/
· Kinotex controller developed in 1998 and shipped in Music Touch Controller, the MTC Express in 2000. Seen in video at: http://www.billbuxton.com/flip_keyboard_s.mov


~1998: Fingerworks (Newark, Delaware).
· Made a range of touch tablets with multi-touch sensing capabilities, including the iGesture Pad. They supported a fairly rich library of multi-point / multi-finger gestures.
· Founded by two University of Delaware academics, John Elias and Wayne Westerman
· Largely based on Westerman’s thesis: Westerman, Wayne (1999). Hand Tracking, Finger Identification, and Chordic Manipulation on a Multi-Touch Surface. U of Delaware PhD Dissertation.
· http://www.ee.udel.edu/~westerma/main.pdf
· Company is now out of business.
· Assets, including Elias and Westerman acquired by Apple.
· However, documentation, including tutorials and manuals are still downloadable from: http://www.fingerworks.com/downloads.html


1999: Portfolio Wall (AliasWavefront, Toronto On, Canada)
· A product that was a digital cork-board on which images could be presented as a group or individually. Allowed images to be sorted, annotated, and presented in sequence.
· Due to available sensor technology, did not us multi-touch. However, its interface was entirely based on finger touch gestures that went well beyond typical touch screen interfaces. For example, to advance to the next slide in a sequence or start a video, on flicked to the right. To stop a video, one flicked down. To go back to the previous image, one flicked left.
· The gestures were much richer than these examples. They were self-revealing, could be done eyes free, and leveraged previous work on “marking menus.”
· See a number of demos at: http://www.billbuxton.com/buxtonAliasVideos.html

Touch to open/close image Flick right = next / Flick left = previous
Portfolio Wall (1999)

2001: Diamond Touch (Mitsubishi Research Labs, Cambridge MA) http://www.merl.com/
· example capable of distinguishing which person's fingers/hands are which, as well as location and pressure
· various gestures and rich gestures.
· http://www.diamondspace.merl.com/

2002: Jun Rekimoto Sony Computer Science Laboratories (Tokyo) http://www.csl.sony.co.jp/person/rekimoto/smartskin/

· SmartSkin: an architecture for making interactive surfaces that are sensitive to human hand and finger gestures. This sensor recognizes multiple hand positions and their shapes as well as calculates the distances between the hands and the surface by using capacitive sensing and a mesh-shaped antenna. In contrast to camera-based gesture recognition systems, all sensing elements can be integrated within the surface, and this method does not suffer from lighting and occlusion problems.
§ Jun Rekimoto (2002). SmartSkin: An Infrastructure for Freehand Manipulation on Interactive Surfaces, Proceedings of ACM SIGCHI.
§ Kentaro Fukuchi and Jun Rekimoto, Interaction Techniques for SmartSkin, ACM UIST2002 demonstration, 2002.
§ SmartSkin demo at Entertainment Computing 2003 (ZDNet Japan)
§ Video demos available at website, above.



2002: Andrew Fentem (UK) http://www.andrewfentem.com/
States that he has been working on multi-touch for music and general applications since 2002
However, appears not to have published any technical information or details on this work in the technical or scientific literature.
Hence, the work from this period is not generally known, and - given the absence of publications - has not been cited.
Therefore it has had little impact on the larger evolution of the field.
This is one example where I am citing work that I have not known and loved for the simple reason that it took place below the radar of normal scientific and technical exchange.
I am sure that there are several similar instances of this. Hence I include this as an example representing the general case.



2003: University of Toronto (Toronto)
· paper outlinging a number of techniques for multi-finger, multi-hand, and multi-user on a single interactive touch display surface.
· Many simpler and previously used techniques are omitted since they were known and obvious.
· Mike Wu, Mike & Balakrishnan, Ravin (2003). Multi-Finger and Whole Hand Gestural Interaction Techniques for Multi-User Tabletop Displays. CHI Letters

Freeform rotation. (a) Two fingers are used to rotate an object. (b) Though the pivot finger is lifted, the second finger can continue the rotation.
This parameter adjustment widget allows two-fingered manipulation.

2003: Jazz Mutant (Bordeaux France) http://www.jazzmutant.com/
· Make one of the first transparent multi-touch, one that became - to the best of my knowledge – the first to be offered in a commercial product.
· The product for which the technology was used was the Lemur, a music controller with a true multi-touch screen interface.
· An early version of the Lemur was first shown in public in LA in August of 2004.


2004: TouchLight (Andy Wilson, Microsoft Research): http://research.microsoft.com/~awilson/
· TouchLight (2004). A touch screen display system employing a rear projection display and digital image processing that transforms an otherwise normal sheet of acrylic plastic into a high bandwidth input/output surface suitable for gesture-based interaction. Video demonstration on website.
· Capable of sensing multiple fingers and hands, of one or more users.
· Since the acrylic sheet is transparent, the cameras behind have the potential to be used to scan and display paper documents that are held up against the screen .

2005: Blaskó and Steven Feiner (Columbia University): http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~gblasko/
· Using pressure to access virtual devices accessible below top layer devices
· Gábor Blaskó and Steven Feiner (2004). Single-Handed Interaction Techniques for Multiple Pressure-Sensitive Strips, Proc. ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2004) Extended Abstracts, 1461-1464



2005: PlayAnywhere (Andy Wilson, Microsoft Research): http://research.microsoft.com/~awilson/
· PlayAnywhere (2005). Video on website
· Contribution: sensing and identifying of objects as well as touch.
· A front-projected computer vision-based interactive table system.
· Addresses installation, calibration, and portability issues that are typical of most vision-based table systems.
· Uses an improved shadow-based touch detection algorithm for sensing both fingers and hands, as well as objects.
· Object can be identified and tracked using a fast, simple visual bar code scheme. Hence, in addition to manual mult-touch, the desk supports interaction using various physical objects, thereby also supporting graspable/tangible style interfaces.
· It can also sense particular objects, such as a piece of paper or a mobile phone, and deliver appropriate and desired functionality depending on which..


2005: Jeff Han (NYU): http://www.cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/
· Very elegant implementation of a number of techniques and applications on a table format rear projection surface.
· Multi-Touch Sensing through Frustrated Total Internal Reflection (2005). Video on website.
· See also the more recent video at: http://fastcompany.com/video/general/perceptivepixel.html


2005: Tactiva (Palo Alto) http://www.tactiva.com/
· Have announced and shown video demos of a product called the TactaPad.
· It uses optics to capture hand shadows and superimpose on computer screen, providing a kind of immersive experience, that echoes back to Krueger (see above)
· Is multi-hand and multi-touch
· Is tactile touch tablet, i.e., the tablet surface feels different depending on what virtual object/control you are touching

2005: Toshiba Matsusita Display Technology (Tokyo)
· Announce and demonstrate LCD display with “Finger Shadow Sensing Input” capability
· One of the first examples of what I referred to above in the 1991 Xerox PARC discussions. It will not be the last.
· The significance is that there is no separate touch sensing transducer. Just as there are RGB pixels that can produce light at any location on the screen, so can pixels detect shadows at any location on the screen, thereby enabling multi-touch in a way that is hard for any separate touch technology to match in performance or, eventually, in price.
· http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/tm_dsp/press/2005/05-09-29.htm

2005: Tomer Moscovich & collaborators (Brown University)
· a number of papers on web site: http://www.cs.brown.edu/people/tm/
· T. Moscovich, T. Igarashi, J. Rekimoto, K. Fukuchi, J. F. Hughes. "A Multi-finger Interface for Performance Animation of Deformable Drawings." Demonstration at UIST 2005 Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, Seattle, WA, October 2005. (video)


2006: Benko & collaborators (Columbia University & Microsoft Research)
· Some techniques for precise pointing and selection on muti-touch screens
· Benko, H., Wilson, A. D., and Baudisch, P. (2006). Precise Selection Techniques for Multi-Touch Screens. Proc. ACM CHI 2006 (CHI'06: Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1263–1272
· video




2006: Plastic Logic (Cambridge UK)
A flexible e-ink display mounted over a multi-point touch pad, thereby creating an interactive multi-touch display.
Demonstrated in public at the Trade Show of the 2006 SID conference, San Francisco.



2006: Synaptics & Pilotfish (San Jose) http://www.synaptics.com/
· Jointly developed Onyx, a soft multi-touch mobile phone concept using transparent Synaptics touch sensor. Can sense difference of size of contact. Hence, the difference between finger (small) and cheek (large), so you can answer the phone just by holding to cheek, for example.
· http://www.synaptics.com/onyx/


2007: Apple iPhone http://www.apple.com/iphone/technology/
· like the Simon (see above) a mobile phone with a soft touch-based interface
· Has multi-touch capability
· uses it, for example, to support the well-known technique of "pinching", i.e., using the thumb and index finger of one hand to articulate a pinching gesture on a map or photo to zoom in or out of a map or photo.
· Works especially well with web pages in the browser
· Strangely, does not enable use of multi-touch to hold shift key with one finger in order to type an upper case character with another with the soft virtual keyboard.



2007: Microsoft Surface Computing http://www.surface.com/
· Interactive table surface
· Capable of sensing multiple fingers and hands
· Capable of identifying various objects and their position on the surface
· Commercial manifestation of internal research begun in 2001 by Andy Wilson (see above) and Steve Bathiche
· A key indication of this technology making the transition from research, development and demo to mainstream commercial applications.