Apple Magic Mouse

When money attacks... mice.



Now weve reached another milestone by bringing gestures to the desktop with a mouse thats unlike anything ever before. It's called Magic Mouse. It's the world's first Multi-Touch mouse. And while it comes standard with every new iMac, you can also add it to any Bluetooth-enabled Mac for a Multi-Touch makeover.

Hands on:

Touch Computing... At banks?

Jason McConnell took me through the "Woodgrove Financial" demo for financial services on Micrososft Surface. This engaging sample application is available for customers who have purchased Microsoft Surface units to better understand how the technology could be used in a retail banking scenario. The scenario shows how Microsoft Surface could be used in a bank lobby for customers to look at account features and sit down with a banker to discuss their financial needs. In this case, personal financial information would not be shown due to privacy concerns in a lobby. However, high level interactive calculators can be used to look at credit cards or investment account payouts.




What do you think of this level of information being provided in a bank? I've also seen deeper dives into financial planning which would be for private sessions with a financial advisor. Do you see this being a good fit for the product?

When money attacks... Banks.

Carville - A Surface Application

Carville was the first Microsoft Surface experiment out of the New York Office of Razorfish. It was created last summer over 4 weeks and had two specific purposes. The first was to build experience designing and building with this new device. The second was to use a dealership scenario as a canvas to express a significantly experimental approach from what we had seen created before with the Surface. This approach was to embrace the game friendly aspects of the mechanism itself (multi-touch, large enough for simultaneous use by more than one person and a table-like presence that encourages “gathering around”) to create an unexpected brand experience in an environment often cited as anxious for most customers in research.

When Money attacks... cars on a Surface

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

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!

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.

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

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!!!

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 =^)

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!