Here is a link to recent artical on the bbc.co.uk/news site about robot rights!

Not sure if this link will work well, MSN Videos is a bit funny at times, but they have a news article called “Mirror Mirror on the Wall” which is worth a look as we mentioned something like this in class just before crimbo.

 http://video.uk.msn.com/v/en-gb/v.htm?g=61a77f63-998e-445b-a4d7-3c00887cf94a&f=&fg=copy

Here’s a groovy display for people looking to add that extra dimension to their viewing material…

Gemotion is a soft, ‘living’ display that bulges and collapses in sync with the graphics on the screen, creating visuals that literally pop out at the viewer.

Yoichiro Kawaguchi, a well-known computer graphics artist and University of Tokyo professor, created Gemotion by arranging 72 air cylinders behind a flexible, 100 x 60 cm (39 x 24 inch) screen. As video is projected onto the screen, image data is relayed to the cylinders, which then push and pull on the screen accordingly.

“If used with games, TV or cinema, the screen could give images an element of power never seen before. It could lead to completely new forms of media,” says Kawaguchi.

The Gemotion screen will be on display from January 21 to February 4 as part of a media art exhibit (called Nihon no hyogen-ryoku) at National Art Center, Tokyo, which recently opened in Roppongi.

Found here and Kotaku

Imagine if we could use screens like this in our prototype assignment.  Especially if your creating a game.  It would sure grab someone’s attention and get them using it.

As discussed in the comments of the Second Life topic, I found some videos I felt belonged here.

Will interactive games ever be so real that they could replace the real life experience? As mentioned – we have controllers that make racing sims more real, but here, the experience of a racing sim has become even more immersive with a full motion racing seat to simulate G-Forces like this: -

This one is awesome, it looks like you really need a seatbelt, especially at the end.

I gotta get me one of those!

As you know, we were talking about Second Life yesterday.  I was watching Sky News this morning and they did quite a big segment on it… A comedian created a fat ugly character and will attempt to do a show in a virtual standup comedy club.

Dunno if anyone caught it, maybe it will be repeated throughout the day, I just thought the timing was weird how it came on the news the day after the lecture.

I’ve been thinking about alternative ideas for this project, although I’m not sure how much time to spend thinking about ideas that I may not do, so I’ll see what sort of comments I get from this.

Anyway, as anyone who’s ever been to a dentist, doctors or anywhere with a waiting room knows, you will usually be sitting in a rather dull room with a few chairs for generally ill, sad or scared looking people and a small coffee table featuring celebrity related magazines from 2002.  BORING! Even for an adult, let alone anyone who has bought their children along to sit on their laps crying their eyes out or running around a 3×3 metre room screaming and shouting giving everyone else a headache.

What if there was a focal point?  Something that might keep the average child amused for a few minutes and maybe even spur a little interest from the odd adult too.  Instead of a coffee table full of outdated magazines, what if there was a table top game, operated using touch screen technology.  Or perhaps an entire wall feature – a projection of a game on the wall that users can interact with directly.

What is this game?  ‘The aim of the game is to figure out how to play the game’.  There will be no interface as such.  Users will interact with various objects and shapes in varying colours to complete each section of the game, which will consist of a number of different screens that the user will progress through as they play.  Each screen is essentially a different ‘Puzzle’ or a variation of a previous puzzle; in a finale product the number of screens/puzzles could be endless, although bare in mind that this will just be a prototype, but this would allow the game to be running all day without being restarted from the beginning as new patients enter the waiting room and investigate the game.

Example of puzzles in the game could be:-

• move a coloured ball or object from A to B, but to do so the user would have to work out a path through a maze; the path can be changed by switching positions of movable walls within the maze.
• Match objects of the same shape and colour from a selection.
• Work out what shapes fit together to create another larger given shape.
• Etc.

Here are some videos: -

Tabletop touch screen game, with voice recognition, although I seriously think a game like this will still be easier just using a mouse and the voice recognition is nothing new, you can use MS Gamevoice software to shout commands into your games which replicate the keyboard shortcuts, anyway it’s the table top function that’s important here:-

Super large touch screen interactive game: -

 
Projected touch screen: -

 
I thought this video might get your juices flowing: -

 
10 metre long touch sensitive bar – not relevant to what I’m doing and I don’t really see what uses it has in real life but interesting nonetheless… I wonder what happens if you spill your beer on it: -

This is a little update to some stuff I have found with regards to the idea I posted on the 4^th Jan about being able to try on glasses virtually. Sorry its in note form.

I found another program that allows users to virtually try on glasses here
Sorry mac users… its only for windows. But quite honestly I wouldn’t bother using it anyway as it is rubbish. Its difficult to use, slow and the results are poor.

This site also allows you to try on a very limited selection of glasses. But its very basic software and pretty restricting. You pretty much have to go through their catalogue of glasses until you find one that says “Try on this frame”.

http://www.specsonthenet.com/ also offer this service with a little demo video on the front page. There’s also flash tutorial videos here – This looks like one of the better examples of this sort of software.

The service on Glasses Direct is quick and easy to use, which is a good thing. Not entirely sure how accurate it would be, given that it would be hard to tell if the glasses are at the same scale as your uploaded face, but it gives an idea.

And more here

Here is an interesting article on a virtual system that uses 2 cameras to calibrate the exact shape and measurements of a customer’s face, then generates a 3-D model. Customers can use the 3-D model of their face to try on different glasses.

During the research I stumbled across another form of interaction – Eye Tracking Technology. Probably not useful for a project like this, but interesting to see if it goes anywhere. Here are some videos from YouTube: -

What’s more interesting here is seeing how the user scans the screen as they go to new WebPages.

Virtual Broadstairs

My original idea for this project was to further develop my Virtual Broadstairs Flash project. Which was originally inspired by www.virtualbyron.com – Click ‘Explore’ on the right. This software is also placed in kiosks as you can see on this page.

Essentially my idea was along the lines of the interactive map and the virtual tours sections. However I had planed for the pan images to pretty much fill the screen. The user could then pan in either direction using arrows at the bottom or where relevant, could click a forward (UP) arrow to move in that direction, for example. The may be a pan at the top of Broadstairs High Street, when looking down the street an arrow will give the user the ability to virtually travel in that direction. Using video that I would shoot myself, the user would see this journey on screen (perhaps speeded up) to the next point of interest which may be the bottom of the High Street for example. Essentially it would allow tourists to get a feel for the town before they arrive and help them find and explore the points of interest with ease.

This would be placed in kiosks at tourist info centres not just in the region but also in London and at train stations in between.

Unfortunately Garrett was not keen on this idea so it was back to the drawing board, but maybe there’s something here that might help others.

Chris.

I’ve been thinking about this Multimedia Assignment (year 2).

As most of you know I’ve been working closely with my brother and his online company www.SelectSpecs.com – We sell Sunglasses and Prescription Glasses online.

I’ve been thinking about an interactive piece of software that would allow potential customers to upload and/or insert a photo of themselves and then select from a variety of glasses sold on the website placing the glasses on their photo to get an impression of what they would look like on their face before making a purchase.

This is potentially a useful tool for an online company, although it may not really have a place in a large opticians as a booth or kiosk since customers can usually try on the glasses in person except in smaller examples.

After some research I discovered a similar tool already exists here. I could potentially still attempt a project like this, in a slightly different way to the example here.  I feel this project would have the level of interactivity required for the project even without being placed in an interactive display kiosk/booth; while it may not be required in a large highstreet chain it could easily be placed in a small opticians much like you may get in a supermarket, or to help increase the range of lines available to smaller opticians.

A final product like this would require a very large database of products, I don’t know how easy it would be to create a database type system in Director but since this is essentially a prototype hopefully it will not be a problem.

What do other people think of this idea?
Does it have legs?
Is it achievable within Director?

I was doubtful at first but I’m really coming round to the idea now.

Your comments would be very helpful to me,

Thanks,

Chris.

Although I’m don’t much agree with The Departed.

http://movies.uk.msn.com/features/galleries/BestPOSTERS2006_Gallery.aspx