YouTube - Tracking fingers with the Wii Remote

YouTube - Tracking fingers with the Wii Remote
I have an idea in my note book about using this kind of interface as an interface to control a television user interface. So to control the TV/Video/DVD/ you would just have to raise your hands and build a simple gesture recognition to do the controlling. ( open hand to stop, drag/waving to start again) possibly using something like the amazon zoom interface to search the plane of TV channels ( zoom in to watch it).

Thinking about it again might be possible to do with Mac/ built in Camera and blob tracking in IR. Quite like voting mechanism so that multiple people could drag/vote on what to watch.

Masters thesis

Odd thought on the OU Masters thesis, we should give 3 thesis as a part of the masters thesis pack. The first TMA would be to mark these sample thesis against the standard marking schedule forcing them to read them critically but also providing a benchmark against what and how to write. The effective writing package they have at the momement is to generic to the point of obscurity.

odd idear about tracking physical documents

odd idear,

Special printer driver that sends paper off to be prininted but also marks the paper with machine readable barcode. This code tells the machine where the document that it was printed from WAS. Perhaps internal database to keep track of document.
So if you have a printed document holding it up to the screen camera would then make it open on the desktop.

reminder about reminder

I just had a quick odd thought. How about a reminder system that produced a scrolling message in the menu bar ( at intervals). This would mean you don't have to dismiss the reminder (specifically) but you could click on it and then control it.

perhaps a haze of reminders floating as screen saver.

Start of new week

Awful night up at 5:00 with Amelia could not get her back to sleep. Took long time to get kids off to school ( ruth off in Cambridge doing via so had to do everything my self).

Now in an feel crap. Finally told why the MSC project was rejected (just need to do small edit to resubmit it).

Also have just got the form (3 pages) you have to fill in to ask permission to apply for external funding. Thats been floating around in the either for 3 weeks now ( might have to check the time thats just my impression).

Finally about to go off and do the first ShareIT project meeting.

Guess I'll be back doing version 7 of TMA this afternoon.

java nuisance of the day.

Strange how the string class ( which is final) has methods that do very neat find and replace.

YET the stringBuilder class - that is something that is mutable only has simple find and replace operatoins.

So if you wnat to do a find and replace on a large string java WANTS you to make a huge copy not operate in place. Perhaps the garbage collector needs more work.

back to TMA.

Expose

I just noticed how Expose (F9 on mac keyboard) lays out the rectangles nicely.

I wonder what the algorithum is?

sheep

intimate technology

Spend most of the morning talking to Jeff (its addictive) whacting videos of some strange art projects. Jeff thinks you can get a large whiteboard/screen which work with multiple pens.

WE chatted about a pen based table interface - capturing writing as text input. Can't make a pen or paper clip work on table. Jeff appears to be into methodologies more than technology( I see them as linked - technologies imply some kind of way of using them). Jeff mentioned the success of the open space technueqe.

Two things I was inspired was to make some flexible (white translucent rubber?) screen to project on to or possibly use a tactile surface( vevlet,silk) to make the table top surface with. Using guages to measure 'pressure' perhaps. Not sure.

Another demo used breath measureing devices in cloths to make one more aware of breath and how we might use that to signal to others.

I would have combined the cloths and breath together using a corset to both be the device and measure. Jeff mentined some work on weaving circuts into cloth. I like the going back to jaquard loom - does history move in cycles or are we in some strange temporal/conceptual orbit?

back to boaring TMA ( 6th revision now).

Jeff recogmends

As under used book
Scripts, Grooves, and Writing Machines: Representing Technology in the Edison Era (Paperback)
by Lisa Gitelman (Author)

Panel show idea

Jeff has turned up (Huray!) seems to be a small hurricane of ideas wonderful.

I was chating with Paul this morning about new kinds of projects I could apply for.

I mentioned I had always wanted to augment a TV Panel show. The idea would be to give each particpant around the dicussion table a accompanist. This accompanist would take what the particpant was saying or might say and then get a URL or picture/movie that might augment the talking head with some more visual stimulus. Visually the particpants would have a screen behind them displaying some of the visual information (images behind the head constantly changing in response to what is said, or possibly statistics )

In parralle the particpants would have a tree the would have branchs and leaves constantly arange its self around the key items of conversation this would be a visual plot/summary of that which had been spoken about.

Mean while live conversations would have a compressed list of statemtents emailed and texted into the program.

Paul was quite encoraging saying perhaps I should try to apply for research money to do this. After all we have the BBC on
our door step it might be a way to get some research done.

Ambient display where am i prototype

I have my ambient prototpype p and working. I'm going to be running on my desktop for a few days before posting it outside.
would love to make a better phyiscal presance.

Already had some intreasting comments all quite postive. Paul asked for one in his room I would like to link to Rabbits so we can have some concept of co-awareness.

Smart Cycle Physical Learning Arcade System - Fisher Price Learning Toys

Smart Cycle Physical Learning Arcade System - Fisher Price Learning Toys

I When I bounght my Bompton bike ( 10 years + ago ) I spoke to the guy in the shop wondering if this (near chirstmas) was a very busy time of year for him. He said it used to be now parents prefer to give something which means the child is not potentially on the street ( near cars). Since then I've known a number of parents who would much prefer to buy a playstation (so they know where the kids are) to a bike. I mean I never had a 'play date' when I was a kid, again this is about maintaining absolute knowledge of ones child in relation to road traffic and potential kidnapping.

I think we generally have the view the wrong way round, we think kids have been seduced by video games to lead more passive lives in their bed rooms. Conversly, I think parents wanted to keep their kids safer (in their bed rooms) and used the carrot of the video game to get this done.

The smartCycle is an interesting blend of everything I like and don't like. I quite like the idea of a bike interface to a machine but then I hate needlessly educational devices.

parental rant over.